Calling All Speedsters For ChessKid North American Bullet Championships!

Do you feel the need for speed? Do you wanna go fast?! Then the ChessKid North American Bullet Chess Championships are for you! 

ChessKid is excited to announce our first-ever super fast chess event. On Saturday, September 25th at 12pm EST/9am PT, the ChessKid North American Bullet Championships will take place and be open to all scholastic players K-12 in North America (Including the US, Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean nations).

This is the one time FunMasterMike wants you to speed up and not slow down! Although ChessKid is usually a place for teaching how to think deeply and carefully, we recognize that every once in a while we need to let our hair down and just let ChessKids be ChessKids. We are making the time control 2+1 and not 1+0 to be make things a little less crazy :-) Any faster would be just a little too random and would't allow for fun commentary!

Tournament Details

When: Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific for K-3 and 4th-5th sections; 3pm Eastern/12pm Pacific for 6th-8th and 9th-12th sections.

Entry Fee: $25 early entry by September 7; $35 by September 21. No entries accepted after September 21. Note -- in order to play in the warm up events, you MUST register by the early deadline of September 10 (and for this event the warmups will be VERY important!).

Time Control: All sections will play G2+1 (two minutes per game with a one-second increment per move). There will be a total of fifteen rounds and each round will have a one minute break prior to the next round.

Special Prizes

The top ten players in each section get a special invite to an exclusive GM-led mini-camp. In addition, the top player in each section will get to play a streamed match with one of our top ChessKid's such as Brewmaster, Alice, Shreyas, or Tani!

Registration Information

• Registration will take place here
• The early registration fee will be $25 USD if received on or before September 7 by 11:59 pm Pacific time. 
• Registration from September 8-21, 2021 will be $35 USD. There will be no registrations accepted after 11:59 pm Pacific time on September 21. 
• ChessKid will create a unique username for use in this event. 
• Everyone who registers by the early registration date of September 7 will be receive their username by Friday, September 10 and will be able to participate in the warm up events.
• Everyone who registers after September 21 will receive their username in time to play in the main event on Saturday, September 25.

Benefits of Registering Early

• Everyone who registers by the early registration date of September 7 will be invited to a FREE pre-tournament camp that will be live streamed just for the competitors. If you do not register by September 7, you will not be able to attend this special event.
• Early registrants will be eligible to play in warm-up events on ChessKid. We will hold two warm-up events-- one on September 11 and one on September 18. Both warm up events will take place at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific.
• Registering before September 7 will mean you pay less for your registration fee!

Thanks an let's have some fun with this one. This pieces will be flying!

 

 

Fair Play

ChessKid expects that all children and their families will abide by the rules governing fair play. Both the child and the parent/guardian will have to agree to our fair play policies when registering for the event.

This is what will be agreed to upon registering for the event:

• ChessKid will run this event with the highest level of integrity and ethics. All players must play fairly and use good sportsmanship.
• We strictly forbid cheating of all kinds. ChessKid will use its own algorithms to monitor games and also will manually analyze select games at its discretion.
• All of your moves must be your own. You will not get help from anyone or anything else, including coaches, friends, parents, chess engines, or any other software of any kind.
• You will also not have a phone, tablet, or any other electronic device in the same room.
• You are only allowed to have one browser tab open and no other programs running on your computer. Violating this rule is a “technical forfeiture” and you will be disqualified, with no chance at prizes.
• You agree that ChessKid will make the final determination on any fair play issue.
• If you violate the ChessKid Fair Play Policy, then ChessKid will close your account and label it as having violated the Fair Play Policy.
• If you are not willing to agree to the above policies, you will not be allowed to play in the event.

Technical Details

• All games will be played on ChessKid.com's live server. No account is needed and if you already have an account, you won't need that either. Special one-time use tournament accounts will be created for all players.
• Each section will be open for kids to 'join' the tournament about 30 minutes before the first round. Here's a video on how a child joins a live tournament on ChessKid. If you try to join after the starting time, you may not be able to play. It is required that you 'join' before the tournament starting time.
• ChessKid highly encourages playing on a laptop/desktop computer and not a tablet. Wifi is usually stronger and the site functions better. If you can plug in to an ethernet port, that is best. The reality of online play, even with the world champion, is that Wifi failures can impact an online tournament.
• If you must play on a tablet, the web site version is the only way (opening a browser on your device). The app will not work for this.
• Preferred browsers are Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• Clearing your browser's cache before the tournament is another great protective measure.
• If you experience issues in the middle of the game or the tournament, clicking 'refresh' on your browser is the first thing to do. If you 'refresh' in the middle of a game, it will never kick you out of the game and can only help.
• Two kids cannot play at the same time on the same device.
• If a family has any issues with logging in, playing, etc, there will be a live help desk on Slack that will open one hour before the first round.

For any questions about the event, please email [email protected]