Untitled Tuesday & Saturday Recaps: June 6 and 10

In the wake of the success of Titled Tuesday here on chess.com, a lot of players who do not have a title have been looking for an opportunity to play in such an event of their own. The solution, inspired  by MGleason, was to create an event known as Untitled Tuesday, a blitz tournament of the same format with no titles, and similarly no cash prizes. 

After a test event a few weeks ago (you can find the article on that event here), the Untitled Tuesday group was ready to kick off its main event. But since some in the Untitled Tuesday group weren't able to make the inaugural tournament, we also held another event on Saturday, and both brought excellent turnout. In this article, I will do a recap of both tournaments: first the Untitled Tuesday event from last week, and then the "Untitled Saturday" from this past weekend. 

Untitled Tuesday: June 6, 2017

With 65 entries, the first official iteration of Untitled Tuesday received an excellent turnout, and during the first few rounds, there were no shortage of surprises. One of the biggest involved MGleason himself, who, despite being hundreds of points lower-rated than the tournament favorites, managed to win his first four games (!) and found himself tied for first at the halfway point of the tournament. 

The most surprising of these games, and numerically the biggest upset, was his Round Four victory over user Paldrick, who entered the tournament rated about 500 points higher than MGleason. Perhaps the most surprising element of this game is that Paldrick was winning a piece on move 15, and yet, due to creating unnecessary complications, he allowed MGleason to slip away and, miraculously, remain among the leaders of the tournament. 

Thus, midway through the event, MGleason shared first place with his next opponent (as well as Everyfishknows, who also won his first four games but whose game hadn't finished at the time this screenshot was taken), ratings separated by a mere 927 points heading into the fifth round.

After a rather incredible run to start the tournament, MGleason's luck finally ran out against the highest-rated participant in the tournament, canwedoit. White first won the center, then some material, and finally created a crushing attack against the black king against which there was no satisfactory defense.

Another player who had a hot start to the event was Everyfishknows, who was tied with canwedoit with 5/5 after their respective fifth round wins. With white, Everyfishknows faced 1...e5 in three early games, winning them all with the Scotch Gambit. As black, he employed a King's Indian Defense to win his third round game against chessguy1012 to continue his fast start. 

While Everyfishknows and canwedoit were the only two players to start 5/5, a number of other players were on their tails throughout the event. Frankierooks, for example, started at 3.5/4 before losing in the fifth game to Everyfishknows. He would finish with 5.5/8, as would Paldrick, in spite of the latter's upset loss early in the event. Other players who finished near the top included tufferguy, who finished 6/8, and SJFG, who, after blundering an exchange in deep time pressure in Round 2, won his next four games. The most interesting of these may have been his game against chessguy1012, highlighted by deep time pressure and a possible mouse-slip in a key moment.

Entering the final round, Everyfishknows and canwedoit were tied for first with 6/7, as well as Schachmasteo, who lost his first game (resigning in an equal position, perhaps a real-life problem caused him to have to leave for a moment?) and then won his next six. The two aforementioned players faced off in what would ultimately amount to the championship game, since Schachmasteo lost his final game to finish at 6/8.