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Announcing the 2019 Atomic World Championship

@Chronatog, @ijhAnnouncements

The 2019 Atomic World Championship is here!

The 2019 Atomic World Championship is now accepting entrants. The 66 best players as judged by a rating formula plus the winners of two scheduled AWC Qualifier tournaments on August 17, 2019 will be guaranteed entry into the tournament.

The tournament kicks off on Monday, September 9 at 00:00 UTC. The deadline for registration is Sunday, September 1st at 00:00 UTC. If any qualifying matches need to be played, they will be played in the time between September 1 and September 9. Full details about the tournament and rules, including how to enter, can be found at chronatog.com/2019/07/the-2019-atomic-world-championships/.

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Young Blood

Lichess TeamChess

A Tense Titled Arena and a Titillating Twist

Yesterday's Titled Arena got off to a quick start, and to no-one's great surprise Magnus Carlsen (@DrNykterstein) took an early lead, stringing together 13 wins - maybe this is what happens when you forsake 1. g4? Also with a strong start was GM Daniel Naroditsky (@RebeccaHarris), with 11/11. The anticipated meeting of the two leaders was a very surprising King's Gambit - a theme to continue throughout the tournament for this pairing. The second of their pairings lead to the impressive victory including 14. Kxe4. However, their first result was a draw, extinguishing both leaders' fire and giving the rest of the field a chance to catch up. After the first 30 minutes, Carlsen was out in front, followed by Naroditsky and the 16 year old Iranian GM Alireza Firouzja (@alireza2003).

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Lichess Montréal Meetup Recap

Lichess TeamAnnouncements

Chess fun in the sun (and rain)

This past Saturday, Lichess held its second Montréal meetup in the beautiful Mount Royal Park. The sun was shining and the chess fans were out in force, playing some casual blitz, rapid and even bughouse, as well as a 3+2 tournament organised by @Toscani (who also kindly provided most of the boards and clocks). Over the course of the afternoon, around 60 people stopped by, until eventually the forecast rain drove us inside towards the end of the schedule.

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Don't Try This At Home

Lichess TeamChess

Magnus cruises to another TA victory with an unusual repertoire

Now that we're past the longest day of the year, we needed something to help us survive as the nights are drawing in. Fortunately, there was a Titled Arena to occupy our attention as 325 titled players gathered to duke it out in 1+0. The usual suspects were there in force such as: GMs Magnus Carlsen (@DrNykterstein), Andrew Tang (@penguingim1) and Oleksandr Bortnyk (@Night-King96); as well as a scattering of very strong mystery masters and some less frequent participants like GM Eric Hansen (@chessbrahs) and new participant GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (@Praggnanandhaachess).

Speculation was rampant as there was no Magnus when things kicked off, but he was just being fashionably late - allowing GM @msb2 to take an early lead with three quick wins. A lead not fated to last however, and 30 minutes in Eric Hansen was out in front, closely followed by IM Saveliy Golubov (@Boss1005), the anonymous GMs @LyinTed and @Watneg, and speed-master GM Andrew Tang. Just a few minutes later though, the standings were completely rearranged - needless to say things were close at the top. Magnus was closing in now though, with some masterclasses in having an active king.

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Reconnecting