Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss
Chess.com announces the Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss, a two-day qualification event from which one player will qualify for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Knockout Final. It will run October 3-4, 2020 and has a $15,000 prize fund.
How to play?
If you're a titled player, you can join the tournament in here Live Chess on Saturday within one hour before the start at 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 21:00 Central Europe. Click on "tournaments" in the top-right corner and then "join."
How to watch?
Tune in at Chess.com/tv on Saturday and Sunday at 12:00 Pacific / 21:00 Central Europe for commentary with GM Maurice Ashley and IM Danny Rensch.
Format
The Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss will start with a 15-round Swiss on Saturday, October 3 at 12:00 Pacific / 21:00 CEST which is open to every titled player. The time control is three minutes, without increment. In order to ensure fair play, 10-minute breaks will be held after rounds three, six, nine, and 12.
The top 16 finishing players will move to a knockout tournament on Sunday, October 4 at 12:00 Pacific / 21:00 CEST, from which the eventual winner will qualify directly into the Speed Chess Championship.
In Sunday's round of 16, the players will play two 5+1 games, two 3+1 games, and five 1+1 games. Both the quarterfinals and semifinals consist of two 5+1 games, three 3+1 games, and six 1+1 games. In the final, there will be two 5+1 games, four 3+1 games, and eight 1+1 games.
The tiebreaker in each round is a single armageddon game with five minutes for White and four mins for Black (who has draw odds) with the higher seed choosing the color.
Prizes
The total prize fund is $15,000 with $3,500 going to the winner. There are prizes for all 16 players who reach the knockout and also $250 for the top female player and a $250 streamers prize. The top woman's prize and the best streamer's prizes are chosen and awarded after the Swiss part on Saturday ends.
Super Swiss | Prizes
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
| 1 | $3,750 | 10 | $300 |
| 2 | $2,750 | 11 | $300 |
| 3 | $1,150 | 12 | $300 |
| 4 | $1,150 | 13 | $300 |
| 5 | $825 | 14 | $300 |
| 6 | $825 | 15 | $300 |
| 7 | $825 | 16 | $300 |
| 8 | $825 | Top woman | $250 |
| 9 | $300 | Best streamer | $250 |
What's at stake?
Besides the $3,500 first prize, the players will be fighting for a spot in the prestigious Speed Chess Championship, Chess.com's flagship event that will run once again in October with world-class players fighting for a $100,000 prize fund. One of the participants will be known on Sunday: the winner of the Super Swiss.
The dates for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship will be announced soon. Besides the winner of the Super Swiss and a number of invited players, four spots will go to the best performing players in the Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix. The current standings in that event are as follows.
Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix | Standings After September 22 (Top 10)
| # | Title | Fed | Name | Username | Swiss Points |
Bonus Points |
Overall Points |
| 1 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura* | @Hikaru | 69 | 56 | 125 | |
| 2 | GM | Vladislav Artemiev | @Sibelephant | 58.5 | 38 | 96.5 | |
| 3 | GM | Parham Maghsoodloo | @Parhamov | 68 | 24 | 92 | |
| 4 | GM | Haik Martirosyan | @Micki-taryan | 59.5 | 28 | 87.5 | |
| 5 | GM | Vladimir Fedoseev | @Bigfish1995 | 58 | 28 | 86 | |
| 6 | GM | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | @ChessWarrior7197 | 67.5 | 16 | 83.5 | |
| 7 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | @Firouzja2003 | 65 | 14 | 79 | |
| 8 | GM | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | @LyonBeast | 49 | 28 | 77 | |
| 9 | IM | Le Tuan Minh | @wonderfultime | 66.5 | 10 | 76.5 | |
| 10 | GM | Maksim Chigaev | @Fandorine | 64 | 12 | 76 |
*Note that Nakamura is already seeded into the Speed Chess Championship.
Who will play?
A lot of the regular participants in the weekly Speed Chess Championship Grand Prix tournaments on Tuesdays can be expected to participate in this weekend's Super Swiss—such as GM Vladislav Artemiev, Alireza Firouzja, and even GM Hikaru Nakamura himself.
Although they are not currently in the top 10 as given above, top grandmasters such as GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Anish Giri, GM Alexander Grischuk, GM Sergey Karjakin, GM Peter Svidler, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and top female players like GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and GM Kateryna Lagno could be playing this weekend as well.
