The knockout phase of the chess.com Global Championship kicks off on September 14th, and features 64 top chess players, 8 of whom will go on to play in the finals at the beginning of November.
To make this even more exciting for you and to support the Galway Chess Club, we want to encourage you to back a small selection of players in the hopes of winning some money.
Below is a ranked table of all 64 participants, each of whom can have at most one backer. For a fiver (5 euro), you can choose three of these players to back (one with a starting rank from 1-20, one from 21-40, and one from 41-64.) If one of your backed players wins the tournament, you will win five times their ranking number (plus your original fiver); e.g. if you have backed Ding Liren and he wins, you get €10 back, if you have backed Fabiano Caruana and he wins, you get €40, and if you have backed Mitrabha Guha and he wins, you get €325.
To enter, email us at galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com, with your name (or nom-de-plume to display, in case you wish to keep your investment a secret for spousal/Revenue purposes), three selected players (one each from within ranges 1-20, 21-40, 41-64), and a promise to hand over 5e to us at the next available opportunity/or Revolut it to Fintan, etc. Given that there’ll be a max of one backer per player (in the interests of avoiding bankruptcy), we’ll operate on a first-come-first-served basis, and we’ll deal with any complications if and when they arise. Any surplus will go towards the club’s rent for the year.
If all three of your choices make it through the first round, you may pick a free extra fourth player from any of the remaining unselected players.
Entries need to be in before the tournament starts on September 14th.
Good luck!
[table id=84 /]