Vladimir Kramnik got kicked out of the tournament
On February 17, 2025, ChessCom conducted the Play-In phase of the Chessable Masters 2025 which is a part of the Champions Chess Tour. The platform allows any player who holds the GM title to contest join the 9-round Play-In Swiss. To the surprise of many, Vladimir Kramnik, who has been banned from playing ChessCom’s prize money events, made an appearance in the first round only to get kicked out subsequently.
The same day, after Kramnik got kicked out from the event after playing one round, the former World Champion posted a video on his YouTube channel, explaining the situation. Kramnik alleged that he, in fact, got an invitation from ChessCom to play the Swiss, with an attached Zoom meeting link. In the video, Kramnik can be seen a Zoom meeting still with other players, namely, Anton Korobov, Bortnyk, Suleymanli, Muradli, etc. “You have been kicked. Please, wait 30 minutes to reconnect”, said the pop-up on Kramnik’s ChessCom interface.
“Now they are violating the regulations again by letting me play the first game, sending the invitation, receiving me in Zoom, and then without any explanation or reason; they just kicked me out”, complained Kramnik who claims the platform’s actions to be illegitimate since the Play-In phase was only a qualifier and did not have any prize money at stake. Kramnik also pointed out the absence of a proctor/admin from the Zoom meeting, while he scree-recorded his POV for the YouTube video. “no check? I knew that YOU Did have this Believe in Humanity“, mocked the Ukrainian, Anton Korobov.
While the Play-In phase of the CCT events doesn’t offer prize money, they do offer qualification to Play-offs which decide the distribution of a $150,000 prize fund. In this case, Kramnik lost the only round he played against Andrew Hong, however, what would have happened had he won the game? Would his opponent have protested? While there is no definitive proof that Kramnik received an invitation from ChessCom, a banned player being allowed to join a high-stakes event like that is reckless. There have been no, publicly known, escalations from players, however, it would interesting to see if ChessCom comes out to address the matter publicly.
