2020 Speed Chess Championship: All The Information
The 2020 Speed Chess Championship has been expanded with a brand new, multi-event qualification system and a significantly increased total prize fund of $250,000 (a $150,000 increase over the 2019 event).
The main 16-player SCC Main Event has a prize fund of $100,000, which is double last year's total purse for what had been the richest online blitz tournament. The tournament will run November 1 - December 12, 2020 with the semifinals on December 9, 11, and the finals on December 12.
Eight players will be invited directly to the Speed Chess Championship knockout bracket, while a qualification system will determine the eight remaining spots. The entire 2020 Speed Chess Championship family of events will be broadcast live on Chess.com/TV, Twitch.tv/Chess, and Youtube.com/Chess.
General Format
The qualification system includes the Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix (previously Titled Tuesday), the Junior Speed Chess Championship, the Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss, the Speed Chess Championship Invitational, and the Bullet Chess Championship.
Additionally, Chess.com has partnered with FIDE to expand the Women's Speed Chess Championship and has massively increased the prize fund to a total of $50,000.
Below is the full schedule of events for 2020. You can find past Speed Chess Championship events here.
2020 Speed Chess Championship Schedule
- Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix
- Junior Speed Chess Championship
- Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss
- Speed Chess Championship Invitational
- Speed Chess Championship Main Event
1. Speed Chess Grand Prix
The Speed Chess Grand Prix runs from June to October 2020. The top four players qualify for the Speed Chess Championship Main Event.
Click here for all the information and the up-to-date standings for the SCC Grand Prix.
2. Junior Speed Chess Championship
The 2020 Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship, sponsored by ChessKid, concluded October 7. GM Nihal Sarin earned a spot in the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Main Event.
All the info on the JSCC can be found here.
3. Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss
The Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss was held on October 3-4. GM Vladimir Fedoseev became the qualifier as the runner-up behind GM Hikaru Nakamura, who is already seeded into the Main Event.
Click here for all the information.
4. Speed Chess Championship Invitational
The Speed Chess Championship Invitational was a sixteen-player knockout tournament held Sunday, October 25, 2020 with a $8,000 prize fund. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeated GM Sergey Karjakin in the final and became the last player added to the Main Event.
Click here for all the information.
6. Speed Chess Championship Main Event
All 2020 Speed Chess Championship matches will be broadcast live with full chess-master commentary on Chess.com/TV, Twitch.tv/Chess and Youtube.com/Chess.
2020 Speed Chess Championship Main Event Schedule and Results:
Dates: November 1-December 12, 2020.
Round of 16
- November 1, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Vachier-Lagrave vs. Sarin, won by Vachier-Lagrave 16.5-11.5
- November 2, 2020 at 9 a.m.Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Carlsen-Maghsoodloo, won by Carlsen 24-5.
- November 4, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Firouzja-Fedoseev won by Fedoseev 14-15.
- November 8, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: So-Abdusattorov won by So 18-10.
- November 11, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Nepomniachtchi-Aronian won by Aronian 11-14.
- November 12, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/ 18:00 Central Europe: Nakamura-Martirosyan won by Nakamura 21-5.
- November 15, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/ 18:00 Central Europe: Caruana-Duda won by Duda 17-9.
- November 16, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/ 18:00 Central Europe: Giri-Artemiev won by Artemiev 15.5-11.5.
Quarterfinals
- November 19, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: So vs. Duda, won by So 16-10
- December 2, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific/ 18:00 Central Europe: Aronian vs. Vachier-Lagrave, won by MVL 14.5-12.5.
- December 3, 2020 at 5 a.m. Pacific / 14:00 Central Europe: Carlsen vs. Artemiev won by Carlsen 13.5-9.5.
- December 3, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Nakamura vs. Fedoseev won by Nakamura 21.5-5.5.
Semifinals
- December 9, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Nakamura vs. So won by Nakamura 13.5-12.5
- December 11, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Carlsen vs. Vachier-Lagrave won by Vachier-Lagrave 13-11
Final
- December 12, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe: Nakamura vs. Vachier-Lagrave won by Nakamura 18.5-12.5
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Seeding:
- Seeding is determined by October 2020 FIDE Blitz rating.
All qualifying events have their own formats and rules, listed respectively at the linked articles above.
Main Event Format:
- Each 2020 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.
- The bracket will feature eight invited players and eight qualified players.
- The invites in the main bracket will be seeded as listed above.
- The main bracket will be a single-elimination knockout.
- The winner of each match advances to the next line in the bracket.
- If a match is tied after the last 1+1 bullet game, a tiebreak of four additional 1+1 games will be played as a mini-match.
- If a 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.
Rules:
For the official rules of the Speed Chess Championship, please visit this article.
The following chess players have confirmed their participation in the 2020 Speed Chess Championship main bracket:
- Hikaru Nakamura – world number 1 at time of invitation
- Magnus Carlsen – reigning world chess champion and world number 2 at time of invitation
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – world number 3 at time of invitation
- Wesley So – world number 4 at time of invitation
- Jan-Krzysztof Duda - world number 6 at time of qualification
- Ian Nepomniachtchi – world number 10 at time of invitation
- Vladislav Artemiev – world number 11 at time of invitation
- Alireza Firouzja – world number 13 at time of invitation
- Vladimir Fedoseev – world number 20 at time of invitation
- Anish Giri – world number 22 at time of invitation
- Levon Aronian – world number 27 at time of invitation
- Fabiano Caruana – world number 35 at time of invitation
- Nodirbek Abdussatorov – world number 58 at time of qualification
- Nihal Sarin – world number 67 at time of qualification
- Parham Maghsoodloo – world number 140 at time of qualification
- Haik Martirosyan – world number 145 at time of qualification
Main Event Final Prizes: $100,000 in total
Prizes by Round:
- Round 1: $32,000
- Round 2: $24,000
- Round 3: $24,000
- Round 4: $20,000
Prize breakdown:
Round 1: 16 players, 8 matches, $32,000 prize pool
- Winner: $2,000 and advance to round 2
- $2,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $4,000
Round 2: 8 players, 4 matches, $24,000 prize pool
- Winner: $3,000 and advance to round 3
- $3,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $6,000
Round 3: 4 players, 2 matches, $24,000 prize pool
- Winner: $6,000
- $6,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $12,000
Round 4: 2 players, 1 match, $20,000 prize pool
- Winner: $10,000
- $10,000 split by win percentage
- Total prizes per match: $20,000
You can read about our previous Speed Chess Championships here:
