Chess.com To Host Women's Speed Chess Championship
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Chess.com To Host Women's Speed Chess Championship
Palo Alto, Calif., April 8, 2019—As part of an expansion of its Speed Chess Championship series, Chess.com will hold a women's championship tournament starting in May, the site announced.
The Women's Speed Chess Championship will feature a field of eight of the world's best women chess players, and a substantial prize pool of $20,000. The winner of the WSCC will also earn a place in the main Speed Chess Championship and its additional $50,000 prize pool.
To play our fantasy chess contest for the women's speed chess championship, fill out the form here.
Each match of the Women's Speed Chess Championship will be broadcast live on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/chess, and will be hosted by the commentators IM Anna Rudolf and IM Sopiko Guramishvili.
Seven women's chess masters were seeded into the championship bracket, and will be joined by the winner of an open qualifier on May 8. Any women's titled player may enter the qualifier to try to become the eighth seed in the women's championship bracket. The qualifier has a $1,000 prize pool.
The field for the Women's Chess Championship is seeded as follows, according to the March FIDE ratings:
- GM Kateryna Lagno
- GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
- GM Valentina Gunina
- GM Harika Dronavalli
- GM Marie Sebag
- GM Irina Krush
- IM Anna Zatonskih
- Qualifier winner
These eight women will play a series of head-to-head speed chess matches to move on in the tournament. Each 2019 Women's Speed Chess Championship match will feature 90 minutes of 5/1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3/1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1/1 bullet chess.
Each match will have the following rules and format:
- Each player must maintain her own connection to the Chess.com live site and webcam for the Chess.com broadcast
- The winner of each match advances to the next line in the bracket.
- If match is tied after the last 1+1 bullet game, a tiebreak of 4 additional 1+1 games is played as a mini-match.
- If match is still tied after the mini-match tiebreaker, a single armageddon game will be played: White 5+0, Black 3+0, Black gets draw odds. The player with the highest Chess.com blitz rating at the start of the Armageddon chooses his color.
The Women's Speed Chess Championship offers the following prizes:
Open qualifier: $1,000 prize pool
Quarterfinals: 8 players, 4 matches, $8,000 prize pool
- Winner: $1,000 and advance to semifinals
- $1,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $2,000
Semifinals: 4 players, 2 matches, $6,000 prize pool
- Winner: $1,500 and advance to finals
- $1,500 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $3,000
Finals: 2 players, 1 match, $6,000 prize pool
- Winner: $3,000 + qualification to the Speed Chess Championship bracket
- $3,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $6,000
For more information, including the upcoming schedule, prizes, players, graphics and match details, please visit SpeedChessChampionship.com.
Watch the Women's Speed Chess Championship beginning with the qualifier on May 8 on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/chess.
To play our fantasy chess contest for the women's speed chess championship, fill out the form here.
Contact:
Nick Barton
Director of eSports, Chess.com
email: esports@chess.com
phone: (800) 318-2827
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