Elephant Chess Cup 6 - Everything Thread

[PotatoFarmers]

Poafmersia Roster for ECC6
You may have known about the Poafmersian Chess Team as a whole, but you don't know this - that Poafmers are actually experts in Rapid. Poafmers don't believe in having a reserve player - which makes the national team selection test absolutely difficult and the turnover absolutely crazy. Unless you are good.

Players
Player 1: Joe Waddup, 49
Three time rapids championship winner in Poafmersia. Crazy. Nobody in Poafmersia can beat him on rapids. He has a wide variety of playstyles, and you can't guess what he is doing next.

Player 2: Tean Massa, 50
Tean started playing chess since he was in his early 20s, and developed to be a strong thinker that he can adapt well in rapids & blitz. The first-choice player for blitz tiebreakers. Loves to counterattack, and can definitely get players who are struggling to think on the go.

Player 3: Nancy Linarian, 37
One of the strongest female players in the country, Nancy has made a name for herself with her unconventional mid-game plays. Prefers to go on the offensive in games.

Player 4: Rewan Handris, 38
Handris is a common surname in Poafmersia. Rewan prefers to play more conventional, classical time control games, but he has been adapting to play a bit more rapids, and he improved quite a decent bit when he managed to make the tournament top 4 for many consecutive rapid tournaments.

Permissions

If my opponent roleplays first, they may:
Decide individual match results: Yes
Decide moves made: Yes.
Godmod game events: Strictly no for chess.
Godmod other events: Please TG me if you have something in mind.

[Eshialand]

The Day Has Arrived
Eshialand 1-3 TJUN-ia
Sannyamathland ½-3½ Eshialand

"Hello and welcome back to ENN Votes, I'm Chet Donaldson, coming to you live from Martin Davis High in Eshialand City, one of the thousands of polling sites currently open across the country. That's right, it's election day, and if you haven't voted yet... what are you waiting for? Come on out and show your support for who you think our next prime minister should be.

"I've been out here talking to some of the voters as they leave their booths, and from what I can tell it looks like Kevin Labbett should carry this district, but social media posts from across the country are... mixed. You heard me right, social media. In past elections, the photography of filled ballots was considered illegal, but that law was repealed in advance of this election, allowing voters to share their own ballots, which the government is actually encouraging under the hashtag #MyVote2026.

"Checking up on that hashtag, there appears to be a decent Liberal lean on outlets such as twii.tur and Maxtagram, but a heavy Conservative tint on EyedressBook, but then again any post your aunt Marlene has ever posted on there could've told you that one. The overall picture, however, is quite unclear, with both of the main candidates having quite strong showings across the board.

"Polling will still be open for a few more hours, so stay tuned to ENN as we give you all of the details, until the moment we can declare who the next Prime Minister of Eshialand will be."

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff!

Elephant Video

Match 5 – Friday, 16:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

TJUN-ia 2½–1½ Huron League
South Newlandia 2–2 Kenmoria
Eshialand 2–2 Galordia Minun
Saterun 2–2 Atheara
Sannyamathland 2–2 Dod Rava
Archalit 3–1 The Spartan Dominion
Poafmersia 2–2 Graintfjall
Sky Reavers 2–2 Natanians and Nosts

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF    PA    PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                 5    4   1   0    13     7    +6     9
 2 South Newlandia         5    2   3   0    13     7    +6     7
 3 Huron League            5    3   1   1    11     9    +2     7
 4 Eshialand               5    2   2   1    12.5   7.5  +5     6
 5 Kenmoria                5    2   2   1    12     8    +4     6
 6 Galordia Minun          5    2   2   1    11.5   8.5  +3     6
 7 Atheara                 5    2   2   1    10    10     0     6
 8 Archalit                5    2   1   2    10    10     0     5
   Saterun                 5    1   3   1    10    10     0     5
10 Dod Rava                5    1   2   2    11     9    +2     4
11 Sannyamathland          5    1   2   2     9.5  10.5  -1     4
12 Graintfjall             5    1   2   2     8.5  11.5  -3     4
13 Sky Reavers             5    1   2   2     7    13    -6     4
14 Natanians and Nosts     5    1   1   3     8    12    -4     3
   The Spartan Dominion    5    1   1   3     8    12    -4     3
16 Poafmersia              5    0   1   4     5    15   -10     1

Match 6 Pairings – Friday, 18:00

South Newlandia - TJUN-ia
Huron League - Eshialand
Kenmoria - Atheara
Saterun - Galordia Minun
Archalit - Sannyamathland
Natanians and Nosts - Dod Rava
Graintfjall - Sky Reavers
The Spartan Dominion - Poafmersia

Match 6 - Friday, 18:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

South Newlandia 1½–2½ TJUN-ia
Huron League 1½–2½ Eshialand
Kenmoria 1½–2½ Atheara
Saterun 2–2 Galordia Minun
Archalit 3–1 Sannyamathland
Natanians and Nosts 2½–1½ Dod Rava
Graintfjall 2–2 Sky Reavers
The Spartan Dominion 2–2 Poafmersia

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF      PA    PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                 6    5   1   0    15.5    8.5   +7    11
 2 Eshialand               6    3   2   1    15      9     +6     8
 3 Atheara                 6    3   2   1    12.5   11.5   +1     8
 4 South Newlandia         6    2   3   1    14.5    9.5   +5     7
 5 Galordia Minun          6    2   3   1    13.5   10.5   +3     7
 6 Archalit                6    3   1   2    13     11     +2     7
 7 Huron League            6    3   1   2    12.5   11.5   +1     7
 8 Kenmoria                6    2   2   2    13.5   10.5   +3     6
 9 Saterun                 6    1   4   1    12     12      0     6
10 Graintfjall             6    1   3   2    10.5   13.5   -3     5
   Natanians and Nosts     6    2   1   3    10.5   13.5   -3     5
12 Sky Reavers             6    1   3   2     9     15     -6     5
13 Dod Rava                6    1   2   3    12.5   11.5   +1     4
14 Sannyamathland          6    1   2   3    10.5   13.5   -3     4
15 The Spartan Dominion    6    1   2   3    10     14     -4     4
16 Poafmersia              6    0   2   4     7     17    -10     2

Match 7 Pairings – Saturday, 11:00

Atheara - TJUN-ia
Eshialand - Archalit
Galordia Minun - South Newlandia
Huron League - Kenmoria
Saterun - Natanians and Nosts
Graintfjall - Dod Rava
Sky Reavers - The Spartan Dominion
Poafmersia - Sannyamathland

As a quick format reminder - after the seventh matchday, the top six teams in the table will move on the Super Six to play another single-round robin against each other. Remember, points carry over from this first stage!

