No one has ever scored a perfect 11-0 in 3 0 Thursday, but FM Artin Ashraf and GM Jeffery Xiong both came close on Thursday, September 17. Ashraf started by winning 10 consecutive games in the first event. His final-round loss cost him perfection, but first place was a good consolation prize. In the second event, GM Alexey Sarana drew in the fourth round, but his 9.5/10 start was enough to secure the top spot in the second tournament despite a last-round stumble. In the third tournament, Xiong won his first nine games, securing first place, despite only half a point in his final two games.
First Tournament: Ashraf Nearly Perfect
In online chess circles, ten consecutive wins against an opponent is called an adoption. Ashraf adopted the field to start the day, defeating Super GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Sarana, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana (who is concurrently playing at the Olympiad as well) along the way!
In addition to those victories against top players, Ashraf’s win against the most frequent 3 0 Thursday winner, IM Renato Terry, was a dominant performance.
With first place secure entering the last round, Ashraf tried a Sicilian Dragon, aiming for a perfect score. However, his opponent, IM Sergey Sklokin, played well and hunted down Ashraf’s king to secure the win.
Despite the loss, Ashraf earned top prize with 10 points. There was a four-way tie for second place with nine points. Terry had the best tiebreak score, followed by Sarana, Nakamura and Sklokin. WIM Margarita Potapova secured the top women’s prize with seven points, her third prize in the last two weeks.
Second Tournament: Sarana Wins With A Round To Spare
In the second event of the day, Sarana won his first three games before a tough game against GM Jose Martinez. Martinez had good chances to win on the clock in a bad position before allowing a skewer while Sarana had just 1.3 seconds on his clock.
Sarana won the white rook, but then sacrificed his queen for White’s final pawn, securing a draw with just half a second remaining.
Sarana responded by winning his next six games. In the eighth round he built a strong attacking position and eventually won material against GM Oleksandr Bortnyk.
Sarana then reached 9.5 points with a 10th-round win against Xiong.
Like Ashraf before him, Sarana lost a meaningless last round game. He still took first with 9.5/11, ahead of GM Haik Martirosyan‘s nine points and GM Eric Hansen‘s 8.5 points. WFM Veronika Shubenkova took the top women’s prize with six points.
Third Tournament: Xiong Starts 9-0, Holds On
Surprisingly, the toughest test for Xiong on his way to a 9-0 start came in the second round. His opponent, IM Eric Rosen, blundered a rook in the opening, but came back and equalized in a wild position. Fortunately for Xiong, Rosen took too many risks in trying to win on time, and Xiong was able to win the game.
Rosen streamed the game and the rest of the event.
After that scare, Xiong just kept winning, defeating opponents rated over 3000 in each of his next seven games. His victory against GM Luka Budisavljevic demonstrated his good form.
Xiong finally slowed down in the tenth round, blundering a piece against GM Christopher Yoo. That result kept the fight for first open heading into the final round. Xiong calmly secured the better end of a draw against IM Bryan Lin to reach 9.5 points. Yoo finished second with nine points, and Budisavljevic finished third with eight points. GM Tan Zhongyi secured the top women’s prize with seven points.
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.
