Tournaments
ChessVS has four tournament tiers, from the weekly Swiss to the season-defining championship. Exact requirements, and the entry fee if there is one, are published with each event. Some events may be presented by a sponsor. Sponsors never fund the ranked and club pools and never see your data.
The Tournaments page with a Woodpusher Cup scheduled. The date shown is an example.
The four tiers
Tier 1 — Weekly events
- Entry: A small FOCUS entry fee, shown on the event card before you register (the weekly Swiss is 100 FOCUS when it runs)
- Schedule: Before Season 1 the weekly Swiss can run any week. Once the full seasonal calendar arrives, it runs as the open-week Swiss in weeks 7, 9, 10 and 11 (see the Seasonal Calendar)
- Format: Weekly rapid events
- Rewards: 25 FOCUS for every game you win (outside the daily cap), +450 XP for every round you play to at least 8 moves, and +1,200 XP to the champion
- For: Everyone — the perfect warm-up. FOCUS is earned by playing, so there is nothing to buy.
Entry fees
Some events charge an entry fee in FOCUS, the in-game currency you earn by playing. The fee is always shown on the event card before you register, so you never learn the price from the button.
- You pay when you take a seat. Registering for an event with open seats charges the fee right then.
- The waitlist is free. If the field is full, or seeds are already locked, registering puts you on the waitlist at no charge. You pay only if a seat opens for you, so keep at least the fee on your balance while you wait. If your balance can't cover it when a seat opens, the seat passes to the next player in line and you stay on the list.
- Refunds only if the event is canceled. A canceled event returns every fee in full. Withdrawing, forfeiting, or being swapped out for a no-show does not refund the fee.
- You'll be told. Getting a seat off the waitlist, being passed over, and a refund each send you a notification: the bell in the top bar, and a Discord message if your accounts are linked.
Tier 2 — Ranked play
- Entry: Open to everyone from the lobby's Ranked queue
- Format: Continuous ELO ladder plus seasonal ranked matches
- Rewards: FOCUS every game (150 for a win, 75 for a draw, 50 for a loss, within the daily cap) and rating change
- For: Everyone — this is the core competitive loop.
Tier 3 — Elite Tournament
- Deck requirement: Requirements are published with each event
- Entry: Announced in-game
- Rewards: FOCUS and exclusive card drops
- Rating gate: An ELO of 1,400 or more. No XP rank is needed.
- For: Serious competitors with a real card collection.
Tier 4 — Season championship
- Deck requirement: Full loadout of high-rarity cards — requirements are published with each event
- Entry: Announced in-game
- Rewards: An exclusive trophy collectible, championship rewards, and a permanent title
- Rank gate: Champion XP rank and an ELO of 1,600 or more to qualify; Legend XP rank for a direct seed (arriving in a later update)
- For: The elite — one championship per season.
Tournament formats
Every event card names its format on the Format tile. When a round starts, your pairing appears on the Tournaments page with a Play now button. A player who hasn't arrived 10 minutes after the round starts loses that game by forfeit.
Swiss (live: the weekly Swiss). Everyone plays every round and nobody is knocked out; the event card shows how many rounds. Each round pairs you with a player on or near your score, avoids opponents you've already played, and balances White and Black across the event. A win scores 1 point, a draw ½ and a loss 0. With an odd number of players, the lowest-placed player who hasn't had a bye sits that round out and scores a free win. Ties on the final table go to the player whose opponents scored more, then to your game against each other, then to the most wins.
Classic (live: on demand). Pure chess played as a Swiss: no Battle Cards and no fights, so a capture is a plain chess capture. A Classic event starts by itself as soon as two players have a seat, so you can play right away. Anyone who registers after that joins the waitlist.
Elimination finals (planned). A knockout bracket: lose once and you're out, and the last player standing wins. Seeds follow rating and are spread across the bracket, so the top two seeds can only meet in the final. If the field doesn't fill the bracket, the top seeds skip round one. A drawn game decides nothing and is played again until someone wins. It's the top-8 finish of the Clubmate Invitational and arrives with the full seasonal calendar.
Double elimination finals (planned). A knockout where you're out only after your second loss. Your first loss drops you into a second bracket of players who have lost once, and that bracket's winner meets the unbeaten winner of the main bracket in one grand final. The grand final is a single match: the unbeaten player's edge is getting there without a loss, not a second life. Seeding, skipped first rounds and drawn games work as in elimination finals, and the format arrives with the Captain's Cup and the full seasonal calendar.
Immortal, 7 days (planned). The mid-season cup's format: one week, open to every rating, with no rounds to wait for. You play when you like, your points build up across the seven days, and the top finishers go on to a live finals day. The full scoring is published before the first one runs.
ELO and matchmaking
Your ELO rating is your chess-skill score. It starts at 1,200 and adjusts after every Quick, Casual and Ranked game. Friendlies, Sovereign Duels, AI games and tournament games don't change it.
Every rated game moves your rating by the standard Elo formula: beat a higher-rated player and you gain more; lose to a lower-rated one and you drop more. How far one game moves it also depends on where you are:
| Where you are | Movement per game |
|---|---|
| Your first 30 games (Quick, Casual and Ranked all count) | Fastest, so new players find their level quickly |
| Novice (below 1,100) | Fast |
| Apprentice and Intermediate (1,100–1,499) | Moderate |
| Advanced and Expert (1,500–1,899) | Slower |
| Master and Grandmaster (1,900+) | Slowest, because a top rating is hard-earned and stays stable |
Your rating can't drop below 800. The exact speeds are in XP & Rank Tiers.
ELO carries between seasons, and so does your XP. Your rating tier (Novice through Grandmaster) is derived from your rating and shows on your profile next to it; your XP Rank badge (Scout through Legend) is derived from career XP. They are separate ladders and you can sit at different heights on each. See XP & Rank Tiers.
Special formats
Classic tournaments — live now: pure chess, no cards or combat, run on demand. Any alpha player can enter, and the entry fee is shown on the event card. Tournament formats explains how a Classic event plays.
Mid-season cup (planned) — a mid-tier tournament at the season's midpoint: the recurring mid-season competitive beat between the early-season events and the late-season finals. It uses the Immortal format and arrives with the full seasonal calendar.
Cross-club team events — arriving in a later season. The winning club's members receive an exclusive cosmetic.
Sovereign Duels — live now: call out any player in public, 48 hours to accept, played in the open with the result on the record. Outside the ladder, so no rating and no FOCUS change hands — a duel pays the flat +90 XP a friendly does. See XP & Rank Tiers.
Invitational showcases (planned) — sponsored titled players competing with full card sets, broadcast for spectators.
A note on championship rewards
Each season's championship carries its own rewards, announced ahead of each season — check the in-app season page and the official Discord for the current details, since they are confirmed season by season.