It is with great excitement that Chess.com announces the return of one of the most highly-anticipated online chess events in the world: The Speed Chess Championship is back for 2021! This four-month extravaganza will begin on September 18 and conclude on December 19. Up for grabs are $165,000 in prizes and the opportunity for one chess star to earn the coveted crown of the world’s greatest speed chess player.

The 2021 Speed Chess Championship begins with the Grand Prix, four weekly tournaments starting September 18 with a total prize fund of $40,000. Only the most consistently strong player across all four tournaments will be declared the winner and earn a spot in the main event.

After that, the Speed Chess Championship Super Swiss runs October 16-17 with a prize fund of $25,000. An epic 15-round tournament will be followed by a 16-player knockout and again, only one victor will emerge and join the main event field.

Then comes the big daddy of them all, the star-studded Main Event beginning on November 12. The individual winners of the Grand Prix and Super Swiss, as well as of the Junior Speed Chess Championship and Bullet Chess Championship, join 12 invitees to fight for a $100,000 prize fund and the speed chess crown.

The young talent GM Alireza Firouzja has already qualified after his impressive run at the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship. Firouzja guaranteed his spot in the main event after beating the toughest competition, including strong bullet legends like GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Andrew Tang. With such an impressive performance recently, no one can tell what the young speed demon will pull off during this next event.

Nakamura is another player who has a spot with his name on it for the main event of the 2021 Speed Chess Championship. Famous for his beyond-human ability in fast time controls, Nakamura beat none other than GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to take first place during last year’s event.

After breaking concurrent viewership records across different platforms last year, the Speed Chess Championship promises to be one of the biggest online events of the year. Don’t forget to tune in to Chess.TV or to our Twitch and YouTube channels so you don’t miss a single second of this action-packed event!

Who will you be rooting for in the 2021 SCC? Let us know in the comments below!