TFBlade has defeated Hafthorjulius in the tiebreak game and advances to the semifinals.

PogChamps 2: TFBlade, QTCinderella, easywithaces Win, Advance To Semifinals

ColinStapczynski

Updated: Sep 6, 2020, 3:58 PM | 8 | Chess Event Coverage

The exciting action in the knockout stage of PogChamps continued on Thursday with two of the three matches being decided in tiebreaks. Thursday's games were commentated by GM Robert Hess, IM Levy Rozman, and WFM Alexandra Botez.

In the championship bracket, TFBlade won a tight match against Hafthorjulius in the tiebreak blitz game. In the consolation bracket, QTCinderella beat ConnorEatsPants while easywithaces cruised to victory against CallMeCarson.

TFBlade Defeats Hafthorjulius In Blitz Tiebreak
QTCinderella Beats ConnorEatsPants In Tiebreak
easywithaces 2-0s CallMeCarson

Track Results

Make sure to tune into Chess.com's daily coverage of the 2020 Chess.com PogChamps at 11:45 p.m. Pacific (20:45 Central Europe) on Chess.com/tv. The complete show archives are available on twitch.tv/chess and youtube.com/chess.

TFBlade Defeats Hafthorjulius In Blitz Tiebreak

The first match of the day was an epic battle between TFBlade and Hafthorjulius. These two players were even after the two rapid games, and Blade took the blitz tiebreak game to win the match.

In game one, Blade tried a London with an early Nc3, and Thor responded well. The game was balanced, and the queens were exchanged early. Thor sacrificed a pawn in the endgame for unclear compensation, and then Blade's pieces got very active. Blade eventually won the exchange and took the full point.

Thor was in a must-win situation in game two and was surprised in the opening by Blade's unusual play—he found himself down a pawn and an exchange. An unusual tactical sequence occurred with blunders on both sides, but when the dust settled it was Thor who was ahead.

Thor pressed his advantage, and then Blade hung his final remaining rook—Blade resigned with only a knight left, meaning that the match would be decided in a blitz tiebreak game.

Blade had White in the blitz tiebreak game, and he tried an opening trap that Thor stopped. After a solid opening and middlegame from both players, a large series of exchanges occurred. Thor trapped his own knight, but his rook got very active, and he started pushing his passed pawns. Blade gave his extra knight back for Thor's dangerous passed pawn, was able to promote his own queen, and deliver checkmate.

Blade had won the game and the match. In the post-match interview, Thor had nothing but nice things to say about chess and the PogChamps tournament:

With this win, Blade advances to the semifinals of the championship bracket where he will face the winner of the itshafu-forsen quarterfinals match.

QTCinderella Beats ConnorEatsPants In Tiebreak

The second match of the day saw another close fight with ConnorEatsPants facing off against QTCinderella. Both players were trying to keep their tournaments alive, and QT was going for her first match win.

Connor had White in game one and played a king's pawn opening. QT castled queenside quickly and won a piece. She kept up the pressure and started winning more material, but Connor made strong progress on the queenside. QT left her king wide open and stumbled, allowing multiple checkmates. Connor eventually found one of these checkmates, and the first game was over.

QT had White in the second game and an unusual position was achieved right out of the gate. Connor made the first big blunder of the game, and QT capitalized by winning a piece. QT picked up another piece and then another—she was in the zone. After some more exchanges, QT delivered checkmate without even knowing it:

This win for QT leveled the match score at 1-1, forcing a blitz tiebreak game. Connor had the white pieces in the blitz game, and QT won a pawn in the opening. Both players missed some chances, but QT gained a large advantage on the clock and on the board. Connor flagged without any real drama, and QT won the game and the match.

QT earned her first victory in PogChamps, but could have been a little nicer to Connor in the post-match interview:

With this win, QTCinderella advances to the consolation bracket semifinals where she will face Cizzorz.

easywithaces 2-0s CallMeCarson

The final match of the day saw easywithaces going up against CallMeCarson. Unlike the other two matches, this one wasn't very close at all—easy didn't have much difficulty defeating Carson.

easy played a London system in game one and gave up two minor pieces for a rook and a pawn in the middlegame. Once the kingside opened up, easy won material with Carson's king stuck in the center of the board. easy exchanged all of the pieces off the board, promoted two queens, and delivered checkmate.

The second game of the match ended quickly. Carson played an English Opening and lost his queen early:

A few moves after winning Carson's queen, easy delivered checkmate, achieving an amazing 96% CAPS score in the process.

easy was very pleasant in the post-match interview and highlighted that he is playing for charity. With this win, easy moves on to the semifinals of the consolation bracket where he will face the winner of the TSM_Zexrow-AustinShow match.

Make sure to tune into Chess.com's daily coverage of the 2020 Chess.com PogChamps at 11:45 a.m. Pacific (20:45 Central Europe) on Chess.com/tv.

Previous Coverage:

PogChamps 2: TFBlade, QTCinderella, easywithaces Win, Advance To Semifinals

TFBlade Defeats Hafthorjulius In Blitz Tiebreak

QTCinderella Beats ConnorEatsPants In Tiebreak

easywithaces 2-0s CallMeCarson

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