Announcing The 2022 Junior Speed Chess Championship

Chess.com is excited to announce the 2022 Junior Speed Chess Championship presented by SIG which will showcase 16 of the brightest under-20 stars in the world fighting for a prize fund of $35,000.

Qualifiers begin on March 31 and the Main Event starts April 11. Which young star of the game will claim the championship, and a spot in the 2022 Speed Chess Championship later this year?

For two years in a row, that's been GM Nihal Sarin, who won the whole event in both 2020 and 2021. Will he put together a third straight victory, or is it time for a new champ?

Nihal barely had to break a sweat last year, his seven-point win in the final against GM Raunak Sadhwani being his only single-digit margin of victory in the four rounds of the main tournament. With speed and moves like this, it's easy to see why:

Nihal is certainly not the only young player who is strong enough to win this tournament. From India alone, in addition to last year's finalist Sadhwani, there is GM Arjun Erigaisi who won Tata Steel Challengers and the Indian Chess Championship just in the first two-plus months of this year, and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbubu who was invited to Tata Steel Masters and earlier this year defeated GM Magnus Carlsen. Germany's GM Vincent Keymer and American GM-elect IM Christopher Yoo are some top young players from other countries.

This year there is again strong competition to be had for four of the 16 spots in the main event, which will be decided by a series of four qualifying events that could well end up providing an early look into an eventual winner of the whole tournament. Running from March 31 to April 8, this year's qualifiers will each be a knockout event with eight invited players.

All the events will be broadcast live on Chess.com/TV and feature several of Chess.com's best commentators, such as lead commentator GM Daniel Naroditsky, GM Robert Hess, GM Aman Hambleton, GM Benjamin Bok, NM James Canty III, and ChessKid Chief Chess officer FM Mike Klein.

You won't want to miss this year's JSCC. Tune in for the first qualifier on March 29 at 4:00 a.m. PT/13:00 CET/4:30 p.m. IST at ChessTV, Twitch, or YouTube!