Chan, lower left, at his moment of triumph.

O.G. Of Fog Of War FM Chan Wins Community Championship

NathanielGreen

Updated: Oct 21, 2024, 6:04 AM | 7 | Chess Event Coverage

FM Luis Chan, who has been playing the variant since its inception, is your winner of the 2024 Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship. Chan survived a Grand Final Reset forced by FM Yihe Fu: After dropping the first match of the Finals in the double elimination event, Chan swept the Reset 3-0 and claimed the title.

Championship Bracket

Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Winners Final
Losers Final
Grand Final

Quarterfinals

In the first round, Fu won his match 3-0 against IM Nhat Minh To, while FM Wouter van Rijn and IM Kacper Drozdowski won 3-2 over Arian Rahimpour and LongTermFuture, respectively.

The last match, between Chan and FM Javier Benitez, also went to five games, but lasted far longer than the others. The fifth game, played at a 1+2 time control (instead of the regular 3+2), was the most interesting.

In heavy time trouble, Benitez was unable to deal with Chan's d-pawn, which he saw but could not know for sure if it was protected or not. For one move, White's queen came into view, and Black had to take the chance at removing the dangerous pawn. Instead, he moved his own queen; White promoted to a second queen and quickly won.

Semifinals

Chan's semifinal match went much more smoothly as he defeated Drozdowski three games out of three. The other Winner's Semifinal, between Fu and Van Rijn, was not a sweep.

In the other bracket, Minh To recovered from his quarterfinal result to stay alive with a 3-0 sweep of Rahimpour. And in the final of the four matches, we saw Fog Of War create what in normal circumstances would be elementary blunders—but aren't so elementary in this format.

In the position below, LongTermFuture has a bishop deep in Black's position, supported by the queen. Unfortunately, the queen would be ambushed by a knight he couldn't see. Benitez had simply developed this knight from g8 to f6 to h5, all out of White's view, and then snatched the queen.

LongTermFuture was forced by the tournament situation—locked in a 2-2 tie with elimination looming—to keep fighting, which he did valiantly. But, on move 59, knights got him again.

White had just moved the king to e3, not seeing the knight. But Black's knight could see the king.

LongTermFuture would get a reprieve, however, as that game was played at a 3+2 time control, when as a tiebreak match it should have been 1+2. LongTermFuture won the rerun and advanced.

Winners Final: Chan 3-2 Fu

Chan jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Fu roared back with two wins himself. Game four turned on another knight surprise.

It just so happened that Chan had his king on f1 and queen on e2, resulting in a fork that Black didn't even see that he had until playing the actual move!

The fifth and final tiebreak game reached a knight endgame where Chan had three extra pawns. Desperately trying to get to the pawns—which he couldn't see but knew were there—Fu's knight ran into Chan's king and Fu resigned. But it would not be the last time they met on this action-packed afternoon.

The simultaneous "Losers Quarterfinals" saw Minh To's chance at winning a second Community Championship in as many months end, as Drozdowski won their match 3-2. Meanwhile, Zelfmat beat LongTermFuture, leaving only titled players remaining in the tournament.

Losers Semifinal And Final

Chan was now in the final, awaiting for the loser bracket to sort itself out. To start, Drozdowski and Van Rijn would play, the winner facing Fu, and the winner of that match entering the Grand Final.

The Drozdowski–Van Rijn match went back and forth, with Drozdowski winning the first two odd-numbered games and Van Rijn the first two even-numbered games, setting up another tiebreak game. The conclusion was a bit anticlimactic, with Van Rijn suddenly losing on time.

That left Drozdowski and Fu to play for the right to take on Luizzy in the Grand Final. Fu swept, 3-0. It was still a great showing for Drozdowski, who pointed out in chat after his elimination that he had just started playing the variant this same week.

Grand Final (Chan 1-3 Fu) and Grand Final Reset (Chan 3-0 Fu)

In the all-Australian Grand Final, Chan needed to win one match to claim the tournament, while Fu needed two. In the third game of a 1-1 match, with his queen under threat, Chan didn't realize the flight square he picked was also under attack.

White had just played e5, discovering an attack on Black's queen, which had been on c6. Black, not realizing a4 was also unsafe, moved there and got snatched off, the game ending soon after.

Game four ended much more abruptly, after just 12 moves. Commentators theorized that White knew a piece had just moved to g4, but thought it was a knight, and so he played a pawn move (c4). The problem was, Black had a bishop, not a knight on g4... goodbye king.

The result was a Grand Final Reset and now, whoever won this match would claim the full event. Luizzy was unfazed by the need for this extra match, and won the first two games. Game two required extra resilience, as he had his queen semi-trapped early on by Fu's dark-squared bishop. Chan retreated the queen... directly into the other bishop's path.

White's queen retreated one square backward, where it was immediately picked off from a4.

But Chan stuck with it and ambushed Black's king on move 52, capturing with his knight. In fact, losing his queen helped in a bizarre way: the same bishop move that threatened White's queen took its eye off the knight on b4... and Black never saw that knight again until it plucked the king right off the board.

This was the last thing Black saw before his king's sudden demise:

The poor king had no chance against the invisible knight on e8, and Chan was now just one win away from victory in the tournament. Fu, trailing by two rooks after 40 moves, resigned, and we had a winner! Chan won the $600 first-place prize and Fu earned $350. The prizes for the third through eighth places ranged from $100 to $250.

Interviewed afterward, Chan expressed his enjoyment of Fog Of War, noting that he's "been playing [Fog Of War] since 2019... I've loved it ever since then. I think it's a really good mind game. You try to trick your opponent and there's some cool tactics."

Asked what other variants he liked, Chan replied with Seirawan Chess. And he's in luck... that is the next community championship. Tune in this November!

How to watch? You can watch the broadcast on the Chess.com Community Twitch and YouTube. Results and info can be found on our dedicated events page.

The live broadcast was hosted by WIM Ayelen Martinez and AnittaDrink. They were later joined by Fog Of War specialist Jai Sandhu.

The Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship is the sixth event of the Chess.com Community Championships series, and anyone could battle for a piece of the $2,000 prize fund. The tournament was 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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Nathaniel Green

Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.