[TJUN-ia]

Hello and welcome to the 6th Elephant Chess Cup, coming to you live from the Ivory Crown Hotel in Newport, South Newlandia! The 1st half of Friday would see the Jaguar Knights of TJUN-ia claim back-to-back wins over both Eshialand and Saterun to move to the top of the overall leaderboard but with 3 games still to play before the Super 6, the pressure was still on to make it through in good nick. So how did it go?

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (2-1-1) bt Levi Whitaker
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (3-1-0) bt Mia Gastineau
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (1-1-2) bt by Lucy Luton
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (3-1) drew with Adam Greiss

We all knew that our 4 pm opponents would be our fellow Top 2 outfit from the Huron League and this contest would certainly be an interesting one for all those who decided this game was worth watching. Yevgeny Solovyanenko managed to deal with the aggressive Levi Whitaker through pure smart tennis while Tshering Gyeltshen smiled his way past Mia Gastineau in a tough battle overall. Anne Christian-Warren wasn't so lucky as the Lesbian Pirate Queen was bested from out of nowhere by 17-year-old wunderkind Lucy Luton while Margarita Altamiranda managed a competitive draw with the old but inexperienced Adam Greiss. That would be enough for the 2.5-1.5 win...and now, there were only 2 unbeaten nations left.

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (3-1-1) bt by Cecilia Blossom
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (4-1-0) bt Adam Esteban
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (1-1-3) bt Lisa Morgen
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (3-1-1) drew with Robert Kane

Of course, we would have to face South Newlandia again...and this time, it was the main event of the 6 pm slot. Of course, everyone wanted to see what happened when the 2 best nations in the sport right now faced off once more and they would be treated to 4 games that all told stories.
- Yevgeny Solovyanenko vs Cecilia Blossom is a battle as old as time itself and of course, they would have another banger of a game here. Over the years, the two of them would certainly get to know each other's playstyles very well...but tonight would belong to Blossom as she managed to produce enough chaos to win out in the end.
- A reshuffle on the Elephant order would mean Tshering Gyeltshen would be facing fellow young gun Adam Esteban this time and oh boy, did that produce a cracking game. Esteban certainly has grown every time we have faced him and he seemed prepared for everything here...but he's used to ACW, not Gyeltshen and TG has no difficulties in finding weaknesses and using them to secure the win.
- ACW would now face Lisa Morgen in a battle between Chaos Theory and Pure Speed with the audience expecting a game filled with chaos aplenty. That would indeed be the case but in the end, Morgen was so fast that she fell right into the chaos and it swallowed her whole...forcing Checkmate.
- Margarita Altamiranda had always played Robert Kane in this matchup but this ECC will probably be his last, so there was an extra sense of sentimentality entering this contest. It certainly was close and in the end, a draw would be taken by both parties - which secured the 2.5-1.5 win in our favour and sole possession of undefeated status in this ECC.

That concluded a busy Friday here in Newport...but we have plenty more to come. Tomorrow, we will play our final group-stage game against Atheara before we all know who we will be facing in the Super 6 stage from 1 pm onwards. Things are only going to get more interesting from here on out, so I hope you are all ready. GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Records: YS - 3-1-2/TG - 5-1-0/ACW - 2-1-3/MA - 3-2-1

[Archalit]

Games Recap
Finally, the day is done. One final match on Saturday will determine whether Archalit will progress to the Super Six. Let's see how our players did in the last few games.

Bungki Gungo
In the fifth overall match against The Spartan Dominion, the chimpanzee got to play with the black pieces against the 33-year-old Elvis Juno in a Dragon Sicilian. Immediately on the offset, Elvis played very strong opening accuracy and, despite Gungo finding some very sharp moves, Elvis had a slight advantage. Out of the opening into the middlegame however, Gungo capitalized on Elvis's inaccurate play and ended up with a slight advantage into the endgame. Admittedly, Elvis made some critical blunders that should've won the game, but some mistakes put Elvis back into the game until on move 54, Elvis missed a move order that could've forced a draw and, instead, Bungki Gungo made a king vs king-knight-pawn endgame and on move 77, the chimpanzee made a queen and Elvis resigned.

In the sixth overall match played against Sannyamathland's first board player, Bungki Gungo got the black pieces again and, this time, played a Scandinavian defense. Off the opening, the game was rather balanced until on move 17, white hung a rook. There was actually a theoretical chance to avoid losing the rook after the great move 17...Ng4! However, Rff1 loses to Nxe3, and if Qxe3, Rxg2 opens the king up and the game is over for white. Instead of that, white played Ref1 and gave away the rook. Instead of taking, Gungo tried to continuously apply pressure on white, but after 58...Ra8 there was 59.Ne3! The point is that the pawn for white is traded off and the game transposes into a KNNB vs KRNB which is a draw. Even a nice attempt on move 68 to win the game was spotted after 69.Kb3! Unfortunately for white, however, he blundered the game away on move 85 after Bd2?? 85...Nh3+ is discovered check, attacking the knight with the black knight and rook. The knight is only defended by the king which, because the king is checked, means that white cannot defend the knight and will lose it on the next turn. Because of this, the white player resigned and Gungo won the game.

