September 2023 chess.com recap

Hello! In this blog it's going to be my first recap blog. Today  I want to talk about what happened in the month of september for chess. So let's dive into it. 

Chess and clash of clans collab

The first major thing that happened was clash of clans and chess.com did a collab. This would lead to a new clash of clans  bots featuring: Barbarian (ELO 300) Giant (ELO 500) Goblin (ELO 700) Valkyrie (ELO 1000) Hog rider (ELO 1200) Witch (ELO 1500) Wizard (ELO 1900) P.E.K.K.A (ELO 2200) And the Archer queen (ELO 2900). Challenging all of those bots would come with a new background. They also added a new variant, Spell chess. Spell chess is a chess variant that is played with a twist. In this variant, every piece has a spell assigned to it, which can be cast by the player instead of making a regular move. For instance, a pawn can cast a spell to move two squares forward, an opponent's queen can be frozen, or the player's own knight can be teleported to any other square on the board. These magical spells can alter the course of the game and add an element of unpredictability and excitement to the game. To win, the player has to use their chess skills and strategic thinking while also taking advantage of the spells at their disposal. 

Frank and tyler1's Inspirational chess improvements.

The next big thing is @Frank hit 1000 elo and a@Tyler1 (I know that's not his chess.com username, but I forgot what it is) has been playing chess so much that he has played 1200 games of chess over the last month and has solved over 3500 puzzles. And if you don't know who tyler1 is I don't need to but I will tell you. 

Tyler1, whose real name is Tyler Steinkamp, is an American Twitch streamer, social media personality, and former professional League of Legends player. Also called "T1," (I think, I don't even know I don't watch tyler1) he is known for his entertaining streaming personality, his outspoken in-game commentary, and high-level gameplay skills in League of Legends.

Tyler1, who was born on March 7, 1995, hails from Missouri. He became prominent in the League of Legends community in 2016 for his aggressive playstyle and being one of the best Draven players.

Tyler1 has a significant following on Twitch, where he streams almost daily. He also has a YouTube channel, where he uploads videos of his highlights and general gaming content.

The chesskid feastival will be held on february 2024.  

Garry Kasparov stuns Hikaru

Garry Kasparov completely stuns hikaru. This game was played in st.Louis in chess960. And if you don't know what chess960 is I will tell you. 

 Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a variant of chess created by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. The idea behind Chess960 is to shuffle the starting position of the pieces on the back rank randomly, so that no two games start with the same position, but the pieces are still positioned symmetrically around the board. The bishops must be on differently colored squares, and the king must be placed between the rooks. 

The game retains the traditional rules of chess, but with a few exceptions. Since the back-rank pieces are not in their usual starting position, the initial position won't be based on opening memorization, so players will have to rely on their strategic and tactical skills. 

Chess960 can be played online and offline, and it is becoming more and more popular among chess enthusiasts as it offers a new and challenging approach to the game. Because I'm too lazy to put the game to put in the analysis, I will show the final 10 moves. 

the WILD endgame: 

KC3!! the reason that this the best move in that position is that if you were to play a4?? that loses to Kd5! H4 and then H5 you are in zuzwag and you lose. And after the race and garry takes a pawn the players agree on a draw. A insiane game. 

Magnus beats hikaru in the SCC

The Chess Speed Chess Championship is an annual online chess competition organized by Chess.com, one of the leading online platforms for playing and learning chess. The tournament features some of the best chess players from around the world competing against each other in rapid and blitz time controls.

Players compete in knockout format, with each round consisting of a series of 1-minute bullet games, 3-minute blitz games, and 5-minute rapid games. The winner of each match advances to the next round until a single champion is determined.

The Chess Speed Chess Championship has been held annually since 2016. The tournament has gained a lot of popularity and attracts players from all over the world. The championship offers a prize pool of several thousand dollars, making it one of the most lucrative online chess tournaments in the world. Many top grandmasters and elite players participate in the tournament, making it a highly competitive event. And Hikaru and Magnus were fighting for the win. I'm not going to show all of the games but I will show the final game which crowned the winner though. 

The final game:

Hikaru had a perfectly good position but after sacrificing the bishop twice.  Hikaru made a blunder which led Magnus to sacrifice THE ROOOOKKKS!! But I think the funniest part about this is the game ended in a draw because magnus would still win the SCC anyway either by a draw or by a win.  

Wrap up/Final Thoughts 

Over all, this has been a very good month for chess.com collaborating with different games and finally giving chess a long awaited update. I hope you enjoyed this blog and thank you so much for all of the support on the last blog, it was one of my best blogs ever and all of my time and effort was worth it. I might make a recap every month and might make a yearly recap in december but idk yet. I hope you guys had a good september  and see ya.