Titled Tuesday Changes: Bigger Prizes, Championship Qualifiers, New Time

Chess.com's Titled Tuesday tournaments have been the largest regular online chess tournament since their inception in October 2014.

They have attracted hundreds of grandmasters to play, including Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Baadur Jobava, Dmitry Andreikin, and the hottest player on the planet not named So, Baskaran Adhiban.

Today, we are pleased to announce two big changes to the regular Titled Tuesday format:

• Instead of two tournaments, a single Titled Tuesday tournament will be held at 1 p.m. Pacific time on the first Tuesday of every month.
• The prize fund for that event will be increased to $1,500.

In addition to those changes, the entire month of April will hold something very special for all titled players on Chess.com: a chance to qualify for the 2017 Speed Chess Championship:

• April will hold a Titled Tuesday on every Tuesday of the month.
• Dates are April 4, April 11, April 18 and April 25.
• Winners will qualify for seeds 13-16 in the $50,000 2017 Speed Chess Championship.

In moving from two tournaments (an early and a late event) to one tournament a month, we are seeking to better serve our global audience. With a single monthly tournament, at a more convenient global time, we are hoping that more players and spectators can compete in and follow the event.

The selected time has been chosen to correspond to peak server times, when the most players and spectators are logged into Chess.com.

We are increasing the single tournament prize fund from $1,000 to $1,500. The new prize fund will be as follows.

1. $500
2. $400
3. $250
4. $150
5. $100

We are also pleased to announce a new special prize of $100 for the best live stream. We are always excited to see streamers like GM Eric Hansen and IM John Bartholomew giving a player's perspective of the event to fans, and we want to encourage new streamers to share their experiences. We hope this prize will help support and build that community.

Qualifiers

Don't forget that in April, we will hold a Titled Tuesday every Tuesday. Not only that, but the winners  will qualify for the Speed Chess Championships, giving them the opportunity to play some of the most legendary speed players in chess and a chance to win thousands of dollars.

Should there be any ties, they will be broken immediately after the event in an online, Armageddon playoff. Readers should mark Tuesdays in April on their calendar now to make sure they don't miss the action!