SundayChessTV
GM Raunak Sadhwani earned the win in the third week of the ninth season of Arena Kings on Wednesday, holding off IM Le Tuan Minh in the finals with a score of 3-2, which just stopped Le from a second consecutive victory.
The semifinalists were GMs Jose Martinez and Benjamin Bok. A total of 1,345 players joined this week’s Arena Kings.
How To Watch?
Live broadcast of this Wednesday’s tournament, hosted by commentator NM James Canty III.
The tournament began with the usual two-hour arena, followed by a knockout tournament between the top 16 finishing streamers. Both the arena and knockout are played with a 3+0 time control.
Arena
The success of GM Hikaru Nakamura at the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix continues to keep him out of Arena Kings, but there was plenty of action to be had. With 85 players streaming, the broadcast gave us the feeds of Le, WCM Rebecca Selkirk (@hashtagchess), GM Robert Hess, Andrew Horne (@chessheroesttv), and @Bikfoot, all interspersed with Canty’s informative and exciting brand of analysis.
As usual, the players to advance to the knockout were a mix of titled stars and sub-2500 streamers. Leading all the players in the Arena with 76 points (+23 -6 =2) was @siddharthsarma_2003 while the leader for titled players, on 74 points (+21 -6 =2), was @sychev_on_youtube.
Knockout
Both Arena leaders got knocked out in the first round, swept 2-0 by Martinez and IM Renato Terry.
Sadhwani’s path to the finals went through @ChessBruh630, GM Alan Pichot, and Martinez, while Le got there through @LoLsuppAddict, GM Vugar Rasulov, and Bok.
The Sadhwani vs. Pichot quarterfinal was a 4.5-3.5 barnburner, with five straight draws after a 1-1 start before Sadhwani finally broke through.
Le needed three games against Bok to reach the finals while Sadhwani swept Martinez 2-0, including a very well-played first game.
The finals were very close, with White winning the first four games. However, Sadhwani was able to win the fifth game with Black in a dramatic fashion.
All Games | Week 3 Finals
Standings, Results, Prizes
Sadhwani won $500 for his victory, with Le’s second-place finish netting him $350. Martinez and Bok earned $200 each. Fifth through eighth each took home $100 and ninth through 16th received $50 (pending confirmation of fair play). Below you can see the full standings of the knockout:
Arena Kings Season 9 | Week 3 | Final Knockout Standings
| Rank | Username | Country | Rating |
| 1 | @champ2005 | 2922 | |
| 2 | @wonderfultime | 3027 | |
| 3-4 | @Jospem | 2937 | |
| 3-4 | @GMBenjaminBok | 2862 | |
| 5-8 | @Zhigalko_Sergei | 2922 | |
| 5-8 | @platy3 | 2851 | |
| 5-8 | @MITerryble | 2825 | |
| 5-8 | @vugarrasulov | 2768 | |
| 9-16 | @AtabayevSaparmyrat | 2771 | |
| 9-16 | @Sychev_on_YouTube | 2664 | |
| 9-16 | @FritziSchach_Twitch | 2362 | |
| 9-16 | @SundramNaam2SunaHoga | 2192 | |
| 9-16 | @Leapmanpepa | 1811 | |
| 9-16 | @ChessBruh630 | 1710 | |
| 9-16 | @siddharthsarma_2003 | 1693 | |
| 9-16 | @LoLsuppAddict | 1265 |
Full arena standings here.
All prizes are published in the results report here.
Arena Kings is a weekly tournament held on Wednesdays by Chess.com. It is a two-hour Arena followed by a knockout with the top 16 players. The Arena begins at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time/18:00 Central European.
