Saturday: IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship Finals

The Finals of the IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship takes place May 23 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (19:00 CEST) between IM John Bartholomew and IM Alina Kashlinskaya. The match will be broadcast live on Chess.com/TV with commentary by GMs Robert Hess and Daniel Naroditsky. In addition, a supergrandmaster guest is likely to join the broadcast as one semifinal saw GM Fabiano Caruana providing analysis and banter for the 3+1 and 1+1 segments of the match.

More information on this new addition to the Speed Chess Championship series can be found below:

Chess.com is introducing the inaugural IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship this week. Unlike previous editions of the Speed Chess Championship, this event will exclusively feature international masters in an effort to bring top-level entertainment to the Chess.com audience.

Joining talented players like IM John Bartholomew and IM Carissa Yip, chess personalities such as IM Eric Rosen, IM Tania Sachdev, and IM Levy Rozman will participate. In addition, Chess.com's Chief Chess Officer and lead commentator IM Danny Rensch will be making his first-ever appearance as a competitor in an official Chess.com championship.

Set to start on April 18, the IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship will be the most-anticipated event in Chess.com history to exclusively feature international masters. 

Broadcast:

All 2020 IM Not a GM Speed Chess Championship matches will be broadcast live with commentary and occasional roasting from GMs Robert Hess and Daniel Naroditsky on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/Chess. 

Bracket:

Round 1 Pairings:

Seeding:

Seeding is determined by a blend of Chess.com blitz and bullet ratings. Ratings that are provisional or inactive have been adjusted relative to the group's mean rating difference and then used in the blended calculation.

2020 IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship schedule:

• Saturday, April 18: John Bartholomew vs David Pruess at 6 p.m. PDT (April 25, 03:00 CEST)
• Sunday, April 19: Tania Sachdev vs Levy Rozman at 9:30 a.m. PDT (18:30 CEST)
• Monday, April 20: Christof Sielecki vs Alina Kashlinskaya at 9:30 a.m. PDT (18:30 CEST)
• Wednesday, April 22: Anna Zatonskih vs Greg Shahade at 9:30 a.m. PDT (18:30 CEST)
• Thursday, April 23: Eric Rosen vs Elisabeth Paehtz at 9:30 a.m. PDT (18:30 CEST)
• Friday, April 24: Lawrence Trent vs Kostya Kavutskiy at 9:30 a.m. PDT (18:30 CEST)
• Friday, April 24: Danny Rensch vs Teddy Coleman at 6 p.m. PDT (April 25, 03:00 CEST)
• Saturday, April 25: Dean Ippolito vs Carissa Yip at 6 p.m. PDT (April 26, 03:00 CEST)

Round 2: Quarterfinals

• Event 13 (Round 2, Match 1)
• Event 14 (Round 2, Match 2)
• Event 15 (Round 2, Match 3)
• Event 16 (Round 2, Match 4)

Round 3: Semifinals

• Thursday, May 14: Alina Kashlinskaya vs. Teddy Coleman at 10 a.m. PDT (19:00 CEST)
• Saturday, May 16: John Bartholomew vs. Greg Shahade at 6 p.m. PDT (May 17, 03:00 CEST)

Round 4: Finals

• Event 17 (Round 4, IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship Final)

Event prizes: $6,000 total. 

Prizes by round:

• Round 1 - $2,400
• Round 2 - $1,600
• Round 3 - $1,000
• Round 4 - $1,000
  

Prize breakdown:

Round 1: 16 players, 8 matches, $2,400 prize pool

• Winner: $150 and advance to round 2
• $150 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $300

Round 2: 8 players, 4 matches, $1,600 prize pool

• Winner: $200 and advance to round 3
• $200 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $400

Round 3: 4 players, 2 matches, $1,000 prize pool

• Winner: $250 and advance to round 4
• $250 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $500

Round 4: 2 players, 1 match, $1,000 prize pool

• Winner: $500
• $500 split by win percentage
• Total prizes per match: $1,000

In addition, all fan donations made throughout the course of each match will be contributed towards the prize fund with the winner of the match taking the full amount of those donations.

Detailed format:

Main bracket

• Each match will feature 75 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 45 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 25 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess.
• The players in the bracket will be seeded by a blend of their Chess.com Blitz and Bullet ratings.
• The main bracket will be a single-elimination knockout.
• The winner of each match advances to the next round in the bracket.
• If a match is tied after the last 1+1 bullet game, a tiebreak of four additional 1+1 games are 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 their color.

List of players:

The following chess players have confirmed their participation in the 2020 IM Not A GM Speed Chess Championship main bracket:

• Seed 1: John Bartholomew
• Seed 2: Levy Rozman
• Seed 3: Alina Kashlinskaya
• Seed 4: Carissa Yip
• Seed 5: Greg Shahade
• Seed 6: Elisabeth Paehtz
• Seed 7: Teddy Coleman
• Seed 8: Kostya Kavutskiy
• Seed 9: Lawrence Trent
• Seed 10: Danny Rensch
• Seed 11: Eric Rosen
• Seed 12: Anna Zatonskih
• Seed 13: Dean Ippolito
• Seed 14: Christof Sielecki
• Seed 15: Tania Sachdev
• Seed 16: David Pruess

Rules:

All other official rules of our regular Speed Chess Championship will be followed, which can be found in this article.