The PRO Chess League (PCL) returns on February 1 with a $110,000 prize fund. Don’t miss your favourite gamers like GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura—each confirmed!—in motion on this long-running group fast occasion. The qualifier begins on February 1, the Main Event on February 14, the playoffs on March 28, and the finals can be on May 11-14.

Announced final October, the brand new season of the PCL is shaping as much as be probably the most entertaining but, bringing star-studded rosters and a brand new elimination format into the chess increase. High stakes, nice chess, and enjoyable broadcasts and clips are all in retailer within the first full PCL season since 2020.

From 2017-19, the PRO Chess League rapidly turned the premier group occasion in on-line chess with gamers like Carlsen and Nakamura taking part within the very first 12 months, joined later by different stars like world championship challengers GMs Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi. The 2023 version will proceed to characteristic high grandmasters main balanced rosters of different high gamers, bringing in a jam-packed Chess.com calendar for 2023.

15 of the 16 groups with captains from everywhere in the world have been invited out of dozens of functions. Some of your favourite groups from PCL’s previous are returning just like the Gotham Knights, the ChessBrahs, the Indian Yogis, and the St. Louis Arch Bishops. 

Hikaru himself is taking part in for the Knights, together with GMs Le Quang Liem and Vladimir Fedoseev. Caruana returns this 12 months because the Arch Bishops’ high participant.

Other thrilling groups embody the Shanghai Tigers that includes ladies’s world champion GM Ju Wenjun and tremendous GM Wei Yi. Commentator extraordinaire GM Daniel Naroditsky can be taking part in for the Charlotte Cobras, in addition to eight-time U.S. ladies’s champion GM Irina Krush. And FM James Canty III captains the Garden State Passers, joined by fellow streaming star GM Baadur Jobava in addition to super-GM Sam Sevian.

As for the sixteenth group? The Qualifier from February 1-2 will resolve! Players will individually contest a nine-round Swiss match, and the 4 groups with the very best cumulative scores will play a group knockout match to find out the ultimate group for the primary occasion. Click this hyperlink to use for the qualifiers.

After that, the Main Event begins and can run for 5 weeks. The stakes can be vital from the get-go as two groups can be eradicated as early as week three. By the tip of 5 weeks, eight groups can be eradicated, and eight will transfer on to the playoffs.

Teams can be competitively balanced by ranking, and ladies and juniors can be represented on all squads. Whoever your favourite group or participant is, followers can have somebody to root for.

The playoffs will contain all-play-all matches of 16 video games whole and after the web quarterfinals, the semis and the finals can be performed in May at a location to be decided.

Over $100,000 of the prize fund can be awarded for the Main Event, distributed as follows:

Arena Royale additionally returns this season on March 24. Every participant on the PCL roster from each energetic and eradicated groups will have the ability to take part on this blitz occasion.

Full guidelines and laws right here.

Who are you most excited to see in motion within the 2023 PRO Chess League? Let us know within the feedback!