Atomic World Championship #4: How Poetic

Overview

The Top 16 players are now determined and the double elimination period has started. Let's look at the leftover matches in Round 1 and 2.

Round 1 and 2

The updated bracket of AWC: https://challonge.com/2025awc
Just a reminder, @NeverOFzero, @Wolfram_EP, @ReChesster, @TAiSThuban, @GRX_BULLET won groups A, I, K, L, M respectively.

Group B

After winning the game against me, @StealYourKidney faced @chrisrapid 's challenge. In a fairly lopsided match, StealYourKidney played reasonably well and successfully flagged chris in a game:

It was a complicated position and certainly it's hard to calculate in time trouble. Apparently the simple 27.b7 push would be good enough.
As White, chris played well and didn't give Kidney any chances, including one Na3 game. (Perhaps because of my last blog, quite a few Na3 games were played...) Kidney did have one other chance for an obvious draw, but chose to play for a win and ended up in a pawn vs knight endgame, and missed the final drawing move (treat this as a puzzle. What's the result of this endgame?):

In the end, chris won the match 7-1, showcasing a title contender's strength.
Group winner: chrisrapid

Group C

Firstly, the last match of Round 1 ended with a convincing 8.5-1.5 win for @ekulxam. Ekulxam won a nice Nf3 e6 game in Game 1, and then missed an endgame win as white in Game 2 by opening up the lines and allowing a rook invasion:

But other than this game, ekulxam played well as White, playing Nc3, c3 and Nh3 openings, and didn't let @Rider3208 into the games. Meanwhile Rider struggled to convert the advantage in Nf3 e5 e4 games, and only won one more game in the match. The final game of this match went Nh3 e6 black resigns, making it the shortest game in AWC 2025.
@ekulxam is then facing defending champion @Natso. Game 1 saw both players moving king in the opening, and Natso's 9.Kf8! was the winning move, winning a pawn — often a winning material advantage in atomic. Yes, atomic is very unforgiving.

As White, @Natso played well and gained winning advantages within 10 moves and all games finished within 20 moves except the final game which no longer matters. For example, showing Rider how to use Nf3 e5 e4 to win quickly:

However, Game 10 was a good game for @ekulxam taking advantage of Natso's ticking clock and came back:

As Black, Natso was also well prepared against Nc3. Ekulxam did manage to escape with a draw in Game 5:

And almost won with a3 in Game 7 (although the game doesn't matter anymore):

The winning idea was closing the position and get the bishop out. Opening up the position was not a good idea.
@Natso won the match 8.5-1.5 (5.5-0.5 for the games that mattered). This shows Natso was just trolling in the R2300 match and is now in good form.
Group winner: Natso

Group D

@vlad_00 defeated @Orcinus_Orca 6-2 to advance to top 16. After two wins for vlad, Orcinus did fight back and tie the match 2-2. But Vlad recovered from the losses and won 4 straight games. There were a few missed chances in the match. Here are some puzzles from the games:

(Classic opening scam)
Group winner: vlad_00

Group E

The match between @MaxwellsSilvrHammer and @sircachetes was close as expected. The first 3 games were all white wins from the Two Knights opening which is widely regarded as the strongest white opening. For example, the third game showcases a very common "hook" idea with a queen sacrifice:

The second game actually had a position where black was better, with a hard-to-find Qa5-Qa7 maneuver and taking advantage of the weak diagonal without pawns.

For Game 4 Maxwell changed opening and immediately got punished by sircachetes with a knight invasion winning material. Down 1-3, Maxwell desperately needed a win and got it in Game 5 when sircachetes got too greedy and allowed a fairly basic queen mate:

In Game 6, Maxwell returned to Two Knights and sircachetes allowed a double bishop invasion and got checkmated. Two bishops near a king is almost always a death sentence.

