2025 Guinea Pig Blitz & Bughouse

🐹 Guinea Pig Blitz & Bughouse

I'm excited to announce the 2025 Guinea Pig Blitz & Bughouse — we’re looking for the sweatiest, try-hardest blitz and bughouse players to stress-test our brand spankin’ new chess tournament management software.

We want to fill as many seats as possible, and want you to hold us accountable for the integrity of the tournament! There’s a $2,000 guaranteed prize fund, but I’m hopeful it will be higher if we have enough of a turnout.

🧠 Event Format

Blitz Section

• USCF-Rated, Swiss format
• Time Control: G/3 +2
• Open to all ratings
• 9-Round Swiss System
• Max capacity: 160 players

Bughouse Section (UNRATED!!!)

• Team-based (2 boards per team)
• Unrated (obviously)
• 7 Double-round Swiss System
• Max capacity: 80 teams

💵 Entry Fees

• Blitz: $60 per player
• Bughouse: $80 per team

💰 Prize Fund

• $2,000 Guaranteed, split across both sections. We break even for a $2,000 prize fund when we get ~30ish players/teams per section, so I'm hoping for a lot more! 🙂
• Final distribution of the fund between the two sections will scale based on number of entries per section (up to ~60/40 ratio max)
• More entries = higher total prize pool!

Prize Breakdown (per section):

• 1st Overall – 16%
• 2nd Overall – 13%
• 3rd Overall – 11%
• U2000 1st – 13%
• U2000 2nd – 11%
• U1600 1st – 11%
• U1600 2nd – 9%
• U1200 1st – 9%
• U1200 2nd – 7%

Ratings based on most recent official supplement. Sections may be merged or split based on turnout.

📍 Location & Schedule

Date: August 23, 2025
Venue: Ramova Loft
Address: 3520 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL

Schedule:

• Check-in Opens: 9:00 AM
• Blitz Starts: 10:00 AM
• Bughouse Starts: 2:00 PM

📝 Registration Info

• Online registration required
• Early bird and regular options available
• GMs, IMs, WGMs, and WIMs play for free! Email us to register – Click here to show mail address (I haven't yet wired up the free titled player registrations feature 🫠.)
• Refund policy: Reach out to support for refunds (the whole order is refundable minus a non-refundable transaction fee.)
• On-site registration? Yes!

🧾 Questions?

For rules, registration issues, or to volunteer, reach out at:
📧 [email protected]