The 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship will seed 16 players into an elimination bracket for Chess.com's biggest annual tournament, with the first round of matches starting in May 2017.

UPDATE: Click here for updates and Round 1 schedule of matches!

A total of 15 top-flight matches will be played over the course of five months, with the winner besting a stacked field of super grandmasters through four grueling rounds to be crowned the speed chess champion and take home a large share of the $50,000 prize fund.

The Speed Chess Championship is the next step in Chess.com's mission to promote online professional chess, provide entertaining eSport-style coverage of the game of kings, and return serious financial gains to the world's best players, who will battle from the comfort of their own homes.





GM Magnus Carlsen last October. The event is the evolution of the eight-player 2016 Grandmaster Blitz Battle Championship , which was won by world championlast October.

2016 GM Blitz Battles winner Carlsen.

This year's event promises to capture the attention of the entire chess world, and once again provide personal views of the players during their games, revealing the emotions and excitement of the world's top professional chess players that are rarely seen in over-the-board tournaments.

At least he tried to hide his laughter... 😄 #BlitzBattle pic.twitter.com/kMhlD5XmOm — Dan ( @AntonSquaredMe ) October 27, 2016 Chess.com will continue to update this article as invited players confirm their participation.





Invited players include the world's current top 10 (by classical rating), as well as a host of other super grandmasters to round out the seeded field of 12.



The prizes will be awarded as follows:

Round 1 (16 players, 8 matches): $16,000 . $1,000 to the winner of each match. $1,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.

(16 players, 8 matches): . of each match. between match winner and loser by total win percentage. Round 2 (8 players, 4 matches): $12,000 . $1,500 to the winner of each match. $1,500 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.

(8 players, 4 matches): . of each match. between match winner and loser by total win percentage. Semi-Finals , Round 3 (4 players, 2 matches): $12,000 . $3,000 to winner of each match. $3,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.

, (4 players, 2 matches): . of each match. between match winner and loser by total win percentage. Finals, Round 4 (2 players, 1 match): $10,000. $5,000 to the winner, the title of speed chess champion and a trophy with name engraved. $5,000 split between match winner and loser by total win percentage.

The final four "Qualified" seeds will be the winners of the four Titled Tuesday qualifiers in April.







four qualifying spots in the Speed Chess Championship bracket. Those April Titled Tuesdays will feature an increased prize pool, a new time slot, live master commentary, and the ultimate prize:

The Speed Chess Championship will run April-December, with the full schedule to be released at a later date on Chess.com/News.