IM Niccolo Ronchetti Wins 2014 World Mind Games

Chess.com hosted the 2014 World Mind Games Online Tournament from September 15 to November 18, and it was the largest tournament in Chess.com history.

Nearly 3,000 total participants gathered here on Chess.com to compete in the games. Two months, four rounds of play, and more than 10,000 total games later, our two finalists were determined!

International masters Niccolo Ronchetti (GNABURITS -- username) and Alexander Katz (CryptoChess -- username) played the final four-game match to decide first place, and it concluded just a few days ago.

IM Ronchetti scored a 3-1 match victory over IM Katz, taking home the first prize of $1,500.00 and the title of World Mind Games Online Champion!

The event itself, organized by SportAccord, was the first online tournament of its kind.

The "over the board" Mind Games competition is held annually in Beijing, but the sponsoring organizations had never before attempted to bring the world's amateur chess enthusiasts together online for a chance to compete against others from around the world to win prizes of great magnitude.

The official release of this tournament and its rules can be found here, but here's a quick summary of the format:

• Three rounds of qualifiers, one final match
• Round one: For a month, players competed in an unlimited number of events in Chess.com's Live Arena in an effort to place in one of the top two spots and move onto the second round of play (over 250 members moved onto round two)
• Round two: Winners from round one competed in events over a two-week period, again attempting to qualify for the next "prize round." (26 members moved on to round three.)
• Round three: The remaining 26 players competed against one another over a period of 10 days, attempting to win as many events as they could to determine not only the top two finalists, but the top nine overall, who would all earn prizes.

Quite the grueling event!

In addition to our two finalists, many of Chess.com's top titled players competed in at least the first couple of rounds, including GM Robert Hess, IM Danny Rensch, IM Alexander Matros, IM Andrew Tang, CM Junior Tay and more!

Full reviews of each of the final match games can be found at CM Junior Tay's blog!

Here's his take on games three and four, which ultimately decided the match and our overall Mind Games champion.

Game three:

Game four:

The winners, listed by confirmed FIDE title, Chess.com username, their prizes and their total points scored in the third round of play:

Who else competed and came close to winning prizes?

Full results for the winners from round one is here, while results for the winners of round two can be found here.

SportAccord's General Director, Vlad Marinescu, said:

“It has been valuable for SportAccord to associate with Chess.com for this year’s online chess tournament as it allowed the event to reach newer participants across the world. We are appreciative of the cooperation extended towards the online tournament for it to be branded a success and look forward to carrying this spirit of collaboration into the World Mind Games 2014 in December, where the leading practitioners of chess should serve to inspire all those who took part in the online tournament.”

The main event in Beijing and its complete list of players can be found here.

To say the event is "headlined" by any top GM would be an injustice to the all-star list of athletes set to compete, but to name a few: making the trip to China will be GMs Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk, Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk.

Full coverage of the chess games will be embedded via a live feed to Chess.com/TV.

As we look forward to the main event, we have one more fun contest for all our members to participate in, courtesy of our friends at SportAccord!

Full details of the competition can be viewed here, but simply put, take a great photo, be creative, post to Instagram and win prizes!

On behalf of Chess.com, our entire staff and the SportAccord team, we'd like to thank all those who competed in the first-ever World Mind Games Online Tournament, and we look forward to future events of this caliber on our site.