16 November 2022

Chess.com Global Championship

Earlier this year I wrote a post titled It's Not an April Fool's Joke (April 2022). It was about two events that were announced around the same time:-
  • 'The $1,000,000 Chess.com World Championship'
  • 'The Lichess World Championship'

I asked and answered,

Are these real World Chess Championships? In my opinion, no, they aren't, but I'm just one voice in the court of public opinion that decides such matters. I think they're more like site championships. I'll come back to the subject if public opinion eventually disagrees with me.

The Chess.com event quickly changed its name:-

The results are scattered across many Chess.com pages:-

That 'All The Information' page informed,

GM Wesley So won the inaugural Chess.com Global Championship in November 2022. This event was the first Chess.com championship with a cycle open to all of our verified players. Players competed in official Chess.com verified events for their share of the $1,000,000 prize fund and the Chess.com Global Champion title.

As for the Lichess version, Announcing the Lichess World Championship (lichess.org/forum), it looks like it was intended as a joke. Lichess can sometimes become very strange.

No comments: