5 Reasons To Watch The Chess.com Global Championship Finals
The Chess.com Global Championship, the biggest Chess.com event of the year, is about to reach its thrilling conclusion on November 2-7.
Eight players still have their chance at becoming a global champion. Already $500,000 has been won by our players, while the remaining eight players are set to share another half-million as they meet live on-site in Toronto, Canada and in Belgrade, Serbia. The live locations mean that the games will all be FIDE-rated in rapid as well.
The quarterfinals will feature four highly-anticipated matchups: GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM Wesley So vs. GM Dmitry Andreikin, GM Anish Giri vs. GM Teimour Radjabov, and GM Nihal Sarin vs. GM Sam Sevian (replacing GM Levon Aronian). If that stacked lineup isn't enough to get you to watch, try these reasons:
Live Show
There's just something different about a live show compared to online. It's why people go to concerts, sporting events, and more. And it's just one reason why you should watch the Chess.com Global Championship.
The last time we did something like this was in 2019 for the PRO Chess League, and the resulting images were often indelible for the tension they reflected.
While the CGC is not a team event, there will still be plenty of emotions as always in top-level chess. Part of the reason? The prizes.
Big Money
The CGC runner-up will receive $100,000 while the victor will win $200,000. Yes, there are two six-figure prizes at stake. And it's the biggest prize for first place in a single tournament in five years, when GM Magnus Carlsen won $250,000 at the 2017 World Blitz Championship.
This year, the biggest individual, single-tournament prize someone has won is about $120,000 (GM Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Candidates). A pretty good payday, but that's barely more than what second place will earn at the CGC Finals.
Do you think you know who will win that cash? If the CGC has taught us anything so far, don't be too confident.
More Upsets
The CGC has already seen plenty of upsets. GM Pavel Ponkratov defeated former world champion GM Viswanathan Anand and reigning rapid champion GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the first two rounds. Also in the second round, GM Sam Sevian defeated GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
And in the just-completed third round, we saw the three most recent FIDE World Championship challengers in GMs Fabiano Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, and Ding Liren all get eliminated (by Andreikin, Radjabov, and Nihal, respectively).
Does Duda have what it takes to take out Nakamura? How much further can surprise quarterfinalists Nihal, Radjabov and Sevian go? There's only one way to find out!
Candidates
If all those upsets lead you to doubt just how strong the remaining field is, have we got news for you: All seven players who are over the age of 20 have played in at least one FIDE Candidates tournament, one step from playing for the FIDE World Championship.
Or at least did, before Aronian had to withdraw for personal reasons. But still, six former Candidates is pretty good.
The Candidates tournaments that the field participated in were:
- Radjabov 3x: 2011, 13, 22
- Nakamura 2x: 2016, 22
- Giri 2x: 2016, 20/21
- Duda: 2022
- So: 2018
- Andreikin: 2014
As strong as they are, none have ever won the Candidates Tournament—so winning the CGC would arguably be the biggest tournament victory of their careers so far. Of course, who that lucky player will be is as yet unknown. This leaves us with one more question.
Who Will Be The First Chess.com Global Champion?
We've had the Speed Chess Championship for years, and earlier this year introduced the Rapid Chess Championship. But the Global Chess Championship is objectively our biggest event ever, in terms of both prizes ($1,000,000) and eligible players (anyone with a verified account).
And so this title will mean more than any other we've ever offered. Who will claim it? We're about to find out.
What are you most looking forward to about the CGC Finals? Who do you think will win it all? Let us know in the comments!
