Round 1 Was a MESS! - 2024 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship

I didn't even know this tournament existed up until 5 days before it started.

After signing up for the tournament and looking up the participants, I told myself, "winning is likely impossible, but surely I'll get past round 2, right?"

BIG mistake...

I waited patiently for the games to start (and by patiently, I mean scrolling through all groups and seeing up to what group number has started playing). And then, it began.

Right off the bat, one player in my group straight up aborts their games. 24 hours later, 4 players timed out with making 0-1 moves, followed by another 2 players timing out a bit later in the opening. 7 down, 4 to go. That's 14 points in the bag already, time to get the remaining 8.

4 of these games were relatively easy wins, with checkmates here, here, and a rather beautiful one here, as well as a resignation here. Nothing much to talk about in those games, really. The last 2 players, however, were a completely different story...

One of the players was the top seed in my group, Alexandre_Sacha0, rated only 1600 in daily but a whopping 2100 in rapid. I knew this wasn't going to be easy, so I gave it my all. In both games, I calculate every turn for 3-5 moves ahead or even 10 in forcing lines.

Alexandre_Sacha0 play relatively solidly in middlegames, but he is an endgame beast. In my game with White, I played theory up until move 12 and was clearly better, but after a few moves out of book, I lost all my advantage and was even losing after a blunder. I went into an endgame completely lost, but some tricks were still in play starting from the position below. I played Ba5, which although is a mistake, has a trick behind it that Black misses, and I brought the game back to a draw. Can you find the winning move here?

A great move isn't it? Simple, yet effective. Now, going back a move,

Soon after though, I blundered the game back on move 41, and was totally lost, 2 pawns down. I kept fighting and fighting, and eventually... I secured a DRAW after Black blundered with 63... a2+ and I can now either force a stalemate or win that pawn on a2.

In my other concurrent game, playing with Black, the opening and middlegame was relatively equal. We both missed a few chances, and eventually got into a dead even position. I found a great idea, as shown in the position below, and White simply cannot do anything.

White, however, started moving back and forth along the d-file, and caught me off guard which allowed him to play 63... Rd5! The g-pawn is now defended and I am dead lost. I tried calculating endless variations which was to no avail as White effortlessly found the best moves and finished the game up a rook, and I resigned.

A devastating lost... I am now in the brink of elimination, and had to win both my remaining games against Grey_Eyed to even have a chance of qualifying.

In my game with Black, the opening was relatively calm, but a messy middlegame proved advantageous to me as my opponent blundered into a totally losing endgame where I had a very strong passed g-pawn. White ended up losing a rook and resigned soon after.

One, final game remaining... And it was off to a terrible start.

In this game where I played as White, I blundered a very simple pin very early on in the opening. However, upon analyzing the game, it was much more than just a pin. After 14. Ke1, Black can simply play Bxd5 and be up a piece, but the best move is actually Nxd5, which Black indeed played. Fortunately for me though, Black failed to see the correct continuation and brought the game back to equality. Can YOU find the right moves to win the game?

Black instead played 15... Qxa5+, which is still winning, but again, only if Black can find the right continuation. Take a look at the line below along with the rest of the game.

After winning this game, I ended with 20.5/22, which is a marvelous score. However, my one loss against Alexandre_Sacha0 was enough to eliminate me from round 1, and allow him to advance instead with a score of 21.5/22.

Overall, I had a great tournament. I didn't play a lot of daily before, so my rating increased by a whopping 344 points after this tournament. Will definitely join again next year, and surely I'll get past round 1, right?