Atomar World Cup Recap Part 4: Good sportsmanship is important!!

Previous post:
https://lichess.org/@/Rightline3127/blog/atomar-world-cup-recap-part-3-not-forfeiting-is-important/5fMvJzgo
Atomar WC bracket:
https://challonge.com/2021atomarwc

Winners' Round 4

Astavakra 6-2 Crepuscular

Crepuscular why are you so good against me and so bruh against asta?
Game 1 Center block, black went for the two side knights defence. Black successfully traded the queen for P+R+N and white timed out. It's only move 21.
Game 2 e3 Qg4 opening, black defended everything but still allowed a knight invasion, winning an exchange. Then the other knight also came into black's position and black lost more material, and got mated.
Game 3 Why is Crep always low on time? Center block but white sacrificed a knight for a pawn. Black possibly mouseslipped Kf8 but white didn't win any material after some trades. Black had a queen for a piece and a rook, went for the trades and ended up in a rook endgame with equal material. Eventually they drew after trading rooks.
Game 4 The 2 knights is less powerful in atomar, but it's still playable. In a somewhat symmetrical opening, they traded queens and black ended up a pawn up. Black even won a piece, but white got the king active, and black gave away a rook for free and flagged.
Game 5 Nh3 symmetry is another way to get a quick draw. Or is it? The queens were not traded, and they got into each other's territory. But the white queen together with the white pawns created problem for the black king, black got checkmated. So yes, it's possible to checkmate in atomar.
Game 6 Sacrificing a piece early on is not a good idea, even if it's a classic sacrifice in atomic. Black sacrificed a knight in a normal e4 opening, did not have compensation, tried desperately to get the king active but got forked instead. The rest is easy for top players.
Game 7 Center block but black actually got scammed this time and lost a queen. Both white and black missed a fork for one move, and black found it to win back the queen (otherwise white was obviously winning). In a still completely winning endgame, white managed to blunder a rook again and had to settle for the draw.
Game 8 French game, they both went for knight attacks, traded queens and went into an endgame with equal material. But in the process Crepuscular probably got into time trouble and blundered a fork in the endgame. It was not a forced mate if Ke8, but black chose to get mated anyway.

QueenEatingDragon 2.5-5.5 Wolfram_EP

QED played well. Like I said, he's not me.
Game 1 Against the center attack (d4 e4), black chose e5 and Nh6. They both pushed all the pawns but black took advantage of the knight on a3 and won material by pushing queenside pawns, and then pinned white's queen.
Game 2 e4 Qg4 symmetrical, after knight invasions, they traded pieces and material was equal. They got into a bishop endgame where white king was more active and black couldn't defend all the pawns and lost.
Game 3 French trade opening, black got punished for playing d5 too early and lost material due to the classic knight sacrifice. In the Q vs R endgame, white had a defended passed pawn which promoted easily and then it was a Q vs nothing endgame. Black resigned.
Game 4 French Nh3 trade opening, white's bishop invaded and won a pawn. In the endgame, white decided to trade into a rook s queen endgame but white was up 2 pawns. White cut off black's king from the white pawns. Black resigned when the position was still unclear (black could stop the pawns but white could probably win the queen)
Game 5 White played the two knights and won a pawn by Ng4, but black won RBNP for Q in return. Black somewhat forgot the white knight was not absolutely pinned (or not pinned at all) and lost material after white gave the queen back. In the endgame black was down an exchange, but white gave back the exchange for no reason. Then they both queened and the position was a draw.
Game 6 They played Nc3 Nc6 but white went for d4 instead of trading pieces. Black got scammed and didn't realise white could win a piece by simply gaining a tempo with the bishop. White gave back the piece but won another pawn in the process. In the endgame white was up 2 pawns, and black had to deal with the far advanced passed pawn. Still, black resigned too early.
Game 7 d4 Nh6 opening, they transposed into center block. White gave up an exchange for an active queen, black got the rook down and won material thanks to the back rank threats. However, the white queen was active and black king had nowhere to escape, causing a draw by perpetual.
Game 8 Nf3 Nf6 e4 opening, white somewhat misplayed and lost material in the opening. White won back two pawns by attacking with the queen, but black's bishops created trouble for the white king. In the endgame black was up an exchange but white was able to trade the last black pawn, and keep the far advanced a-pawn. eventually black won white's a pawn but the resulting R vs N endgame was the most drawn ever.

