How to create a tournament on Chess.com
Creating your own tournament is a great way to engage with friends, club members, or the broader chess community. You can choose between two types of tournaments: Club Tournaments and Shareable Tournaments. Here’s how to set up either type:
Hover over 'Play' on the left-side menu of any Chess.com page and select 'Play' from the appearing menu
From the new game menu, click 'Tournaments'
From the tournaments popup window, click on 'Create'
Choose your tournament type and format
Next, you’ll need to decide whether to create a Club Event or a Shareable Tournament:
Club Events: These tournaments are limited to members of a specific club. People not in the club won’t be able to see or join the tournament. You must be at least coordinator level in a club to see the options to start a Club Event
Shareable Tournaments: These are private tournaments open to anyone who has the link. They do not appear on the public tournament schedule, so you’ll need to share the link with those you want to participate.
You can choose between two tournament formats:
Swiss Tournaments: These tournaments go for a set number of rounds. Unlike Round Robin formats (used in Daily tournaments), no players are eliminated. All players participate in every round, and the player with the highest number of points at the end wins.
Arena Tournaments: Arena tournaments are time-based rather than round-based. The player with the most points when the time is up is the winner.
Arena tournaments require at least five participants to start. If fewer than five members join by the start time, the tournament will be canceled.
Set up your tournament preferences
After selecting the tournament type and format, you will see a window to set up your tournament preferences. Here is how to navigate them:
Option
|
Details |
Tournament name | Name your tournament. If public, this is how your tournament will be listed in the tournament schedule. |
Club | If it’s a Club event, choose which club the tournament is for. The dropdown will list all the clubs you can create tournaments for. |
Rated | Turn this off to make the tournament unrated, meaning players' ratings won’t be affected. |
Game type | You can choose between Standard, 960, 3 check, King of the Hill, or Crazyhouse. |
Time control | The time control can be any of the standard time controls or a custom choice. |
Setup | Choose your starting setup: Standard, book opening, or custom FEN. |
Start date and Start time | Choose a start date and start time. The start time will be based on your own time zone.
|
Minimum games | This will allow you to limit the tournament to members who have played a certain amount of games. |
Players will not be able to join until 1 hour before the tournament starts, regardless of the start date.Options for Swiss tournaments only
Rating range: When creating a club Swiss tournament, you can specify the rating range for players eligible to join.
Rounds: Choose how many rounds the tournament will have. The number of rounds depends on the number of players. For example, to have a 5-round tournament, you need at least 10 players. If fewer players join, the tournament may end earlier than expected. The number of rounds you select is the maximum possible, but the actual number may be less if the required players don’t join or if players leave early.
Max Players: Set the limit on how many players can join.
Options for Arena tournaments only
Duration: Set how long the Arena will last.
Pairing logic: Choose between rating based logic or score based.