Fill Out Your Speed Chess Champs Bracket

The 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship kicks off its first match today with Hikaru Nakamura facing the qualifying GM Sergey Grigoriants.

You can watch that match live this Wednesday, May 3 at 10 a.m. PDT on Chess.com/TV.

But before that match begins, be sure to fill out your 2017 Speed Champs bracket.

Do you think the world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, will defend his Chess.com championship?

Or will a new winner emerge from the grueling, 16-player bracket? You must pick the winner of all 15 matches, but you can select just one champion.

Fill out your bracket in the form below. If you are having problems with the form, you also enter directly on Google Forms. 

Aside from the inherent joy that brackets bring, you'll be competing for some serious Chess.com membership prizes.

UPDATE: Congrats to the winners.

1 MSW2016 5/2/2017 8:22:40 -- lifetime diamond membership
2 tstew000014 5/3/2017 8:33:00 -- 4 years diamond membership
3 harrynac24 5/2/2017 9:04:54 -- 3 years diamond membership
4 flavio2412 5/2/2017 8:53:01 -- 2 years diamond membership
5 e2-e4_1-0 5/2/2017 9:51:25 -- 1 year diamond membership

The top five scorers in our bracket contest will win the following subscriptions:

1. lifetime diamond membership
2. four years diamond membership
3. three years diamond membership
4. two years diamond membership
5. one year diamond membership

Here is the full scoring system:

• one point for each correct first-round pick
• three points for each correct second-round pick
• nine points for each correct semifinals pick
• 27 points for the correct championship pick

In the event of a tie for most points, the following tiebreakers will be used in order:

1. lowest score prediction difference in the championship
2. earliest submitted entry

Entries are open now and will be accepted until the start of the first match on Wednesday, May 3 at 10 a.m. PDT. Only the first entry from each Chess.com username will be counted. 

Need some more hype after filling out your bracket? Here is a promotional video for the event starring the chief organizer and event commentator IM Daniel Rensch.

2017 Speed Chess Championship schedule:

Round one:

• May 3: Hikaru Nakamura vs. Sergey Grigoriants at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

• May 24: Sergey Karjakin vs. Georg Meier at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

• May 25: Wesley So vs. Anish Giri at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

• July 20: Alexander Grischuk vs Richard Rapport at 10 a.m.Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

• Aug. 23: Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Levon Aronian at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

• Aug. 24: Fabiano Caruana vs Hou Yifan at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Eastern, midnight Central Europe, 6 a.m. Beijing

• Aug. 31: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Jeffery Xiong 1 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. 7 p.m. Central Europe

• Oct. 5: Magnus Carlsen vs. Gadir Guseinov at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central Europe

Round two:

• Oct. 12
• Oct. 19
• Nov. 2
• Nov. 9

Semifinals:

• Nov. 16
• Dec. 7

Championship:

• Dec. 21

Here are the prizes for the 2017 Speed Chess Championship:

• Round 1 (16 players, 8 matches): $16,000. $1,000 to the winner of each match. $1,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.
• Round 2 (8 players, 4 matches): $12,000. $1,500 to the winner of each match. $1,500 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.
• Semifinals, Round 3 (4 players, 2 matches): $12,000. $3,000 to winner of each match. $3,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.
• Finals, Round 4 (2 players, 1 match): $10,000. $5,000 to the winner, the title of Speed Chess Champion and a trophy with name engraved. $5,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.

Format:

Each 2017 Speed Chess Championship match will feature 90 minutes of 5/2 blitz, 60 minutes of 3/2 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1/1 bullet chess.

One chess960 game will be played in each time control at the end of each time period.

In the event of a match tie, one additional classical game will be played at each time control. If still tied after the best-of-three tiebreaker, a single Armageddon game will be played, with the higher-seeded player to start the match choosing between White with 5 minutes and 0 second increment or Black with 3 minutes and 0 second increment, with Black receiving draw odds. Visit this article for full match rules. 

For more information on the 2017 Speed Chess Championship, read FM Mike Klein's news on the event.