Chess.com Community Championships Could See Repeat Winner
Two international masters, including last month's Chess.com Community Champion in Duck Chess, IM Nhat Minh To, and four FIDE masters were among those to qualify for the Finals of the Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship 2024, after the series of qualifying events held on October 17. Minh To could now become the first repeat community champion of the year, which would safely make him one of the best variant specialists out there.
The knockout Finals, where the winner will take home $600, begin on Friday, October 18, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9.30 p.m. IST and will be streamed on Chess.com's Community Twitch page.
Qualifier Winners And Knockout Bracket
In the Fog Of War variant, players see only their own pieces, and the squares that their pieces can see. Anything that happens out of sight is a mystery. Here's an example from our Chess Terms about Fog Of War of White losing view of Black's side of the board after a piece gets captured:
Normal chess is a game of complete information, where neither player knows anything that the other player doesn't also know. Fog Of War fundamentally changes this dynamic by forcing both players to play half-blindfolded. Except, unlike in blindfold chess, players aren't forced to announce their moves to their opponent.
Fog Of War also does not force the king to get out of check, because it is very likely that the king cannot even see that it is in check. As a result, the win condition is capturing the opponent's king, not checkmate.
The first qualifier was FM Yihe Fu (@GMFYHR1), who at 2341 is the highest-rated player in the variant, and his second win immediately demonstrated the peculiar danger of Fog Of War. Fu had White and his opponent played a normal opening, but Fog Of War is not normal. Here was the position from Black's perspective on move three:
What Black can't see here is White's queen on a4. And so when Black captured on d5, he put himself in check. Fu captured the king and the game was over in just four moves.
Open lines can be good in Fog Of War, especially as they allow queens, rooks, and bishops to see deeper into the opponent's position. Open lines to the king, however, are suicidal, for precisely the reason we see above.
FM Luis Chan (@luizzy) won the second qualifier and had the best percentage score of any of the eventual eight winners, going 34/35 (97.1%) for 134 arena points. But the highest winning score was 142, set by FM Wouter van Rijn (@Zelfmat76) in the fourth qualifier event, as he scored 39/44.
The highest-rated qualifier in standard chess was the sixth, IM Kacper Drozdowski (@Kacparov), while the two non-titled qualifiers were the third and fifth: @LongTermFuture and community streamer Arian Rahimpour (@ArianRahimpour_2004).
The last two qualifiers were FM Javier Benitez (@shnitez) and Minh To (@DragonB70). One of Minh To's victories showed that it is not just the king that can be ambushed in Fog Of War: even the mighty queen is at risk. In this position, more than 30 moves into the game, Black didn't realize that there was still a white pawn on f2.
So, Black captured the bishop, and was rudely awakened. Things only got worse as Black responded by moving the bishop on g7, the equivalent of resigning as it allowed White's queen on f7 to capture Black's king on h7 and end the game.
Fu and Minh To, as the first and eighth qualifiers, are paired in the first round of the upcoming finals. Fortunately for both of them—who could be considered the two favorites, given the former's rating and the latter's earlier success in Duck Chess—it is a double elimination event, so whoever loses will have a chance to come back and win the event anyway.
Qualifier Winners
| Qualifier # | Name | Handle | Points | Score |
| 1 | FM Yihe Fu | @GMFYHR1 | 123 | 33/35 |
| 2 | FM Luis Chan | @luizzy | 134 | 34/35 |
| 3 | @LongTermFuture | 134 | 37/42 | |
| 4 | FM Wouter van Rijn | @Zelfmat76 | 142 | 39/44 |
| 5 | Arian Rahimpour | @ArianRahimpour_2004 | 133 | 38/47 |
| 6 | IM Kacper Drozdowski | @Kacparov | 107 | 32/45 |
| 7 | FM Javier Benitez | @shnitez | 120 | 35/42 |
| 8 | IM Nhat Minh To | @DragonB70 | 117 | 33/38 |
The Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship is the sixth event of the Chess.com Community Championships series. The tournament will be decided with an eight-player double-elimination bracket. Each competitor qualified via one of eight, 75-minute arenas with a 3+2 time control.
Previous Coverage
- Embrace The Darkness! Get Ready For The Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship
- Minh To Prevails In Duck Chess Championship
- Rosen, Minh To Join Duck Chess Experts in Finals
- Rubber Ducks And Madness In The Next Event Of The Chess.com Community Championships
- Comeback Kings Liang, Xiong Win Bughouse Championship
- Arjun, Nihal Take Aim At Two-Time Bughouse World Champions Liang, Xiong
- Tang Scores 71/80 In 6th Qualifier With Mysterious New Bughouse Partner
- Helmsknight, Vasquez Overcome Team Tang To Qualify On 3rd Attempt
- Xiong, Liang Win 50 Consecutive Games In Bughouse Championship Qualifier
- Moroni Claims Spell Chess Crown In Grand Final Reset
- Spell Chess Specialists Qualify For Knockout Ahead of Bok, Bortnyk, Hambleton
- Younger Brother Triumphs In Atomic Rivalry
- National Master Halts GM Martinez's Reign In Crazyhouse Championship
- Martinez Defends Variant Crown In 3 Check Chess
- Martinez Is King of The Hill In Variants Final
- Variants Community Series Results
- Variants Community Series: All The Information
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.
