National Master Halts GM Martinez's Reign In Crazyhouse Championship

NM Jalen Wang was victorious in the Variants Community Series (VCS) Crazyhouse Championship on Thursday and took home $1,000 for winning the Final.

FM Roee Aroesti made $750 for second place, while NM Isaac Chiu and Patrik Nystrom earned $500 each in tied-third. This is the first VCS Championship that GM Jose Martinez hasn't won, of three in total so far. Along with GM Lars Oskar Hauge, the two grandmasters didn't get past the Quarterfinals; in fact, they were both swept 0-3. 

The fourth cycle of the VCS will commence on March 7, and the new variant will be Atomic Chess. It will run every Thursday starting at 12 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST/22:30 IST.

Championship Bracket

Crazyhouse lends itself to some crazy results, as Thursday's final standings seem to suggest. They ascend in reverse order as it were, with the highest regular chess title (grandmaster) at the bottom. 

The two GMs and one IM were knocked out in the Quarterfinals, and the Semifinals were contested by two NMs, one FM, and the sole untitled player Nystrom (2065 FIDE). Variants, apparently, can level the playing field.

Final Standings

Each VCS cycle takes two months, with one variant played across the seven weeks. Players qualify through six weekly arenas to secure their spot in the Championship, which takes place in the seventh and final week.

Our Crazyhouse Championship was, as usual, a single-elimination knockout tournament for eight players. Every match consisted of four games played at the 3+2 time control (not one tiebreak was needed this time). The first player to reach 2.5 points won the match.

Both Martinez and Hauge, the two grandmasters in the field, lost one-sided matches. Nystrom was on absolute fire against Martinez and finished game two in just 24 moves with a queen sacrifice.

But after defeating IM Ben Li in the Quarterfinals, the ultimate champion Wang took down the GM-slayer Nystrom in the Semifinals 2.5-1.5. Thanks to Chiu taking out GM Hauge in the Quarterfinals, Wang won the tournament without once facing a grandmaster. 

The first game of the Wang-Nystrom Semifinal was one of two draws in the entire tournament (25 games in total). How does one draw in Crazyhouse, you might ask? With a touch of madness:

Meanwhile, Aroesti defeated FM Dachey Lin 3-1 in the Quarterfinals and then Chiu (the other GM-slayer) again 3-1 in the Semifinals.

When kings are pried from the first or second ranks in Crazyhouse, they seldom come back home, as game two from that Semifinal showed. The checkmate with a one-square pawn move at the end is lovely:

And we just have to show the checkmate that occurred in the next, and final, game.

Wang won the final match against Aroesti handily, with an undefeated 2.5-0.5 score.

The first game was the most entertaining. We saw no fewer than four white bishops preying upon the chessboard, the maximum possible without underpromoting a pawn.

The variant for the next seven-week cycle is still being determined and this page will be updated when it's announced. But what can be more bananas than Crazyhouse?

Edited on 2/17: The variant for the next cycle will be Atomic 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.

Previous Coverage

• Martinez Defends Variant Crown In 3 Check Chess
• Martinez Is King of The Hill In Variants Final
• Variants Community Series Results 2023
• Variants Community Series: All The Information