Xiong, Aroesti Top Crazyhouse Qualifiers 5 & 6

GM Jeffery Xiong won Qualifier 5, and FM Roee Aroesti won Qualifier 6 of the 2024 Crazyhouse Championship, the final event of this year's Chess.com Community Championship series. There are just two more qualifying spots open for the Knockout on Friday. 

Qualifier 7 started on Thursday, December 5, at 5:00 a.m. ET/11:00 CET/3:30 p.m. IST, and Qualifier 8 is at 5:00 p.m. ET/0:00 a.m. CET (on December 5)/4:30 a.m. IST (on December 6). 

Xiong qualified on his second attempt, while Aroesti played in every qualifier available. Xiong got second place in Qualifier 2 before, and Aroesti placed seventh, fourth, second, third, third, and finally first.

• Qualifier 5
• Qualifier 6

Qualifier 5

Xiong won the arena with 45 wins, zero draws, and four losses—a comfortable distance ahead of Bartlomiej Zdybowicz, who had five fewer wins and one more loss. There were 290 players in total.

Qualifier 5 Standings | Top 15

(See full standings here.)

Queen sacrifices aren't nearly as rare in Crazyhouse as they are in regular chess, but they're still a joy to play. Of course, you could say they're not really sacrifices if the queen can be reborn. Still, Xiong unleashed quite a few kamikaze queens to deliver checkmate against titled opponents.

Against NM Emilio Hernandez, Xiong got his queen trapped in a skewer after 22.B@b5, but that wasn't the end of the story. He regained the queen a move later and checkmated his opponent just four moves after that.

Then, against FM Marten Aronsson, he first sacrificed a knight to clear the f6-square, then torpedoed his queen on c6 for a forced checkmate. Of course, it's easier to sacrifice a queen when you have two. 

In our third example, against IM Ben Li, Xiong temporarily gave up his queen to lure the black king out of hiding. Checkmate came two moves later, with the queen re-materializing on the g5-square.

With this tournament victory, Xiong is the first grandmaster to qualify for the Knockout. Will he be the last?

Qualifier 6

If nothing else, Aroesti was persistent. He played in both qualifiers on each day, and he finished in the top three on most attempts. His effort finally bore fruit on the sixth try, as he topped the field of 193 players with 49 wins, one draw, and six losses. That's six more wins, five more losses, and one more draw than second-place GM Lars Oskar Hauge.

Qualifier 6 Standings | Top 15

(See full standings here.)

One common Crazyhouse strategy we've seen (it also exists in Bughouse) is placing a pawn on h6 (or h3 if you're Black) to loosen up kingside squares. In the following game against FM Aronsson, Aroesti placed a pawn on h6 two times to undermine the f6-square, just as Xiong sacrificed a knight in his own game to do. A knight, when it came to f6, decided the game.

Chess is full of nuance, and the same tactics don't work out every time. In the very next game, we saw IM Nhat Minh To (Chess.com's Duck Chess champion) employ the same strategy with Black by placing a pawn on h3, but this time, it wasn't quick enough. White's forceful knight sacrifice on g7 initiated an attack that, unlike Black's, didn't lose steam.

Just two more spots need to be filled for us to complete our eight-player Knockout bracket. Will another grandmaster join the fray, or will other Crazyhouse specialists prevail?

The Chess.com Crazyhouse Championship is the last event of the Chess.com Community Championships series. The tournament will be decided with an eight-player double-elimination bracket. Each competitor qualified via one of eight, 75-minute arenas with a 3+0 time control. The prize fund is $7,500. 

Previous coverage:

• Canadian Masters Plotkin, Awatramani Win Crazyhouse Qualifiers 3 & 4
• National Masters Chiu, Wang Take Crazyhouse Qualifiers 1 & 2
• Insanity Awaits! Get Ready For The Chess.com Crazyhouse Chess Championship