Chess.com Announces Bullet Chess Championship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Chess.com announces Bullet Chess Championship

Palo Alto, Calif., Feb. 11, 2019—The best and fastest chess players in the world will compete this April in the Chess.com Bullet Chess Championship, the site announced today. The five-day event will feature the highest rated bullet chess player on Chess.com, Hikaru Nakamura seeking to uphold his "unofficial" title as Bullet Chess World Champion against an elite field of bullet chess masters.

The Bullet Chess World Championship will run from April 3-7, and will be broadcast live on www.Twitch.tv/Chess. The total prize pool is $15,000.

Nakamura, long recognized as one of the greatest bullet chess players ever, will headline this online chess championship devoted exclusively to one-minute chess with no increment. Nakamura won the 2018 Speed Chess Championship largely thanks to his bullet chess skills as time dwindled down in his matches.

Now Nakamura will try his hand (and mouse) against a field of the strongest bullet chess players ever assembled. As the highest-rated bullet player on Chess.com, Nakamura will be the top seed in the eight-player championship bracket on April 6-7.

In the championship bracket, Nakamura will face seven other chess masters in a three-round battle. Four other chess grandmasters will be invited directly to the championship bracket, while three players will qualify from preliminary events.

The Bullet Chess Championship kicks off on April 3 and 4 with two large qualifying tournaments. All titled chess players may register for the 25-round Swiss tournaments, which will each send a winner through to the championship bracket.

On April 5, players will get one last chance to qualify for the championship bracket in a 10-player quadruple-round-robin tournament, where each participant will play all opponents in a total of four games. The winner of the round-robin will qualify for the championship bracket.

The top three runners-up in each Swiss event will earn a spot in the round-robin qualifier, and four wildcard entrants will be chosen by Chess.com.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen declined his invitation from Chess.com to compete, though invitations were also extended to former World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk [Update: participation confirmed!] and Armenia's #1 player Levon Aronian to join at the quarterfinals stage.

Once the field is set through the three qualifying tournaments and the five invitations, the eight-player championship bracket will begin on April 6. The first two rounds will be played on April 6, with players returning the next day to battle out the Bullet Chess Championship and the third-place game.

The championship bracket will feature eight heads-up matches played with a special scoring format.

For the quarterfinals, matches will be on a 30-minute timer, with the leader at the end of the last game advancing. The semifinals will double the match timer to 60 minutes, with an option for a contestant to resign the match after 45 minutes. If matches are tied after the last game on the clock, two-game sudden death mini-matches will be played until a winner scores 1.5/2.

For the finals and the third-place matches, there will be a new, viewer-friendly "tennis-style" scoring format. In each match, the first player to reach six wins while leading by two games is awarded a set. For these two matches only, draws will award 0 points. Players will switch colors after a drawn game. The first player to win three sets in the final will be the first Chess.com Bullet Chess Champion. In the consolation game, the first player to win two sets is awarded the match.

For more information on the event, as well as a breakdown of prizes and the schedule, click here:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/2019-bullet-chess-championship 

The ultimate winner of the knockout bracket will take home the title and a $4,000 prize. The runner-up will receive $2,000 and the third-place finisher will earn $1,500. Full prizes and schedule are here.

Set your calendars for April 3-7 and tune in to Twitch.tv/Chess for a live broadcast of the fastest and online chess event of the year.

Contact:

Nick Barton
Director of eSports, Chess.com
email: esports@chess.com
phone: (800) 318-2827

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