Evan Kennedy
In the fifth overall match, Evan Kennedy had the white pieces against the Spartan Dominion's Magic Bird. Evan played a Réti and the Bird played the Queen's Gambit Invitation which Evan accepted, transposing into a three knights semi-Tarrasch. This game was absolutely wild, but let's start from the beginning. Out of the opening, the Bird had an early advantage. Despite having the d-file with his rook, black had a massive attack on white's kingside. Still, the game was about equal despite the Bird accidentally getting his rook trapped and Evan missing it. On move 26, the game continues 26. fxg4 Rxg4+ 27. Kh2 and now white is losing. This is because the Bird has a dominant queen staring down the board from c6 and a free-roaming rook on the king. Now white needs to play very conservatively and hold off to maintain hope in the position. Instead of that, white played Kh3 blundering Rxh4!! It looks like this hangs a rook, but if you play Qxh4, you either Rxe3+ is zugzwang. If you play Kg2 or Kh2, you lose the defense of your queen and lose the game. If you play Kg4, Mate in 11 is on the board. Unfortunately, instead of any of that, the Bird played f5 and completely lost the advantage. The plot twists are not over because 30.Qxf5?? hangs -M4. The bird misses it and plays Rg3+, still completely winning. After a few more moves, the bird plays 36...Qe7 losing the rook again with a fork on d5. Instead of that, black played Qg4 and is now in a worse position. After a few moves, the game continued with 38...Qe4+ 39.Qxe4 R3xe4 40.Nf6+{the g-pawn is pinned and can't take} Kf7 41.Nxe4 and instead of Rxe4 going into a rook and pawn endgame, the bird played Re7?? The game is now rook and knight vs rook, losing for black. But the plot twists are still not over, because after h4?, Evan plays Kf4? and the advantage is lost, the knight is pinned, and both white and black will promote at the same time. The game continued with 55. Kf4 h3 56. Kf3 h2 57. Nf2 Ra2 58. Kg2 Rxf2+ 59. Kh1 and the Bird lost on time.

In the sixth overall match, Evan Kennedy went into Sannyamathland's second board player with a white side English opening. A much calmer game than before, the game proceeded with a balanced opening and a relatively equal position. Some inaccuracies however saw a slipping position for black in the middlegame. Unfortunately for Evan, on move 39, he missed Bg8+!! sacrificing the bishop! This loses the rook for black and creates a massive, nearly unstoppable attack for white. Instead of that, an inaccurate queen trade followed by a mass simplification led to a King and 3 vs King-Bishop and h-pawn. The game ended in a draw after Evan's last pawn was lost on g7.

Iara Carlson
In the fifth overall match, Iara Carlson confronted Herald Kemp with the black pieces and played a Dutch Defense. The game was sharp, but neither player made away with a significant advantage. Admittedly, Iara did miss an advantage on move 10, and proceeded to be slightly losing, but pulled back the position after a well played endgame. An extensive theoretical game ended in a draw by repetition on move 63.

In the sixth overall match, the Sannyamathland's third board player had the black pieces and Iara had the black pieces. Despite being an Alapin Sicilian, a very provocative second move for white, the game was actually really boring. Neither player ever had more than a +1 advantage the entire time and the game ended in a draw once again. Somewhat upsetting compared to how interesting and aggressive her first four games were.

Octávio Vidal
In the fifth overall match, Octávio Vidal got the chance to play with the white pieces against River Ray of the Spartan Dominion. The players played an advance Caro-kann, progressing into a drawn middlegame like his first match. However, on move 27, River Ray shockingly sacrificed a bishop. The game was still drawn, and the balance gravitated back towards equal as some minorly inaccurate defense lost Octávio any chances of attack, but precise defense left Ray without any play and, on move 56, the players agreed to a draw.

In the sixth overall match, Octávio Vidal played Sannyamathland's fourth board player with the white pieces and played a London defense. Through the opening, both players played brilliantly precisely, with sharp ideas on both sides developing into a draw into the middlegame. However, despite playing very well, the Sannyamathland player slowly saw their position slipping from move 35 onward, and great responses to blacks mistakes led to the c-pawn being forcefully promoting and it was on move 43 that black resigned and Octávio won the game.

[Eshialand]

Closing Time
Eshialand 2-2 Galordia Minun
Huron League 1½-2½ Eshialand

"And with that, the polls are CLOSED! Hello and welcome back to ENN Votes, my name is Chet Donaldson, and the clock just struck 8 PM Eshian Standard Time, which means all polling sites on the mainland have closed. Voters who were already in line may cast their votes late, and those on the isle of Aleirave still have one more hour to get those votes in, but for the most part, Election Day is now over... but the night has just begun, as votes are now beginning to be counted.

"Votes in smaller, more rural districts, with shorter lines and fewer overall heads to count, will likely be the first to be determined, so don't be surprised if you see a wave of Conservative blue begin to appear on the map; this should be rectified later on as the more hotly contested urban districts are able to be called. A lot of people phoned in for the 2024 election claiming that Fiona Reval was doing suspiciously well at the start, but no, that wasn't suspicious, it's just how Eshian elections work. Please stop asking me this.

"Joining me today via Hype Videochat is none other than Kevin Labbett, here to chat a bit about the campaign that led up to this night and discuss expectations for the final vote. Welcome onto the show, Kevin."

"Thank you for having me!"

"Okay, so first off... what are your thoughts on the general mood of voters at your polling station? Were they fired up to see you, mixed, or... what?"

"People were generally happy to see me, some people came up to get autographs and pictures and whatnot... but overall I think my speech last night did what it set out to do, it got Liberal-leaning voters excited to get out there and cast their ballots, and excited to bring Eshialand into its next chapter."

"On the note about our next chapter... you've said in the past that you planned on moving us to a new region, do you stand by--"

"I'm gonna stop you right there Chet, I didn't say that specifically. I said it was a possibility, but not one I have necessarily planned. At the end of the day it's a discussion I want to have, not just with the legislature, but also with the populace as a whole, but it's not something set in stone, not a hill I really wanna die on. If people are okay with the idea, then I'm happy to move forward with it, but the end goal is really just to have some reasoned discussion about it. Maybe it's worth it, maybe it isn't, but we should have this discussion and be open to the concept of change."

