Team Chess Battle 2: Official Discussion Thread

Chess.com is excited to announce the second edition of Team Chess Battle. Starting on October 7, the banter-fueled event will feature a $10,000 prize fund and some of the biggest celebrities in chess.

The event continues with its entertaining format, where teams of two play the same game and can talk to each other. The format allows fans to get a unique insight into the thought process of the greats—and enjoy top-tier trash talk, too.

Duos will battle each other in a single-elimination bracket of two-game matches with a rapid time control until they reach the finals, when two teams will compete in a best-of-four match for the $3,500 cash prize and, most importantly, bragging rights.

You can watch live at ChessTV, Twitch and YouTube.
Find all relevant links below and use the comments for discussion on the event.

• Chess.com Announcement - Official Team Chess Battle 2 Announcement.
• Chess.com Events Page - Full info with Schedule, Format, Players, Games, Prizes, and more.

bonkers

A lot more even teams this time, with the exception of the Cramlings and Rosen/Nemo.

I love that. It becomes more about two players combining their strengths, complementing and checking each other, rather than one Super GM convincing a much lower-rated player what the best move is.

And Super GMs are great, but two IMs figuring out a position by move 10 is much more educational than a Super GM who is mainly considering which of the five different novelties in this variation he wants to reveal.

My prediction:

1. GM Pepe Cuenca / IM David Martinez. I know nothing about them, but they seem to be the clear rating favorites.
2. IM Sagar Shah / IM Tania Sachdev. Tania comes fresh from the Olympiad, should be extremely on top of her game.
3. IM Levy Rozman / FM James Canty. Both are actively aiming for a title. Probably the only ones in the field who would do opening prep & coordination beforehand. Chess-wise, clearly a bit weaker than many other entries, but they'll be focused in the competition.
4. IM Alice Lee / FM Mike Klein. Alice had an excellent performance at the Olympiad, should be in great form. Funmaster Mike will error-check and ask all the right questions.
5. GM Pia Cramling / WFM Anna Cramling. Pia is one of the strongest players in this tournament, and both have played in the Olympiad. They have excellent chemistry and experience playing together, but I think Pia will be too friendly to quickly shoot down Anna's ideas, whereas a team like Rozman/Canty will constantly try to disprove all bad ideas and eliminate them as soon as possible.
6. IM Kostya Kavutzky / IM David Pruess. The ChessDojo team would be higher-seeded with a longer time control. In 15+10, they will discuss too much about all kinds of random things.
7. IM Danny Rensch / IM John Batholomew. The faces of chess.com and Chessable are both inactive players. They commented on the Olympiad rather than playing in it.
8. IM Eric Rosen / WGM Nemo Zhou. Eric is a trickster and has loads of experience in unusual game modes. But against two players, tricks are only half as likely to work. Nemo has lost against Anna lately, and doesn't seem to be the type to prepare a lot for these events. Similar to Pia, Eric may be too nice to quickly shoot down bad ideas.

What do you think?

👍

@R_Doofus the absolute best and unparalleled insightful input I've read in quite a while!

Extremely happy to have you here sharing such an amazing, history-packed prediction.

This is one hundred percent what our discussions should look like, and although I was certainly a fan of your posts before, now I feel it even more. Thank you so much! (will share my personal input soon too)