2018 PRO Chess League season explained
The 2018 PRO Chess League Season was the second season of the PRO Chess League. It began on January 17 and ended on April 8 with the Armenia Eagles defeating the Chengdu Pandas to claim their first title.[1] This season introduced new qualifications to join the league and an all-star game.
Qualification
In order to combat the large league, Shahade decided to cut the league from 48 teams to 32 teams as he believed the inaugural season was "a bit too large and chaotic".In order to determine which teams would return, he used the following:[2] [3] [4]
- 24 teams invited
- 6 teams per Qualifier Tournament
- 2 teams per fan vote
Qualification tournament
The qualification tournament took place on November 3 with two qualifiers. The event format was a 13 round individual swiss (time control 3+2), with a team's score decided by summing the scores of their four team members. The top three teams from each qualifier automatically qualified, and the fourth to sixth placed teams were placed into a fan vote to decide the final qualifier.[5]
| | Pos | Team |
|---|
|  Armenia Eagles | |  Estonia Horses | |  Mumbai Movers | |  Oslo Trolls | |  Apeldoorn Apes | |  Rehovot Masters | |
| | | Pos | Team |
|---|
|  Chengdu Pandas | |  Seattle Sluggers | |  Australia Kangaroos | | New York Knights | | Minnesota Blizzard | | San Francisco Mechanics | |
| |
Super Saturday and Super Sunday
For 2018, the PCL introduced a new match format which allowed teams to play outside of their division. In these matches, each team played one single four-game match against eight other teams. The standings were decided on game points, with the top 6 teams being awarded a match win and teams finishing 7th-10th being awarded a match draw. In addition, the winning team was awarded a $500 bonus.[6] [7]
| 2/24 Early Super Saturday |
|---|
| | Team | Points | Result |
|---|
| 1 | A | St. Louis Arch Bishops | 24 | Win | | 2 | P | Chengdu Pandas | 23 | Win | | 3 | A | Montclair Sopranos | 21.5 | Win | | 4 | A | Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers | 19.5 | Win | | 5 | P | Dallas Destiny | 18.5 | Win | | 6 | P | Seattle Sluggers | 18 | Win | | 7 | A |  Buenos Aires Krakens | 17 | Draw | | 8 | E | Armenia Eagles | 16 | Draw | | 9 | E | Delhi Dynamite | 16 | Draw | | 10 | C |  Ljubljana Turtles | 14 | Draw | | 11 | C |  Reykjavik Puffins | 13.5 | Loss | | 12 | P | Rio Grande Ospreys | 13.5 | Loss | | 13 | E | Volga Stormbringers | 13 | Loss | | 14 | C |  Cannes Blockbusters | 12.5 | Loss | | 15 | E | Mumbai Movers | 11 | Loss | | 16 | C | Marseille Migraines | 5 | Loss | |
| | 2/24 Late Super Saturday |
|---|
| | Team | Points | Result |
|---|
| 1 | E | Norway Gnomes | 21.5 | Win | | 2 | P | San Jose Hackers | 20.5 | Win | | 3 | P | San Diego Surfers | 19.5 | Win | | 4 | A | Webster Windmills | 19.5 | Win | | 5 | P | Australia Kangaroos | 19 | Win | | 6 | E | Estonia Horses | 17.5 | Win | | 7 | A | Minnesota Blizzard | 17.5 | Draw | | 8 | A | Miami Champions | 17 | Draw | | 9 | A |  Montreal Chessbrahs | 16 | Draw | | 10 | E |  Riga Magicians | 15 | Draw | | 11 | C | Amsterdam Mosquitoes | 14 | Loss | | 12 | C | London Towers | 13 | Loss | | 13 | E | Oslo Trolls | 13 | Loss | | 14 | C | London Lions | 12 | Loss | | 15 | C |  Stockholm Snowballs | 11.5 | Loss | | 16 | P | Las Vegas Desert Rats | 9 | Loss | |
| |
| 2/4 Super Sunday |
|---|
| | Team | Points | Result |
|---|
| 1 | E | Armenia Eagles | 22 | Win | | 2 | E | Volga Stormbringers | 21.5 | Win | | 3 | C | Ljubljana Turtles | 21 | Win | | 4 | C | Marseille Migraines | 18.5 | Win | | 5 | C | Stockholm Snowballs | 17.5 | Win | | 6 | E | Mumbai Movers | 17.5 | Win | | 7 | E | Norway Gnomes | 17 | Draw | | 8 | E | Riga Magicians | 16.5 | Draw | | 9 | E | Delhi Dynamite | 16 | Draw | | 10 | C | London Lions | 15 | Draw | | 11 | C | Amsterdam Mosquitoes | 15 | Loss | | 12 | C | Reykjavik Puffins | 14.5 | Loss | | 13 | E | Oslo Trolls | 13.5 | Loss | | 14 | C | London Towers | 12.5 | Loss | | 15 | C | Cannes Blockbusters | 9 | Loss | | 16 | E | Estonia Horses | 8.5 | Loss | |
