Rosen, Minh To Join Duck Chess Experts in Finals

IMs Eric Rosen and Nhat Minh To were the highest-ranked players to qualify for the Finals of the Chess.com Duck Chess Championship 2024. Six more Duck Chess mavens will join them in the knockout, including Kapik1337, the reigning number-one in the Duck Chess Blitz rankings, who won the first arena of the day. 

The knockout Finals, where the winner will take home $600, will commence on Friday, September 20, at 12 pm ET / 18:00 CEST / 9.30 pm IST and will be streamed on Chess.com's Community Twitch page.

Qualifier Winners And Knockout Bracket

Every chess variant holds unique delights. Each one brings out unexpected tactics and enhances elements of the classic game in intriguing ways.

What does Duck Chess accent? The art of thwarting the opponent's hopes. At any moment, the mocking face of a cute duck can smile at you as it blocks your dreams. 

Let's take a look at the fascinating features of this recently popular variant and how an innocuous-looking yellow duck can wreak havoc on an unsuspecting chessboard. 

• The mischief can begin even early in the opening, such as blocking off your opponent's favorite fianchetto.

• You can snatch free pieces by blocking off their defender.

In the position below, the knight on d5 appears to be defended by the black queen. This turns out to be an illusion.

White combines 1. Qxd5! with duck-e6!, standing in the way of the enemy queen.

• You can trap pieces by ducking off their escape route.

Black's bishop on f6 seems safe with e7 as a retreat square―But not if the world's most vicious bathtub toy has anything to say about it.

White plays 1.e5, duck-e7 to strand the bishop on f6.

• The duck can play a special role in mating attacks.

In Qualifier #4, White found a way to immediately end the game. Can you find it? Scroll down for the solution.

White to move and win.

Answer: Bd4+!, duck-h6!

The bishop on d4 checks the king. As the duck moves to h6, the a7-rook is opened up to create a double check. The duck itself blocks off the black king's only escape square, the h6-square. 

The black king is trapped in check, and White will capture it the next move (capturing the king is the winning method in Duck Chess) to win.

Nabbott, the winner of Qualifier #4, had a particularly fitting profile picture for the event.

He streamed on his Twitch channel while competing and shared that he "might write a book on how to play Duck Chess better" in his Chess.com profile. 

Vahan Nalbandyan won Qualifier #5 with a perfect 20/20 score. Gonzalo Rojo and Rosen were on Nalbandyan’s tail throughout the arena with perfect scores themselves, but Nalbandyan was able not just to win every game but—win faster than his competition. 

In his game vs. Couraleafs, Nalbandyan shows that—in Duck Chess—absolute pins are not so absolute. 

Below, the white rook seems to pin the f6-knight to the black king. 

1...Nd5+, duck-f2 - Yet, the knight hops after the trapped white king on the queenside.  Meanwhile, the duck tags in to block the f1-rook. 

Rosen, a player who streamed all of his mallard-moving adventures on his Twitch channel, won Qualifier #6. He scored another perfect score of 17 out of 17. Throughout the arena, it was a close race between him and NM Hugo Caetano. WGM Katerina Nemcova delivered Caetano his only loss of the tournament with her queen, knight, and duck mating attack. 

With 37.Qe8+, duck-h7, Nemcova blocks the king's escape. Black must use the duck to block the check.

27…Qe5, duck-f8 - The black queen races back towards the kingside to try to help the king.

38.Qg6, duck-f7 - The white queen sneaks further into the enemy kingside to create a checkmate threat of Qxg7.

38…Kf8, duck-g8 - The black king makes a run for it. Attempts to defend g7, such as 38…Qe7 and any duck move fail to 39.Qxg7+, duck-f7—blocking off the black queen from the defense of g7.

39.Qxg7+, duck-e8! - The duck sits on the king’s escape square, leaving it nowhere to run. Nemcova herself came close to qualifying. She finished second in Qualifier #8, scoring 19/19. Easyn1 surpassed her by going 21-0 to clinch the last spot in the Finals.

Returning to the race for first in Qualifier #6, the arena clock began to tick down as Caetano started winning quickly, surpassing Rosen. In the last minutes, Rosen regained the lead with quick checkmate in the opening, using a trick to be especially aware of in this variant.

Rosen and his opponent are just three moves into the game. Yet, knights—the piece that the duck interferes with the least—are particularly dangerous in this variant. 

4.Nd3+!, duck-e2! - The white king is smothered. 

The battle for the Duck Chess crown is well underway. The eight qualifiers will duke it out in a double-elimination knockout for the $600 first prize on Friday, September 20.

The Chess.com Duck Chess Championship is the fifth event of the Chess.com Community Championships series, and anyone can battle for a piece of the $2,000 prize fund. 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+2 time control.

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