vlad_00 6-3 lesha2002

Game 1 French Nh3 opening. Black attacked with Bh4 and forced the knight to trade for it. Then they pushed the queenside pawns, black queen went through but got trapped in the corner. White won an exchange after the queens were off the board, and the white king was more active. Black resigned after a new white queen was about to land on the board.
Game 2 Center block and Nh3 trade. White won a piece by a nice intermezzo, and tried to force checkmate with the two bishops, but black bishop defended just in time. White was still up a piece in the endgame but black king took the white pawns and white had to settle for a draw.
Game 3 Nc3 c6 opening, white won two pawns for a piece in the opening, and won more material because of the awkward black knight on h6 (don't play side knight openings!) Black didn't take on g5 for some reason as someone pointed out, but won the kingside pawns successfully. In the final R+2 vs BN+3 endgame, the black rook was limited and white was able to win the black pawns. The 3 white pawns pushed together for victory.
Game 4 Center block and Nh6. Is Nh6 even good? Not sure. Again nobody lost material in the opening unlike my games, and they traded into an equal R and N endgame. Black got scammed by walking his king into the fire of the white rook and knight, and got scammed a pawn and a knight. White was able to save the final pawn and force black to give up the rook for it, and apparently knew how to mate with R+N.
Game 5 g3 opening, interesting opening choice but boring follow up. Again the opening was equal but black got scammed because his knight was trapped in the corner. Then white won material and was able to trade into a rook vs nothing endgame, and black could not win any white pawn and resigned.
Game 6 Center block with Nh6 again. Black was forced to play Ng8, so why Nh6? White probably gave away the queen for RNB too early and black had counterplay with the rook and queen against the white king. But white was able to scam (pin) black's queen and won it. Black won all white's pawns and white won the black pawns to get into BN vs K which is a draw.
Game 7 Center game with Nc3 and Nh3. White scammed black with the knight invasion and finally won the rook on a8. Then white won more material, traded into R vs nothing, and pushed the a pawn to victory.
Game 8 Center game but with h5. All four knights went for attacks, white won an exchange but was forced to give away the queen for two knights. The material was still fairly even, black tried to attack with the queen, but it was white whose two rooks and knight got near black's king and mated it in the corner (it was not forced, Qxg2 was possible).
Game 9 French opening, black sacrificed a pice and pushed on the queenside. Both sides got a pawn to the 7th rank but white was ahead a tempo and got a new queen into the game, with a quick mate.

Winner's Round 5

LearningVariants vs Astavakra: Astavakra showed his strength and LV needed to use some scams to win. But I'll change the prediction slightly in favour of LV. Prediction: 4-6
Wolfram_EP vs vlad_00: At this point I'm not changing the prediction. Anything can happen though. I'm thinking at least 7 white wins in a row. Prediction: 7-5

Winner's Final

Wolfram_EP vs Astavakra : If Wolfram uses his endgame strength, it should be a match that goes his way. Prediction: 6-3

Loser's Round 2

Lavarider, IMMM and CyberShredder forfeited.

Loser's Round 3

Iubar vs R2300 (F)

fast-tsunami 7-3 Camisapricity

I said Camisa is not a weak player.
Game 1 French opening with Na3 played. White limited black's pieces by pushing the kingside pawns. Eventually, after some trades, white found a fork winning a rook, and then white gave back an exchange to simplify the position and black took a defended pawn (not easy to see).
Game 2 d4 d5 game, black found a knight sacrifice that forced white to give away material. But after the trades, black was only a pawn up. White won back a piece but the black passed pawns were sufficiently defended. Black was able to defend the passed pawns in time, won white's knight and then the game.
Game 3 Nf3 symmetrical trade game, they quickly traded into an endgame. Black pieces were more active, and the white king was cut off. But white also infiltrated the pieces and black got scammed by a king capture.
Game 4 French game, but they went for a big trade and the material was equal. Black was able to win a pawn but white knight invaded and won back a pawn. Black got into a queen vs 2 pawns endgame where he hung a fork (into a draw). It was probably a draw anyway.
Game 5 Na3 opening, black played 2 knights as a defence and surprisingly white didn't lose any material. Black sacrificed a pawn for king activity, but then white was able to trade rooks and got a new queen while stopping black from queening. White sacrificed the queen because the lastwhite pawn couldn't be stopped.
Game 6 In a d4 Nf6 opening, white chose to save the queen instead of trading it for 3 pieces. Then black gave up the queen for piece activity (I doubt it was sound), but white blundered back a fork. Then material was fairly equal with white having a small edge (Q for R+P). White traded the queen for R+P too early and got scammed in the endgame, and lost by one tempo.
Game 7 Black chose the two side knights defence and won a piece after pushing the pawns. But white created counterplay on the queenside, traded queen for 3 pieces and got two pawns on the 7th rank, and entered the endgame a piece up. But there were few pieces left and white gave away the knight too early, resulting in a probably drawn rook and pawn endgame because the white king was cut off. White eventually gave away the rook for an easy draw.
Game 8 Nc3 symmetry, they traded pieces and the material was equal. They desided to trade into an equal endgame and then quickly traded into a pawn endgame. Black had a defended passed pawn, but all his other pawns were taken and they agreed to a draw in 2P vs K endgame.
Game 9 White played e4 Qh5 which is not good especially after Nh6. White was not able to recover from the opening material (and positional) loss and resigned with a queen down.
Game 10 Black chose the two side knights defence against the d4 center game. But then black got the queen trapped and had to give up it for only a piece and a pawn. Then after some more simplification white was up a whole rook. White somehow allowed black to take the previously well-defended pawn, and drew a winning endgame (I think Rg1 instead of Re1 wins, h5 h4)