| | 2/3 Super Saturday |
|---|
| | Team | Points | Result |
|---|
| 1 | P | San Jose Hackers | 21.5 | Win | | 2 | P | Chengdu Pandas | 20 | Win | | 3 | P | Australia Kangaroos | 19.5 | Win | | 4 | A | Webster Windmills | 19 | Win | | 5 | A | Montreal Chessbrahs | 18 | Win | | 6 | P | Dallas Destiny | 18 | Win | | 7 | P | Rio Grande Ospreys | 17.5 | Draw | | 8 | P | San Diego Surfers | 16.5 | Draw | | 9 | A | Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers | 16 | Draw | | 10 | A | Saint Louis Arch Bishops | 15.5 | Draw | | 11 | P | Seattle Sluggers | 15 | Loss | | 12 | A | Minnesota Blizzard | 14.5 | Loss | | 13 | A | Montclair Sopranos | 13.5 | Loss | | 14 | A | Miami Champions | 11 | Loss | | 15 | P | Las Vegas Desert Rats | 11 | Loss | | 16 | A | Buenos Aires Krakens | 9.5 | Loss | |
| |
Standings
The top four teams from each division qualify for the playoffs while the two worst teams are relegated from the league and will have to partake in the qualifiers in order to rejoin the league.[8]
| Eastern Division | | Teams | Wins | Loss | Game Points |
|---|
| 1 | | 6.5 | 2.5 | 98 | | 2 | | 5.5 | 3.5 | 95 | | 3 | | 5.5 | 3.5 | 85 | | 4 | | 5 | 4 | 88 | | 5 | | 4 | 5 | 92 | | 6 | | 4 | 5 | 88 | | 7 | | 3.5 | 5.5 | 81 | | 8 | | 2 | 7 | 75.5 | |
| | Central Division | | Teams | Wins | Loss | Game Points |
|---|
| 1 | | 6.5 | 2.5 | 90.5 | | 2 | | 6.5 | 2.5 | 87 | | 3 | | 5 | 4 | 78.5 | | 4 | | 4.5 | 4.5 | 89.5 | | 5 | | 3 | 6 | 90 | | 6 | | 4 | 6 | 79.5 | | 7 | | 2.5 | 6.5 | 78.5 | | 8 | | 1 | 8 | 71.5 | |
| |
| Atlantic Division | | Teams | Wins | Loss | Game Points |
|---|
| 1 | | 7.5 | 1.5 | 99.5 | | 2 | | 7 | 2 | 98 | | 3 | | 5.5 | 3.5 | 101 | | 4 | | 5.5 | 3.5 | 92 | | 5 | | 4 | 5 | 85.5 | | 6 | | 3 | 6 | 83 | | 7 | | 2.5 | 6.5 | 83 | | 8 | | 2 | 7 | 73.5 | |
| | Pacific Division | | Teams | Wins | Loss | Game Points |
|---|
| 1 | | 7.5 | 1.5 | 99 | | 2 | | 6.5 | 2.5 | 104 | | 3 | | 6.5 | 2.5 | 100 | | 4 | | 5 | 4 | 94.5 | | 5 | | 4.5 | 4.5 | 97.5 | | 6 | | 4.5 | 4.5 | 86 | | 7 | | 3.5 | 5.5 | 84.5 | | 8 | | 1 | 8 | 60.5 | |
| |
Playoffs
After the regular season, the top four teams from each division qualified for the playoffs with the teams being seeded 1–4 in their division. In addition, the teams that won their division were invited to play the final two round in San Francisco at the Folsom Street Foundry.[9] [10]
- Advanced due to higher seed
-
Awards
[11] All-Star Game
The 2018 All-Star Game was on September 8 with stage 1 and on September 9 for stage 2. The following event format was used.[12]
- Stage 1: Round-robin tournament where every player plays one game against everyone else from other three teams, total of 12 games (Time control = 3|1)
- Stage 2: Knockout round. Seeding determined by total number of points in stage 1 (Time control = 3|0)
Notes and References
- News: (MikeKlein) . Mike Klein . Armenia Eagles Win PRO Chess League In Triple Overtime . en-US . Chess.com . 2018-06-22.
- Web site: PRO League Qualifier: 40 Teams Vie for 8 Spots .
- Web site: PRO League Qualifiers Set for Oct. 28 .
- Web site: PRO Chess League Announces Returning Teams, New Qualifiers .
- Web site: Qualifier Rules .
- Web site: (PROChessLeague) . PRO Chess League . Carlsen, 5 Of World's Top 10 To Play In PRO Chess Super Weekend . 2018-07-20 . Chess.com . en-US.
- Web site: Caruana Perfect, Carlsen Nearly So in Record-Smashing PRO Super Saturday .
- Web site: Rules . 2018-06-22 . PRO CHESS LEAGUE . en.
- News: (News) . Chess.com Webmaster . PRO Chess League Finals Set For San Francisco . en-US . Chess.com . 2018-06-25.
- Web site: (News) . Chess com Webmaster . PRO Chess League Finals FAQ . 2018-06-25 . Chess.com . en-US.
- Web site: PRO Chess League All Stars, MVPS Announced .
- Web site: The PRO Chess League All Stars Face off .
