GM Jose Martinez has shown he can do it all by successfully defending his title in the second Variants Community Series (VCS) final. This time showing his prowess at 3 Check Chess, Martinez overcame FM Vasilios Kasioumis by a margin of 3-1 to secure the $1,000 prize for first.

For his second-placed finish, Kasioumis won $750, while semifinalists IMs Yoseph Taher and Toivo Keinanen both earned $500 for their efforts.

The third seven-week cycle of the VCS will commence on December 28 after a one week break and will run every Thursday starting at 12 p.m. ET/19:00 CEST/22:30 IST. 

Standings

The second cycle of the VCS consisted of six 3 Check arenas that saw the winner, along with two top-scoring streamers, qualify for the single-elimination bracket final. A best-of-four match with a time control of 3+2 was used to decide which participants would progress and vie for the $1,000 first prize. If the match was tied after four games, best of two game mini-matches would take place until a winner was settled.

As far as variants go, 3 Check Chess is one of the least forgiving and by nature, forces even the most experienced grandmasters to be on their toes from the very first move. Due to the ease of checking on the f7-square, the most popular first move is 1…e6.

Notably, the variant gives White a significant advantage and this quite often leads to miniatures, as Dutch GM Thomas Beerdsen found out in his quarterfinal against Keinanen, who used his space advantage to execute three sacrifices that all resulted in checks.

Though the eventual winner Martinez had no such problems with his openings, overcoming Taher and Kasioumis in the semifinals and finals respectively, his quarterfinal opponent GM Benjamin Bok posed the biggest threat to his title defense.

Finding himself up 2-0, the Peruvian GM lost consecutive games, including one with White, and ended up needing to play eight games before he was able to clinch the match 5-3.

While the final against Kasioumis was a shorter affair, his Greek opponent had proven himself as somewhat of a 3 Check specialist as he toppled GM Oleksandr Bortnyk (3-0) and Keinanen (4-2) on the way to the last dance.

Bortnyk’s appearance was one of his first times playing 3 Check Chess and during one of the six qualifying arenas, in which he finished fifth, he noted this.

For Kasioumis, winning on demand was the task he needed to overcome in the fourth game against Martinez and while he attacked his opponent’s kingside with bravado, he could only manage a single check before the script flipped. Martinez then sacrificed his queen, setting up a simple combination that would garner his second and third checks and win him the match.

Following a week’s break, Martinez will have a chance to secure a VCS triple crown as the new cycle begins but will be at the mercy of the community variant selection.

Stay tuned to see if more traditional variants such as Chess960, Crazyhouse, or Horde are picked, or perhaps more recent viral additions such as Duck Chess or Spell Chess. Join the Variants Club to be a part of the decision-making or enter the weekly arenas yourself! 

All Games – Finals

The VCS is a series of events for streamers and the chess variants community. Each seven-week cycle is centered around one variant. Every Thursday for six weeks, participants compete in a two-hour arena of that variant, where the prize fund per cycle is $3,750 plus 610 Twitch/Kick subs. More details can be found here.

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