Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - March

The March recap was written by @dpnorman.
Apologies for the delay on the February recap, caused by weather and internet troubles.

Untitled Tuesday: March 5, 2019

The March edition of Untitled Tuesday was headlined by two players, both high-rated in the field, winning games in two different and surprising ways. One, despite being one of the strongest in the event, found himself in much worse or even lost positions and benefited from tactical awareness and a bit of luck. The other found himself in equal or otherwise seemingly dull endings and routinely outplayed the opposition to net full points. Little was decided when these two players clashed midway through the tournament, but the home stretch would produce many fascinating games, as well as a clear winner.

The first of these two players is Everyfishknows, whose name should be familiar to all members of this group as one of the most frequent and successful participants. Through four rounds in this tournament, Everyfishknows was on 4/4, but every round presented a new shock.

In his second game, Everyfishknows faced off against toons1983 and after the dust of the middlegame settled, a king-and-pawn ending appeared on the board. An annoying thing about king-and-pawn endings is that they can so easily transform into queen endings, and queen endings are complicated and difficult to calculate. In the following game, not only was a queen ending imminent, but there was nothing at all either side could do to stop the opponent's passed pawn.

With these two thoughts in mind, toons1983, who even had the better end of the queen ending in question, decided to gain as much time on the clock as possible and premove his pawn down the board. This alone was his untimely mistake. 

The next round, Everyfishknows had been nursing a large advantage for most of the game against chessguy1012, but after spending large amounts of time looking for wins, he suddenly found himself down a pawn for no compensation. Fortunately for him, this only lasted a couple moves, as his opponent blundered a knight on c5 in an otherwise great position.

Meanwhile, another top seed in the event, Carlsenfalcificado3, won his first four games through very different means. Each of his first three games was certainly drawn at some point in the endgame, and he found a way to win each one with varying degrees of help from the opposition.

In the next game black, even after losing a pawn, likely could have held by passive defense, but ultimately succumbed to white's "bad bishop." 

Carlsenfalcificado3 won the third round in another unclear ending; actually he was rather worse at some point. 

When CarlsenFalsificado3 and Everyfishknows faced off in the fifth round, both entering with perfect scores, the game was quickly agreed drawn, although perhaps the former could have pressed a little with the white pieces. It would be their results in the rest of the event, and not their individual matchup, that would determine the winner. 

In the seventh round, Everyfishknows faced SmyslovFan and arrived at an ending a pawn down for absolutely nothing. Once again, out of nowhere, he was gifted a chance by the chess gods, and not only did he take this chance, but he showed us all that every fish knows how to mate with a bishop and a knight. 

CarlsenFalsificado3 meanwhile was the beneficiary of a shocking gift in the same round:

With no other information you might infer that things weren't going so well for Carpe_noctum, but this was the only game of his final six that he didn't win. These victories included two wins against the Kind's Indian, although at times things looked a little shaky:

In the final round, Everyfishknows entered with a half-point advantage over CarlsenFalsificado3, meaning that CarlsenFalsificado3 needed a win to have any chance at an outright victory and in any case a win by the former would clinch the tournament. The former made a rather quick and uneventful draw as black (albeit in a well-played game), while the latter, after playing so well for most of the event, blundered a piece in the opening and never recovered.

With a score of 8.5/10, Everyfishknows took home clear first in Untitled Tuesday, beating out CarlsenFalsificado3 and Carpe_noctum in second and third. Detailed results can be found athttps://www.chess.com/tournament/live/untitled-tuesday---march-1044131. 

Untitled Saturday: March 9, 2019

Like Untitled Tuesday this month, the Saturday event began with a usual suspect racking up a win streak. Schachmasteo, another fixture near the tops of Untitled leaderboards, won his first five games, looking like the best player in the field along the way:

A few rounds later he faced Astraferz and the game quickly exploded after an early Bxf2+.

In the sixth round, Schachmasteo lost to a player whose account has since been marked for fair play violations. To his credit, he didn't let this throw off his tournament and he won his next round to remain atop the leaderboards. 

Astraferz, meanwhile, had late-joined, meaning it would be difficult for him to seriously contend for first particularly with the loss. Yet he won enough games that he was consistently paired against the top finishers, including RaymondGao, who started on 1/3 and then went 6.5/7 the rest of the way:

RaymondGao's run to end the tournament was particularly impressive given that he was not exactly one of the highest-rated players in the field. He even took down Schachmasteo in the penultimate round, muddling the standings at the top of the tournament, even though it was entirely due to a shocking blunder:

The battle for third featured a large field including the two players in the game below. DevilishApples123 and CP6033 would each finish with 6.5 and shared third, along with DrWeirdBeard and maksim95.

To seal victory, Schachmasteo needed a last round win, as RaymondGao was very much on his heels. 

With this, Schachmasteo clinched clear first, with RaymondGao just behind him and the four players previously mentioned (CP6033, DevilishApples123, DrWeirdBeard, and maksim95) tied for third. Detailed results athttps://www.chess.com/tournament/live/saturday-event---march-1044132?&players=1