2nd Annual ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship

Palo Alto, Calif., April 19, 2021—ChessKid.com is proud to announce the second-annual ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship for Summer, 2021. Like its sister events the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship and Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship, the event will feature a series of one-on-one matches but the field will be comprised of the top youth players in the world aged 10 and under.

The total prize fund is $5000 and the winner will also receive private lessons with a 2700-rated GM (to be determined later, depending on the language preference of the winning child).

Returning this year will also be defending champion, NM Ryo Chen, who still meets the age restriction (players must be aged 10 or under as of January 1, 2021).

The championship will have eight of the top young prodigies in the world. Like its forebears, the ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship will have participants face off in a cycle of blitz chess. Matches will be two hours long and will be decided by 5+1 and 3+1 time controls.

Quarterfinals will take place July 17-18, 2021. The semifinals will be July 24-25, 2021 and the finals will be the weekend of July 31. Exact match times will be determined based on the schedules of the youths.

Here are the eight confirmed players. Ages are as of January 1, 2021 and ratings are based on the March FIDE and US Chess ratings lists. For international players, only the FIDE rating is used for seeding. For U.S. players, an average of FIDE and US Chess ratings is used.

NM Ryo Chen, USA (10 years old, 2223)
CM Ilan Schnaider, Argentina (9 years old, 2080)
CM Lev Zverev, Russia (10 years old, 2023)
Peter Balint, Austria (10 years old, 1978)
Tani Adewumi, USA (10 years old, 1972)
Jaime Rey Martinez, Spain (10 years old, 1910)
CM Wiktoria Smietanska, Poland (10 years old, 1855)
WCM Omya Vidyarthi, USA (10 years old, 1850)

All matches will be broadcast on Chess.com/TV with ChessKid's own FunMasterMike as one of the scheduled commentators.

NM Ryo Chen defeated FM Marco Materia in last year's final, and received lessons with GM Leinier Dominguez as one of his prizes. The full 2020 finals video can be replayed here.

Each match will have the following rules and format:

Each player must maintain his/her own connection to the ChessKid.com live site and webcam for the broadcast. There are also no "takebacks" for any kind of mouseslip.
All usual Chess.com/ChessKid.com fair play measures will be in place.
The winner of each match advances to the next round.
The first 75 minutes will be 5+1 and the final 45 minutes will be 3+1.
If match is tied after the last 3+1 game, players will keep playing 3+1 until there is a winner. There is no color equalization requirement (the match could end after the first tiebreak game). Whichever player did not pick the color in the first game of the match gets to pick their starting color in game one of the tiebreak.

The Junior Speed Chess Championship offers the following prizes:

Round 1 (Quarterfinals): 8 players, 4 matches, $2000 prize pool.

Winner: $300 and advance to round 2
Other player: $200.
Total prizes per match: $500

Round 2 (Semifinals): 4 players, 3 matches, $1500 prize pool.

Winner: $500 and advance to round 3
Other player: $250
Total prizes per match: $750

Round 3 (Finals): 2 players, 1 matches, $1500 prize pool

Winner: $1000+lessons with a top-20 player
Runner-up: $500
Total prize: $1500

About ChessKid.com:
ChessKid.com is the world’s largest scholastic chess site, with more than one million kids playing fast chess, doing puzzles, watching videos, and challenging the bots. ChessKid's number one priority is safety. The site also partners with coaches, schools, organizations, and districts around the world to offer a fun learning environment. A special 30-week online curriculum that fosters necessary critical-thinking skills is available to all educators to help allow chess to be taught as an educational subject.

Contact:

FM Mike Klein
ChessKid.com Chief Chess Officer
[email protected]

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