The Play-In and Main Event stages of the Speed Chess Championship 2024 concluded on August 9. These two phases combined to make it the second-most popular event in the series and one of the most-watched competitions in the game this year.
This tournament, which is Chess.com's most elite blitz and bullet event, featured the strongest speed chess players in the world. With $175,000 on the line, the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, and Wesley So were seen in action, making for a star-studded affair.
The Speed Chess Championship 2024 recorded 1.2M Hours Watched, 64.2K Peak Viewers, and 23.3K Average Viewers over an airtime of 52h 25m. Expectedly, this figure was reached towards the end of the Main Event, when the quarterfinals were taking place with spots in the Top Four (and subsequently the in-person Finals) at stake.
After more than five weeks of action between 16 amazing Chess players, we have the identities of the top four, who will compete from September 6 to 8 at the ESpot Internet cafe in Paris, France, in the Top Four Stage. In what will be the first-ever Live, in-person Finals in the event's history, Magnus Carlsen will battle old foe Hans Niemann while Hikaru Nakamura will play Alireza Firouzja.
Readers must note that these semifinal games will be played on computers at this venue, the largest esports hall in Paris. These matches will be played in a series of 5-minute, 3-minute, and 1-minute games (all with 1-second increments):
- 90 minutes of 5+1 games
- 60 minutes of 3+1 games
- 30 minutes of 1+1 games
As per the Chesswatch database, the Speed Chess Championship 2024 whose winner receives $17,500, has emerged as the sixth-most watched Chess tournament held this year, with the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournaments 2024 top of the pile.
It is also the second-most popular Chess event in the series. The 2022 iteration — also in the top ten all-time leaderboard for peak concurrent viewership — leads this table with 222.1 PV. With the Live Finals seeing two blockbuster matches, there is every chance that event trumps its predecessor and puts up numbers that could go up against the best seen in 2024.
