Duda Debuts In PRO Chess Battle Royale This Week
The PRO Chess League has always been known for its innovative formats. This Tuesday and Friday, we debut our first new format of 2019: Battle Royales!
Diving into the action this week will be two PRO Chess League stars making their 2019 debuts, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Cannes Blitzstreams) and Salem Saleh (Montreal Chessbrahs).
Just learning about the PRO Chess League? Visit the site and check out the official information article.
First Battle Royale
The PRO Chess League Battle Royales add some new wrinkles to the Super Saturday and Super Sunday formats from 2018.
Once again, the format will be a round robin. The round robins are constructed by creating four groups of eight teams and pairing all board ones against each other, all board twos against each other, and so forth. The time control will be 10/2, slightly faster than the 15/2 time control at which the PRO Chess League is normally played.
Teams will receive seasonal points for their score in the round robin, plus points based on their standing at the end of the day as follows.
For example, if a team scores 18.5/28 points, and finishes in first place, it would get 42.5 points in the standings (18.5 points + 24 points bonus for first place). Meanwhile, if a team gets 10/28 and finishes in eighth place, it would get just 10 points total.
That's a lot of points on the table so the three 2019 Battle Royales can really have an impact on the seasonal standings!
Battle Royales #1 and #2 are at 1:30 and 6:00 p.m. PT 1/29 respectively. Battle Royales #3 and #4 are at 6:00 am and 9:40 am PT 1/2. See www.prochessleague.com/schedule.html.Duda Debuts for the Cannes Blitzstreams
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda has been playing the Tata Steel chess tournament for the past several weeks. This week he makes his debut in the PRO Chess League for the Cannes Blitzstreams. The Blitzstreams won their match last week, but they have been struggling, and are in the bottom half of their division. They are surely hoping for Duda to reverse their fortunes in a big way this week!
Duda made a big splash and many fans with his performance in the Speed Chess Championship where he defeated Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk and the World Blitz Championship where he finished second behind Magnus Carlsen.
Duda's rapid skills are less established, but if they prove to be on par with his blitz prowess, he will likely soon be one of the league leaders.
Chessbrahs Add Salem Saleh
The Montreal Chessbrahs lead the PRO Chess League after their thrilling victory over the saint Louis Arch Bishops, but they aren't taking their foot off the gas.
The Chessbrahs have added Salem Saleh to keep their roster at full strength while GM Saric plays in the Gibraltar Chess Festival.
Saleh (@ArabicFalcon) has been a staple in the blitz chess pool on Chess.com. He has now also started his own Twitch channel and joined the Chess.com streamers program, playing in last week's Arena Kings. Be sure to check out his channel and give him a follow!
Watch Arena Kings tournament from Salem_AR on www.twitch.tv
Watch all the PRO Chess League action on Twitch.tv/chess, Twitch.tv/prochessleague, and Chess.com/tv.
I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
