Martinez Is King of The Hill In Variants Final

It's hard to imagine a better week for GM Jose Martinez, who, after sweeping Titled Tuesday just two days prior, went on to win Chess.com's first Variants Community Series (VCS) Final.

His march to victory, and a $1,000 first-place prize, included two 3-0 sweeps, against IM Ruben Kollner in the Quarterfinals and then, in the Final, against French streamer and content creator NM Kevin Bordi (Blitzstream).

This seven-week cycle featured King of the Hill. The second cycle of the VCS begins after a week break, on November 2, and runs every Thursday starting at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST/21:30 IST. The chosen variant, by community vote, will be 3 Check Chess. 

The VCS is a series of events for streamers and the chess variants community. Each seven-week cycle is centered around one variant. Every Thursday for six weeks, participants compete in a two-hour arena of that variant, where the prize fund per cycle is $3,750 plus 610 Twitch/Kick subs. More details can be found here.

The Thursday of Week 7 is the Final, the focus of this article. The eight winners from previous weeks (six arena winners and two top-scoring streamers) were pitted in a single-elimination knockout bracket. Each match was a best of four with a time control of 3+2. 

Of 31 total games in the Final, there were just two draws. Since the variant adds a third way of winning the game, besides checkmate or winning on time, it is perhaps even more surprising that there were any draws at all.

Martinez, more popularly known as Jospem (his username), was smooth sailing in the Quarterfinals where he won all three games and skipped the fourth. He won games one and three by placing his king in the center, but he finished game two with a checkmate on the board:

Bordi, who streamed live and would go on to play in the final round, had a markedly more difficult time against Polish GM Zbigniew Pakleza. After their four games ended in an even score, they played two 1+2 games—both were won, finally, by Bordi. 

The second is entertaining as it features a strategy that is specific to only this variant and simply does not exist in regular chess. Black sacrificed his knight with 26...Nce5!, then the exchange, to break down the white center. The same kamikaze knight completed its duty with 34...Nxe4, a final sacrifice and the last move of the game.

Bordi was rewarded with a less strained path in the Semifinals as he swept IM Renato Terry, a regular participant in community events, 3-0 in the Semifinals. 

This time, it was Martinez who faced a greater challenge in GM Thomas Beerdsen. The Peruvian grandmaster prevailed 2.5-1.5 after losing the first game, drawing the second, and winning the last two.

The draw, the second and last of the tournament, is the funniest. Just one pawn left the board for the entire game, which lasted 105 moves and ended with repetition in a hopelessly locked position.

In the Final against Bordi, Martinez clinched after winning all three games. In the first game, he won a full queen, in the second he brought his king to d5 in the middlegame, and in the third he won the queen again. 

The first of those games had a nice variation where fans were deprived of the mic-dropper 27.Bc4!!, which White never got an opportunity to play.

This week will certainly be tough for Martinez to follow and soon, hopefully, fans will see if he can repeat the same performance in the 3 Check Chess variant!

Final Standings

Previous coverage:

• Variants Community Series Results 2023
• Variants Community Series: All The Information