Natso 4.5-5.5 lecw

Lecw pulled off an upset!
Game 1 e4 Nf6 g4 opening (which is possibly losing). White amazingly didn't lose material immediately but black's active pieces created problems for white's king. White missed Rxh2 (not easy to find in games) and then allowed black to queen by a rook trade.
Game 2 Center black, after some equal trades, black gave away a queen for 2 pieces. Then white traded queen for R+P very early and allowed a knight invasion by black. It did not result in a win though, as the knight was taken directly by white king. White lost back the exchange by a knight fork but was up a pawn. They both had two passed pawns, white queened first and found a nice trick to win both black pawns and the game.
Game 3 Symmetrical big trade opening, they quickly traded two knights for pieces and black launched an attack on white's king. White king ran across the board but black got scammed by a king capture. Even so, black still had dangerous passed pawns, but in a time scramble, white, a rook up, was able to trade into a R vs B (drawn) endgame and flag black.
Game 4 Nf3 Nh6 trade opening but white didn't take the rook and black also didn't take the rook. After further trades black was up two pieces for rook and 2 pawns (not really "up"?) but white missed a check.
Game 5 Symmetrical two knights. White forked and won an exchange but black had counterplay with two bishops. White won one bishop but black won almost all white pawns and got a drawn R+P vs B endgame. Also black won the white pawn pretty quickly.
Game 6 e5 Nh6 against the center game. Black was able to invade with the knight quickly but didn't take the material when he could. White was able to avoid losing any material and was up a queen for two pieces but got flagged.
Game 7 Who thinks e4 Ng6 e5 is a good idea? Strangely, black didn't win material and white somehow won the knight for nothing. The problem is that both of them didn't like to take material but in fact it's hard to win material in this game. White was up a rook and a pawn for two pawns but white pieces were passive. The problem is white sacrificed the rook too early and got scammed by black. Both of them missed a lot of mates (they were in serious time trouble) and black eventually took the white king.
Game 8 Classic French advanced variation, after some trades black was up a pawn, but white had an advanced passed pawn. White lost an exchange when he was not looking, and lost the passed pawn, but was able to get the king active and won all black pawns. Eventually white flagged when Rxd2 was an easy draw.
Game 9 Nf3 symmetrical trade, they traded into a rook endgame and black sacrificed a pawn for no reason. The position was still fairly equal until white allowed black to get the king around and get a queen. Black demonstrated the queen vs king winning method.
Game 10 e4 Nf6 h3 opening, white won an exchange and lost back a pawn. In an unclear position, white declined a draw by repetition (and tiebreakers) and played for the "win". White obviously lost because he had little time. He blundered a rook and got flagged.

two64brocc 6-1 FonsecaErnesto

Game 1 French with two side knights. Both sides made some strange decisions and it was white who won material after a queen invasion (and black blundered). Even so, after the trades, white was only up two pawns. White even gave up the exchange for pawn advances. Black rook was not able to stop all pawns and lost.
Game 2 Two knights Ne5 variation. After all the trades white had a pawn advantage (which probably proves that Ne5 is not the way to go). However white didn't set up the fortress (Rf2) and lost because black king was more active (and white blundered mate).
Game 3 Same opening as game 1, the position was repeated and white won a pawn again. Black had to sacrifice the exchange and white traded into 2R vs Q endgame, black queen was not able to force a perpetual and white queened, so black resigned.
Game 4 Black played the same opening as game 2 and this time lost an exchange after the opening trades. But black king got activated successfully and white didn't defend the last pawn in time so black was able to get a draw.
Game 5 Nh6 against the center opening. They again went for a similar trade and white won a pawn in the center by trading queens. In an equalish middlegame, black decided to take the draw by repetition (it was probably better for black since white king was cut off)
Game 6 Two knights Ne5 again, this time white didn't win material after the opening trades. Black's structure was more solid and therefore after trading into a pawn endgame, black won the white pawns and the game.
Game 7 Sicilian game (which is very rare). They both pushed pawns in the middle, black sacrificed an exchange but had plenty of counterplay, until white found a knight for bishop trade. Then white was simply up an exchange and cut off black's king to win.

