Announcing the Crazyhouse World Championship 2025

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Hello dear Crazyhouse lovers!

We’re excited to announce the next edition of the Crazyhouse World Championship (CWC), with a total prize fund of €1000, kicking off in just a few weeks!

The organisers are: @visualdennis, @FischyVishy, @QueenRosieMary and @Zaraza.

This year’s format is designed to bring thrills at every stage, combining multiple formats: Qualifiers Arena, Double Knockout Elimination, Candidates, and the Grand Final.

This announcement will focus on the format, schedule, and prizes. A separate post covering detailed rules and guidelines will be shared on the Official Lichess Crazyhouse Team forum, which will also serve as the main channel for official communication (e.g. match scheduling, announcements, etc.). @CWCOfficial will be used to send all team messages related to CWC.

For general discussion about the event and Crazyhouse in general, we strongly recommend joining the dedicated Crazyhouse Discord channel on the Lichess Discord Server. (Note: You must join the Lichess Discord Server first to access the channel.)

Format Overview:

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Stage 1: Qualifier Arenas

First, we will have 8 Qualifiers, running from late June to late July. In each Qualifier, the Top 4 players will advance to the Double Elimination Knockout Stage. Games will be played in 3+2, and the 2.5-hour arenas will have no berserking or streak bonuses.

Here you can find the full list of tournaments:

Entry conditions for the Arenas: Participants must use an account that is at least two months old and has played a minimum of 50 rated Crazyhouse games. Participants must only play on one account for the duration of the event.

Stage 2: Double Elimination Knockout Bracket

Next, the 32 players who qualify from the Arenas will compete in a Double Elimination Knockout Bracket (seeded based on an average rating formula) to earn their spot in the Candidates Stage.

Double Elimination: Two brackets (main and losers) run in parallel. A player is eliminated from the tournament after losing in the losers bracket.

In this stage, players are expected to schedule their matches with opponents within a two-week window. Each match will be a best-of-10 series, following the same format and rules as in previous CWC editions.
In case of a 5–5 tie, players will continue with mini-matches (best of 2) until a winner is decided (at least 1.5–0.5 score).

Below is a visual representation showing the flow of rounds in this stage:

Explanation: In the first round, all 32 players begin in Group A (Main Bracket). The 16 winners remain in Group A, while the 16 losers move to Group B (Losers Bracket). In each subsequent round, players who lose in Group A will drop into Group B (as indicated by pink numbers in the bracket chart).

For example, the first round of Group B will begin with 16 players. After the round, 8 winners will advance in Group B, while 8 players will be eliminated (shown in red) from the tournament. Meanwhile, the 8 players (shown in pink) who lost their matches in Group A will join the 8 winners from Group B, bringing the total to 16 players for Round 2 of Group B.

The final 2 players in Group A and the last 4 players in Group B will qualify for the Candidates Stage.

This stage will run from August onward. Exact dates will be posted on the Forum before the end of the Qualifiers.

Stage 3: Candidates Stage

Six players will be joined by two wildcards, selected by the organisers, making a total of eight players. This stage will be played in a round-robin format, where each player plays one match against every other candidate. Each match will consist of 10 games, with no tie-break mini-matches, unlike in the Double Elimination stage. In case of a tie in match points, total game points will be used as the tiebreaker in the standings. The top two players in the Candidates will advance to the Grand Final. As before, matches are expected to be scheduled and completed within a one-week period.

Stage 4: Grand Final

As in previous editions of the CWC, the final will consist of 60 games, played across three separate dates (20 games per day). The winner will be the player who scores best out of 60.

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Timeline

Prizes:

The total prize fund, with a guaranteed minimum of €1000, will be distributed among the Candidates and Finalists as shown below:

• Winner of the event: €300
• Runner-up: €200
• 3rd place in the candidates: €120
• 4rd place in the candidates: €110
• 5rd place in the candidates: €90
• 6rd place in the candidates: €70
• 7rd place in the candidates: €60
• 8rd place in the candidates: €50

Donations:

Community contributions towards this prize pool can be made here: https://tiltify.com/@lichess/personal/cwc-2025-prize-fund

If community donations fall below €1000, the organisers will cover the difference. If donations exceed the target, the additional funds will be distributed proportionally, following the same prize structure.

Side Event - Crazyhouse960 Arenas

This year will also feature a Crazyhouse960 side event, hosted on Pychess.org:

• Two 3+2 Arenas, one in August and one in September (dates TBA)
• Winners of each Arena will play a best-of-10 match in 5+5 Time Control.
• Winner of the match: $30
• Runner-up: $20

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We hope you’ll join us for an another exciting edition of the CWC.
Let’s make it a tournament to remember!