Arena Kings returned on March 23 after a one-week hiatus as GM Jose Martinez came back from down 2-1 to defeat IM Renato Terry in an all-Peru final. The semifinalists this week were GM Sergey Zhigalko and IM Mahammad Muradli as a total of 941 participants, 52 of them streaming, played in Arena Kings this week. 

How To Watch?

The usual format of a two-hour arena followed by a 16-player knockout drawn from the top streamers of any rating. The time control in both segments of the tournament is 3+0.

Arena

Newly-minted FIDE Master James Canty III handled today’s broadcast, showcasing players @VallabhTFT, GM Jose Martinez, GM David Arutinian, GM Gata Kamsky, FM Kevin Cupid (@twitchTriniCupid), James Chirilov (@ChessBrainiac), and WGM Adriana Nikolova. Missing due to his presence in the FIDE Grand Prix was GM Hikaru Nakamura.

The two-hour arena showcased both the thrill of victory…

…and the agony of defeat:

Ultimately the high score of the arena went to Martinez on 82 points with an undefeated +22 =4 score. Zhigalko was just behind on 79.

Knockout

There were no major upsets in the knockout this week. Only one lower-rated player won in the round of 16, but @SundramNaam2SunaHoga was rated less than 100 points lower than Cupid. 

The quarterfinal went mostly as planned as well, although Sundram won his first game against Martinez. Martinez won the next two, however, as there was again no upset anywhere in the round.

The semifinals produced some drama, Zhigalko taking Terry to three games after winning their second contest just in the nick of time.

Martinez beat Muradli in the other semifinal to set up the all-Peruvian final, which was closely contested. First, the players traded flagging each other in drawn positions. The third and fourth games were cleaner and again split with one win each, setting up a winner-take-all fifth game. 

There Martinez took a lead both on the evaluation bar and on the clock. Terry closed the evaluation gap at a few moments and was even better in the final position, but the clock once again decided the game in the end. At 48 moves, it was the shortest game of the final—the first four lasted an average of 93 moves.

Week 7 Final | All Games

Standings, Results, Prizes

Martinez earned $500 for first place and Terry $350 for second place. The semifinalist prize of $200 went to Zhigalko and Muradli while the other four quarterfinalists took in the standard $100 each. Ninth place through 16th received $50 (pending confirmation of fair play). The full standings of the knockout field are below:

 Arena Kings Season 9 | Week 7 | Final Knockout Standings

Full arena standings here.