Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - December
2019 in review
@SmyslovFan survived a close challenge from @Miss_Tical and secured the overall Untitled Tuesday championship for 2019 in the very last tournament, winning by a mere 10 points, with @patzers close behind in third. He now has three consecutive annual championships after completely dominating 2017 and 2018; will anyone be able to dethrone him in 2020?
@Tudorache_M had the most tournament wins, with four. @Everyfishknows, who has now earned his NM title and is therefore no longer eligible to play in Untitled Tuesday events, was in second with three wins.
@Tudorache_M and @Miss_Tical were tied for the most podium spots, with six each. @cjxchess17 finished right behind, with five.
@patzers was the most consistently successful participant to never win a tournament, finishing with 90 points and three second-place results.
Full results for 2019 are here: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/event-history-and-leaderboard-2019
It was a successful year from a fair play perspective. Only a small handful of tournaments, mostly early in the year, had the top spots affected by fair play issues.
The December recap was written by @dpnorman.
Untitled Tuesday: December 3, 2019
Some Untitled Tuesday events are in doubt right until the end. The December 3, 2019 edition of Untitled Tuesday was very decidedly not one of those events, as it was dominated by a favorite who very nearly swept the field.
Flaccidmoves, the highest-rated entrant in the tournament, would earn nine points out of ten, leaving little question about who would emerge with the monthly title. Even so, within several of the games there were moments of doubt, including his second game of the event:
CrackLionIX blew an opportunity to take down a heavyweight, but two rounds later atoned for his mistakes with an upset victory against another one:
Flaccidmoves got back on track and won a pretty clean game against MastaOfDisastaa...
...but needed another minor miracle to survive SmyslovFan.
It wasn't until round seven that Flaccidmoves finally lost a game. Objectively, as is often the case, it was the result of a horrible blunder, but he was trying to survive what he thought was a very grim position.
That would be the only blemish, however. With 9/10 in the event, Flaccidmoves cruised to first place. The race for second was more interesting, as patzers, SmyslovFan, and Miss_Tical were all in the mix. The latter pulled off a big upset in the middle of the tournament and managed to string enough wins together down the stretch to tie for second.
In the final standings, Miss_Tical and SmyslovFan tied for second with patzers and SamuelIFowler not far behind, but no one ever threatened Flaccidmoves atop the standings. Detailed results athttps://www.chess.com/tournament/live/untitled-tuesday---december-1126120
Untitled Saturday: December 7, 2019
It is possible there has been a stronger Untitled Saturday in the history of the event, but this author hasn't seen it. The December Saturday event was probably stronger than the Tuesday event, which has not happened in this author's recollection. Many of the usual high-rated competitors we see in the Tuesday events played on Saturday, including MangoMankey...
...including cjxchess17, who recently competed in the Puzzle Battle championship:
...and tevdore2, who started coming into his own midway through the tournament.
Over the course of the event, tevdore2 would emerge as a solid competitor difficult to take down. His only loss happened in the first round, and it was the result of a horrific blunder in a previously won position:
Apart from that game, tevdore2 "suffered" a few draws, but increased his score every round, either by half a point or an entire point.
Another player who thrived in the tough field was Tudorache_M. After suffering that early loss to MangoMankey from a winning position, he proceeded to score 3.5 points in the next four rounds:
Late in the tournament, the two frontrunners faced off, with tevdore2 winning a very up-and-down contest. But tevdore2 made draws on occasion, while Tudorache_M won his last three games and finished on an incredible 6.5/8 run, so the two ended up tied at 7.5 points for the tournament lead.
The final spot on the podium went to cjxchess17, who had some hiccups early in the tournament but finished very strong, scoring 4.5 in the last five games:
Detailed results athttps://www.chess.com/tournament/live/saturday-event---december-1126121?&players=1
To play in future Untitled Tuesday tournaments, please join the Untitled Tuesday club: https://www.chess.com/club/untitled-tuesday. Entry is restricted to untitled players who have been on the site for at least three months.
The schedule of upcoming events is here: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/schedule-of-upcoming-events. We play two events per month; the first Tuesday of the month after chess.com's Titled Tuesday tournament finishes, and the following Saturday. The Saturday event rotates around several different start times to cater to different time zones.
