Carlsen, 5 Of World's Top 10 To Play In PRO Chess Super Weekend

Forget about the Super Bowl and get ready for the biggest weekend of action in PRO Chess League history.

For this incredible event we are bringing back our fantasy competition for a chance to win $10,000!

You can watch all the games Saturday and Sunday live on Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/chess. Matches begin at 3 p.m. PST Saturday and at 8 a.m. PST Sunday. 

For the first time in 2018, teams will be playing outside of their divisions, and the following chess superstars will be in action:

• World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway Gnomes)
• #2 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (San Jose Hackers)
• #6 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Marseille Migraines)
• #7 Hikaru Nakamura (Seattle Sluggers)
• #8 Fabiano Caruana (Saint Louis Arch Bishops)

World #2 Mamedyarov makes his 2018 debut for the San Jose Hackers

Also joining the fun are five more 2700 players: #15 Yu Yangyi (Chengdu Pandas), #24 Leinier Dominguez (Las Vegas Desert Rats), #28 Vladimir Fedoseev (Saint Louis Arch Bishops), #38 Dmitry Andreikin (Volga Stormbringers), and #41 Rauf Mamedov (San Jose Hackers).

How the heck is this guy on board two? Didn't he just tie with Anand in the World Rapid Championships?

How do Super Saturday and Super Sunday work?

These are two separate special events at a time control of 10-minutes-plus-2-seconds increment, where each team plays every team from the opposite division. The Eastern Division faces off against the Central Division and the Atlantic Division faces off against the Pacific Division. 

The scores are tallied up and at the end the following match points are awarded:

• 1st place: 1 match win and $500 bonus
• 2nd-6th place: 1 match win
• 7th-10th place: 1 match draw
• 11th-16th place: 1 match loss

We have some amazing matchups this weekend that you don't want to miss:

• Saturday 2/3: 3:00 PM PT / 11:00 PM GMT: Fabiano Caruana vs Yu Yangyi
• Saturday 2/3: Awonder Liang vs Jeffery Xiong (14-year-old GM vs 17-year-old GM)
• Saturday 2/3: 4:00 PM PT: Fabiano Caruana vs Hikaru Nakamura
• Saturday 2/3: 4:00 PM PT: Awonder Liang vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (The youngest American GM takes on the world #2)
• Saturday 2/3: 4:30 PM PT: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Fabiano Caruana
• Saturday 2/3: 4:30 PM PT: Vladimir Fedoseev vs Rauf Mamedov (Both are 2700-rated on board two!)
• Saturday 2/3: 5:30 PM PT: Andrew Tang vs Hikaru Nakamura (Battle of the Bullet Phenoms)
• Sunday 2/4: 8:30 AM PT: Georg Meier vs Magnus Carlsen
• Sunday 2/4: 9:30 AM PT: Dmitry Andreikin vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• Sunday 2/4: 11:30 AM PT: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Magnus Carlsen

Magnus is an undefeated 8/8. Can he go undefeated on Sunday against 2600-FIDE-average opposition?

There has never been a day like this in PRO Chess history, with so many of the top players in the world facing off against each other. Unlike normal matches, these matches see all of the first boards play all of the other first boards. Fabiano Caruana is playing eight players with an average FIDE rating of over 2690! The field is so strong that a modest 5/8 is Fabiano's expected score!

Check out all the rules and players here. Look for other news at the PRO Chess League website. Super Saturday begins at 3:00 PM Pacific Time (11:00 PM GMT) and Super Sunday begins at 8:00 AM Pacific Time (4:00 PM GMT).