It's Tactics Time! The Chess.com Puzzles Championship Starts On January 16
It's that time of the year again! We're excited to announce the Chess.com Puzzles Championship. The event will take place on January 16 and 17 and feature a $5,000 prize fund.
This year, the event will be a part of the Chess.com Community Championships, opening the 2025 cycle of community-driven events. However, the Chess.com Puzzles Championship will still follow the same format as the Puzzles World Championships, which have occurred since 2020. The competition will consist of a day of Puzzle Rush followed by an eight-player double-elimination knockout bracket of Puzzle Battle on the next day.
Any member of the community is welcome to play in the event! To qualify, members must send us a video clip of themselves scoring at least 50 points in a 5-minute Puzzle Rush run between January 13 and 15. Players who want to register must send video proof of their score using the official application form:
Puzzles are a great way to sharpen your tactical skills and warm up for a game. Puzzle Rush, in particular, is a favorite among fans and players alike, including newly crowned world champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who played Puzzle Rush regularly before his games against GM Ding Liren.
He hit 53 in 3 min Puzzle Rush hours before game 7 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SyVQXebzLe
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 3, 2024
Puzzles are not only fun to solve but also to watch. When coming across a top player doing Puzzle Rush, it's impossible to look away:
But despite its popularity, only one player has dominated Chess.com's puzzle competitions so far. GM Ray Robson has won every single edition of the event since its inception in 2020. With five titles to his belt, Robson is the player to beat.
Each year, the American puzzle savant had to overcome the toughest of competitors on his way to the top. The players who fell before the tactics titan include GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Jeffery Xiong, and more. Can anyone rise to the challenge and end Robson's era of puzzle dominance?
Who do you think will win this year's Chess.com Puzzles Championship? Let us know in the comment section below.