"I'll be excited to see these discussions unfold, debates like these are amazing to follow. Now, what if you don't win? Everything's so up in the air here, and what's your plan in the event Robert MacAvoy is able to get a government going?"

"I'll work with him as best I can, of course. I'll probably win my district, it's definitely looking like I will, so I'll dutifully serve my position as MP in the opposition government. While there are some things I would like to talk to him about should he be selected as Prime Minister, at the end of the day, it's the people's choice, and I have to respect that."

"We will be watching to see what the people have to say... alright, that's about all I have to ask right now, of course we'll keep in touch over the course of tonight and into the morning as the votes are counted and confirmed, and hopefully by lunchtime we should have a better idea as to who our next Prime Minister will be. Thanks for coming on!"

"My pleasure."

"Ope, looks like the first district has been confirmed..." Chet said, looking at a map of Eshialand's voting districts. "Maryansk-Brightonsea-Far North, as expected, has gone Liberal! That's a very diverse district full of people who've benefitted from the king's ideologies, so it makes sense that they would vote Liberal... only 499 to go, am I right?"

[Huron League]

---

Shockingly, Huron League's chess stars have outperformed many chess delegations and even hung with some of the greatest chess teams in the world here in Newport, South Newlandia. The team has gone 3-1-2, unfortunately dropping the last two rounds against powerhouse TJUN-ia and the second-place team, Eshialand. After placing atop the standings, undefeated, after three rounds, Huron had their only tie thus far against the hosts, and a top ranked team, South Newlandia. This strong performance was unexpected by really everyone in Huron League, including diehard fans and close followers of the sport. This next match, against 8th seeded Kenmoria, will be critical to ensure that Huron League earns a spot in the Super Six.

---

L. Whitaker - Wins
M. Gastineau - Loses
L. Luton - Wins
A. Greiss - Draws

---

L. Whitaker - Wins (2-0-0)
M. Gastineau - Wins (1-0-1)
L. Luton - Draws (1-1-0)
A. Greiss - Loses (0-1-1)

---

L. Whitaker - Draws
M. Gastineau - Wins
L. Luton - Loses
A. Greiss - Wins

---

L. Whitaker - Wins (3-1-0)
M. Gastineau - Draws (2-1-1)
L. Luton - Wins (2-1-1)
A. Greiss - Loses (1-1-2)

---

L. Whitaker - Loses
M. Gastineau - Loses
L. Luton - Wins
A. Greiss - Draws

L. Whitaker - Wins (4-1-1)
M. Gastineau - Loses (2-1-3)
L. Luton - Draws (3-2-1)
A. Greiss - Loses (1-2-3)

---

Geography and Environment of Eastern Huron League

Huron League is the northernmost nation on the continent of North Albright. Being a sizable country, Huron League has a lot of variation in it's climate and biomes, though it is largely mountainous and cold. For the most part, everything east of the state of Saarburg is hilly, with not much consistent flat land apart from the low-lying coastal parts of Ashcairn, Arbour, Burton and New Conach. As a result, this area is where most farming in the East occurs, also since the soil is rich and fertile due to the frequent precipitation and ancient volcanic ash from a lone supervolcano in central Ashcairn that erupted thousands of years ago, which enriched the soil in the area.

Moving slightly further west, you reach Charleston Lake, the largest lake in Huron League. Over 30% of Huron League's population lives within 20 miles of the lakes boundaries, and the surrounding states have over 50% of Huron League's population, largely in dense, walkable cities. The lake has hundreds of inlet and outlet rivers, some huge and some small. Among the cities that line it's banks are Ingny, the most populated city in Huron League, Hauberg (3rd), Vigny (6th), and Lockhart (8th). Due to the ease of access from the lake to the other cities, a flourishing trading economy has formed, with Ingny being the main hub due to it's location on the Ingny River, which leads into the North Albright Ocean. Hauberg, located in the state of Malscken on the south side of the lake, also has the status as a major trading hub. Straddling the Hampton River, which leads south into the Bay of Montcalm, the city gets large amounts of shipping traffic through it's port daily. The Bay has easy access to more population centers, like Dreamcliff (the country's capital) and West Burton. As a result, these cities have become some of the richest locales in Huron League, and have attracted major businesses and corporations. The areas near the lake are mainly flat, though the western side has hillier regions.

to be continued...

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff for Matchday 7! Expect results and a table soon, and the Super SIx matchups slightly after that!

Ellie vid

Match 7 – Saturday, 11:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

Atheara 1½–2½ TJUN-ia
Eshialand 2–2 Archalit
Galordia Minun 3–1 South Newlandia
Huron League 3–1 Kenmoria
Saterun 4–0 Natanians and Nosts
Graintfjall 2–2 Dod Rava
Sky Reavers 3½–½ The Spartan Dominion
Poafmersia 2½–1½ Sannyamathland

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA    PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                 7    6   1   0    18     10    +8    13
 2 Eshialand               7    3   3   1    17     11    +6     9
 3 Galordia Minun          7    3   3   1    16.5   11.5  +5     9
 4 Huron League            7    4   1   2    15.5   12.5  +3     9
 5 Saterun                 7    2   4   1    16     12    +4     8
 6 Archalit                7    3   2   2    15     13    +2     8
 7 Atheara                 7    3   2   2    14     14     0     8
 8 South Newlandia         7    2   3   2    15.5   12.5  +3     7
 9 Sky Reavers             7    2   3   2    12.5   15.5  -3     7
10 Kenmoria                7    2   2   3    14.5   13.5  +1     6
11 Graintfjall             7    1   4   2    12.5   15.5  -3     6
12 Dod Rava                7    1   3   3    14.5   13.5  +1     5
13 Natanians and Nosts     7    2   1   4    10.5   17.5  -7     5
14 Sannyamathland          7    1   2   4    12     16    -4     4
15 The Spartan Dominion    7    1   2   4    10.5   17.5  -7     4
16 Poafmersia              7    1   2   4    9.5    18.5  -9     4

Team in bold advance to the Super Six!

