Join ChessKid And Judit Polgar To Set A World Record!

Young chess fans from all over the world now have a chance to become a world-record holder.

ChessKid and GM Judit Polgar are teaming up to set the all-time record for the world's largest online chess tournament. To achieve this, we need as many kids as possible to participate. You can start by registering your child for the event here.  If your kids are already ChessKid members, just have them log in any day in September to play in at least one of the qualifying events (they've already bee added to the club)!

Once you have an account, this will show you how to sign up for one of the many daily events.

This will be an official Guinness World Record if more than 20,000 individual kids compete. Read this article to find out how kids can join this once-in-a-lifetime event and also have a chance to win prizes, including a lesson with Polgar herself.

Eligibility:

All kids with a ChessKid username are eligible and invited to compete, both basic and gold members. Note that users with adult accounts will not be able to play.

 

 

Format:

The tournament will take place in two stages. First, there will be many qualifiers that are open to all ChessKids. From September 1 to October 5, there will be about 15 qualifiers per day (nearly one every hour!). 

There is no maximum number of players in any qualifier. 

There will be four last-chance "super-qualifiers" on the day of Polgar's Global Chess Festival, which is October 12.

All kids qualifying from one of these many qualifiers will then play a final on October 19 at 8 a.m. Pacific time.

 

How To Play:

A child in the club can then register for a qualifier 15 minutes before a daily September event.

Begin by going into Fast Chess or click on the tournament link on the right side.  

There are quick instructions here.

Remember, if your kids miss an event, there's daily events happening every day in September all the way up to October 5th!

All qualifiers can only be played on the website version of ChessKid and not on the apps (although kids could use a browser on a mobile device to play, and it should work fine on the Chrome or Safari browsers).

How To Qualify For The Finals:

In one of the regular qualifiers from September 1 to October 5, if a child finishes in the top 10 percent at the end of the tournament, then he/she has qualified for the finals. 

If playing in one of the four super-qualifiers on the day of Polgar's Global Chess Festival (October 12), any child finishing with 3.0 points or more will qualify. Hence, many kids may qualify for the finals from these "last-chance" qualifier events.

Qualifier And Finals Format:

All regular qualifiers and the super-qualifiers will be five rounds at a time control of 5+1. Each will last about one hour.

Kids may play in as many qualifiers or super-qualifiers as they wish. Even if they have qualified for the finals, they may continue to play in more qualifier events. They may end up qualifying more than once, but that does not confer any special advantage for the finals. If a child qualifies more than once, we will not extend qualification of that event.

For the finals, the tournament will need to be longer, since there may be more than 2,000 kids competing. ChessKid reserves the right to alter the format, but it will again be played at a time control of 5+1 and it may be 7-11 rounds, with the goal to produce a winner—but also not make the event last too long for kids. The exact format will be announced after all qualifiers have concluded.

Special Guinness Rules:

A child must complete the entire qualifier to be counted as a player for the tournament. 

Kids  should NOT withdraw from any qualifier, even if they aren't doing as well as they would like. Being part of the record is a great reward, but they won't count unless they finish all five rounds. It's good practice to finish any event anyway, and in this one, it's extra important.

If they play more than one qualifier (and we hope they do!) they won't count as more than one player toward the goal of 20,000, but we still want ChessKids to play more chess.

If a kid qualifies for the finals but cannot compete in the finals, that's fine. This event is more about participation and fun, and this will not hurt our chances of setting the record, since they will have already been counted once as a player. The finals don't add to the total players for the event.

Fun Stuff To Win:

Every ChessKid that plays all six rounds of at least one qualifier will be part of the world record attempt and will get a special certificate sent to their ChessKid account.

The certificate will be signed by FunMasterMike and GM Judit Polgar! 

ChessKid will also randomly select one ChessKid per qualifier to get one free year of ChessKid gold membership. To be eligible, they must have played all five rounds of at least one qualifier.

In addition, five kids will be chosen at random to receive a signed copy of Judit Polgar's book, How I Beat Fischer's Record, and one lucky ChessKid will be randomly selected for a private lesson online with Judit!

The top five finishers in the finals will also all receive a signed copy of How I Beat Fischer's Record, and will each get to play one blitz game against Judit and one against FunMasterMike. The winner of the overall finals will also get one free online chess lesson with Judit Polgar.

Even more prizes will be added later by local organizers and sponsors.

Stuff That Needs To Be Said:

ChessKid will use all of its normal fair-play protection measures to ensure that games are played under our site's guidelines. You can read more about them here or watch a fun video on them here.

Any child that is found to have used outside assistance or violated other policies will not be eligible for qualifying to the finals or any other prizes, and will also not have their participation count toward the record. All decisions made by ChessKid on fair-play cases are final.

By participating in the tournament, you are also agreeing that you have your parent or guardian's permission to do so.

Join the fun and the world record club now!

 

 

If you or any of the people undertaking the Record Attempt are under 18 years of age or considered a minor in the jurisdiction of the Record Attempt, you must have your parent or guardian read these Terms and agree on your behalf that your Record Attempt is subject to these Terms.  If you are considered a minor in your jurisdiction at the time you read and accept this document and your parent or legal guardian has not read and accepted this document, or the relevant jurisdiction does not recognize the validity of documents signed by parents or legal guardians on behalf of minors, your Record Attempt will not be recognized by GWR.