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48 Teams, Over 100 Grandmasters To Play PRO Chess League

48 Teams, Over 100 Grandmasters To Play PRO Chess League

SamCopeland
| 31 | Chess.com News

We've already announced that Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Wesley So are signed up to play in the inaugural season of the PRO Chess League. It is now our great pleasure to announce the full list of teams and their first boards which includes these Super-GMs as well as GMs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Li Chao. In total, over 100 grandmasters and nearly 400 total players are committed.

The French number-one, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, is the latest super-grandmaster to join the PRO Chess League.

The 48 teams composing the PRO Chess League will compete for glory and $50,000 dollars in prizes. These include teams from both North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. We only lack a team from Australia (Although Australians such as David Smerdon are playing, "Smurfo" represents the London Lions), and Antarctica.

Teams will compete in four divisions of 12 teams each. Divisions are designed to be be grouped roughly by time zone to minimizing scheduling conflicts. Who is your favorite team? Join their fan club by clicking the team names!

Blue Division (Eastern North America and South America)

Teams First Board
Atlanta Kings GM Gadir Guseinov
Buenos Aires Krakens GM Federico Ponsa
Carolina Cobras NM Emmanuel Carter
Columbus Cardinals IM Atanos Kizov
Miami Champions GM Hikaru Nakamura
Montreal ChessBrahs GM Fabiano Caruana
New Jersey Knockouts GM Alex Stripunsky
New York Knights GM Oliver Barbosa
Patagonia Penguins GM Fernando Peralata
Philadelphia Inventors GM Andriy Vovk
Toronto Dragons GM Bator Sambuev
Montclair Sopranos GM Marc Arnold

Red Division (Western North America)

Teams First Board
Dallas Destiny GM Jeffery Xiong
Minnesota Blizzard GM Mauricio Flores 
Portland Rain GM Jim Tarjan
Rio Grande Ospreys GM Anton Kovalyov
San Diego Surfers GM Aleksey Dreev
San Francisco Mechanics GM Patrick Wolff
San Jose Hackers GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Seattle Sluggers GM Gabriel Sargissian
St Louis Arch Bishops GM Wesley So
Webster Windmills GM Ray Robson
Las Vegas Desert Rats GM Timur Gareev
Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers GM Eugene Perelshteyn

Green Division (Western Europe and Africa)

Teams First Board
Abuja Rockstars FM Kigigha Bomo
Amsterdam Mosquitoes GM Loek van Wely
Apeldoorn Apes GM Roeland Pruijssers
Cannes Blockbusters GM Vladislav Tkachiev
Dublin Desperados IM Sam Collins
Hamburg Swashbucklers GM Niclas Huschenbeth
London Towers GM David Howell
Stockholm Snowballs GM Georg Meier
Reykjavik Puffins GM Hannes Stefansson
London Lions GM Luke McShane
Lagos Leatherbacks FM Balogun Olufemi
Marseille Migraines GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Orange Division (Eastern Europe and Asia)

Teams First Board
Belgrade Sparrows GM Branko Tadic
Budapest Gambit GM Benjamin Gledura
Delhi Dynamite GM Abhijeet Gupta
Gorky Stormbringers GM Evgeny Shaposhnikov
Johannesburg Koeksisters IM Daniel Cawdery
Ljubljana Direwolves GM Luka Lenic
Mumbai Movers GM Praveen Thipsay
Odisha Express IM Padmini Rout
Riga Magicians GM Igor Kovalenko
Shymkent Nomads Zhuban Bigabylov
Norway Gnomes GM Magnus Carlsen
Amaravati Yodhas Dhulipalla Prasad

Teams are still recruiting talented players. Because of the rating cap (the average team rating each week must be below 2500, although 2700+ players only count as 2700), these grandmasters may be less important to their team's success than the numerous young talents signed to the various rosters.

We'll be announcing a flurry of additional team rosters, the schedule, complete rules, and loads of other details soon. Stay tuned via the official club and Facebook page!


Read up on everything you need to know about the PRO Chess League:

SamCopeland
NM Sam Copeland

I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.

You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.

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