Matchups:

MD1

Galordia Minun - Saterun
Archalit - TJUN-ia
Eshialand - Huron League

MD2

Huron League - Galordia Minun
Archalit - Eshialand
Saterun - TJUN-ia

MD3

TJUN-ia - Galordia Minun
Eshialand - Saterun
Huron League - Archalit

MD4

Galordia Minun - Eshialand
Huron League - TJUN-ia
Saterun - Archalit

MD5

Archalit - Galordia Minun
Saterun - Huron League
TJUN-ia - Eshialand

A link to this post will be inserted into the OP in order to make this post easily reachable.
Also, remember that there is an additional off-day before the next cutoff on April 2nd.

[TJUN-ia]

Hello and welcome to the 6th Elephant Chess Cup, coming to you live from the Ivory Crown Hotel in Newport, South Newlandia! Today is Saturday, meaning that our Super 6 will be decided and then start on the very same day. The Jaguar Knights of TJUN-ia entered today with a 5-1-0 record after tight wins over both the Huron League and old foes South Newlandia and with only 1 game left before the Super 6 is set in stone, they knew their place was secured...but could make it home without blemish?

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (3-1-2) bt Kardenthal Van De Lukshion
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (5-1-0) drew with Srentija Auzivla - Hsotska
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (2-1-3) bt by Tazuya Nikorogi
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (3-2-1) bt Nikki Schuvet Telmacher

The final Group Stage opponents would end up being Atheara, a team who needed a result against us to increase their chances of joining us in the Super 6, and the results that would play out certainly reflected the stakes at hand. Anne Christian-Warren tried to produce chaos but her opponent, Tazuya Nikorogi, didn't seem to give a damn and he easily dealt with our Lesbian Pirate Queen. Tshering Gyeltshen played a gruelling contest against Srentija Auzivla - Hsotska, "Sreniau" herself, and while both players certainly threw everything into the game, it seemed fair that it ended in a draw. Yevgeny Solovyanenko had a tough duel with a young upstart in Kardenthal Van De Lukshion, a master in mirroring an opponent's move, and while he certainly gave it a fair wack, the experience of our Fox was just enough to force checkmate. Margarita Altamiranda would deal the final blow as the emotional youngling Nikki Schuvet Telmacher was dealt with in about 6 minutes in order to secure us the overall 2.5-1.5 win.

We will carry a 6-1-0 record into the Super 6, one in which South Newlandia will shockingly not be a part of - and suddenly, the power vacuum is opening at the top of the sport. 4 of the teams we played in the Group have made it here while the team who beat SNL to make it here, Galordia Minun, will be the odd one out. An extended lunch break will now be taken and we will be back to conclude Saturday with the opening 2 games of the Super 6, both of them rematches against Archalit and Saterun. Only the Top 2 after the Super 6 gets a shot at the title, so every game is going to count a lot more from here on out. GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Results Table
Group Stage
M1: vs Sky Reavers (Thurs, 4 pm) D 2-2 (T-7th)
M2: vs Archalit (Thurs, 6 pm) W 3-1 (5th)
M3: vs Eshialand (Fri, 11 am) W 3-1 (3rd)
M4: vs Saterun (Fri, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M5: vs Huron League (Fri, 4 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M6: vs South Newlandia (Fri, 6 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M7: vs Atheara (Sat, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st/6-1-0)

Super 6
MS1: vs Archalit (Sat, 1 pm)
MS2: vs Saterun (Sat, 6pm)
MS3: vs Galordia Minun (Sun, 11 am)
MS4: vs Huron League (Sun, 1 pm)
MS5: vs Eshialand (Sun, 4 pm)

---

Records: YS - 4-1-2/TG - 5-2-0/ACW - 2-1-4/MA - 4-2-1

[Archalit]

Games Recap
And it was as of this seventh match that Archalit could walk on to compete in the Super Six. Though the lowest ranked team, there was no reason they could not perform strong and cover ground to make the final. It will not be "easy," but there will be a fight for it nonetheless.

Bungki Gungo
This was quite the interesting matchup; Bungki Gungo with the white pieces vs Jason Severn of Eshialand with the black pieces. The game kicked off with 1. e4 c5 a Sicilian defense by Jason Severn. Out of the opening, we saw a typical Sicilian Dragon setup that was still in book theory until move 13. The game was still very balanced, however, with neither side giving up any advantage. That changed with 19...Rfc8? This move lost to 20.Nd5! The point is that if you take the knight on d5, +M3 is on the board and if you try to trade it, taking back with the pawn, it's +M3 again! You are losing this knight by force, an incredible find by Gungo. Except, he probably didn't actually spot this, as on move 22, instead of taking with the threat of checkmate if you trade, he traded off his queen, the main reason the knight was hanging, and the advantage went back into the balance. Although on move 36, Bungki Gungo was actually winning a pawn endgame after b4, but the move wasn't spotted and the game ended in a rook-and-pawn draw.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Bungki Gungo"]
[Black "Jason Severn"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2820"]
[BlackElo "2787"]
[Board "1"]
[Stage "Preliminary"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Bc4 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Be3
Nc6 9. Qd2 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rb8 11. Bb3 Na5 12. h4 b5 13. h5 Nc4 14. Bxc4 bxc4 15.
hxg6 fxg6 16. Bh6 Qb6 17. b3 Bxh6 18. Qxh6 Qa5 19. Kb2 Rfc8 20. Nd5 cxb3 21.
axb3 Kf7 22. Qd2 Qxd2 23. Rxd2 h5 24. Nxf6 Kxf6 25. Ra1 $1 Rb7 26. Rd3 $2 g5 27.
Rc3 $6 Rh8 $2 28. Ra5 $6 h4 29. Nc6 h3 $2 30. gxh3 Rxh3 31. e5+ $1 dxe5 32. Nxe5 Bf5 33.
Nc6 Rh2 34. Nxa7 e6 35. Nc6 Rd7 36. Ne5 Rd5 37. Rxd5 exd5 38. Ng4+ Bxg4 39. fxg4
d4 40. Rd3 Ke5 41. b4 Rg2 42. b5 Rxg4 43. b6 Rf4 44. c4 dxc3+ 45. Rxc3 Rf8 46.
Rb3 1/2-1/2

