Magnus Carlsen
Chess.com has announced Speed Chess Championship XI, the tenth-anniversary edition of its flagship online event. It starts in November with a $250,000 prize fund, and the live finals take place at 180 Studios in London from February 5 to 7, 2027.
The first edition, in 2016, offered $40,000. The prize fund is now more than six times that.
A two-man title history
In all ten editions, only two players have won. Magnus Carlsen took the first two. Hikaru Nakamura then held the title from 2018 to 2022, his last win coming in a Final against Carlsen.
Carlsen reclaimed it in 2023 and won again in 2024 and 2025. That leaves both men on five titles, and both are returning this year.
Chess.com says they are likely to meet again. That is a reasonable expectation, but a knockout of 16 players gives plenty of room for upsets, and each match is short enough for one bad bullet section to end a run.
The challengers
Two of the people who have beaten Nakamura in an SCC match are in the field: Alireza Firouzja and Denis Lazavik. Carlsen is the only other player to have done it, and he has stood in both their way: he beat Lazavik in the 2025 Semifinal and Firouzja in the Final in both 2024 and 2025.
Hans Niemann, the 2024 finalist, is also entered. So are Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Nihal Sarin and Turkish GM Yagiz Erdogmus.
The field also includes Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Dmitry Andreikin, 16-year-old Sina Movahed and Vladislav Artemiev.
The new name is Javokhir Sindarov, making his SCC debut. He is the current World Championship challenger and, per Chess.com, has risen to world number four this year.
His recent form in faster formats is worth a look, as with his Clutch Chess win after erasing a 2½-point gap. Whether that carries over to a bullet section against Nakamura is the open question.
Format and what is at stake
The format is unchanged: a 16-player knockout in which every match has two blitz sections and one bullet section. Anyone who has watched Nakamura or Carlsen in bullet will see why that structure suits them.
There is also a ranking prize. Winning the SCC earns 150 Champions Chess Tour Leaderboard points, a large advantage for anyone chasing one of the 12 Esports World Cup spots that come from the tour.
Chess.com calls the SCC its most prestigious event, and it says the live final in London is meant to be a spectacle with a crowd. The venue has history of its own: it is where Carlsen beat Firouzja to win his fifth title.
Original source: Chess.com
Noticed an error in the article? Report it from here.
