Returning to Untitled Tuesday | Dumpling Man and ThirstyMonster!

we are back here today to recap a special event where i did surprisingly well and just felt like it would be a good idea to summarize. it took place on August 2nd, 2022 where i had a really good run only losing one game but surprisingly throwing away first place in a funny way. the event was streamed and commentated by many returning icons like @ricechessmaster1, @strider28cpkTwitch and the legendary streamer @ThirstyMonster putting us in the spotlight.

over 36 consecutive players continued to shine returning to the beloved Untitled Tuesday club and proceeding to have fun with the iconic format. granted i was a bit surprised some players were missing but in general the whole event was a blast especially with players like Thomas known as @MathPerson2015 who took the final game by storm winning through tiebreaks.

GAME 1 - My only loss and against a LOW RATED player

so yeah its my first game and i am playing my opponent @vik-mouse-slip in the first round thinking "ah yes this will be a easy win" and then he plays the fantasy which i really hate. As a Caro-Kann player i struggle against the fantasy and often have a hard time figuring what to do even against low rated players, i am going to try and study this one to be prepared next time.

so it was a bit frustrating but the thing about vik is that his run on burning the 2000's doesn't end here. he actually managed to beat @typewriter44, @patzers @treemonkeya, and even @Misterfox120, a competitor i play regularly now in USCF blitz tournaments online. Vik ultimately has pulled the most upsets against all the advanced OG players who were all pretty much 2000 level which is insane for someone at his level, he ended at #5 but had a great event.

GAME #2 ALMOST throwing against another LOW rated but we take those!

the second round came in and i was battling @GoldenDegree, thinking again this should be an easy win but i will have to really focus and try not to throw it away. we get into an endgame where i am up a knight and i blunder a draw but SURPISINGLY he blundered a tactic and couldn't stop my passed pawn so i ended up promoting and checkmating him with 2 queens

alright so where did we end up once again? positions bad, opening was bad and the endgame i was throwing once more into a drawn position but luckily he blundered a7 and then since promotion was inevitable, i win the game and with 2 queens too but very undeserved ending.

GAME 3 Another OG Gamer BATTLE

so its round 3 and here now i face @VivoJ who is a well known member of the Untitled Tuesday community being there for a lot of years and is a fan of the tournaments. we went into an exchange caro and the game was just practically a very grinding positional ending, nuff said.

the ending was a bit unfortunate for my opponent but he realized that the ending was just Zugzwang, a chess term used to describe how you are forced to only make bad moves as you eventually run out of any playable good moves. vivo in the endgame was simply down a pawn and resigned as he knew that i would be able to infiltrate and promote quickly, GG vivo

GAME 4 HIKARU FAN VS HIKARU FAN?!!

the fourth round of Untitled Tuesday followed my game against @casilla32 who has a hikaru profile picture and we both enter a Nakamura themed position with opposite fianchettoing. the game itself was practically an ok game, i kind of forgot about it but in general it really was just a nice game following basic principles, looking at tactics and undermining key defenders to win.

alright so a practical position, seems very nice looking at these B3 lines and how the bishop seemingly got trapped. the positions themselves weren't quite captivating rather they were normal and had lots of chances for both sides being usually a long grind. not much to look after the bishop blunder but again it was a nice game by me, pretty decent conversion so next one

Round 5, facing the leader Thomas in a LONG CARO

it was round 5 and i knew i was gonna have to face him sooner or later so here we go, we are playing @mathperson2015 who i have actually played a couple of times in the pool. Thomas is a interesting player and we both enter a very long grind which goes extremely wrong later on.

so very cool using the "bok technique" at the end which is how @gothamchess managed to beat @GMBenjaminBok in Titled Tuesday 8 months ago. now we pretty much are back into trying to claim the #1 spot in standings but @krishsna was still holding and i needed to win...

ROUND 6 - overtaking Krishna at the #1 spot

sticking to basics i pretty much use what i know, trust myself in the positions and try to stay calm despite knowing i am facing the current #1 spot holder. Krishna was defending and playing very well until the pawn blunder which i deeply calculated the rest was just truly mesmerizing.

alright so a very deep calculation after rc4 and yes i had to give back the rook but i kinda determined it to be the right decision considering the pawn advantage and superior king safety. after this game i overtook krishsna and claimed the #1 spot for myself but then the next game is quite the rollercoaster which even shocked a recognizable legendary chess.com streamer.

ROUND 7, the UNBELIEVABLE SWINDLE?!

for round 7 i was facing @AyushMChessMator and the game itself was kind of a crazy swindle as i blundered a pawn for no reason in the middlegame cause i was trying to play actively and then i managed to go into a knight endgame where i somehow stole the game shocking many.

so wow just wow what a ending that was where many people just couldn't believe what had happened as Ayush was completely winning but threw away a unfortunate win. @ThirstyMonster was streaming this spectating in the background along with many claiming "he called it" that i would swindle the game and it turned out true, here is the infamous clip.

(edit the reason the clips not here is that it wont embed for some reason)

so quite the shock and a bit brutal for Ayush but there we go, onto the next round

ROUND 8 Drawing with Strider, a Missed Win

After that insane swindle i was feeling pumped as there was only 3 more games left to go so i was thinking this would be in the bag. i was playing @strider28cpktwitch a known legend in the chess.com community who has even managed to beat @josepm at one point. i was absolutely dominating the game until i managed to threw sadly in the endgame leading to a sad draw

ROUND 9 a streamer draw between a wizard and a Dumpling Man

now the reasoning behind this draw is simply cause i thought i had better tiebreaks and that @mathperson2015 wouldn't be able to catch me anymore. well i was wrong.... and i should have probably kept pressing forward as winning this game alongside the last one would have won the event for me but at the time i didn't really care much and rice was just happy with a draw.

then we go onto the last game and the last game was absolutely bad but i managed to win it against @TrueDarkFear but as i said before cause of the draw my tiebreaks actually lost so in the end regardless of the fact that i was winning against thomas, i had to actually beat rice to win.

ROUND 10, the final game against FEAR?!!

this game was just a huge mess but made me laugh a bit in the end though really i was just hoping my tiebreaks were good but i realized they weren't so despite winning this game being down a rook, a piece and the engine saying it was -25 at one point, i still didn't get first lol

so yeah ultimately it was my own confidence and belief that playing it safe would win me the event but that unfortunately wasn't the case. as i stated in the beginning @mathperson2015 won the event in style perfectly and that's practically it, he went through a good comeback.

it felt nice automatically returning to Untitled Tuesday especially when i know i am at my lowest point so winning this event honestly kinda made my day a little better yesterday. At the time of this writing i have already messaged the participants involved in my games and if you are interested yourself in joining, go help and support by being a member of Untitled Tuesday.

thank you all again for the games, hope you have enjoyed my recap and once more GG champs