Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship 2022: All The Information

The 2022 Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship presented by Coinbase is a world-class online rapid event series for all grandmasters, the top 10 women, and the top 10 Juniors in the world alongside 10 wildcards. From February 12 until August 21, these chess stars will be able to compete in weekly Swiss and knockout events to fight for the top of the standings and their share of the $650,000 prize fund.

• Finals Bracket
• Broadcast
• Players
• Finals Format
• Finals Schedule
• Finals Prizes
• Season Standings
• Season Schedule
• Season Format
• Grand Prix Points
• Prizes
• How To Play In The Event
• Identification Requirements And Fair Play

Finals Bracket

Broadcast

Make sure you don't miss a single minute of the action by joining our live broadcast of the event on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on our Twitch channel or access all our live broadcasts on YouTube.com/ChesscomLive.

Don't forget to go to our Events page to keep up with every single detail of the event, including live games, results, standings, and more!

Players

Finals Invited Players

• Ding Liren
• Ian Nepomniachtchi
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov
• Parham Maghsoodloo

Qualified Players

• Hikaru Nakamura
• Dmitry Andreikin
• Fabiano Caruana
• Jeffery Xiong
• Wesley So
• Daniil Dubov
• Vladimir Fedoseev
• Alexey Sarana
• Alexander Grischuk
• David Paravyan
• Jose Martinez
• Maxim Matlakov

Regular Season Players

• Grandmasters
• Top 10 junior players
• Top 10 women players
• 10 Chess.com wildcard invites 

Any player who has been in any of the categories above from January 2021 through the current FIDE list is eligible to play.

The following players have also participated during the regular season:

• Anish Giri
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• Levon Aronian
• Vidit Gujrathi
• Eric Hansen 
• Benjamin Bok 
• Daniel Naroditsky 
• Bibisara Assaubayeva 
• Raunak Sadhwani 
• Krikor Mekhitarian 
• Robert Hess 
• Olexandr Bortnyk 
• Polina Shuvalova
• And more!

Finals Format

• The top 12 players with the most accumulated Grand Prix points over the season (with only the 13 highest scoring weeks being used) join four invited players in a double elimination bracket.
• The time control is 10+2.
• Players contest a two-game match, with the higher-seeded player starting with White.
• If the match ends in a tie, a single armageddon game with a bidding system decides the winner. Players communicate privately the amount of time they are willing to give up to play as Black. The player who gives up the most time plays Black with draw odds, while the other player gets 10 minutes to play with the white pieces. If the bid is tied, the higher-seeded player picks the color.

Finals Schedule

Season Standings

You can check out the full standings of the 2022 Rapid Chess Championship here.

Schedule

Players compete in a Swiss tournament every Saturday. The top eight players from the Swiss qualify for a knockout event on Sunday. These weekend events lead up to the Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship Finals, from August 20 to August 21.

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Format

The 2022 Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship consists of a Regular Season and the Finals. The Regular Season features Swiss and knockout events every Saturday and Sunday, with players earning Grand Prix points according to their standings on these events. At the end of the Regular Season, the top 12 players with the most Grand Prix points qualify to join four invited players in the Rapid Chess Championship Finals.

Saturday Swiss Events

• The time control is 10+0.
• Players compete in a nine-round Swiss tournament.
• The top eight players qualify for that weekend's knockout tournament.
• In the event of a tie affecting the top-eight players, Swiss tournament tiebreakers apply.
• If the tie persists, additional tiebreakers will be applied to determine the top-eight players who will move on to the knockout stage as well as their seeding.

Sunday Knockout Events

• The time control is 10+2.
• Players are seeded by order of finish from the prior Swiss event for that weekend into an eight-player knockout bracket.
• Any player(s) who are otherwise qualified for the Sunday knockout but cannot participate will be considered to have finished in ninth place for the week, a place that does not earn prize money. Players below them in the original standings move up to the corresponding places in order to determine the knockout field
• Players play one game, with the higher seed playing White.
• If the first game is drawn: players play one game of 3+2 with reversed colors from the previous game.
• If players are still tied, players play one game of 1+1 with reversed colors from the previous game.
• If players are still tied, a single armageddon game is played with the higher seed choosing their color.

If a player qualifies for the Sunday knockout but fails to show, they forfeit and lose prize eligibility.

Regulations

You can read the 2022 Rapid Chess Championship's full regulations in the event's rulebook.

Grand Prix Points

Players accumulate Grand Prix points throughout the season according to their performance in each weekly event:

• 1st: 10 points
• 2nd: 7 points
• 3rd-4th: 5 points
• 5th-8th: 3 points
• 9th-16th: 2 points
• 17th-32nd: 1 points

A player’s final season score is calculated based on their highest scoring 13 weeks. The top 12 players with the most Grand Prix points earn the right to compete in the Rapid Chess Championship Finals.

Prizes

The prize fund for the event is $650,000, with $500,000 in prizes for the weekly Swiss and knockout events and a $150,000 prize pool for the Rapid Chess Championship Finals.

Weekly Prize Fund: $20,000

• 1st: $7,500
• 2nd: $3,500
• 3rd: $2,500
• 4th: $2,500
• 5th-8th: $1,000

How To Play In The Event

All grandmasters are eligible to participate in the 2022 Chess.com Rapid Chess Championship. Also eligible to play are the top 10 women and top 10 Juniors by classical rating from January 2021 through the current published rating list.

Any qualified player who is not yet added to the official club must contact [email protected] to be added.

Identification Requirements And Fair Play

• All accounts must be labeled with the player's real name.
• All players are required to join a Zoom call for all events (both Swiss and Knockout).
• Players must have a two-camera setup with at least one camera in Zoom at all times.
• If a player's camera (or cameras) disconnects and the connection cannot be re-established within a reasonable period of time, the player will be removed from the event at Chess.com's sole discretion.
• Players must follow all staff requests including having the ability to share their screen(s) upon request.
• Players are allowed to stream the event with emote-only chat.
• No individual(s) are allowed in the room with a player without Chess.com consent. 
• Players who are streaming will also be required to delay their stream by 60 seconds. If they're unable to apply the delay then they won't be permitted to stream the event. 
• Players are not permitted to wear headphones while on-stream or in Zoom.
• Violation of any of the above requirements may result in a player being kicked from the event. 

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