Stephenhello (F) vs Stephanie_s_Symphony

Anyone knows what happened to them? It seems that they both suddenly disappeared. Sad.

Loser's Round 4

DanDan2016 7.5-0.5 Rightline3127

Game 1 Nc3 symmetry. I didn't see Black's knight invasion and lost an exchange, then I lost more material because of some king scams.
Game 2 French defence, I forgot that the queen can move and pins are not always working in atomar, and therefore I lost material in opening again. It is not easy to scam in endgames against strong players.
Game 3 I used the same opening as the scammer, but I got over excited about the knight invasion and forgot that knight invasions are nothing if I can't win material. Black won material again and I lost.
Game 4 Nc3 symmetry but I failed to defend against a knight check. Should have gone for full symmetry (Nd4, then I can do the same after the check)
Game 5 Nc3 symmetry with a big trade. I didn't lose any material, finally, but I got into time trouble and allowed black king to get active and after trading into pawn endgame, my king was misplaced and therefore I lost. If I traded one more pawn it should be a draw.
Game 6 White played e3 Ne2, I won material but was tilted and lost on time. Otherwise I should win. I believe the position was completely winning if I didn't allow white to win back material. Somehow DanDan was not willing to take a draw, just for some meaningless flowers. That results in me getting 0 points, and I will be a laughing stock in a certain discord server. So after asking, DanDan agreed that the match should end in 7.5-0.5, so I didn't get adopted.
This is official, the match ended in 7.5-0.5 instead of 6-0
Don't play e3 Ne2. I was just tilted, if I was not tilted I can beat e3 Ne2 easily.

Iubar vs fast-tsunami

Don't write off Iubar. Fastie got scammed a lot in his previous matches and had many losing positions vs Camisa. He can still win but it should be close. Prediction: 3.5-5.5

lecw vs Opabinia

Opabinia doesn't even play enough atomar and barely scraped past Royal in a questionable match. Lecw is good at flagging and scams. Prediction: 6-0

two64brocc vs Stephanie_s_Symphony

Potentially the last forfeit in this forfeit championship. I don't know what happened to Stephen and Stephanie but I hope they are doing well with their lives, after all, life is more important than atomar and my blogs. Prediction: 6-0 or Stephanie forfeits.

Loser's Round 5

QueenEatingDragon vs DanDan2016: Prediction: 6-0 Memes aside, DanDan is slightly stronger but QED also improved very quickly. It will be a close match. Prediction: 4-6
lesha2002 vs fast-tsunami: Lesha is stronger at least for now. Unless there is enough evidence that fast-tsunami gets better significantly, he will get eliminated here, sadly. Prediction: 5.5-2.5
luka3916 vs lecw: Luka is more experienced and played many games with vlad, so he trained well and can probably win due to experience. Prediction: 6-2
Crepuscular vs two64brocc: Please don't get scammed again, Mr. Crepuscular. Two64brocc is not that good in atomar. Prediction: 6-1

Loser's Round 6

DanDan2016 vs lesha2002: It's too early to say, but DanDan2016 was only good at opening and middlegame tricks. Scammers will always get scammed, that's a theorem. Prediction: 4.5-5.5
luka3916 vs Crepuscular: Hard to say but luka is probably stronger as for now. Prediction: 6-4

Atomar Leaderboard

To prove I'm still a top 20 atomar player, I'll make an atomar strength list for now, please don't get mad at me because it is only my opinion, you're free to have different opinions:

1. Wolfram_EP
2. vlad_00
3. Astavakra
4. lesha2002
5. LearningVariants
6. luka3916
7. DanDan2016
8. fast-tsunami
9. QueenEatingDragon
10. lecw
11. Iubar
12. two64brocc
13. Natso
14. Camisapricity
15. Opabinia
16. VariantsOnly
17. RoyalManiac
18. IMakeManyMistakes
19. Rightline3127
20. Stephenhello
21. Stephanie_s_Symphony
22. cFlour
23. The_Knight_Of_Spring
24. Puddingbirne
25. Superprosper
26. Kevinlel
27. hellfira
28. CalmWaters
29. CyberShredder
30. fft1 (DualityGg), just because he never forfeited, unlike Avi

Opening analysis (by my friend)

Which opening is the best opening in atomar? My friend wrote a script to collect pgns from links in my blogs. This is the result:
https://i.imgur.com/w4zSXPB.png
Nc3 is best by test, while e4 is played most often. White still has a big edge in high level atomar games. Always play g4, it's unbeatable. Same with Na3, c4, f4 and g3!