In a double-overtime thriller, xQc defeated “Paper Plate” to maneuver on to the semifinals—however not after giving all his followers a number of coronary heart assaults and scarring them for all times. Earlier than the match, Papaplatte ready by taking part in xQc’s bot whereas Felix labored on puzzles.

And the puzzle-solving warmup paid off. xQc rapidly noticed Papaplatte’s mistake of their first recreation and took a knight—or “For Free,” as xQc put it.

With the fabric benefit and no counterplay for Papaplatte, xQc had an excellent place. These watching the sport dwell had the distinctive alternative of having fun with a dwell masterclass by xQc on the highly effective Trident and the “sideways beaked” pawn formation:

After a couple of bings and bangs, xQc proceeded with the ultimate growth to get the dub. 

However as excited as xQc was together with his outcome, the match wouldn’t be that simple. A doubtful opening play by xQc left him with a horrible place which ultimately led him to lose a knight. Needing solely a draw, xQc tried to claw his method out of his horrible state of affairs, categorically declaring his opponent “was completed” at one level. 

However Papaplatte was not completed. After eradicating xQc’s rooks from the board, the German was on his method to ship a ladder mate when xQc let his time run out one transfer earlier than checkmate. 

The primary recreation of the tiebreaks was absolute madness. Papaplatte received a profitable endgame with an additional pawn however ultimately blundered his benefit away. The sport quickly ended with a draw by threefold repetition. 

The second and remaining tiebreak recreation was one other loopy affair. xQc took benefit of his opponent’s open king and located a mating mixture—however performed it solely after hovering over a queen blunder and letting his clock run all the way down to seven seconds.

With an extended day forward, there was no time for an official post-match interview. Fortunately, xQc was variety sufficient to conduct an interview with himself:

Wirtual channeled his Norwegian chess powers to win his match towards Sykkuno and transfer on to the semifinals of the Comfort Bracket.

Wirtual was clearly anticipating a simple win of their first recreation, going for a Scholar’s Mate. Nevertheless, Sykkuno performed effectively and even received right into a profitable place. It was then that, keen to not get “his dude” (that’s, his king) smoked, he performed the one transfer that immediately received smoke on his dude. 

The second recreation wasn’t as shut for Sykkuno. After blundering a chunk and getting his queen trapped, he had only one technique:

However Wirtual did not take the draw, as an alternative taking the queen and capitalizing on his huge materials benefit to win the second recreation. 

Nonetheless struggling together with her illness, QTCinderella got here into the match rocking the traditional “huge hungover” look. Perhaps it was her cool shades; perhaps it was her big gallon of water. No matter it was, it labored: QT defeated Jinnitty after profitable each video games.

If there is a lesson to be discovered from watching QT taking part in chess, it is that you must at all times play the Stonewall. It does not matter who you are taking part in. It does not matter what they’re taking part in. It does not matter why, or how, or when, or the place. Play the Stonewall, and happiness shall observe. 

It appeared like QT would have one other simple recreation when Jinny hung a chunk on transfer 10. Nevertheless, Jinny got here alive a couple of strikes later and began taking part in like a touring chess goddess, placing strain on QT’s king. Sadly, as many nice philosophers have identified, nobody can escape the relentless passage of time—sure, she flagged. 

QT complimented her opponent of their post-match interview for her wonderful play of their second recreation. And simply as all of us thought QT was going gentle, she took her alternative to trash-talk Squeex, who wasn’t even taking part in on Monday. 

Tyler streamed chess for almost 4 hours earlier than beginning his first knockout match, climbing over 200 Elo factors in a day and doubling his ranking. Although some may need missed Tyler’s delicate indicators of confidence going into the match, the extra attentive viewers positive caught on: 

But when overconfidence is all you wanted to play effectively, Chess.com can be crawling with GMs. I did a factor received each video games to dispatch Tyler.

Within the first recreation, the large T-Man (as nobody calls Tyler) confirmed no restraints towards his a lot higher-rated opponent. He rapidly received a pawn and charged ahead together with his items, by no means trying again. However the issue with by no means trying again is that you just typically miss a fork towards your king. Different occasions, you miss two.

The second recreation was virtually a reenactment of the primary. Tyler rapidly gained a pawn within the opening however faltered within the middlegame. After getting an enormous materials benefit, I did a factor checkmated Tyler. The Australian YouTuber then shared his opinion on Tyler’s play and contemplated on Tyler’s secret to success. 

“I plan to smash your entire occasion,” I did a factor mentioned in his post-match interview. Not trying ahead to flying all the way in which to the opposite facet of the world, he proposed: “What we are able to do, Tyler, is that if I win the subsequent spherical and I get into the finals, you simply flip as much as the finals as me. Then I haven’t got to fly to America. It is a win-win.”

And what about Tyler? Earlier than his remaining goodbye to PogChamps, he impressed the viewers with a pep discuss how simple it’s to play chess:

CDawgVA is nearer than ever to a really lengthy airplane ticket from Tokyo to Los Angeles after defeating Sapnap within the quarterfinals. 

The ranking distinction actually confirmed within the first recreation when the favourite Connor took benefit of Sapnap going full Botez and blundering his items. 

Sapnap was in a troublesome place in recreation two, down in materials after lacking a fork and dropping a rook. However regardless of his bleak state of affairs, he by no means gave up. But once more, the Minecraft creator performed for exercise and ultimately checkmated CDawgVA to take the choice to tiebreak. 

It was a balanced tiebreak till Sapnap overpressed and tried to checkmate as an alternative of going for a draw. His technique backfired when CDawg discovered nice strikes to get right into a profitable endgame, which he ultimately transformed—although not within the chillest method he hoped for. 

CDawgVA now strikes on to the semifinals and can face one other favourite to win Pog 5, Alex from the I did a factor channel. “Alex messaged me the opposite day, and he requested me what’s my favourite opening,” CDawg shared. “I used to be like, ‘Why?'” he continued. “‘So I can follow towards you.'”

Intelligent man, that Alex. 

Brackets

All Video games: Day 8

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