Who Will Qualify To Play Magnus Carlsen?

The Blitz Battle Qualifier to decide who will face Magnus Carlsen is here. Watch the event with live commentary at Chess.com/tv or Twitch.tv/chess. 

Round one of this 11-round, 3 0 Swiss tournament starts Tuesday, May 31 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here's just a few of the many reasons you should be watching.

1. The winner plays Magnus Carlsen

The champion qualifies into the Blitz Battle Championship as our eighth seed, and gets to play World Champion Magnus Carlsen in round one. The chance for three hours mano a mano with Carlsen is probably a sufficient motivator for the competitors, but the match will also have $3,300 on the line with at least $1,000 guaranteed to the loser.

Pro: You get to play Magnus. Con: You have to play Magnus.

2. It's so top-heavy we have a U2700 prize

With 42 GMs, 26 IMs, and 2 FMs already registered -- and more entering all the time -- the event is chock full of top players. Some registrants who are ineligible for the U2700 prize include Wesley So, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Le Quang Liem.

Some favorites eligible for our U2700 prize include Baadur Jobava, Gawain Jones, and Georg Meier.

So probably won't mind being ineligible for an Under prize  No doubt, he has his sights exclusively on top prize!

3. Your favorite streamers will be playing

#teamscandi is sure to show up in force to support your friendly neighborhood streamer, IM John Bartholomew. Bartholomew will have plenty of opportunities to defend the honor of his beloved Scandinavian Defense at the highest level. Registrants are on notice; book up on the Scandi!

GM Eric Hansen is also in the lists representing the ChessBrahs. Hopefully, his recent eight-hour practice bout against Hikaru Nakamura helps out. As Hansen would say, need that energy boys!

4. Flags Galore

With a flat 3 0 time control, we can expect to see more flags than a United Nations meeting. The lack of increment will surely make for some seriously dangerous time scrambles.

I hope you've left enough time on your clock to shuffle your way to 50 moves in that opposite colored bishop position. Premove, premove, premove, %$*#@!

5. The Benjamins

While GM Joel Benjamin isn't signed up -- yet -- with $5,000 in total prizes available, there will be lots of Benjamins on the line. First place takes home $1,500, not bad for ~one hour of hectic 3 0 Blitz action. The prizes are laid out as follows.

• Place prizes (1st-10th): $1,500-750-500-400-300-200-150-100-50-50
• Best Under 2700: $500 
• Best Under 2600: $300
• Best Under 2500: $200

6. Grandmaster Commentary

GM Simon Williams and IM Aman Hambelton will be providing commentary on our primary English language stream at Chess.com/tv or Twitch.tv/chess. 

What happens when you mix English and Canadian commentary? Who knows, but we'll find out!

Warning: Prepare for cheekiness.

7. You can watch in your native tongue

In addition to our English language broadcast, we have GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Sergey Shipov providing Russian language commentary at twitch.tv/chesscom_shakhmaty and NM Kevin Bordi (popular streamer blitzstream) broadcasting in French at twitch.tv/chesscom_echecs.

8. Tiebreaks?!

Of course, the victor can eliminate any possibility of a tie with a perfect score, but should two or more players share first place, the action will only increase.

Armageddon games will be played among the tied players until only one is left standing! or seated... hopefully in a comfortable ergonomic chair... 

Are you a GM or IM who still hasn't registered?! Join now via the official club. All participants must be approved prior to the tournament so sign up ASAP!

Participants by May 30th, 1p.m. Pacific