Join ChessKid And Judit Polgar To Set A World Record! (Updated)
Update! More than 3,000 kids have competed so far, so we're about 15 percent of the way there!
If your child is already an active member of ChessKid, we've already placed them in the correct club and they merely need to go to Fast Chess and look for the many daily qualifiers on the right (registration opens 15 minutes before each event).
If your child is new to ChessKid, use this link to create a kid account and you'll automatically be placed in the right club!
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Young chess fans from all over the world now have a chance to become a world-record holder.
ChessKid and GM Judit Polgar are teaming up to set the all-time record for the world's largest online chess tournament. To achieve this, we need as many kids as possible to participate. You can start by joining the CK/Polgar World Record Club.
This will be an official Guinness World Record if more than 20,000 individual kids compete. Read this article to find out how kids can join this once-in-a-lifetime event and also have a chance to win prizes, including a lesson with Polgar herself.
Eligibility:
All kids with a ChessKid username are eligible and invited to compete, both basic and gold members. Note that users with adult accounts will not be able to play.
Format:
The tournament will take place in two stages. First, there will be many qualifiers that are open to all ChessKids. From September 1 to October 5, there will be qualifiers nearly every hour on the ChessKid "Fast Chess" server. Those qualifiers will take place during basically every time zone.
There is no maximum number of players in any qualifier.
There will be four last-chance "super-qualifiers" on the day of Polgar's Global Chess Festival, which is October 12.
All kids qualifying from one of these qualifiers will then play a final on October 19 at 8 a.m. Pacific time.
How To Play:
Any ChessKid wishing to compete must join the "CK/Polgar World Record Club" club (note if you already have an active ChessKid account, we have likely already placed you in the club for convenience!). As with all ChessKid live tournaments, a child in the club can then register for a qualifier 15 minutes before the tournament begins by going into Fast Chess and looking on the right for the registration link.
All qualifiers can only be played on the website version of ChessKid and not on the apps (although kids could use a browser on a mobile device to play, and it should work fine on the Chrome or Safari browsers).
How To Qualify For The Finals:
In one of the regular qualifiers from September 1 to October 5, if a child finishes in the top 10 percent at the end of the tournament, then he/she has qualified for the finals. For example, if a tournament has 86 players, then 9 will qualify (we will always round up).
If playing in one of the four super-qualifiers on the day of Polgar's Global Chess Festival (October 12), any child finishing with 3.0/5 points or more will qualify. Hence, many more kids may qualify from these events.
Qualifier And Finals Format:
All regular qualifiers and the super-qualifiers will be five rounds at a time control of 5+1. Each will last a little more than one hour.
Kids may play in as many qualifiers or super-qualifiers as they wish. Even if they have qualified for the finals, they may continue to play in more qualifier events. They may end up qualifying more than once, but that does not confer any special advantage for the finals. If a child qualifies more than once, we will not extend qualification of that event past the top 10 percent.
For the finals, the tournament will need to be longer, since there may be more than 2,000 kids competing. ChessKid reserves the right to alter the format, but it will again be played at a time control of 5+1 and it may be 7-11 rounds, with the goal to produce a winner—but also not make the event last too long for kids. The exact format will be announced after all qualifiers have concluded.
Special Guinness Rules:
A child must complete the entire qualifier to be counted as a player for the tournament.
Kids should NOT withdraw from any qualifier, even if they aren't doing as well as they would like. Being part of the record is a great reward, but they won't count unless they finish all six rounds. It's good practice to finish any event anyway, and in this one, it's extra important.
If they play more than one qualifier (and we hope they do!) they won't count as more than one player toward the goal of 20,000, but we still want ChessKids to play more chess.
If a kid qualifies for the finals but cannot compete in the finals, that's fine. This event is more about participation and fun, and this will not hurt our chances of setting the record, since they will have already been counted once as a player. The finals don't add to the total players for the event.
Fun Stuff To Win:
Every ChessKid that plays all six rounds of at least one qualifier will be part of the world record attempt and will get a special certificate sent to their ChessKid account.
The certificate will be signed by FunMasterMike and GM Judit Polgar!
ChessKid will also randomly select one ChessKid per qualifier to get one free year of ChessKid gold membership. To be eligible, they must have played all five rounds of at least one qualifier.
In addition, five kids will be chosen at random to receive a signed copy of Judit Polgar's book, How I Beat Fischer's Record, and one lucky ChessKid will be randomly selected for a private lesson online with Judit!
The top five finishers in the finals will also all receive a signed copy of How I Beat Fischer's Record, and will each get to play one blitz game against Judit and one against FunMasterMike. The winner of the overall finals will also get one free online chess lesson with Judit Polgar.
Even more prizes will be added later by local organizers and sponsors.
Stuff That Needs To Be Said:
ChessKid will use all of its normal fair-play protection measures to ensure that games are played under our site's guidelines. You can read more about them here or watch a fun video on them here.
Any child that is found to have used outside assistance or violated other policies will not be eligible for qualifying to the finals or any other prizes, and will also not have their participation count toward the record. All decisions made by ChessKid on fair-play cases are final.
By participating in the tournament, you are also agreeing that you have your parent or guardian's permission to do so.
Join the fun and the world record club now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
- Email: Mike@chess.com
- Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
- Address: PO Box 60400 Palo Alto, CA 94306
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 more than 85 countries.
