Top 7 Chess Moments of 2020!

2020 is finally over, I think we can all agree 2020 was one of the worst years of our lives, with the entire pandemic, everyone was forced to stay at home. Although for chess, 2020 was a great year for chess. With more people forced home on their computers, more people started joining chess.com, and then with the release of the Netflix Series, "The Queen's Gambit". Chess started to boom! With the addition of the tournament Pogchamps, chess became more popular thanks to streamers like Hikaru, GothamChess, Samay Raina, and BotezLive. Anyways. these are the Top 7 Chess Moments of 2020, Enjoy!

7. Supi vs. Carlsen - 18. Qc6!!

For those of you who have already seen the game, you may disagree with me! You might think this deserves at least a Top 5 spot, but since this game wasn't in any major tournament and was just a random blitz game played on Chess.com, this ranks as #7. For those of you who have not seen the game, take a look! 

The World Champion and arguably the greatest chess player of all time, GM Magnus Carlsen, created a chess.com account (@menugarden) in an attempt of beating @hikaru on the leaderboard, and becoming the #1 rated blitz player on chess.com! Before you get confused, GM Luis Paulo Supi is playing white, while the world champion is playing black. Supi ended up winning this game in just 18 moves against the World Champion! Also if you have to time, make sure to watch Levy Rozman's amazing analysis on this game since it'll probably be a lot more helpful than my annotations! Well, how did Supi beat the World Champion? Well, you're about to find out

6. Anand vs. Nepomniachtchi - Anand Wins With Insane Preparation!

At #6 we have Anand playing against Nepo in the Online Nations Cup! Anand beat Nepo in just 17 moves, Anand is very famous for his preparation and the entire game was all prep. If that isn't crazy enough, this line was first shown to Anand around 10 years ago! Again, if you have the time, please watch the video above! Anyway, let's see how Anand did it!

5. Amin vs. Hikaru - A Brilliant Premove Interference!

As we enter the Top 5, we have more moments and this was one of the most memorable moments, where Hikaru prevented a premove by basically hanging a piece. To understand this one you should watch the clip, this trick only works in online chess since you can't premove OTB... and someone can't make a move in less than 0.1 seconds without delay or increment. Take a look how Nakamura did it!

4. Sarana vs. Sarin - Insane Knight Checkmate!

Some of you may have never heard of Nihal Sarin, but this 16-year-old prodigy from India one of my favorite chess players. If you didn't know, this guy is a BEAST in bullet, his chess.com account, @nihalsarin's has a bullet peak of 3382! His style is quite unique, he plays solid moves and then once his opponent makes a single mistake, he strikes. In this game in the Finals of the SCC Championship, he turned a dead draw position into an insane knight checkmate. Let's see how he did and let's see if YOU can do it!

3. xQc vs. moistcr1tika - xQc gets Checkmated in Six Moves!

This was probably the most memorable chess moment to the entire world! This moment even made it in MrBeast's Youtube Rewind. Although for us "serious" chess fans this wasn't impressive as some of the other moments! xQc and Cr1tikal are not serious chess players like Magnus or Hikaru. They are famous streamers on twitch who participated in Pogchamps a tournament which brought lots of attention to Chess on twitch. All streamers have been trained or mentored by streamers like Hikaru, GothamChess, BotezLive, DanielNaroditsky, and many more. In this game, xQc got checkmated in just 6 moves! Just look at Hikaru's reaction! Let's see how xQc possibly lost in 6 moves. 

2. Tigran L Petrosian Cheating Drama in The Pro Chess League!

Please, watch the video above, this drama is hard to explain so when you have the time, watch the video! (And subscribe to GothamChess). In the PRO Chess League, both in the Semi-finals and Finals, Tigran Petrosian played brilliantly! He played like top engine, and better than the world champion! Instead of looking up like Hikaru Nakamura, he looked down! In fact, he played so good, that Wesley So accused Tigran of cheating! This was Tigran's famous response.

"Are you kidding ??? What the **** are you talking about man ? You are a biggest looser i ever seen in my life ! You was doing PIPI in your pampers when i was beating players much more stronger then you!  You are not proffesional, because proffesionals knew how to lose and congratulate opponents, you are like a girl crying after i beat you!  Be brave, be honest to yourself and stop this trush talkings!!! Everybody know that i am very good blitz player, i can win anyone in the world in single game! And "w"esley "s"o is nobody for me, just a player who are crying every single time when loosing, ( remember what you say about Firouzja ) !!! Stop playing with my name, i deserve to have a good name during whole my chess carrier, I am Officially inviting you to OTB blitz match with the Prize fund! Both of us will invest 5000$ and winner takes it all!   
I suggest all other people who's intrested in this situation, just take a look at my results in 2016 and 2017  Blitz World championships, and that should be enough...   No need to listen for every crying babe,  Tigran Petrosyan is always play Fair ! And if someone will continue Officially talk about me like that, we will meet in Court! God bless with true! True will never die ! Liers will kicked off... "

If you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic above, Tigran still denies himself cheating, here's a clip of Tigran looking down! Definitely one of the most hilarious and memorable chess moments of 2020.

1. Nakamura vs. Xiong - Nakamura Plays the Bongcloud!

Here we are, the #1 chess moment of 2020, Hikaru Nakamura in the last round of the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament, plays the Bongcloud! Levy and Anna's reaction makes this moment even better. Not only that, but Hikaru Nakamura actually won! Since I don't understand Bongcloud plans, here is the game annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov!

What a year for chess! I want to continuously blog throughout 2021! I wonder what 2021 has in store for us? Who knows, maybe next year I'll make another Top 7! If you disagree with my ranking, then make sure to state your opinion in the comments below. Which was your favorite moment and why? I know for sure that the Tigran Petrosian incident will always be remembered. Thanks for reading, and may the best happen to you in 2021!