New For 2024—The Titled Cup: Titled Tuesdays Just Got Even More Fierce

Titled Tuesdays are our beloved weekly battles where any titled player can face the likes of GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura.

Fans tune in without fail to see who will come out on top in these always-thrilling, 11-round blitz tournaments. But the ever-popular Titled Tuesdays are about to get even more exciting.

Throughout 2024, Chess.com will be upping the ante with the launch of the new Titled Cup. The Titled Cup is a new layer of competitiveness on top: a year-long leaderboard competition tracking Titled Tuesday results from over 100 events. It will bring an extra edge to everyone.

Starting on January 2, there will be a leaderboard for all players, plus women, juniors, girls, and seniors. Over the course of the year, players will be ranked based on the sum of their best 20 Titled Tuesday scores.

Only events in 2024 will count. Prizes range from $10,000 for topping the open leaderboard to $5,000 for women, juniors, and seniors, and $1,500 for girls. But that’s not all. Through the Titled Cup, players will also get a clear route to qualify for the Speed Chess Championship series of events.

The qualification spots available for the Speed Chess Championship (SCC) and the Women’s Speed Chess Championship (WSCC) will be based on the sum of players' best 10 Titled Tuesday scores until a specified cutoff date.

The first deadline is June 11 for the JSCC, which has two spots available via the leaderboard for players born in 2006 or later. Six seats in the SCC will be awarded to the top six on the open leaderboard before June 18.

Finally, the top two women will qualify for the WSCC with the cutoff date of August 6. Chess.com is bringing all our events together to give more players a chance to make their mark and win prizes.

Titled Tuesday began life way back in 2014 and has evolved massively over the years. From February 1, 2022, the Swiss has been running twice every Tuesday, with the first event at 11 a.m. ET/17:00 CET and the second event 5 p.m. ET/23:00 CET.

Nakamura has set the record with 59 total victories since October 20, 2020. GM Dmitry Andreikin has the second-most with 16. Nakamura also has the joint-highest score in Titled Tuesday, achieving a perfect 11/11 twice on August 17, 2021, and August 22, 2023.

Carlsen is the only other player to manage the feat on April 7, 2023. However, before the era of 11 rounds, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk scored a perfect 9/9 on October 4, 2016.

The question for 2024 is: can Nakamura maintain his dominance in the face of this extra motivation for his rivals?