ConnorEatsPants Wins, Underdog TSM_ZexRow Scores, tfblade Trolls His Way To Victory
More than 30,000 live spectators rode an emotional rollercoaster as the craziest chess games unfolded right before everyone's eyes for on the third day of PogChamps.
ConnorEatsPants showed that despite his limited preparation time, he was ready to face AustinShowTV. TSM_ZexRow scored an upset win against the group's highest-rated player in the second match of the day. Finally, tfblade "trolled" his way to victory (as the player himself stated) and won his match 2-0 against QTCinderella.
- ConnorEatsPants Plays Mind Tricks To Secure A Win Against AustinShowTV
- TSM_ZexRow Defeats Group Favorite dogdog
- tfblade Plays Well While Trying To Troll And Wins Against QTCinderella
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ConnorEatsPants Plays Mind Tricks To Secure A Win Against AustinShowTV
After a short, last-minute coaching session with Andrea Botez, ConnorEatsPants went on to win his first PogChamps match against AustinShowTV—another beginner. Connor proudly shared his victory with his fans on Twitter.
Undefeated in Chess.
— connor (@ConnorEatsPants) August 23, 2020
Despite having almost twice as many rating points as his opponent, Connor's way to victory was not a smooth ride. During the first game of their match, AustinShowTV started better as Connor blundered his bishop with a move that Connor described as a way to get inside Austin's head.
ConnorEatsPants stated that he was "trying to be bold" as he left his knight hanging for a few moves shortly after giving his bishop to his opponent. He later proceeded to sacrifice the knight for a pawn.
After both players blundered their minor pieces away, Connor surprised everyone by playing the most surprising queen sac in chess history.
AustinShow quickly gave his queen back, though, and after much back-and-forth blundering between the players, Connor proceeded to win the first game of the day and take the lead of the match.
In game two, ConnorEatsPants' mind tricks stole the show as he baited AustinShowTV twice with dubious pawn moves. With a strategy that can only be described as psychological chess kung fu, Connor was able to win an exchange and a minor piece by offering pawns to his opponent.
The rest of the game came down to AustinShowTV blundering more of his pieces and ConnorEatsPants having a hard time to deliver checkmate with a rook and a queen. Still, Connor eventually managed to win the second game to end the match 2-0 in his favor.
About the games, AustinShowTV stated that it was a product of a player whose idea of victory was "to make a legal move." He also pointed out that it was not his best day and that he will have to practice more for the rest of PogChamps.
Group D Standings
TSM_ZexRow Defeats Group Favorite dogdog
The second match of the day saw the highest-rated player of the group, dogdog, going up against TSM_ZexRow, who was rated at 665 when the match started. ZexRow showed that his rating did not reflect his true abilities, though, as he won an impressive first game and later went on to win the match in an armageddon dispute.
In their first game, ZexRow shocked the spectators as he played a King's Indian. He later revealed that his success with the opening was due to IM Levy Rozman's videos on the subject.
dogdog went wrong after blundering a central pawn and being too hasty with his knight, which allowed ZexRow to play an impressive tactic to win a clean rook.
TSM_ZexRow started the second game with a London Opening. dogdog was much more focused on this game and capitalized on ZexRow's blunders to win a minor piece. It seemed like dogdog was going to win the game with ease, but a beautiful pawn fork by ZexRow shook things up.
Unfortunately for ZexRow, he blundered right after delivering the fork. He lost a queen and an exchange, allowing dogdog to win the second game and even out the match score, taking the game to the armageddon section.
dogdog picked White for the tiebreak, with an extra minute on the clock but having to win the game. He managed to get a better position on the board but lost all his time advantage. Eventually, the clock pressure proved to be too much for him to handle, and he blundered all his pieces. ZexRow successfully swindled his opponent with his knight and won the game by timeout, ending the match in his favor.
"I did not expect to win, I got really lucky, I'm not gonna lie," TSM_ZexRow said after the match. dogdog, on the other hand, was impressed by his opponent. "He played a lot better than I thought he would. He was not leaving any pieces hanging and stuff like that," the Hearthstone streamer said.
Group C Standings
tfblade Plays Well While Trying To Troll And Wins Against QTCinderella
The last match of the day featured another set of chess newcomers, tfblade and QTCinderella. QT's aggressive play did not pay off against tfblade, who successfully built a decisive advantage in both games after taking advantage of his opponent's blunders.
tfblade opened the game with the London and QTCinderella tried to respond with a Stonewall. They both ended up blundering pawns, and the game got wild after QT went for a kingside pawn storm.
tfblade was able to infiltrate with his queen after QT dropped another pawn, creating an attack too strong for Black to handle. White eventually got to a winning endgame position with a rook and three pawns against QT's lonely king.
As tfblade stated, he decided to "troll" QTCinderella and checkmate her using only his rook and king. After struggling with his technique, he finally checkmated her after 19 moves and won the first game.
In her second attempt at a Stonewall, QT did a lot better. She seemed to have everything under control until she blundered three of her pawns. Still, she managed to salvage the position, slow the game down, and create some counterplay.
The game took a bleak turn to QT after she blundered her queen. From that point on, tfblade had no trouble converting the last game of the day to win the match.
In his postgame interview, tfblade said: "I felt I was just trolling the entire time. I expected myself to have eight blunders on the last game. Surprisingly, it said 'zero.'" QTCinderella seemed befuddled with the game of chess. "I lose every single time I play, and I don't understand why! I just lose!"
Group C Standings
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Pedro Pinhata is the Writing Lead for Chess.com. He writes articles, feature announcements, event pages, and more. He has been playing chess since 2019 and lives in Brazil.