Evan Kennedy
Mary Nerata with the white pieces against Evan Kennedy with the black pieces was surprisingly more serious than we had expected. Playing into Mary's Italian game, Evan played a two knights Italian. Quickly, on point, Evan transposed into a sideline with the move 5...Na5, the Polerio Defense. The players were out of theory on move 9 and the players started swinging. According to our computers, Mary played her opening at 100% accuracy, coming out of it with a drawn position. As the middlegame began, Evan immediately made a mistake on move 20 with Qxa2. He had to play f6, defending the pawn on e5 and holding onto a connected structure in front of the king. Instead, when Qxa2 was played, Mary lashed out with 21.Nxe5! The computer deems that re-capturing with the knight is not viable because after 21...Nxe5? 22.Bxe5 and the attack on the black king is too powerful. Instead of that, the game proceeded with 21...Qxb2 22.Nxc6 and Mary is positionally winning. Some minorly inaccurate play grew a dominant advantage until 39.Qc4, trading queens, lost white's passed pawn and a large chunk of her advantage was lost. Nice defensive ideas for Evan and a mistake on move 51 with f5? trading pawns led to an incredible comeback and brought the formerly losing position to equality once again. However, according to the tablebase, 72...Ba3?? lost the game to 73.f6, pushing the passed pawn and forcefully promoting. After Bb4, Mary found 74.Kd4! and now the king escorts the f-pawn which can no longer be stopped. After Evan sacrificed the bishop, Mary found 78.Nd5! and after one more move, Evan resigned.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Mary Nerata"]
[Black "Evan Kennedy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2773"]
[BlackElo "2805"]
[Board "2"]
[Stage "Preliminary"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dxc6 bxc6 8.
Bd3 Nd5 9. Nf3 Nf4 10. O-O Nxd3 11. cxd3 Bd6 12. Re1 O-O 13. Nc3 c5 14. b3 Nc6
15. Ne4 Bg4 16. h3 Bh5 17. Ba3 Be7 18. Ng3 Bg6 19. Rc1 Qa5 20. Bb2 Qxa2 21. Nxe5
Qxb2 22. Nxc6 Bh4 23. Rxc5 Bxd3 24. Re3 Bg6 25. d4 f5 26. Re2 Qa3 27. Ne7+ Kh8
28. Ngxf5 Bxf5 29. Nxf5 Bf6 30. Ne3 Qb4 31. Rc4 Qd6 32. Ng4 Bd8 33. Ne5 Bb6 34.
Re3 Rad8 35. Rf3 Qd5 36. Rxf8+ Rxf8 37. Qd3 Kg8 38. Ra4 Rd8 39. Qc4 Qxc4 40.
Rxc4 Rxd4 41. Rc8+ Rd8 42. Rxd8+ Bxd8 43. Kf1 Kf8 44. Ke2 Bc7 45. Nc6 Bb6 46. f4
Ke8 47. Kd3 Kd7 48. Nd4 g6 49. g4 Kd6 50. Ke4 a6 51. f5 gxf5+ 52. gxf5 Bd8 53.
Ne6 Bf6 54. Nf4 Bb2 55. Nd3 Bc3 56. Nf4 Bb2 57. Nd5 a5 58. Nb6 Bc3 59. Nd5 Bb2
60. h4 h5 61. Nf4 Bf6 62. Nxh5 Bxh4 63. Nf4 Kc5 64. Nd3+ Kb5 65. Kd5 Bd8 66. Ne5
Bh4 67. Nf3 Bd8 68. Nd4+ Kb6 69. Kc4 Bf6 70. Ne6 Kc6 71. Nc5 Bb2 72. Ne4 Ba3 73.
f6 Bb4 74. Kd4 Ba3 75. Ke5 Bb2+ 76. Ke6 Bxf6 77. Nxf6 Kc5 78. Nd5 Kd4 79. Kd6
1-0

Iara Carlson
The man of complexities, Alan Blaine, was reduced to simplicity by Iara Carlson with the white pieces. The game started with an Agincourt English with 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 inviting a Queen's Gambit Declined transposition. Iara accepted with d4 and we were officially in Queen's Gambit theory. A very standard structure and a very trade-happy Iara in the middlegame simplified the position immensely and outright refuted any chance for Blaine to create his beloved complexities. Quickly, the game became a rook-and-five versus rook-and-five which was completely drawn. Despite attempting to make attacks, the game was wrapped up and the players drew on move 31 to finish the game.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Iara Carlson"]
[Black "Alan Blaine"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2757"]
[Board "3"]
[Stage "Preliminary"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nf3 c5 5. Bf4 cxd4 6. Nxd4 Nc6 7. e3 Bb4 8. Be2
dxc4 9. Nxc6 Qxd1+ 10. Rxd1 bxc6 11. Bxc4 Nd5 12. O-O Bxc3 13. bxc3 Nxf4 14.
exf4 Ke7 15. Rfe1 Rb8 16. f5 Rd8 17. Rxd8 Kxd8 18. fxe6 Bxe6 19. Bxe6 fxe6 20.
h4 Ke7 21. Re4 Rb1+ 22. Kh2 Rb2 23. Ra4 Rxf2 24. Rxa7+ Kf6 25. Rc7 Rxa2 26. Rxc6
h5 27. Kg3 Kf5 28. Rc7 g6 29. Rf7+ Ke5 30. Rg7 Kf5 31. Rf7+ 1/2-1/2

