GM Pranesh M scored a nearly perfect result in the first 3 0 Thursday on August 6. His 10.5/11 score tied the record for the most dominant run in the history of the tournament. In the second tournament of the day, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda caught GM Alexey Sarana in the final round and passed him on tiebreaks to take first place. In the third event, IM Anthony Atanasov recovered from a first-round loss to win the tournament, finding powerful queen sacrifices in three different games!
First Tournament: Pranesh Impresses
No one has ever scored a perfect 11-0 in 3 0 Thursday. In the first tournament of the day, Pranesh came close, only giving up a sixth-round draw to IM Sergey Sklokin. Pranesh responded to the draw by defeating most of the tournament’s top seeds in the next five consecutive games. He started with Sarana, the only player in the event with a Chess.com Blitz rating over 3300.
Pranesh kept up his good form, defeating recent 3 0 Thursday champions GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Jeffery Xiong in the next two rounds. After another win against GM Saleh Salem, Pranesh faced IM Aleksandr Usov in the final round. Despite his amazing performance, Pranesh still needed to win to clinch first place, as Sarana was only half a point behind on 9/10.
That victory gave Pranesh arguably the greatest performance in the history of the tournament.
Sarana took second place with nine points, followed by GM Denis Lazavik on 8.5 points. WFM Sneha Halder recovered from losses in the first two rounds to win the women’s prize with 6.5 points.
Second Tournament: Duda Catches Sarana
Sarana started the first tournament with 9/10, but it was only good enough for second place. In the second tournament he started with 9.5/10, including a wild demolition of Duda in the 8th round. The game featured an opening surprise in a sharp but dubious variation, where Sarana is the world’s leading expert.Â
That game pushed Duda a point behind the leader, but he kept within striking distance by defeating GM Matthias Bluebaum and IM Yoseph Taher in the next two games. In the final round Sarana, left the door open for Duda, as he dropped his game against GM David Paravyan. Meanwhile, Duda won a tough endgame against Xiong.
Duda emerged with a slightly better tiebreak score than Sarana, taking first place with his 9.5 points. Sarana had to settle for second place for the second consecutive tournament. IM Reza Mahdavi took third with 8.5 points. GM Tan Zhongyi claimed the women’s prize with 6.5 points.
Third Tournament: Atanasov Sacrifices His Way To Victory
Atanasov played numerous sacrifices in the third tournament of the day. He set himself a tough task by dropping the first game against CM Uzair Shahar. Atanasov bounced back winning his next five games, including a beautiful sacrificial attack against GM Liem Le.
After a loss against FM Havard Haug in round 7, Atanasov bounced back with a sacrificial game against NM Ethan Sheehan. See if you can spot Black’s winning combination.
Atanasov continued his tactical play with a pretty forced mate against IM Renato Terry in the 10th round. Can you can find it?
Atanasov continued his good form in the final round, defeating GM Krikor Mekhitarian. He stayed true to his style throughout the tournament, capping his performance with a rook sacrifice to force checkmate. That brought Atanasov to nine points and first place. Xiong took second with 8.5 points, ahead of Fedoseev’s eight points, which were enough for third. WFM Hoang Minh Tho Do won the women’s prize with six points, highlighted by a second-round victory over Paravyan.Â
3 0 Thursday is a set of three weekly Swiss tournaments for verified titled players featuring their favorite time control. Each of the three tournaments is an 11-round Swiss with a 3+0 time control. The combined prize fund is $3,000 every week.