Bortnyk Takes 960 Titled Arena

GM Oleksandr Bortnyk won the Lichess 960 Titled Arena on Saturday, 4 points ahead of second place GM Dimitry Andreikin. The event's time control (3+2) and initial scrambled pieces seem especially ill-suited to berserking which gives an extra point for halving your own available time, and also, relevant for this event removes any increment. With 960 chess you also can't count on a few moves at the beginning of each game being "freebies," played from memory without having to figure anything out at the board. Nevertheless, Bortnyk berserked 91% of his games. Andreikin only berserked 3 of his 36 games, while Third place NM Jasugi99 was also a heavy berserker. He halved his time in every single game played in the event.

Enjoy some puzzles from the event:

The next Titled Arena will be on February 22nd.