1st-Ever 'ChessKid Games' Coming In June

The first-ever ChessKid Games won't see out how fast you can run or swim, but it will test the skills of some of the best ChessKid users in several different disciplines! Alumni of the famous "CONIC" event will pair up alongside current ChessKids for an added team element to this fun day of chess.

The ChessKid Games will take place on June 1 on both ChessKid.com and Chess.com. ChessKids and CONIC alumni will be competing in three areas:

• Hand and Brain
• Blitz
• Puzzle Duel

An elite group of 10 ChessKids will qualify to compete, and 10 CONIC alumni will be invited by ChessKid staff. Over the seven years that CONIC took place, some very impressive names have competed, including GM Jeffery Xiong, WGM Jennifer Yu, FM Carissa Yip, GM Ruifeng Li, GM John Michael Burke, WIM Annie Wang and GM Nicolas Checa.

ChessKids will come from all over the world and qualification will be based on both ChessKid activity in "Fast Chess" and also a child's USCF, FIDE or local rating.

Here's how to qualify

• Only kids aged 10 and under are eligible. Ages are as of January 1, 2019.
• Four kids will be chosen that reside in the U.S. Six kids will come from outside the U.S.
• In order to be eligible, a child or his/her parents must register on the form below, join the "ChessKid Games Club" and play a minimum of 50 games in ChessKid's live ("fast") chess server in the month of April. Games must be fought to their completion and be a minimum of 10 moves to count.
• From all of the kids that successfully play at least 50 games, the three highest by USCF rating will be invited, and also the highest USCF-rated girl that is not otherwise one of the top three. If a player declines, ChessKid will move down the list. If the girl declines, ChessKid will invite the second-highest-rated girl, and so forth. ChessKid will use the January, 2019 USCF rating supplement.
• Six other ChessKids will qualify from the following countries that have longstanding partnerships with the site: United Kingdom; Netherlands; Sweden; Denmark; Australia; and Argentina. The partner programs that ChessKid identifies in those six countries will be allowed to choose their own methodology for choosing their lone representative, but the qualifier still must be aged 10 or under as of January 1, 2019.
• If one of the international partners cannot qualify a ChessKid representative for any reason, ChessKid reserves the right to choose another qualifier from the U.S.

After the 10 ChessKids qualify, they will then select their partner from the list of CONIC alumni (ChessKid will release who the "alumni" players are at a later time). The ChessKid who won the most games in the month of April in our live server will get first pick of partner. The child with the second-most games won will get the second selection of partner, and so forth.

Note that while the international ChessKids are not required to play 50 games in the live server, they would still be encouraged to be very active as winning many games would give them a better chance to have a higher selection of partner.

Scoring and format

• This is truly a team event, and all three events will combine for a final team total.
• There will be three Hand and Brain games played at 5+5 on the ChessKid server. The 10 teams will play a Swiss. The alumni will always be the "Brain" (announce which piece to move) and the ChessKid will be the "Hand" (moving the piece). Each win in Hand and Brain is worth 4 points and each draw is worth 2 point.
• There will be a two Blitz round-robins. CONIC alumni will play one round-robin among themselves on ChessKid.com at a time control of 5+1. ChessKids will be play a twin round-robin amongst themselves on ChessKid.com at a time control of 5+1. Wins in blitz are worth 1 point and draws are worth 1/2 point.
• There will also be twin Puzzle Duel round robins. CONIC alumni will all play each other and ChessKid will also all play one another. Each individual battle will be worth 1 point (so a "perfect" score would be nine points for either team member).

Prizes

• All qualifying ChessKids will receive two hours of private coaching from their alumni partner (this may take place before or after the event), paid for by ChessKid.com.
• All qualifying ChessKids will receive one year free gold membership to ChessKid.com and one year diamond membership to Chess.com.
• For the winning first-place team of the ChessKid Games, the ChessKid gets an additional three hours of chess instruction from a super-GM (to be named later!) and the CONIC alumus gets an invitation to the prestigious Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship in 2020! For the second-place team, the CONIC alumnus gets $300 and the ChessKid an additional hour of coaching. For the third-place team, the CONIC alumnus gets $200 and the ChessKid an additional hour of coaching.

How to watch

The ChessKid Games will be broadcast live on Twitch with FunMasterMike and special guests analyzing all the fun and craziness! The action begins June 1 at 8am Pacific/11am Eastern!

Fill out the form below to sign up.