Speed Chess Championship Headlines September Updates
Another busy month at Chess.com is in the books as we turn the page to September and the equinox. The ninth Speed Chess Championship approaches a dramatic conclusion, but that's not all that's happening this month in the world of Chess.com!
Here's what this update covers:
Events
The premier Chess.com blitz event is wrapping up the weekend of September 6-8, but that's not the only tournament happening in the chess world!
- The 2024 Speed Chess Championship is concluding soon with a historic live final in Paris. Who will win between GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Hans Niemann? We will find out soon!
- In the meantime, GM Ju Wenjun won the Women's Speed Chess Championship, defeating IM Polina Shuvalova in a thrilling final.
- GM Jose Martinez became the third member of the Perfect Titled Tuesday Club, scoring 11/11 on August 27 to join Nakamura and Carlsen on the list of players to score 11/11 in a Titled Tuesday before.
- Coincidentally, those three also lead this year's Titled Cup standings, with Nakamura in first on 198.5 points, Carlsen second on 190.5, and Martinez third on 186 as of the September 3 Titled Tuesdays. There are less than four months now left in the inaugural Titled Cup! Tune in to see who will win the women, senior, junior and girls standings as well.
- Firouzja won the Sinquefield Cup and Grand Chess Tour! Is the Speed Chess Championship the next victory lap on his docket?
Product & Engineering
The next round of bots is part of an exciting partnership, and we also overhauled one of the key learning centers available on Chess.com.
- Our Lessons were redesigned, and the new setup is now available on web, Android, and iOS. Check it out at Chess.com/Learn!
- Discord bots are here!
- Speaking of bots, we also rolled out a brand new interface for them as well—check it out!
If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!
Community
Chess.com knows how important you and our community are, and we continue to host events that allow you to participate in the goings-on of chess.
- Our community team is at the SCC Finals, where we will be hosting community activities and meet-and-greets with your favorite creators! Read more about the live setting at Chess.com/Paris.
The Green Pawn is in Paris for the #SpeedChessFinals 🥐🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/6mFBZQMwwX
— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 3, 2024
- The latest Chess.com Community Championship was held in Bughouse. American GMs Jeffery Xiong and Awonder Liang took home the title!
Content
Our video and writing teams continue to produce the best chess content on the web, including:
- The Lie Detector Chess series continued with IM Anna Rudolf and WFM Anna Cramling trading great moves, shady truths, and possible lies.
- GMs Vidit Gujrathi and Anish Giri reacted to videos starring themselves, and the results were simultaneously hilarious and cringeworthy!
- Written content was also on point, led by NM Jeremy Kane exploring the always popular topic of trickery—the five greatest swindles in the history of the SCC!
Chessable
Chessable continues to release great course after great course, and there are also some ongoing promotions for you to take advantage of and participate in!
- If you liked The Woodpecker Method by Axel Smith before, it's even better now—with Axel himself presenting on video!
- Renowned podcaster NM Ben Johnson doesn't just present interesting interviews! Johnson and Chessable teamed up to help you learn about Identifying Critical Moments in Chess.
- Chessable's Olympiad promotion continues as we will be featuring 40% off of several courses and writing some feature articles about the players and countries involved. Read more about the sale and initiative here!
- Finally, you can still join the 2024 Create Your Own Course contest for a chance at a $5,000 advance on course sales and become a published Chessable author
ChessKid
ChessKid and the next generation of chess stars continue to do their thing. One of them is even about to represent her country in the most historic international team event in chess.
- Nine-year-old WFM Bodhana Sivanandan is on the English Olympiad team! She is the fifth player on the women's squad for the event, which starts September 11.
- Don't miss the Judit Polgar Chess Festival on September 17 and 18! GM Judit Polgar will be offering both a simultaneous exhibition and a masterclass. Read more about the festival and ways you can participate here on ChessKid!
- IM Alice Lee won the U.S. Girls Championship and wrote about the experience for ChessKid!
- GM Yagiz Erdogmus's grandmaster title became official. Congrats Yagiz!
Fair Play
The Fair Play team is always hard at work to keep Chess.com a safe and fair place to play for everyone in the community.
Fair Play stats for August:
- 317,749 reports created
- 57,986 Fair Play closures (including 11 titled players: 1 GM, 3 IM, 5 FM, 1 CM, 1 NM)
- 36,700+ mute actions
- 32,400+ accounts muted
- 138,900+ abuse closures
- 22,560,814 rating points refunded
Support
The team has integrated AI into their work, making the first-response time immediate, while still following up with human action as soon as possible.
- Average Time to First Human Response: 2 days, 2 hours
- Total Number of Conversations: 33,053
- Average Quality by Member Rating: 89.6%
- Total Ratings: 5,767
Thank you for being part of the world's largest chess community. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
Missed an update? You'll find last month's edition here.