Octávio Vidal
Here he is, the man of the hour, Octávio Vidal who had the black pieces this round against Stephanie Jacobson. This incredibly competitive matchup started off with the classical Spanish, Jacobson's specialty. Very early on, it was Octávio who was losing on just move 9 after 9...Kh8? What does this lose? Well, the knight for the rook after 10.Ng5! The rook must take if 11.Nxf7 because the move forks the King and Queen. As a defensive measure, In this position, Octávio used a large portion of his time and played Qe8, circumventing the attack. But then, Jacobson lashed out with 11.Qh5 threatening checkmate on h7 and x-raying the Queen on e8. This crucially allows 12.Nxf7+ to win the rook and Stephanie Jacobson was completely winning. The advantage was only intensified until 19.Qe5?! in which Stephanie Jacobson was still winning, albeit by a lesser margin. By this point, Octávio already had severe time pressure, but he was blitzing out very strong moves and pulled back the advantage. Slowly, Jacobson began playing sloppily, and continued to miss critical moves until the endgame, rook-and-two vs bishop-and-two. After 60...Kxh3, the tablebase could be pulled up, and the game was shown to be drawn. Problems were only exacerbated as on move 65, Jacobson missed 65.Rxf6! This move traded off the rook for the bishop but the white king had the initiative and could win the game. Instead of that, Re6+ was played and the game was drawn. That was until 75.Rd3+? This move lost the game on the spot as the h-pawn is too close to promoting and the rook is lost or white is queening. On move 84, h1=Q was on the board and it was in this position that Stephanie Jacobson resigned and Octávio Vidal walked away with the victory.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Stephanie Jacobson"]
[Black "Octávio Vidal"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2751"]
[BlackElo "2731"]
[Board "4"]
[Stage "Preliminary"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Bc5 4. d3 d6 5. O-O Ne7 6. c3 O-O 7. Nbd2 a6 8. Ba4
Ba7 9. Bb3 Kh8 10. Ng5 Qe8 11. Qh5 h6 12. Nxf7+ Rxf7 13. Bxf7 Qf8 14. Nf3 Nd8
15. Bb3 Ne6 16. d4 exd4 17. Bxe6 Bxe6 18. cxd4 d5 19. Qe5 dxe4 20. Qxe4 Bd5 21.
Qf4 Bxf3 22. gxf3 Nd5 23. Qg4 Qf6 24. Be3 Rf8 25. Kh1 c6 26. Rg1 Qxf3+ 27. Qxf3
Rxf3 28. Rg3 Rf7 29. Rag1 Kh7 30. Kg2 Bb8 31. Rf3 Re7 32. Re1 Bf4 33. h3 Bd6 34.
Bd2 Rd7 35. Kf1 Be7 36. Re4 Bf6 37. Be3 Kg6 38. Re8 Nb4 39. a3 Nc2 40. Rf4 Nxd4
41. Bxd4 Bxd4 42. b4 c5 43. Ree4 Kh7 44. a4 Rc7 45. b5 axb5 46. axb5 Bf6 47. Ke2
Rd7 48. Re6 Bd4 49. b6 c4 50. Rfe4 c3 51. Re7 c2 52. Kd2 Rxe7 53. Rxe7 Bxb6 54.
f3 Bc5 55. Rxb7 Kg6 56. Kxc2 Bd4 57. Kd3 Bf6 58. Ke4 Kh5 59. Kf5 Kh4 60. f4 Kxh3
61. Kg6 Kg4 62. f5 Kf4 63. Ra7 Ke5 64. Ra6 Ke4 65. Re6+ Be5 66. Re7 h5 67. Rb7
h4 68. Rb3 Bf6 69. Ra3 Kf4 70. Rb3 Kg4 71. Rb4+ Kg3 72. Rb3+ Kg2 73. Rd3 h3 74.
Rd2+ Kg3 75. Rd3+ Kg4 76. Rd2 Be5 77. Re2 Bf6 78. Rd2 Be5 79. Re2 Bf6 80. Re1 h2
81. Rd1 Be5 82. Re1 Bd4 83. Rd1 Bg1 84. Rd7 h1=Q 0-1

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff, time for the start of the Super Six!

Elephants

Super Six Match 1 – Saturday, 16:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

Galordia Minun ½–3½ Saterun
Archalit 2½–1½ TJUN-ia
Eshialand 2–2 Huron League

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA    PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                 8    6   1   1    19.5   12.5  +7    13
 2 Saterun                 8    3   4   1    19.5   12.5  +7    10
 3 Eshialand               8    3   4   1    19     13    +6    10
 4 Archalit                8    4   2   2    17.5   14.5  +3    10
   Huron League            8    4   2   2    17.5   14.5  +3    10
 6 Galordia Minun          8    3   3   2    17     15    +2     9

Super Six Match 2 - Saturday, 18:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

Huron League 2–2 Galordia Minun
Archalit 3½–½ Eshialand
Saterun ½–3½ TJUN-ia

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA     PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                 9    7   1   1    23     13    +20    15
 2 Archalit                9    5   2   2    21     15    +12    12
 3 Huron League            9    4   3   2    19.5   16.5   +6    11
 4 Saterun                 9    3   4   2    20     16     +8    10
 5 Eshialand               9    3   4   2    19.5   16.5   +6    10
 6 Galordia Minun          9    3   4   2    19     17     +4    10

Upcoming matchups:

MD3

TJUN-ia - Galordia Minun
Eshialand - Saterun
Huron League - Archalit

MD4

Galordia Minun - Eshialand
Huron League - TJUN-ia
Saterun - Archalit

[Galordia Minun]

The Royal Gazette
Sports >> Football || Rugby || Basketball || Cricket || Baseball || Chess

Galordia Minun Reach Super 6, But Struggle to Perform on Day 1!

The Galordian Chess Team has made it to the Super 6, securing the 3rd qualifying spot, but now they've got here, they seem to be struggling with their form, managing an embarassing 1/2 to 3 1/2 loss against Saterun and only a 2-2 draw with Huron League. Ivan Petrovic was surely the standout player for the Team this time around, not loosing a match in either game.

The team put up a valiant effort against Saterun but failed to secure victory. Petrovic's aggressive playing style was seemingly negated by Sami Karresh's ability to control the board with his queen, and the match finished in a stalemate. On the other boards, Amela paid the price for sacrificing her rook early on, loosing to Violet Ingram, and Ivan Horvat's "slow and steady wins the race" tactic failed to take the game, as Ayla hemmed him in. To round off the day, Amir's all out attack on Davesh's king got him caught in an unpredictable checkmate.

