High stakes online chess tournaments are bringing the game to a new audience. Case in point is the first-ever Clutch Chess Champions Showdown. The two-day event had World No. 2, Fabiano Caruana, playing against Wesley So in the final match.
After playing an almost perfect tournament beating top grandmasters, Caruana made a mistake at game 11 of the competition. As a result, So won the event and the prize money of $40,000.
Welcome to the world of high stakes online chess. The coronavirus shut down most of the sports industry. However, chess is reaching out to a new and broader audience. Elite players are playing a tournament a day. Also, some players join different competitions at the same time. They don’t care about overlapping match dates.
High Stakes Online Chess
Online chess came in a time when sports fans are looking for anything competitive. Clutch Chess keeps fans watching because games are more entertaining. Also, the tournament gave additional prize money for Games 5,6, 11, and 12. They called them clutch games, according to an explanation given to pay per head reporters.
In case the players have even scores at the end of the tournament, the player with the most clutch game will be the champion. For instance, So and Caruana had 9 points each. However, So won more clutch matches. As a result, he won the entire event, based on the best pay per head software report.
The tournament got more than 17,000 viewers daily. Due to the success of the first one, they scheduled a second Clutch Chess event on Saturday. It will end on June 14. According to the organizers, Magnus Carlsen will be part of the event, along with five other grandmasters.
You might want to become a bookmaker today so that you can accept wagers on chess matches. Online chess has a huge following today that even gamers are playing the game on their streams. Chess might be the next big eSports.
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