In Game 7 Maxwell got a good position as Black but fell victim to time trouble and hung mate. In Game 8 he allowed no more scams and won a solid game. Game 9 was vital — Maxwell defended well against the Two Knights and got a winning position. However, sircachetes missed a draw with a rook sacrifice because of the vulnerable g-file:

Only needing a draw, Maxwell played safe in Game 10 and simplified to a draw in a better position. The match ended 5.5-4.5 for Maxwell, but sircachetes performed well as an underdog.
Group winner: MaxwellSilvrHammer

Group F

@ihatespaMMers forfeited. Booooo! Terrible. Imagine predicting him to win it all. Can't be me.
Group winner: seaside_tiramisu

Group G

@Opabinia defeated @kuma0418 convincingly 5.5-0.5. Probably due to nervousness facing a strong opponent, kuma0418 didn't really offer enough resistance in the first 5 games and lost before move 20. In the sixth game kuma0418 was completely winning but went for the perpetual draw just to avoid 0-6. I must say this is reasonable but not recommended. Taking a draw in a winning position is a mistake, and doing it in a must-win game is a double mistake.

There is mate in only 8 moves. Can you find the idea?
Group winner: Opabinia

Group H

@RandoomPlayer defeated @ArjanZS 5.5-1.5. After being 0-4 down, Arjan managed to fight back with a win as Black and a draw as White but ultimately fell short in Game 7 with a Nf3 e5 White win for Randoom. (RandoomPlayer started trolling and played e4 g4 in Game 5, In Game 6 Arjan failed to convert a winning QQ vs P endgame in time trouble). Here are some puzzles from the match:
Holy hell!

This is fairly impossible without engine. Still cool variation.

Group winner: RandoomPlayer

Group J

The match between @JakeStateFarm and @RabbieR was another close match, RabbieR almost did the unthinkable and pushed JSF to the brink of elimination, but JSF ultimately won on demand and fought back to win 6.5-5.5 in tiebreakers.
In Game 1, JSF defended well against Two Knights and won material in the middlegame to win easily as Black. Game 2 was a flawless Nf3 e3 game. Game 3 was fairly wild and tactical. In time trouble, White allowed Black to queen and in time trouble, they both played many blunders, White hung mate in 1 twice and Black also hung mate in 1 twice, the game befittingly ended up in a draw.

In Game 4, JSF made a pawn blunder and RabbieR simplified to win as Black. Game 5, RabbieR used the Two Knights to defeat JSF in the endgame with a time advantage. Game 6 ended in a pawnitization draw. (apparently the word is spelled pawnitization instead of pawntinization)
Game 7 had an interesting endgame where the drawing idea was to block the pawn and trade rooks, but Black missed it in time trouble:

Game 8 to 10 were rather clean White wins and the score reads 5-5. JSF withstood the pressure to win Game 10 which seems to be a pawnitized endgame, but with one more pair of rooks:

In Game 11, JSF managed to draw by perpetual in a rook vs a few pawns endgame. Knowing the importance of Game 12, the players took a break before it. In Game 12, JSF played e3 Na3 (which is basically Na3 with extra steps), which obviously gave RabbieR some chances but I admire this courage. And it worked. Black missed a chance to equalize:

White won material and went on to win. RabbieR played well as an underdog but JSF avoided a major upset.
Group winner: JakeStateFarm

Group N

@JudeBaeTorrens, a decent chess player (https://ratings.fide.com/profile/39970566), defeated @digvijay_sunil 5.5-3.5. The match started with 6 straight White wins. This doesn't mean Black had no chances. Sunil's main opening is e3 Nf3 and JBT's main opening is Two Knights.
In Game 1, Black missed the diagonal threat and lost, can you find a good defence?

In Game 5, my instinct says that the bishop near White's king is strong, so can you take advantage of that?

In Game 7, Sunil agreed to a draw in a Rook for a Pawn endgame which should be winning. (The winning idea is to block the a-pawn and use the rook to sacrifice for a pawn at the right time and end up with queen vs pawn):

Game 8 was one more white win, in Game 9, knowing a win would win the match, JBT played well and got into a winning position:

The endgame was a textbook example for winning QP vs KP with side pawns. JBT won and won the match.
Group winner: JudeBaeTorrens

Group O

@imjustanotherbot is the lowest seed remaining, and defeated @F55555 6-4 in an exciting match to continue the miracle run.
Unlike other matches, this match started with 4 straight Black wins. They are also quick Black wins where white ran into traps and quickly lost the advantage. Game 2 was the most iconic, a seemingly theoretical but never played Nf3 e5 trap:

Game 5 almost ended in a Black win as well but Black failed to realize the endgame blunder:

Game 6 was a quick and clean White win with a nice double bishop mate. Including Game 6, anotherbot won 4 straight games without much drama. Last game White was winning but decided to resign. Can you find the defensive resource? The last game didn't matter anyway, anotherbot has already won the match.

