2021 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship - Round 4

Daily Chess Championship - Round 4

No more, only exactly 15 players out of over 16,000 managed to advance to the fourth round of 2021 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship. It is nice to be in such elite group.

I thought it would be the final round. It turns out that the regulations do not allow groups larger than 12 people. That's why we have 2 groups, so it can be considered a semi-final.

After 24.09.2021

So far  I didn't manage  to win any game but instead I have 2 draws and one spectacular defeat.

Let's start from the rook endgame:

Puzzle 1:

Link to above game

Then I missed some tactics and lost quite important game against GM. I was playing black -  French Defense - as always after e4 . And after the opening I had one pawn more with quite promising position. One serious mistake and the game was over

Lets practice

Puzzle 2:

Link to above game

After 02.10.2021

This round is going to be finished soon. Looking at the tournament tables for both semi-finals, the final will most likely be a repeat from last year. But I have still some chances to be first or to share first place. 

As for my games, the situation has improved a bit. I've already won some games, including two full of tricks and tactics. Let me present these games:

Best #1:

Best #2:

And another rook endgame . Playing white against GM I changed the position rating ten times during my game. Sometimes I calculated that I would loose and soon after I was finding draw. 

While here my analyzes were carried out without the aid of a computer maybe there are some tricks in endgame I have already missed. If you find something interesting of course you can comment it on my blog.

Let me present my other games in the form of puzzles:

Puzzle 3:

This is quite simple but final position looks pretty funny .

Link to above game

Puzzle 4:

A few moves before my position (I was playing white) was really difficult. Now an opportunity has come to improve it.

Link to above game

Puzzle 5:

This puzzle will be also quite simple. It is not common to create puzzle while opponent has already resigned like during this game:

Link to above game

14.10.2021

With 9 and half points and one ongoing game I am already on third place. My chances of advancing to the final round are slim and strongly depend not only on my game.

And the last game I have already finished. Also rook endgame ... 2 Rooks + 4 pawns vs. 2 Rooks + 3 pawns. After pawn exchange and one trap I managed to get such position: