2019 PRO Chess League: Official Information
The PRO Chess League is an international online rapid chess league featuring 32 teams from around the world competing for $50,000 in prize money and the title of 2019 PRO Chess League champion. This season features stars like Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Anish Giri and many more!
The 2019 regular season is 10 weeks long, running from January 8 through March 14. During the regular season, teams will play one match against every other team in their division and three interdivisional series.
Here's all the information you need to follow the 2019 PRO Chess League.
Standings
At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in each division will advance to the playoffs and retain their spots in the 2020 PRO Chess League season. The fifth- and sixth-ranked teams miss the playoffs, but they do secure slots in the 2020 PRO Chess League season. The bottom two teams are relegated and must compete in a qualification process to regain a slot in the 2020 PRO Chess League season.
Results
Every Friday, Chess.com will publish a final report on the week including full crosstables for each match and a downloadable PGN. In the interim, we will publish division reports in the PRO Chess League club.
Schedule
The complete 2019 PRO Chess League schedule with match times is available at Prochessleague.com/schedule. Here's the schedule:
PRO Chess League 2019 | Schedule
| Week | Event | Date |
| Week 1 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | January 8 |
| Week 1 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | January 10 |
| Week 2 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | January 15 |
| Week 2 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | January 17 |
| Week 3 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | January 21 |
| Week 3 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | January 22 |
| Week 4 | Round Robin | January 29 |
| Week 4 | Round Robin | February 1 |
| Week 5 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | February 5 |
| Week 5 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | February 7 |
| Week 6 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | February 12 |
| Week 6 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | February 14 |
| Week 7 | Round Robin | February 19 |
| Week 7 | Round Robin | February 21 |
| Week 8 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | February 26 |
| Week 8 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | February 28 |
| Week 9 | Divisional Match: Atlantic, Pacific | March 5 |
| Week 9 | Divisional Match: Central, Eastern | March 7 |
| Week 10 | Round Robin | March 12 |
| Week 10 | Round Robin | March 14 |
| Playoffs Eighth-finals | Round of 16 Atlantic, Pacific | March 19 |
| Playoffs Eighth-finals | Round of 16 Central, Eastern | March 21 |
| Playoffs Quarterfinals | Round of Eight Atlantic, Pacific | March 26 |
| Playoffs Quarterfinals | Round of Eight Central, Eastern | March 28 |
| Playoffs Semifinals and Finals | Championship Weekend | May 4-5 |
How To Watch
All events will be broadcast live on Twitch.tv/prochessleague and Chess.com/tv. The broadcast archives will be published on Youtube and Chess.com/videos.
Viewers can also watch the games in Chess.com/play/online.
Teams
All of the 2019 PRO Chess League teams and their records, rosters, and more are listed at Prochessleague.com/teams.
Players
The full player list for the 2019 PRO Chess League season is available at Prochessleague.com/players. Here are the top 10 players competing this year.
Prizes
The PRO Chess League offers $55,000 in prizes for season-long team and individual prizes.
The weekly prizes offered are ...
- Best Game of the week (twice weekly decided by Twitter poll): $100
- MVP of the week (twice weekly decided by Twitter poll): $100
- Moment of the Week: $100 to the most viewed clip on Twitch each week
Fan-Prix
Wednesdays (and occasional Tuesdays) between PRO Chess League match days, fans can compete in the "Fan-Prix" tournament on Chess.com. The top-ten scorers at the end of the season win diamond memberships on Chess.com. Find all the details here.
Rules
(This is an abbreviated version of the rules that cover all of the league basics. To see a more detailed and complete version of the rules, click here.)
A: Rosters
1. Each team has a roster of six to 16 players. Four of these players will be chosen to compete in each league match.
B: Eligibility
1. Each team is composed of local players and free agent players.
2. For each match a team chooses four players to play. Teams may only use one free agent player in each match. The other three players must be local.
3. If a team requires more than one free agent, it will incur penalties to its maximum rating cap for that match.
4. Local status is determined by your connection to your team's home team's region. You can be local by either living in your team's region, or having lived there at some point for three continuous years.
5. A free agent can be from anywhere in the world and requires no connection at all to your team.
C: Weekly Lineups
1. Each team chooses four players to play for the team in each match.
2. The average rating of the four players in each match must be under 2500. (2499.75 is legal, 2500.00 is not)
3. Each player uses his/her rating from the most recent September rating supplement to determine his/her league rating.
4. There are bonuses available for players above 2700 (their rating only counts as 2700 towards the average rating). This is to encourage more top players to participate in the league
5. There are bonuses available to female players (their rating = rating-100). Therefore a 2500-rated female would count as 2400 towards the average. This is to encourage more females to participate in the league.
D: Match Format
1. Most matches are a 4-vs-4, all-ply-all format. This means that each player in your team's lineup will play one game against each player on the opposing team.
2. A match win gives a team 10 points in the standings (8.5 points required for a match win). A drawn match gives each team five points in the standings.
3. Every game point gives a team one point in the standings.
4. The time control is 15 minutes plus a two-second increment.
E: Special Match Format
1. Each team will have three matches that don't follow the standard match format.
2. These matches will consist of eight team round robins, in which more points are given out to the teams that finish at the top of the crosstable.
3. The time control will be 10 minutes plus a two-second increment.
F: League Structure
1. There are four divisions (Eastern, Central, Atlantic, Pacific), broken up geographically. Each division has eight teams.
2. The regular season consists of each team playing all of the other teams in their division. There are also three round-robin matches as detailed in section E, for a total of ten matches.
G: Playoffs and Relegation
1. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.
2. The bottom two teams in each division are relegated, and will need to participate in qualifiers to rejoin the league.
3. The number of total points determines who finishes ahead of other teams in the standings. Head-to-head performance is the first tiebreaker.
4. The playoffs follow a single-elimination format, in which the teams that fared better during the regular season advance on an 8-8 tie.
5. Once the semifinals begin, there is no more advancing on an 8-8 tie, but instead a blitz tiebreaker is used to determine the winner.
H: Fair Play
1. The Chess.com fair play team will carefully check all league games for signs of fair play violation
2. All players will be required to use the program Zoom in order to be monitored via webcam.
The official account of the Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League. Follow this account for news and updates regarding the PRO Chess League, and all activities and results posted to Chess.com. You can also visit the official website at www.prochessleague.com or follow the PRO Chess League on Twitter, Like us on Facebook and Subscribe to your Twitch and YouTube Channels.
