Chess.com announced today the return of its official Crazyhouse Championship this month with a total prize pool of $2,000. The championship will feature a week of qualifiers and a live-streamed final tournament to crown the crazyhouse champion.

UPDATE: CLICK HERE FOR THE NEXT QUALIFIER!

Chess.com will host the main event on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. Pacific, which will be broadcast live on Twitch.tv/Chess and Chess.com/TV with commentators GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Daniel Rensch.

Ten qualifying tournaments will lead into the championship, held twice per day from Feb.12–16 at 10 a.m and 5 p.m. Pacific time. The top 10 scorers among previously unqualified players will advance to the championship from each qualifier, with 100 players total moving on to the main championship on Feb. 22.

Any Chess.com member can enter the qualifiers, and all players must qualify by placing in one of the 10 qualifying tournaments to make the championship. Players who have won a prior qualifying spot may participate in future qualifiers, but can only qualify for the championship once. If they place in the top 10, their spot will be passed to the next person in line based on Chess.com's tiebreak system.

Players must join the official crazyhouse club to participate in the qualifiers. You must be a member of the club before you will be allowed to join any qualifier tournament.

This is the second edition of the Chess.com Crazyhouse Championship. FM Dan Yeager and Justin Tan won the inaugural championship in December 2016.

Crazyhouse is a chess variant where players may drop captured pieces onto empty squares in addition to playing normally. It is often thought of as a two-player version of bughouse chess.

Want some tips on how to play and win crazyhouse? See our article here.

Qualifier format and schedule:

We will run 10 qualifying tournaments: two per day Feb.12–16 at 10 a.m and 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Qualifying tournaments will be seven rounds of 3/0 crazyhouse.

The top 10 players in each event (except those who have previously qualified) will be invited to play in the Chess.com Crazyhouse Championship on Feb. 22.

Qualifiers will be invited to a private club and must join to compete in the finals.

Qualifiers are open to all, and players may participate in as many qualifiers as they wish.

Participants must be a member of the official crazyhouse club to play.

Championship format and schedule:

Feb. 22, 10 a.m. PST

15 rounds Swiss

100 players maximum

Three minutes with a zero-second increment

Registration (open to those who qualified) begins one hour before the event, at 9 a.m. PST.

Chess.com/tv hosted by GM Yasser Seirawan and IM Daniel Rensch Live commentary onhosted by

Prizes:

Championship places:

1. $500

2. $400

3. $300

4. $200

5. $100

Most-viewed stream prizes (prizes for those who stream championship):

1. $100

2. $75

3. $50

Other stream prizes (prizes for those who stream championship):



Most followers gained mid-stream: $75

Chess.com staff-voted best stream: $100

Fan-voted best stream (10 streams nominated by Chess.com with a 72-hour vote after event): $100

All prizes will be subject to verification by the Chess.com fair-play system.

Remember to join the official crazyhouse club to participate in the qualifiers beginning Feb. 12.