96 Hours Left to Qualify for Death Match 23
February is the qualification month for Death Match 23, and with only about four days remaining, below are some names who have good chances to get an invitation.
A reminder of the full rules can be read here. One reminder is that rules for this month are different than during December's qualification - namely that you need to only play 75 blitz games to be eligible (to qualify under bullet, you still need to play 100). As you'll also see below, the latter is still an easier threshold for most top players! Or maybe bullet is just more fun...
Players that have not been active this month (or have very limited activity) or have played in a previous Death Match are not listed. Previous participants could only qualify if other top players decline.
Bullet - the race is very tight, with many players above 100 games separated by only a few points. FM Boryboy played 300 bullet games in one week this month! Several other highly-rated players will be in the mix if they play a few more games, making this race fascinating to watch - about 10 players have good chances before Friday's deadline.
Of players that have met the minimum 100 games, here are the usernames, real names, games played since 2/1/14 and bullet rating*:
IM Yaacovn, Yaacov Norowitz, 338 games, 2613
GM Janosik, Falko Bindrich, 275 games, 2601
IM ChessTrener, Dejan Stojanovski, 611 games!, 2600
FM Boryboy, identity not public**, 403 games, 2591
IM Traxx, identity not public, 116 games, 2590
IM Ameet100, Ameet Ghasi, 123 games, 2588
Of players who have high ratings and are reasonably active in bullet this month (and thus could get to 100 games), we have:
IM Molton, Moulthun Ly, 31 games, 2665
FM Kulinarist, Andrey Kalinichev, 70 games, 2628
IM Kacparov, Kacper Drozdowski, 91 games, 2592
(note that GM GeorgMeier is rated 2742 but he just played in the last Death Match!)
Blitz - This race was much less coveted. Only two players with ratings of about 2500 and up have reached the minimum 75 games. A dedicated effort could get a dark horse this qualification spot.
Meeting the minimum 75 games:
FM Eilyisum, Evan Ju, 120 games (33,000+ lifetime total games!), 2592
IM ChessTrener, Dojan Stojanovski, 225 games, 2497
Notable players with some activity:
GM Hikaru, Hikaru Nakamura, 16 games (+14 -1 =1), 2699
FM Kulinarist, Andrey Kalinichev, 18 games (+17 -1), 2688
GM Janosik, Falko Bindrich, 3 games, 2581
NM TheTruth, identity not public, 3 games, 2571
NM Matetricks, Andrew Ng, 19 games, 2524
(note that GM Erwin L'Ami has played in 60 games and is 2591, but he is playing in March's Death Match 22 - announcement coming soon!)
All players have until 12:00 a.m. Pacific (Los Angeles time) March 1, 2014 to attempt to qualify. The highest-rated in each category who has fulfilled the games requirement will get the first invitation!
*All ratings and games played are as of Monday evening, February 24, 2014.
**Players must make their identity public to play in the Death Match.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to 99 countries.
