2018 PRO Chess League season

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]

First Qualifier (top 6) Pos Team 1 Armenia Eagles 2 Estonia Horses 3 Mumbai Movers 4 Oslo Trolls 5 Apeldoorn Apes 6 Rehovot Masters

Second Qualifier (top 6) Pos Team 1 Chengdu Pandas 2 Seattle Sluggers 3 Australia Kangaroos 4 New York Knights 5 Minnesota Blizzard 6 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 Div 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 Div 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 Div 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 Div 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 Armenia Eagles 6.5 2.5 98 2 Delhi Dynamite 5.5 3.5 95 3 Mumbai Movers 5.5 3.5 85 4 Estonia Horses 5 4 88 5 Norway Gnomes 4 5 92 6 Volga Stormbringers 4 5 88 7 Riga Magicians 3.5 5.5 81 8 Oslo Trolls 2 7 75.5

Central Division Teams Wins Loss Game Points 1 Stockholm Snowballs 6.5 2.5 90.5 2 Marseille Migraines 6.5 2.5 87 3 Cannes Blockbusters 5 4 78.5 4 Ljubljana Turtles 4.5 4.5 89.5 5 Amsterdam Mosquitoes 3 6 90 6 London Lions 4 6 79.5 7 Reykjavik Puffins 2.5 6.5 78.5 8 London Towers 1 8 71.5

Atlantic Division Teams Wins Loss Game Points 1 Webster Windmills 7.5 1.5 99.5 2 Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers 7 2 98 3 St. Louis Arch Bishops 5.5 3.5 101 4 Minnesota Blizzard 5.5 3.5 92 5 Montclair Sopranos 4 5 85.5 6 Miami Champions 3 6 83 7 Montreal ChessBrahs 2.5 6.5 83 8 Buenos Aires Krakens 2 7 73.5

Pacific Division Teams Wins Loss Game Points 1 San Diego Surfers 7.5 1.5 99 2 Chengdu Pandas 6.5 2.5 104 3 Dallas Destiny 6.5 2.5 100 4 Australia Kangaroos 5 4 94.5 5 San Jose Hackers 4.5 4.5 97.5 6 Seattle Sluggers 4.5 4.5 86 7 Rio Grande Ospreys 3.5 5.5 84.5 8 Las Vegas Desert Rats 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]

Division Semifinals March 13

Division Championship March 21

Semifinals April 7 San Francisco

PCL Championship April 8 San Francisco

E1

Armenia Eagles

10.5

E4

Estonia Horses

5.5

E1

Armenia Eagles

8*

Eastern

E3

Mumbai Movers

8

E2

Delhi Dynamite

7.5

E3

Mumbai Movers

8.5

E1

Armenia Eagles

8.5

A3

St. Louis Arch Bishops

7.5

A1

Webster Windmills

7.5

A4

Minnesota Blizzard

8.5

A4

Minnesota Blizzard

6

Atlantic

A3

St. Louis Arch Bishops

10

A2

Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers

6

A3

St. Louis Arch Bishops

10

E1

Armenia Eagles

12***

P2

Chengdu Pandas

11

P1

San Diego Surfers

5.5

P4

Australia Kangaroos

10.5

P4

Australia Kangaroos

7

Pacific

P2

Chengdu Pandas

9

P2

Chengdu Pandas

8*

P3

Dallas Destiny

8

P2

Chengdu Pandas

9.5

C4

Ljubljana Turtles

6.5

C1

Stockholm Snowballs

7.5

Third place match

C4

Ljubljana Turtles

8.5

C4

Ljubljana Turtles

9.5

A3

St. Louis Arch Bishops

9.5

Central

C2

Marseille Migraines

6.5

C4

Ljubljana Turtles

6.5

C2

Marseille Migraines

9

C3

Cannes Blockbusters

7

• *Advanced due to higher seed
• ***Triple overtime victory

Awards

All Stars Division Player Team Eastern Magnus Carlsen Norway Gnomes Hrant Melkumyan Armenia Eagles Zaven Anderiasyan Armenia Eagles Viswanathan Anand Mumbai Movers Central Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Marseille Migraines Georg Meier Stockholm Snowballs Luka Lenic Ljubljana Turtles Gawain Jones London Towers Atlantic Fabiano Caruana St. Louis Arch Bishops Aleksandr Shimanov Webster Windmills Awonder Liang Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers Andrew Tang Minnesota Blizzard Pacific Hikaru Nakamura Seattle Slggers Yu Yangyi Chengdu Pandas Alexey Dreev San Diego Surfers Anton Smirnov Australia Kangaroos

Individual Performances Award Player Team MVP Fabiano Caruana St. Louis Arch Bishops MVP Magnus Carlsen Norway Gnomes MVP Hikaru Nakamura Seattle Sluggers Best Female Ju Wenjun Chengdu Pandas U2600 Zaven Andriasyan Armenia Eagles U2500 Andrew Tang Minnesota Blizzard U2400 Brandon Clarke Australia Kangaroos U2300 Artak Manukyan Armenia Eagles U2200 Sander Kukk Estonia Horses

^[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)

	First round					Second round					Final
											1	Pacific Division	4
						2	Atlantic Division	4			2	Atlantic Division	3
	3	Central Division	2			4	Eastern Division	2
	4	Eastern Division	4