Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - August

The August recap was written by @dpnorman.

The August 2018 edition of Untitled Tuesday seemed as if it would proceed like any other, with a few front-runners vying for the Tuesday title heading into the seventh round. Then, in an unprecedented development in Untitled Tuesday history, the server crashed! This had differing effects on different users, as some players were able to continue playing while others were booted completely. Clearly, an incomplete Untitled Tuesday shouldn't satisfy anyone, so a new event was held the following Tuesday and partial credits were awarded to the leaders of the original event before the issues. Here are those standings: 

Thankfully, both the second attempt at the Tuesday event and the Untitled Saturday event went smoothly, and it is those tournaments which will be showcased in this report. To start with, let's look at the Untitled Saturday event, which was held first due to the postponement of the Tuesday tournament.

Untitled Saturday: August 11, 2018

We've certainly seen a few dominating performances in the history of Untitled Tuesday, and the performance by kstorn (also a contributor to past recaps of the event) certainly counts as one of the most impressive. His only hiccup of the entire tournament came in the first round (Swiss Gambit, anyone?) when his rook on h8 was captured for free in a previously winning position. Still, he didn't lose the game.

The next round he finished off RandomScholar with admirable accuracy:

Meanwhile, another Swiss Gambit of sorts was being attempted by cjxchess17, who lost his first game to Marignon but went on to finish in clear second. The only player who ever really had a chance to catch kstorn, cjxchess17 played a wonderful positional game against Chaquiste to move to 4/5:

Ultimately, cjxchess17 did have a chance to dethrone kstorn, but the latter won a very clean and convincing game with the white pieces to take a very firm grip on the top of the standings, which he never let slip.

The battle for podium spots behind kstorn was considerably more hotly-contested than the tournament itself. Perennial Untitled Tuesday participant Marignon was in the chasing group, and had a few nice wins en route to the bronze. 

Ceding only the half-point in the first round, kstorn dominated the Untitled Saturday event this month. cjxchess17 and Marignon were second and third respectively.

https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/saturday-event---august-984305

Since the Saturday event predated the Tuesday event (at least the second, full event that will be covered here), kstorn came into the tournament with a chance to go two-for-two in the month of August. Unfortunately, his luck ran out in the very first round. 

kstorn would go on to lose two more games en route to a 6.5/9 finish. A score like this would be a success to most players, but in this event, it wasn't even good enough to make bronze.

This early loss by kstorn opened up chances for many other competitors. In the early goings, funny tactical shots were the norm. From a check gone wrong...

...to an unexpected drawing resource!

Another pre-tournament favorite was thomaswittmann, who appeared headed for a dead draw in the second round until ChessZone9937's knight and king got a bit too active in the ending.

Eventually, through the upsets and tactics, a few players began to take control of the tournament. One was SmyslovFan, who won his first four games. At times the Exchange Slav is played by lower-rated players trying to simplify and make a draw, but against DaQuestToNM, the favorite, playing black, achieved a much more active position and never let up.

Despite a few draws throughout the event, the player who slowly climbed the ranks and took control of the tournament was guedesirace2. For much of the first half of the tournament he was near but not at the top, as others had more wins than he did, but as the players heading the leaderboard beat each other (and he beat a few of them, too!), his undefeated streak mattered more and more. 

It didn't seem to be by design that many of guedesirace2's games were flatlining, but it didn't matter as he routinely drew water from stone, or benefited from opposing blunders in deep time pressure. Unfortunately for SmyslovFan, who otherwise had a marvelous tournament, the latter happened in the penultimate round that would decide the tournament. 

A clear first for guedesirace2 and a deserving second from SmyslovFan was followed by thomaswittmann and cjxchess17 in shared third. Below are the final standings for the event!

https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/untitled-tuesday---rescheduled-event-984856

Bonus Coverage: Untitled Tuesday: August 7, 2018

Due to a server problem, the Untitled Tuesday event as originally scheduled had to be cut short after six rounds. The standings after six rounds were used to award partial points, with the following players at the top:

In the spirit of completeness, here are a few puzzles from the top boards in the original event. In order of increasing difficulty:

Thanks for reading. The September edition of Untitled Tuesday is coming soon!