The recent Twitch Rivals brings together the chess community together with the rest of the Twitch community. Woman Grandmaster and FIDE Master Qiyu Zhou also known as akaNemsko was the host of the Chess Hand & Brain Showdown, an event where the hands and brains need to cooperate together to take down the king.
The competition took place only for a day on August 11 and it features a $20,000 USD prize pool. The event was co-hosted by Adam Savage and GM Daniel Naroditsky.
Who joins the Chess Hand & Brain Showdown Twitch Rivals?
The competition was a showdown among sixteen chess streamers and sixteen other Twitch creators.
Chess streamers
- GothamChess (IM Levy Rozman)
- AnnaCramling (WFM Anna Cramling)
- AlessiaSanteramo (WFM Alessia Santeramo)
- chessbrah (GM Eric Hansen)
- BlitzStream (NM Kevin Bordi)
- PhotoChess (WFM Maria Emelianova)
- GMCanty (FM James Canty)
- annamaja (FM Anna Maja)
- lilekoridze (WFM Lile Koridze)
- GMBenjaminBok (GM Benjamin Bok)
- Jesse_Feb (WIM Jesse February)
- HannahSayce (Hannah Sayce)
- KugelBuch
- olaczka (Aleksandra Tarnowska)
- xntentacion (Bartosz Rudecki)
- 4juni
Non-Chess Streamers
- Wirtual
- Squeex
- Pobelter
- SonicFox
- MrLlamaSC
- JOLLZTV
- NateHill
- GuhRL
- Hutch
- Lewus
- fanfan
- denims
- slayproxx
- gaethaaan
- frodan
- movingwithmat
What is the format of the competition?
The competition follows the format of Hand & Brain Variation. In this variation, two streamers will be a pair where the chess streamer will be the “brain” and the non-chess streamer will be the “hand”.
The “brain” will tell the “hand” which piece to move and the “hand” will decide how to move it. If there are a few pieces that can legally move in a turn, the hand will decide on which piece to move.
The Chess Hand & Brain Showdown was divided into two phases: the group stage and the brackets. All games will be using the 8+5 time control.
Group Stage
For the group stage, the players are divided into four groups of four teams. The team is comprised of the “brain” and the “hand”. The teams plays in a single round-robin with two games in each match.
Every team will get 1 point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.
The top team from each group advance to the Championship Bracket meanwhile, the second-place and third-place teams advance to the Consolation Bracket.
Players will receive warnings if they try to break the communication rules. If a team receives three warnings, they will receive a 0.5 deduction from their score.
Championship Bracket
There are four teams in the bracket where they will be seeded according to most points achieved in the group stage followed by teams who have higher average CAP. If two or more teams are tied, the seeding is randomly assigned.
The teams will go through a single-elimination bracket with two games per match.
Consolation Bracket
There are eight teams in the Consolation Bracket. The highest-seeded team will decide on the starting colors in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the team with the highest average CAPS in the group stage will decide the starting colors in the semifinals and finals.
The teams will go through a single-elimination bracket with one game per match.
How much is the prize pool for the competition?
The event featured a $20,000 USD prize pool, which will be divided among the stages.
The group stage received $12,000 USD from the prize pool. Teams received $125 USD per 0.5 points earned.
The rest of the prize pool was divided among the brackets. The teams in the Championship Bracket received their share of $5,600 USD meanwhile teams in the Consolation Bracket received parts of $2,400 USD.
| Placement | Champisonship Bracket | Consolation Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | $2,500 | $600 |
| 2nd | $1,500 | $400 |
| 3rd – 4th | $800 | $300 |
| 5th – 8th | – | $200 |
A quick recap on the Twitch Rivals Chess Hand & Brain Showdown
The participants partnered up as hands and brains in four groups of four:
| Group A Hand | Brain | Group B Hand | Brain | Group C Hand | Brain | Group D Hand | Brain |
|---|---|---|---|
| pobelter | chessbrah | denims | KugelBuch | jollstv | alessiasanteramo | Squeex | gmbenjaminbok |
| jesse_feb | fanfan | slayproxx | olaczka | gaethaaan | blitzstream | SonicFox | gothamchess |
| guhrls | annamaja | natehill | LileKoridze | frodan | gmcanty | MrLlamaSC | photochess |
| hutch | Hannah Sayce | Wirtual | AnnaCramling | Lewus | xntentacion | movingwithmat | 4juni |
In Group A, pobelter and chessbrah lead the group with six wins, earning themselves a place in the Championship Bracket. Meanwhile, GuhRL and annamaja together with hutch and Hannah Sayce managed to make it to the consolation bracket.
Over on Group B, slayproxx and olaczka together with Wirtual and Anna Cramling had a good start in the series. With four wins for each team, they met up with each other in the last group stage match. Wirtual and Anna Cramling managed to outplay the other team and move forward to the Championship Bracket.
Meanwhile, slayproxx and olaczka together with NateHill and LileKoridze move forward into the Consolation Bracket.
Group C saw tighter competition, with jollztv and alessiasanteramo together with gaethaaan and blitzstream tied together in the first place. Due to the tiebreaker rules, gaethaaan’s team proceed to the Championship Bracket. This means that jollztv and alessiasanteramo had joined lewus and xntentacion in the Consolation Bracket.
In Group D, we saw gothamchess and SonicFox fell to photochess and MrLlamSC as they drew the second game. MrLlamaSC’s team then qualify to the Championship bracket meanwhile Sonic Fox’s team joined 4juni and movingwith mat in the Consolation Bracket.
The competition continues in the Championship Consolation Brackets
In the Championship Bracket, Team gaethaaan went on to defeat Team pobelter and move to the Grand Final. They met up with team MrLlamaSC who has just beaten Team Wirtual in the Semifinal. MrLlama won the first match but Team Gaethaaan managed to keep their heads up and won the next two games, winning the Chess Hand & Brain Showdown.
Meanwhile, in the Consolation Bracket, the teams had to fight in a best-of-one elimination match. Team jollztv fights viciously in the competitive bracket and manages to take down every team in the way, winning the Consolation Bracket.
Where to Watch
You can watch the Twitch Rivals Chess Hand & Brain Showdown on the Twitch Rivals’ official Twitch channel and akaNemsko’s channel.
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