Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - April 3rd and 7th

For the reminder about this week's events, see https://www.chess.com/news/view/untitled-tuesday-reminder-and-saturday-event-4048

The April recap was written by @SmyslovFan

April 2018 Untitled Tuesday

On April 27, 2017, the Untitled Tuesday group was formed. The idea was pretty simple, to give untitled players the same sort of monthly tournament that titled players enjoy here. It's been a great success!

There are currently more than 1200 members of the club, and this April's Tuesday Tournament had 40 players. 22 players finished the ten round event, and the event was extremely closely contested. First place scored 8 out ten, and there was a tie for second and third at 7.5/10. The result wasn't confirmed until the last round.

The highest rated player at the start of the event was EveryFishKnows, at 2126. As usual for this tournament though, the top seeds rarely do well. This is because every fish knows that it's much harder to maintain a high rating when playing in a competitive tournament where there are no bloated, overrated titled fish to feed from. (I sure hope no bloated, overrated title fish actually read this!)

To prove the point, @ericbowiereed was rated more than 400 points lower than @Everyfishknows, and managed a first round upset draw. Here's the game:

This wasn't the only big game from the first round!

@Bluegalaxy4, rated 2066, ran into @Stephen_Stanfield, rated almost exactly 400 points lower, and drew.

Apart from the upsets, there were some excellent games in the first round, too. Take a look at how @Grandmaster2b handled his first round game. @IPersist didn't persist for long in the tournament, dropping out after three rounds.

But the big upset of the first round was @no-limitMkbr's +450 point win over @Lllionking!

The early rounds had many exciting games. In round three, one of the tournament regulars, @bluegalaxy4 faced the top seed, @everyfishknows. The ensuing battle was one of the toughest of the entire tournament! 

Sadly, but understandably, @Everyfishknows withdrew from the tournament after this devastating defeat. @Bluegalaxy4 started the tournament well, scoring 3.5 out of 4 in the first rounds. He couldn't quite keep that pace up for the entire tournament though. He finished tied for second with 7.5 out of 10. @CP6033 also started with 3.5/4. But he hit a rough patch in the middle of the tournament and finished tied for fourth.

@Bluegalaxy4 features in several fascinating games from this tournament. Here's his round six game against @CP6033:

The tournament saw many mini-streaks by the front runners. The battle for first place was heavily contested, but @Grandmaster2B set the pace when he won four games in a row staring in round 3. Misowalker started slowly, but scored five wins and two draws in the last seven rounds to close the gap and finished second.

The hottest player in the first half of the tournament was @kstorn, who won all five of his first five games. The key game for @kstorn was his round 6 game against @Grandmaster2B:

Round 6 turned out to be critical for determining the eventual winners. Here's CP6033's round 6 game against Bluegalaxy4:

One of the key games of the entire tournament was in round 8. @Grandmaster2B was beginning to run away with the event with 6 out 7 and was facing @Misowalker who had started off slowly but now had 5 out of 7. These two could soon be playing in Titled Tuesday events based on their play here! Here's their game:

That setback brought the field closer to @Grandmaster2B, but he took care of business in the last rounds. He beat me in round 9, then won comfortably against @CFalcons8, who finished 12th in the last round. 

There were still many exciting games in the last two rounds though. Here's a fascinating game between @chessguy1012 (1867) and @ChessZone9937 (1906) from round 9:

And at the top of the table, @Misowalker finally faced @Bluegalaxy4 in round 9:

This set up a very tight finish. Going into round 10, Misowalker had caught up with Grandmaster2B with 7 out of 9 each. Since they'd already played each other and all the other contenders, they were faced with relatively softer competition than they'd seen. @Grandmaster2B won comfortably to reach 8 out of 10. This was @Misowalker's tenth round game:

The final places were confirmed when @Bluegalaxy4 won his last round game. @CP6033 joined the group at 6.5 in a tie for 4th-6th with this gem:

What a great way to finish the tournament! 

There were many great games in this tournament. Feel free to post your favorite games from the April tournament in this forum!

April Untitled Saturday Tournament Report!

The April Untitled Saturday event was held at 11:00am server time this month. This allowed some new and rarely seen  faces to join in the fun, including dangerous competitors such as Sweden's @MrDodgy who was rated 2160 for the event; @Midav_Veahkar with a rated 1726, but clearly much stronger than his rating @sanchesster rated 1997; and the tournament winner @Carpe_noctum who entered with an innocuous 1988 rating.

The field also included many regulars, including @bluegalaxy4, @MiddlegamerUmesh, @Marignon, @The_Helloer, @Capricorn95, @Lllionking, @RookSacrifice, and of course @MGleason among many others. All told, 29 players registered for the event and 15 completed every round.

The top see for the tournament was @Yourinsuil1991, sporting a very fashionable Icelandic flag and a very impressive 2169 rating. Unfortunately, this tournament is rarely kind to ratings beginning with a 2. When I first started playing this event, my own rating was +2200, and now after playing almost no other rated blitz games outside of the Untitled tournaments, I've dropped to 1972 for the event. @Yourinsuil1991 dropped out after losing in the second round.

The early rounds usually see quite a few upsets, and this tournament was no exception. In round one, @ImdAK, rated 1387, scored a huge upset, defeating @Llionking who was rated more than 500 points higher! How is such an upset possible? Take a look!

Saturday Round 1:

I was tied for first after five rounds, but fell apart in the second half of the tournament.  @Sanchesster went on a tear, scoring 4-0 in rounds 4-8. In the process, he knocked out @Llionking, @Maksim, myself, and @MrDodgy.

In round six, @SamuellFowler faced off against @Carpe_noctum. This ended up being the last chance for the field to catch the eventual tournament winner. @SamuellFowler had some excellent chances, but fell in a double-edged game:

After seven rounds, Carpe_noctum was in clear first with 6 points, and Sanchesster was second with 5. Those two coasted to first and second. But below them, @KaosKid surged into third by winning four of his last five games including each of his last three rounds. @Midav_Veakhar also made a move after a poor first half to earn 5th place. 

Here's Midav_Veakhar's 9th round game against MrDodgy.

 As I mentioned, @sanchesster played a very strong tournament and took second overall in fine style. However, in Round 9, he ran into a nasty attack by KaosKid: 

He recovered nicely however, and won his last round game in fine style:

 Congratulations to @Carpe_noctum for finishing clear first with an undefeated 8 out of 10 points! He faced six of the top ten finishers. 

@Sanchesster finished second, half a point back with 7.5 out of 10. He also faced six of the tournament's top ten

@KaosKid took sole third with 7 out of ten. He faced five of the top ten, scoring 3 points against them.

Congratulations to all those who completed the Saturday event! There were many great games played in this tournament. 

What was your favorite game of the tournament?