Comeback Kings Liang, Xiong Win Bughouse Championship
GMs Awonder Liang and Jeffery Xiong have been crowned as the 2024 Chess.com Bughouse Champions after the pair won each of their knockout matches and collected the $2,000 first prize on Friday.
Following a Quarterfinal drubbing of GMs Arjun Erigiaisi and Nihal Sarin, Liang and Xiong dominated their Semifinal and Winner's Final before mounting a comeback to win the Grand Final against GM Lars Oskar Hauge and NM Isaac Chiu.
Knockout Bracket
Knockout Format
The 2024 Chess.com Bughouse Championship finale was jampacked with action and featured swashbuckling specialists, super-GMs, and some serious speed. The team that rose to the occasion and seized the title were all three of these.
Liang and Xiong made an impression from the get-go by dispatching Arjun and Nihal 11.5-1.5.
If you thought the score was impressive, Liang later revealed that in their sole loss to the Indian superstars he had played with blindfold settings on, confessing it was "difficult."
An equally bruising 11-3 run by Liang and Xiong in their Semifinal against IM Mark Plotkin and NM Jalen Wang would have come as a shock to their opponents who won 28 straight games on Tuesday in their qualifier and defeated GM Andrew Tang and Marcel Dubansky by a healthy margin in the Quarterfinals.
The Winner's Final was more of the same for Liang and Xiong as they notched another 11-3 score, this time against qualifier one winners Hauge and Chiu. In the position below, Liang forces White to choose between defense and attack.
Seeing that his teammate is stuck defending, Chiu decides to drop a knight on f5 and attempts to go on the attack.
Unfortunately for Chiu, Liang can promote with check and drop a pawn on e2, forcing a checkmate in a maximum of three moves.
Meanwhile, Tang and Dubansky were resilient enough to win three straight matches in the loser's bracket and they booked their spot in the Loser's Final.
The pair, who united in qualifier five, started strongly in this match and held their own against Hauge and Chiu until the scores were locked at 4-4 but fell just short of a loser's bracket sweep after conceding the final three games.
And then came the Grand Final. The match between Liang-Xiong and Hauge-Chiu was a high-octane affair that kept commentators "AnnitaDrink" and GM Krikor Mekhitarian on their toes. Like a Hollywood script, the title match turned out to be the closest of the day.
Despite a heavy loss in the Winner's Final, Hauge and Chiu went blow-for-blow with their opponents until the score was 2-2, before a purple patch saw them establish a two-point lead.
The tactics, strategy, and speed on display in this period were every bughouse player's dream and the climax was a time-pressure-influenced repetition that Mekhitarian labeled "absurd."
When the match reached the 21-minute mark the two-point margin still stood and commentators Mekhitarian and AnittaDrink started to indicate the possibility of an upset. Liang and Xiong were the definition of class though and clutched up in the final third of the match.
Four straight wins saw the pair surge past Hauge and Chiu and when the match clock struck zero, a timely queen drop, which was also checkmate, confirmed victory for Liang and Xiong.
In their post-match interview, Liang did the majority of the talking for his team, stating that Xiong and himself have "very similar styles" and "mesh pretty well." Scarily, Liang also admitted to being "better at crazyhouse than bughouse" (crazyhouse chess is the single-player version of bughouse).
Prizes
For their efforts, Liang and Xiong will receive the $2,000 first prize while the remaining participants will all receive monetary prizes for reaching the knockout stage.
| Rank | Partners | Prize |
| 1 | GMs Awonder Liang & Jeffery Xiong | $2,000 |
| 2 | GM Lars Oskar Hauge & NM Isaac Chiu | $1,400 |
| 3 | GM Andrew Tang & Marcel Dubansky | $900 |
| 4 | FM Richard Zheng & NM Vincent Baker | $800 |
| =5th | NM Jalen Wang & IM Mark Plotkin | $600 |
| =5th | GM Guillermo Vasquez & Grace Ferguson | $600 |
| =7th | Bartlomiej Zdybowicz & FM Wojciech Reza | $500 |
| =7th | GMs Arjun Erigaisi & Nihal Sarin | $500 |
The next variant to take center stage is Duck Chess and as part of the Chess.com Community Championship, a $2,000 prize fund will be on offer for the best participant. With streamers like IMs Levy Rozman and Eric Rosen, and the Botez sisters, having made videos on the variant before, the event may lure some celebrity participants.
How to watch?
You can recap the broadcast of the 2024 Chess.com Bughouse Championship knockouts on the Chess.com Community YouTube or Twitch channels.
The live broadcast was hosted by GM Krikor Mekhitarian and "AnnitaDrink."
The 2024 Chess.com Bughouse Championship is the latest event in the Chess.com Community Championship series, and anyone can battle for a piece of this month's increased $7,500 prize fund. The tournament will be decided with an eight-team double-elimination bracket. Each team qualified via one of eight, two-hour arenas with a 3+0 time control.
Previous Coverage
- Arjun, Nihal Take Aim At Two-Time Bughouse World Champions Liang, Xiong
- Tang Scores 71/80 In 6th Qualifier With Mysterious New Bughouse Partner
- Helmsknight, Vasquez Overcome Team Tang To Qualify On 3rd Attempt
- Xiong, Liang Win 50 Consecutive Games In Bughouse Championship Qualifier
- Moroni Claims Spell Chess Crown In Grand Final Reset
- Spell Chess Specialists Qualify For Knockout Ahead of Bok, Bortnyk, Hambleton
- Younger Brother Triumphs In Atomic Rivalry
- National Master Halts GM Martinez's Reign In Crazyhouse Championship
- Martinez Defends Variant Crown In 3 Check Chess
- Martinez Is King of The Hill In Variants Final
- Variants Community Series Results
- Variants Community Series: All The Information
