Chess.com is excited to announce the upcoming CryptoChamps tournament powered by Coinbase, an event featuring star personalities from the world of cryptocurrencies. The event will happen on June 12 and 13, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/19:00 CEST. The total prize fund will be $25,000 and participants will get to choose their preferred charity institution to donate the money to.
Players
Among the confirmed participants is the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Morey, “The Pomp Podcast” host Anthony Pompliano, Civic and SiliconCape founder Vinny Lingham, and other important players from the crypto world.
Below you can see a list of the confirmed participants:
Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is an entrepreneur, investor, and podcaster who recently launched Bitcoin Pizza, which will send profits to the Human Rights Foundation Bitcoin development fund.
Benjamin Cowen operates “Into the Cryptoverse” which offers long-term crypto trends analysis for more than 400,000 YouTube subscribers.
Jing Wang is the cofounder and CEO of Optimism PBC, which is building the Optimistic Ethereum Network. She is a self-described “bullet chess aficionado.”
Matt Huang is the cofounder of Paradigm, a crypto asset investment firm that manages billions of dollars in assets.
Daryl Morey is a crypto investor and the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, after 14 years as General Manager of the Houston Rockets.
Meltem Demirors is an MIT and Oxford professor, founding member and co-chair of the World Economic Forum Cryptocurrency Council. She is also the Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, a digital asset investment firm.
Kevin Owocki is a software engineer and web entrepreneur who is currently “slinging Ethereum/Solidity code at Gitcoin” and was his 5th-grade chess champion.
Kain Warwick is the founder of Synthetix, a synthetic asset issuance platform built on Ethereum and one of the biggest ecosystems in decentralized finance.
Vinny Lingham is a web entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Civic, and one of the sharks in the reality show Shark Tank South Africa.
Peter McCormack is the host of What Bitcoin Did and Defiance podcasts and Defiance TV, as well as a crypto investor.
Ben Forman is the founder and managing partner of ParaFi, a San Francisco-based alternative investment firm focused on blockchain and decentralized finance markets.
Tekin Salimi is a General Partner at Polychain Capital, an actively managed investment firm for blockchain assets.
Robert Leshner is the Founder and CEO at Compound, an algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol. Robert is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, former economist, and the founder of two software startups.
Jack Mallers is a developer, designer, and chess aficionado who is passionate about bitcoin. He has worked on projects like ZeroHouseEdge, an online gambling experience powered by bitcoin, and is currently serving as the Founder and CEO at Zap.
TheStockGuy is an investor, YouTuber, and Twitch streamer who shares tips with his followers on how to make a profit in the stock and crypto market.
Surojit Chatterjee is the former Vice President of Product at Google and now occupies the post of Chief Product Officer at Coinbase.
Broadcast
Chess fans and cryptocurrency enthusiasts will have the chance to keep up with the event by going to our Events page. We will also broadcast the matches and provide expert commentary on Chess.com/TV and our Twitch channel.
Schedule
The event will happen on Saturday, June 12, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/19:00 CEST with the Round of 16 matches, followed by the Winners and Consolation Brackets’ quarterfinals. The semifinals and final for both brackets will happen Sunday, June 13, starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/19:00 CEST.
Saturday, June 12
- Round of 16: 60 minutes
- Break: 5 minutes
- Winners Bracket Quarterfinals: 60 minutes
- Break: 5 minutes
- Consolation Bracket Quarterfinals: 60 minutes
Sunday, June 13
- Consolation Semifinals: 60 minutes
- Break: 5 minutes
- Consolation Final: 60 minutes
- Break: 5 minutes
- Winners Semifinals: 60 minutes
- Break: 5 minutes
- Winners Final: 60 minutes
Prize Breakdown
The $25,000 total prize fund will be donated to a charity institution chosen by each of the participants and the donations will be made entirely in cryptocurrency. Prizes will be distributed as follows:
Winners Bracket: $15,000
- 1st: $5,000
- 2nd: $3,000
- 3rd and 4th: $1,500
- 5th-8th: $1,000
Consolation Bracket: $10,000
- 1st: $2,000
- 2nd: $1,500
- 3rd and 4th: $1,250
- 5th-8th: $1,000
Format
The event will consist of a 16-player bracket where players will face each other in a two-game match with alternating colors. Games will be in the 10|5 time control, with winners moving on to the Winner Bracket, while the remaining players will continue to the Consolation Bracket.
In the event of a tied match, play will enter sudden death in the 3|0 time control, with the player who had the highest CAPS score getting White first. They will continue to alternate colors until the first decisive occurs.
Pairings
Pairings will be calculated on June 10 at 3 p.m. Pacific/June 10 22:00 CEST and will be based on a combination of players’ rapid and blitz ratings.