Speed Chess Championship Celebrates 10 Years
By Cameron W. · Sat, 07 Nov 2026
The Speed Chess Championship marks ten years with a $250,000 edition and live finals in London in February. Firouzja has already qualified.
When the first Speed Chess Championship final was played on October 27, 2016, the prize fund was $40,000 and the event still went by the name Grandmaster Blitz Battle Championship. A decade later, the tournament has a fresh edition, a $250,000 prize fund and a live finale waiting in London. Chess.com announced Speed Chess Championship XI on November 3, describing it as marking ten years since that first event.
What was announced
According to Chess.com, the event starts in November and ends with live finals in London from February 5 to 7, 2027, at 180 Studios. The format is a 16-player knockout, and each match has two blitz sections and one bullet section. The prize fund is $250,000, the same figure as last year's edition, according to Chess.com's report on the previous finals, with up to 150 Champions Chess Tour leaderboard points on offer. Chess.com also presents the championship as a path to the Esports World Cup.
Michael Brancato, Chess.com's Events Commissioner, called SCC XI "a celebration of all those moments" from the past decade, in the announcement's words.
Not quite a new venue
It is tempting to describe the London finals as a departure from the usual studio set-up, but the record is more nuanced. London also hosted last season's live finals on February 7 and 8, 2026, when Magnus Carlsen beat Alireza Firouzja 15-12 for his fifth Speed Chess title, according to ChessBase and Chess.com. The year before, according to ChessBase, the live finals were in Paris. So the anniversary edition is a return to London, with one notable change: the live finals now run for three days, a day longer than last year's.
Firouzja is in
The field is still being finalized, and Tuesday's Titled Tuesday was part of that. Firouzja won it outright with an undefeated 10/11, took $2,500 and qualified for SCC XI, Chess.com reports. He moved to second place in the Champions Chess Tour standings with 21 points. The top eight in those standings qualify. Hikaru Nakamura, Hans Niemann, Sina Movahed, Dmitry Andreikin, Wesley So, Denis Lazavik and Vladislav Artemiev are named alongside him.
The announcement lists 15 of the 16 names: Carlsen, Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Firouzja, Lazavik, Javokhir Sindarov, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Nihal Sarin, Yagiz Erdogmus, So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Niemann, Andreikin, Movahed and Artemiev. Sindarov is making his SCC debut. Caruana finished fourth at Tuesday's Titled Tuesday and is listed as not having qualified through it, yet he appears in the announced field. The announcement does not say how the field was chosen, so that point is worth clarifying with Chess.com.
A rivalry across a decade
The championship's history is dominated by two names. Wikipedia lists Carlsen as the winner in 2016, 2017, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and Nakamura as the winner every year from 2018 to 2022. Firouzja has been the runner-up in each of the last two finals, and he now gets another chance to turn that around.
Ten years is a long time for an online format, and the numbers tell the story: a prize fund that has grown more than six times, and finals that have moved from a screen to a stage. With Carlsen back among the favorites, the anniversary edition has all the ingredients for a good show.
Sources
- Chess.com, "Speed Chess Championship XI Announced: Prize Fund, Dates" (Nov 3, 2026)
- Chess.com, "Firouzja Wins Titled Tuesday, Qualifies for SCC" (Nov 4, 2026)
- Chess.com, "Carlsen Defends 5th SCC Title, Lazavik Upsets Nakamura"
- ChessBase, "Carlsen beats Firouzja, claims fifth Speed Chess Championship title"
- Tournaments.com, "Speed Chess Championship Finals Set for London Showdown as Carlsen Defends Crown Against Elite Field"
- Wikipedia, "Speed Chess Championship"
