American chess player Eric Rosen called himself the “undisputed champion of reading the rules” after recently pocketing a cool $1000 (approximately Rs 88,000) simply by doing the one thing all of us ignore: reading the full rules and regulations.
On a recent post about the new format of the Titled Tuesday tournament — which will now shift from two events each Tuesday to a one tournament per Tuesday format — Chess.com hid a neat little Easter egg for any Titled player to find.
In their regulations about broadcasting of the tournament, Chess.com wrote: “Forward facing Proctor cameras may be used by Chess.com, or Chess.com’s broadcast partner for the official Titled Tuesday broadcast. The first Titled player to read the rules and email Danny (Rensch, the Chief Chess Officer at the company) at ireadtheeventrules@chess.com with a screenshot will win $1,000. Players may live broadcast their participation in Titled Tuesdays with a 15-second delay. Players are not required to enter emote-only mode, but must have chat closed during games. Players are not permitted to broadcast or distribute any “Fair Play” video conference call, including player cameras and video, in whole or in part, without permission from Chess.com.”
As the app later posted on its X account, Rosen had reached out to them with an email containing the screenshot of the message and the subject line: “I read the rules.”
Rosen confirmed on a YouTube stream that he had received an email from the app about his prize money.
Titled Tuesday is Chess.com’s weekly 11-round Swiss tournament, held online on Tuesdays, where only players holding titles can play. It attracts players like Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana among others each week, with Nakamura holding the record for most tournament victories. The event started in 2014 as a monthly event, but has since been made into a weekly competition. Since 2022, it was held twice every Tuesday.
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