# Create a live draft for Chess

> Draft a fantasy chess pool live for a super-tournament — split the field between managers and score every round. Real-time, synced for your whole league, and everyone you invite plays free.

Canonical: https://livedraftit.com/create-live-draft-for/chess

Draft a fantasy chess pool live for a super-tournament — split the field between managers and score every round. Run a snake draft, a budget auction, or a hybrid of both — all in real time. Free to set up, $9 to take a draft live, and everyone you invite plays free.

Invited players free · Snake · Auction · Hybrid · Synced live clocks

## A board tuned for fantasy chess

Filter and sort players by position, team, and your own custom ratings so the right pick is always one tap away.

**Positions on the board:** Classical, Rapid, Blitz, Attacker, Endgame

**Draft the biggest names:** Load players from across the FIDE circuit and the Candidates — for example: Candidates Tournament, Tata Steel, Norway Chess, Grand Swiss

## How to run a fantasy chess draft

1. **Build your fantasy chess board.** Upload a CSV of players from the FIDE circuit and the Candidates with your own ranks and any rating columns you care about, or start from a template and edit it.
2. **Set the format and invite your league.** Choose a snake draft, a budget auction, or a hybrid of both, set the order or randomise it, then share one join link with your managers.
3. **Draft it live.** Every manager picks on the same synced clock. Auto-pick keeps the fantasy chess draft moving if someone loses signal, and the commissioner can undo a pick or skip a turn if it goes wrong.

## What matters in a fantasy chess draft

The board is only half of it — here is how fantasy chess leagues usually approach draft day.

Elite chess tournaments have small fields — eight to fourteen players — which makes them ideal for an auction. A snake draft with six managers and eight players is over before it is interesting.

Draws dominate classical chess, so scoring that rewards only wins produces enormous variance. Most leagues score a draw at half a point, exactly as the tournament does.

Rapid and blitz events are far more volatile than classical, which makes them the better format if you want a draft where the favourite does not simply win.

## The full draft engine, included

Every feature works for fantasy chess out of the box. No add-ons, no per-seat fees. Every format, live chat, spectating, auto-pick, photos on the board and anonymous auction bidding are standard; the full list is on [the homepage](https://livedraftit.com/#features).

$9 to run one draft, or $49 once for every draft you ever host. Start with one and it counts toward Lifetime. Everyone you invite plays free, forever. No seats, no per-player fees, no account upsell. 30-day money-back guarantee — no reason required. Details: [pricing](https://livedraftit.com/pricing).

## Chess draft questions

### Can I run a Chess draft with my own rankings?

Absolutely. Upload a CSV of players with your own ranks and custom columns, or start from a Chess template and tweak it. Your board, your rules.

### Does LiveDraft-It support Chess auctions?

Yes. Run a full budget auction for your Chess pool with per-manager budgets, minimum bid increments, anti-snipe extensions and optional anonymous bidding — or mix an auction and a snake draft together with the hybrid format.

### Is there a Chess template I can use?

Browse the template marketplace for community and system Chess datasets, or build your own in minutes and optionally share it with everyone.

More questions about pricing, formats and invites are answered on [the homepage](https://livedraftit.com) and the [pricing page](https://livedraftit.com/pricing).

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