ST LOUIS (USA): World No.1 Grandmaster (GM) Magnus Carlsen, reigning champion GM Hikaru Nakamura, and the young hotshot GM Alireza Firouzja, widely considered the strongest bullet players on the planet, will line up for the main competition of the online Bullet Chess Championship to be held from July 17-21.
These three along with a star-studded posse of the fastest gunslingers in the game will be in action in this year's 1-minute chess tournament, making it the strongest lineup for the shortest version of chess. The event has a total prize pool of $100,000.
Carlsen, Nakamura and Firouzja are the strongest players in this category and this will be the first time that all three are playing in this event together. Also getting a direct entry into the main tournament is GM Andrew Tang, the brilliant 23-year-old bullet chess specialist from Illinois, USA. Tang will be gunning for revenge over Nakamura, who defeated him 11-8 in a thrilling final last year.
Another big contender on the roster is GM Daniel Naroditsky, who warmed up for the event by putting in an electric performance to win his first Bullet Brawl on Saturday ahead of Carlsen and Nakamura. The 2023 Bullet Chess Championship will be further intensified with the presence of GMs Anish Giri and Eric Hansen, the organisers Chess.com informed in a release on Monday.
Three qualifiers open to all titled players will be held this week with with six places in the main event up for grabs. The qualifiers will be played on Thursday (July 6), and two on Friday (July 7).
In the main event, 16 players in total will compete in a double-elimination bracket with the winner taking home $20,000.
All games are 1-minute duration with no added time, and matches could be 30 minutes long with a break at the 15-minute mark. In the event of a tie, players continue to play, alternating colours, until a player wins a game.