Queen Blunders by Grandmasters? Chess960 Championship
We've all been there, leaving our queens to be captured in classic Botez Gambit fashion, and grandmasters are no different.
Day 3 of the Chess.com Chess960 Championship witnessed many hanging queens but shown here are two unbelievable Botez Gambit (accepted) positions from grandmasters in Qualifier 6.
GM Kirill Alekseenko in the following position decided to... castle??
After the simple Nxf2 with no way to save the queen in the corner, there was not any way to generate counterplay as black traded and pressed with GM Alekseenko's resignation following 17 moves later. Congrats to @Cha_ChaRealSmooth (who is a Chess.com streamer!) on the win.
GM Adham Fawzy joined in on the queen blunders with their own Qc5?? intending to trade queens. See if you can find the brilliant move played by black that wins the queen. Hint: it's a deflection tactic.
Re1+!! Forcing the bishop to capture (if Kc2, Qb3# is checkmate). The queen on c5 then becomes free to take. GM Fawzy resigned a few moves later as the position couldn't be saved.
The results for Qualifier 5 & 6 saw GM Denis Lazavik and GM Andrew Hong moving through to the finals with GM Fabiano Caruana coming up short in both at 2nd place.
Qualifier 6 saw 2 non-titled players crack the Top 10!
In total there were 974 players who participated in the day's qualifier events! Will you play the last two qualifiers? If you would like to participate and have a chance to play against grandmasters (who may blunder their queens), read the announcement for the Chess.com Chess960 Championship using the button below.
Leave a comment if you played in any of the qualifiers or if you plan on playing in the final two qualifiers. Share your games, upsets, brilliant moves, heartbreaking blunders or anything you want related to the Chess960 Championship and I can pick a few to include in my next blog!
Wondering what is Chess960? Read Chess.com's article .
Here is a bonus Square Poem about Chess960 that I composed after being inspired by @NkosiTheChessPoet and his poem The Chessmen
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