Ray Robson Wins Puzzle Battle World Championship
GM Ray Robson won the Puzzle Battle World Championship on Friday. The 26-year-old U.S. grandmaster clinched the $8,000 first prize in an eight-player, winner-takes-all elimination bracket where players faced each other in three-minute Puzzle Battle.
Robson (@spicycaterpillar on Chess.com) defeated the non-titled, Greek puzzle specialist Dimitrios Ladopoulos (@jimis98) in the final that consisted of 10 rounds of Puzzle Battle. It was a repeat of last year's final, also won by Robson.
In the quarterfinals and semifinals, Robson had beaten GM Eric Hansen and GM Hikaru Nakamura with impressive 50-0 and 45-0 scores, meaning he didn't lose a single individual battle. While his opponents were sometimes faster, Robson made fewer mistakes as he showed almost computer-accurate solving ability.
The live broadcast of the 2021 Puzzle Battle World Championship.
"It feels really good," said Robson in the interview after the final. "I felt a lot of pressure coming to this event. I didn't really know what the bracket was gonna be, who was gonna be playing, until just the other day. When I saw that jimis was really my main competition, it seemed like we were destined to meet in the final, so I was waiting for this match for a little while. I was pretty nervous. I think we both were. I think it was tough for both of us to play in this final."
Both Robson and Ladopoulos are considered to be absolute specialists in solving puzzles on Chess.com. While some people make an effort to memorize big numbers of specific puzzles, according to Robson that's not the case for the two finalists—their secret is to simply practice a lot.
Robson and Ladopoulos got their highest scores in the final round.
The Puzzle Battle World Championship was played on the last day of Chess.com's Puzzle Week, a series of five days of different puzzle-related events that had a combined $23,000 prize fund. Teams were involved in Puzzle Rush (five minutes, three minutes, and Survival) as well as Puzzle Battle.
Below are the results for each day.
Day 1: Invited streamers played five-minute Puzzle Rush.
| Rank | Player Name | Chess.com Username | Hour 1 | Hour 2 | Hour 3 |
| 1 | Hikaru Nakamura (TSM) | @gmhikaruontwitch | 55 | 53 | 54 |
| 2 | Alireza Firouzja | @Firouzja2003 | 54 | 55 | 54 |
| 3 | Daniel Naroditsky | @DanielNaroditsky | 54 | 53 | 0 |
| 4 | Andrew Tang | @penguingm1 | 53 | 49 | 0 |
| 5 | Aman Hambleton | @KNVB | 46 | 45 | 44 |
| 6 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | @ChessQueen | 43 | 42 | 46 |
| 7 | Eric Rosen | @imrosen | 43 | 44 | 38 |
| 8 | Anna-Maja Kazarian | @annamaja7 | 37 | 44 | 33 |
| 9 | Lile Koridze | @lilekoridze | 43 | 42 | 40 |
| 10 | Krikor Mekhitarian | @GMKrikor | 42 | 41 | 41 |
| 11 | Anna Cramling | @annacramling | 37 | 34 | 36 |
| 12 | Rebecca Selkirk | @HashtagChessTwitch | 30 | 32 | 28 |
Day 2: Invited streamers competed in pairs and played Survival Mode Puzzle Rush.
| Rank | Player 1 | Player 2 | Hour 1 | Hour 2 | Hour 3 |
| 1 | Hikaru Nakamura (TSM) | Levy Rozman | 63 | 73 | 74 |
| 2 | Tatev Abrahamyan | Eric Rosen | 56 | 60 | 70 |
| 3 | Daniel Rensch | Aman Hambleton | 61 | 66 | 57 |
| 4 | Alireza Firouzja | Mohammadreza Firouzja | 0 | 0 | 65 |
| 5 | Andrew Tang | Agent-JL | 60 | 51 | 54 |
| 6 | Anna-Maja Kazarian | Naycir | 32 | 53 | 60 |
| 7 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Rebecca Selkirk | 54 | 48 | 58 |
| 8 | Nemo (CLG) | Alessia Santeramo | 54 | 55 | 50 |
| 9 | Dina Belenkaya | Lile Koridze | 53 | 55 | 50 |
| 10 | VelcroDot | Anna Cramling | 38 | 51 | 55 |
| 11 | Sebastien Maze | Kevin Bordi | 0 | 54 | 0 |
| 12 | Anna Rudolf | QTCinderella | 37 | 43 | 0 |
Day 3: 16 invited streamers played Puzzle Battle in a single-elimination bracket. GM Alireza Firouzja won this event.
Day 4: Invited streamers played three-minute Puzzle Rush.
| Rank | Player Name | Chess.com Username | Hour 1 | Hour 2 | Hour 3 |
| 1 | Hikaru Nakamura (TSM) | @gmhikaruontwitch | 50 | 49 | 50 |
| 2 | Alireza Firouzja | @Firouzja2003 | 30 | 50 | 49 |
| 3 | Daniel Naroditsky | @DanielNaroditsky | 0 | 47 | 49 |
| 4 | Andrew Tang (C9) | @penguingm1 | 48 | 48 | 46 |
| 5 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | @ChessQueen | 39 | 40 | 40 |
| 6 | Anna-Maja Kazarian | @annamaja7 | 38 | 40 | 35 |
| 7 | Eric Rosen | @imrosen | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 8 | James Canty III | @gmcanty | 33 | 37 | 35 |
| 9 | Krikor Mekhitarian | @GMKrikor | 34 | 36 | 0 |
| 10 | Anna Cramling | @annacramling | 33 | 31 | 30 |
| 11 | Wouter Bik | @Bikfoot | 27 | 29 | 31 |
| 12 | Nemo (CLG) | @Nemsko | 0 | 30 | 19 |
| 13 | Rebecca Selkirk | @HashtagChessTwitch | 26 | 30 | 28 |
| 14 | Angelika Valkova | @angelikacan | 24 | 28 | 28 |
You can find all of Chess.com's puzzle features, such as regular Puzzles, Puzzle Rush, and Puzzle Battle, at Chess.com/puzzles.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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