GMs Hauge, Tang Claim Final 2 Spots In Crazyhouse Championship
GM Lars Oskar Hauge won Qualifier 7 and GM Andrew Tang won Qualifier 8 to fill the last two spots available in the 2024 Crazyhouse Championship Knockout Final. They join the other six players who will participate in the double-elimination Knockout on Friday. They are, in the order they qualified, Bartlomiej Zdybowicz, NM Jalen Wang, IM Mark Plotkin, NM Janak Awatramani, GM Jeffery Xiong, and FM Roee Aroesti.
The culmination of this year's last Community Chess Championship is set for Friday, December 6, starting at 12:00 p.m. ET / 18:00 CET / 10:30 p.m. IST.
Championship Bracket
After three days of non-GMs qualifying, grandmasters have taken the final three qualifying spots. It turns out—surprise, surprise!—that being exceptional at chess can help in Crazyhouse, at least sometimes.
Qualifier 7
Hauge, the second grandmaster to qualify for the Knockout after Xiong did in Qualifier 6, won the arena of 297 players by a country mile. He scored 48 wins, five losses, and unsurprisingly zero draws. He previously played in Qualifier 1 (61st place after gaining just 14 points), Qualifier 2 (third place), and Qualifier 6 (second place). The fourth time was the charm in this case.
Qualifier 7 Standings | Top 15
NM Eddie Xu (@homeless_patzer) might not be satisfied with his second-place finish, since only first place qualifies, but he scored 2-1 in his three encounters with the winner of the tournament. The first game ended with a hilarious position that just couldn't happen in regular chess, a colorful clump of pieces on the top-right corner of the board. What ended the game, like the final puzzle piece, was the white queen zipping to the h7-square.
Several games later, however, the Norwegian grandmaster showed that he too can end a game with a stylish checkmate. He chased the black king all the way down to the b4-square before poking him, fatally, with a pawn check and mate.
Xu would go on to win their final game, with a back-rank checkmate. But to continue with the theme we started with, this was a funny checkmate played later in the tournament. The bishop did the job in this case, but a pawn could have just as well.
OK, OK, just one more. It goes to show that pawns have power in Crazyhouse! Mind those weak squares around your king...
Hauge will face Wang, the winner of Qualifier 2, in the Final on Friday.
Qualifier 8
Chess.com's Hyperbullet Champion Tang participated in four qualifiers before finally winning the last one, which attracted 175 players. Previously, he finished third in Qualifier 3, 34th in Qualifier 4, 53rd in Qualifier 6, and at long last first in Qualifier 8.
Tang scored 44 wins and eight losses. He was leading for most of the way, but the final minutes made the tournament extremely close. He won by just a single point, ahead of Patrik Nystrom.
Qualifier 8 Standings | Top 15
Just as in the last qualifier, the player who finished second actually scored 2-1 against the ultimate winner in their direct encounters. After losing the first battle, however, Tang struck back with an attack that built up to a true queen sacrifice:
Nystrom, who came close but just won't make it this time, won their last encounter with a queen sacrifice of his own, for forced checkmate.
Tang's only win against a fellow grandmaster in the tournament (he lost against GM Robert Hovhannisyan) came against GM Jakhongir Vakhidov, who played in several of the qualifiers but didn't quite get close to winning. It's common knowledge that a queen and knight are a deadly combo, so what happens when a queen's accompanied by three? Glory:
Tang will play Zdybowicz, who made it through Qualifier 1, in his first match on Friday.
Who will handle the madness best and win the Knockout? Let us know your winner predictions in the comments below!
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:
NM Anthony Levin caught the chess bug at the "late" age of 18 and never turned back. He earned his national master title in 2021, actually the night before his first day of work at Chess.com.
Anthony, who also earned his Master's in teaching English in 2018, taught English and chess in New York schools for five years and strives to make chess content accessible and enjoyable for people of all ages. At Chess.com, he writes news articles and manages social media for chess24.
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