Blogs
Ultimate Sensei 2 - 3rd Power Rankings

Ultimate Sensei 2 - 3rd Power Rankings

ChessDojo
| 6

by Mitch Fabian

Scores from the Endgame Challenge:
Drittman: 5
Morphyfan: 4
Seth: 4
Rengaw: 3.5
Velcrodot: 3
Falk: 2
ChessNumbers: 1.5
Lula: 1

There were two other big pieces of news beyond the Endgame Challenge: LulaRobs and velcrodot withdrew from the competition; Lula has been replaced by TheEndxX and velcrodot by Chess_Maestro2021. Meanwhile, the Tactics Challenge was resolved when ChessNumbers defeated Rengaw 4-1 in a final shootout.

INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
1. Morphyfan – With AkaBlueJae out of the event, 1st place was open for someone else to take, and Morphyfan has seized it for my list. He got 4/4 in the draft tournament and tied for 2nd in the endgames challenge. I think that this is a pretty good claim for 1st.
2. Drittman – Drittman won the endgame challenge, securing a top seed in the final event. He was unable to participate in the tactics challenge, but my scouts tell me he may have performed very well. I was unable to move his ranking last time due to not participating, but clearly he is far from 8th where I had him before.
Seth – Seth killed it in the endgame challenge, and also got 3rd in the tactics challenge. He is clearly a top half candidate.
4. ChessNumbers – I was high on Tai when he did so well in the tactics challenge, but then he followed it up with a really poor performance in the endgame challenge, unfortunately. It brought back the worries I had from the draft tournament, where he got 2nd in the tournament, but kind of got away with robbery. I think that Tai needs to work on his consistency, which will be a deciding factor in the final tournament.
5. Rengaw – Rengaw is a new addition to the group, replacing AkaBlueJae, who no longer will be participating in the event. I don’t have much to go off of when ranking Rengaw, since he hasn’t participated in any event other than the endgame challenge. He also played the finals of the tactics challenge, losing to ChessNumbers. He is the highest rated in the event, so he has good chances.
6. Falk – What can I say about Falk? He did extremely well in the rapid draft tournament and got 1st draft. Unfortunately, since then, he has placed pretty low during the challenges. His power ranking has been moved down a lot, as scoring consistently low in the challenges must mean something to the rankings. I still expect him to do well in the final rapid event, but have his opponents outgrown him?

There is no data yet to figure out where to rank TheEndxX and Chess_Maestro2021, so this Saturday's Showcase and Rapid Exhibition Matches, from noon to 3 pm pacific, will be one of few chances to get a look at them before the Finals on Jan 22-23. And of course, check out their private lessons on Sasha and Andras' channels!

TEAM RANKINGS
Team Kostya – Drittman scored big in the endgame challenge, and Falk has shown in the past that he is a force to be reckoned with. If both bring their A game, Team Kostya could come away with the team title.
Team Mat – Seth is consistently showing that he is a top 4 contender. However, his partner is inconsistent. Will top-tier Tai show up? Or will bottom-half Tai show up? Mat still has a few weeks to help his team take the crown.
Team Andras – Team Andras has a lot going for them – Morphyfan. But it also has to adjust to the latest substitution. I hope to see Andras work extra with Chess_Maestro2021 to bring him quickly into the swing of the competition. 
Team Sasha - Team Sasha took a big hit losing AkaBlueJae. Thankfully, the elimination challenge was removed, so Sasha is sure to have both her substitutes in the Finals.

As we saw last season, if you can get two top 4, you basically are secured the Ultimate Sensei title. Right now it seems that Teams Kostya and Mat have the best chance of achieving that.

WEIGHTED INDIVIDUAL POWER RANKINGS

Player Mitch's Ranking David's Ranking Average Ranking
1. Morphyfan 1 1 1
2. drittman 2 3 2.5
3. ChessNumbers 4 2 3
4. Seth 3 4 3.5
5-6th Rengaw 5 6 5.5
5-6th Falk 6 5 5.5

ChessDojo
IM Kostya Kavutskiy, Jesse Kraai and David Pruess

Hi! Team account for GM Jesse Kraai, IM Kostya Kavutskiy, and IM David Pruess.

ChessDojo is a learning community with a discord hub, a twitch stream, and a youtube channel with entertaining and instructive chess material.

Find us at:

Website: chessdojo.club

Discord: https://discord.gg/sUUh8HD 

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/chessdojo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4liTXRJ-XknH6OtKz-tOuw

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chess_dojo

Patreon: https://patreon.com/chessdojo 

Chess.com Group: https://www.chess.com/club/chessdojo