Untitled Tuesday and Saturday recaps - October 2nd and 6th

 

 

Two rounds later, I faced off against Yourinsuil1991, who has been a very successful competitor in many an Untitled Tuesday. The opening went wonderfully for me and it was the sort of game that I felt I had played a hundred times before, as many, many blitz games I've played in this line of the London/KID have gone similarly to this one. 

 

These games, and three others, had me leading the tournament at 5/5 at the midway point, but my play in the second half of the event left much to be desired. My sixth opponent was indeed the player who would ultimately be disqualified, and maybe that thrashing took something out of me, but it was a frustrating finish nonetheless after a strong start.

 

 

The highest-rated player in the tournament, scacchista89, didn't have as great a start. In round two, he suffered an upset loss at the hands of SpeedyChess11, but as we've seen so many times in this tournament, the glass-half-full outlook on an early upset loss is the potential for a Swiss Gambit. Just like so many early upsets we see in this event, it was a tragic blunder in a great position (although SpeedyChess11 played quite well for much of the game).

 

But scacchista89 would get his tournament back on track. My favorite game of his from the tournament was against 2007chess. From a well-known ending, scacchista89 put his pieces on good squares and slowly outplayed his opponent.

 

Behind the very top, a few players fought for podium spots including SmyslovFan, SpeedyChess11, and guedesirace2. The latter two played one of the sharper games of the tournament, starting with the ultra-dynamic Winawer French and involving an unfortunate missed win in deep time pressure.

 

Tough loss for guedesirace2, but he would rebound in the tournament with a crushing win over yours truly, among others

 

 

In the eighth round some doofus blundered a full exchange against scacchista89 (I wonder who that could have been...) but a player who would ultimately be expelled for engine use remained at the top. Scacchista89 took care of business and won his final three games, each time winning an exchange (sometimes on top of other material wins) and converting flawlessly.

 

 

His final round against CrackLionIX was a smooth positional squeeze, then a win of material. Another clean win (in another ending) to close out the tournament for scacchista89, who finished with 7.5 including a loss to the disqualified player in addition to his loss in round two.

 

Scacchista89's strong finish to the tournament earned him first place, while a logjam of myself, SmyslovFan (who missed a win against me in the last round, phew!), and guedesirace2 tied for second.

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Untitled Saturday: October 2018

As in the Tuesday event, the Saturday event for this month saw some chaos and unexpected leaders early, and a pre-tournament favorite emerge to take over as the tournament went on. In this case that player was Astraferz, whose 8.5/10 score wound up dominating the field, but it wasn't always that way. 

 

The player who started out the hottest was srecko, who won his first four games of the tournament despite only being rated in the 1800s (!), including this win against perpetual contender SmyslovFan (who himself had started 3-0). 

 

 

Another early leader was Marignon, who won a few games early in the tournament with some tactical shenanigans:

 

 

 

But just as in the Tuesday event, the length of the tournament proved a great thing for the favorites. An early loss kept Astraferz away from the very top of the standings early in the tournament, but with time he started racking up the wins, including against the other leaders. In the fourth round, he took down previously unbeaten Marignon via a quick tactical shot:

 

 

In the fifth round, Astraferz took control of the tournament with a win over previously unblemished srecko:

 

 

Astraferz would ultimately score 7.5 in his final 8 games, running away with first place and clinching it before the final round. The battle for second, on the other hand, was much more hotly-contested. A fun game between srecko and the ultimate third-place finisher, Andrew_Klintsevich, would highlight the second half of the tournament. A few puzzles (all from the aforementioned game!):

 

Ultimately, Astraferz finished in clear first, with the two players in the game above (srecko and Andrew_Klintsevich respectively, even though it was the latter who won the game) rounding out the top three!