The Best ChessKids Face FunMasterMike!

After the conclusion of the month-long qualifying tournaments on ChessKid, which were part of a join effort with Judit Polgar to set the record for World's Largest Online Chess Tournament, the finals were also held on ChessKid's live server.

And so out of the 8308 kids that participated (which ChessKid has submitted to see if Guinness will certify the record), a few lucky kids won a chance to play blitz with FunMasterMike (hey that's me!) and Judit. The two that tied for first place also got individual lessons with her!

So, how did the four kids do in their games against me and Judit? Let's see the games against FunMasterMike first, and we will look at the games with Judit in the next post!

It could even be argued that the some of the quartet of kids were in fact favorites against FunMasterMike. Youth usually equals speed, and FunMasterMike tried to act as the wily veteran and get less tactical positions and grind out the endgame. Unfortunately for him, that meant longer games and more time trouble! The games were played at 5 minutes each with a 1-second increment per move.

Things started out with a ton of difficulty, as I almost got my queen trapped in the opening game, and only score 0.5 points from the first two games. But then I recovered to win the final two and squeak out a plus score. Whew! There's some truth to the rumor that I long nap afterward since the kids wore me out.

Game 1: Black Versus ChessKid GM2B

 

Game 2: Black Versus ChessKid TiCher (who is now co-presenting with his opponent on the show "FunMasterMike and the TiCher")

 

Game 3: Black Versus ChessKid SafeNewRecord

Game 4: White Versus ChessKid NiceGiantAnt

 

In the next blog, we will see if Judit scored better than 2.5/4 in her games against the same four prodigies!