Lesson: Just like Erica's premature resignation, always look for possible defences before resigning.
Group winner: imjustanotherbot

Group P

Credit: @HowlinD
@HowlinD against @arinor0109 was the first match of this year’s AWC to go to tiebreakers.
The match started well for HowlinD, able to win his two white games convincingly (with 1.e3 and 1.Nf3) and without much resistance due to dubious defenses, and dominate as black twice in a row against Arinor0109’s usual openings of Nf3 d4 and 2N d4. However, HowlinD settled twice for a draw by repetition despite being in a better position, due to having only seconds left on the clock.
The match would take a turn in game 5, where Arinor0109 would punish HowlinD’s opening blunder 5...e5??, which allows the very classic atomic idea of Nb5-Bb5-exd5, and gather a strong enough advantage there to convert the win. Game 6 saw HowlinD repeat his 1.e3 from game 2, followed by the same dubious defense, but a huge blunder 5.Qf5?? would throw white’s advantage, and white, without a queen, would end up losing.
The tilt might have overtaken HowlinD, as in game 7, following a series of strong moves on both sides and a very playable position for black, HowlinD fumbled the move order and let a #1 on the board, which Arinor0109 gladly took.
The rest of the games saw white wins, where Arinor0109 would convert his usual Nf3 d4, and HowlinD would keep playing 1.e3, which Arinor0109 didn’t have an answer against, attempting Nf6?, then d5??, then e6, which would be very familiar terrain for HowlinD after 2.Nc3. In the tiebreakers, after a short break, HowlinD found a breach in Arinor0109’s 2N d4 attack, and managed to win the game, and the next one as white as well, still with 1.e3. Final score, 7-5! The games of this match are annotated on the study

Group winner: HowlinD

Double Elimination Bracket Predictions

There were 40 bracket predictions made by various people in the community. https://challonge.com/2025awc/predictions
The first round matchups are:
NeverOFzero vs HowlinD
Will be hard for HowlinD to upset unless some scheduling scams happen. HowlinD is not someone to abuse the TD power so I doubt that kind of scams will happen.
RandoomPlayer vs Wolfram_EP
Wolfram should be well-prepared for this match. In fact, Wolfram already won this match 5.5-2.5, but I will cover it in the next blog.
vlad_00 vs GRX_BULLET
Vlad is kinda rusty, allowed quite a few tactics in the previous rounds, and I doubt this will be an easy match. But nevertheless vlad should be good enough to win.
MaxwellsSilvrHammer vs TAiSThuban
This is hard to predict, their playing strengths are similar. Maxwell is better at speed and Thuban is better at tactics probably. They both won close matches in the group stage. It's hard to beat Maxwell's Two Knights spam, but currently Thuban is higher rated. I consulted RNG, it gave me Maxwell so I predicted Maxwell.
chrisrapid vs imjustanotherbot
Chrisrapid is probably too strong for imjustanotherbot, but an upset is not impossible. I actually think this might be closer than a lot of people expect. At least it won't be 6-0.
Opabinia vs JakeStateFarm
I mean, JSF is not in good form right now. It should be close but Opa can win this.
Natso vs JudeBaeTorrens
Natso is pretty good recently and should be able to win this.
seaside_tiramisu vs ReChesster
Rechesster had a good draw and supposedly prepared well, we will see what the prepared lines are.

Further rounds:
NoZ vs Wolfram in Round 2 is brutal. Natso can probably beat chrisrapid but has to beat NoZ/Wolfram to defend the title, which will be hard. I predicted Rechesster to be the dark horse to go far in the losers' bracket.

Trivia

• All matches in the Round of 16 have been scheduled.
• Many players retired after winning AWC. That's sad but also reasonable.
• Nobody has come back from 0-4 this year.
• Actually, the round of 16 has already started when I publish this. But I wrote the most part of it before the round and let's pretend it hasn't started. (Round of 16 matches will be covered in the next blog.)

Playing like an engine, you just won,
Your full name won't be linked with loss.
Sing a rock song while marching on,
Keep the W on the table like a boss.
AWC glory isn't about playing fast,
Nothing is impossible and it's always fair.
So if you see some creatures in the past,
Use your shiny weapon to prepare!

Let's look forward to some great clashes!