On the second day, Galordia Minun's match against Huron League went slightly better, with the team rescuing a draw thanks largely in part to Ivan Petrovic. The Galordian on Board 1 saved them once again with a quick and decisive victory in a fast paced game, which ended in a checkmate thanks to a bishop. Elsewhere, Amela continued to struggle with a loss to Gastineau after the sacrifice of a knight failed to payoff, and she was lead into a trap with a pawn. Amir and Ivan H fought for their draws, with both of their games eventually coming to a stalemate.

[Archalit]

Games Recap
The opening of the Super Six went off with a bang. Two rematches, one with TJUN-ia and one with Eshialand, both ending favorably for the team.

Archalit vs TJUN-ia
Bungki Gungo vs Yevgeny Solovyanenko
The first game led off with Yevgeny Solovyanenko with the white pieces versus Bungki Gungo with the black pieces. Solovyanenko played 1.d4 and 1...d6 2.c4 Nf6 was played. This is called an Old Indian Defense and the idea is that you'd rather attack white's d-pawn with e5 and not fianchetto the bishop, opting for Be7 instead. The game continues into a "Janowski" Variation with some very mild inaccuracies off the start. The Old Indian is rather obsolete in modern play, so theory is often understudied in comparison to more intricate openings. The opening is rather balanced regardless, and despite our computers deeming that Gungo's opening was more inaccurate, the game was basically even after 21.Qe3? allowing 21...Rd4 infiltrating and blocking an attack on the weak pawn on c5. The game continues and on move 25 the players trade rooks and, instead of playing 26...Rxd1+, getting rid of all the rooks, Gungo plays 26...Qa5? The computer basically didn't like that 27.Rxd8+ wins a tempo for white, but it's still far from over. On move 29, Bungki had to play forward, take the open file with the queen, and try to build back to a draw. Instead of that, Bungki played 29...Ne8? This both loses a tempo and a pawn. After 30.Qe4, white is simply going to win the pawn and is better in the Bishop-Knight endgame. The game marches on, the knights are eventually traded, and the doubled pawns end up punishing Bungki Gungo as the endgame becomes Bishop-and-three vs Bishop which is almost always completely winning for white, like this game, and it was in this position that the chimpanzee resigned.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Yevgeny Solovyanenko"]
[Black "Bungki Gungo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "3000"]
[BlackElo "2820"]
[Board "1"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. d4 d6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bf5 4. g3 e5 5. Nf3 $6 Nbd7 $6 6. Bg2 c6 7. Nh4 Bg6 $6 8.
Nxg6 hxg6 9. O-O $6 Be7 10. d5 Qc7 11. b3 O-O 12. Qd2 Rac8 13. Rd1 a6 14. dxc6
bxc6 15. Ba3 Nc5 16. Bxc5 dxc5 17. Qe3 Rfd8 18. Qf3 Qa5 19. Bh3 Rb8 20. Na4 $6
Qc7 21. Qe3 $2 Rd4 22. Qc1 Rbd8 23. Qc2 $1 Qd6 $6 24. Nc3 $1 Qc7 25. e3 Rxd1+ 26. Rxd1
Qa5 $2 27. Rxd8+ Bxd8 28. Bg2 Qc7 29. Bf3 $6 Ne8 $2 30. Qe4 Nd6 31. Qxc6 Qxc6 32.
Bxc6 Ba5 33. Nd5 Bd2 $6 34. Kf1 Kf8 35. Ke2 Bc1 36. Nb6 Ke7 37. Nd7 $6 Nf5 $6 38.
Nxc5 a5 39. Nd3 Ba3 40. Be4 Nd6 41. f3 f6 42. Bxg6 Nb7 43. Be4 Nc5 44. Nf2 a4
45. Bc2 axb3 46. axb3 Kd6 47. Ne4+ $6 Nxe4 48. Bxe4 Bb4 49. Bc2 Bc5 50. h4 $6
Bb4 $6 51. f4 Ke6 52. Kf3 Bc5 53. g4 Bb4 54. Be4 Bc5 55. Bd5+ $6 Ke7 $6 56. Ke4
exf4 57. exf4 Kd6 58. h5 Ke7 59. Kf5 Bd6 60. g5 fxg5 61. fxg5 Bb4 62. Kg6 Bc3
63. c5 Kd7 64. h6 gxh6 65. gxh6 Bd4 66. h7 Kc7 67. b4 1-0

Evan Kennedy vs Tshering Gyeltshen
The game Evan Kennedy with white versus Tshering Gyeltshen with black led off with a d5 Réti Opening. The basic book opening followed closely to a couple games until it was as of move 10 that we had a completely new game with 10...Ne7 and the game is fairly balanced with black having a slight advantage with a centered queen that's hard to kick out. Immediately we had a blunder after 15.Nd5 and Gyeltshen is already losing if and only if Evan plays Qxg2, forking the rook and knight by adding more attackers than defenders. Instead of that, Evan misses it and plays 15...Qe4+ and now white actually has an advantage according to the computers. Tshering plays 16...b4? In this position, Rxc6 is considered winning because you can't recapture without losing material due to a variety of pin and fork tactics, but instead of that, 17.Rc4 is played counterattacking the queen but missing the tactical ideas. The position is blundered again however after Tshering plays 17...Nd4? This time, Evan finds 18.d3! This wins back the pawn attacking the bishop and the computer thinks Evan is completely winning positionally. The advantage is slightly lost after 23.Bd5? Following that, white's advantage disappears completely after 24.Qf3? At this point, the game is incredibly positionally complex. After trading off bishops, Evan sacrifices THE ROOK with 26.Rxb5!! The point is that after 26...Qxb5 best move, there is 27.Nc7 forking the queen and rook and, even though black has 27...Qxb2, there is 28.Qd5+! 28...Ke7 would've held onto the position slightly according to the computer, but the rook is lost either way, and we see 28...Kf8?! Now I won't lie, this game gets so complex that explaining the whole thing would take several paragraphs, but Evan's advantage is lost completely after 40.Kg2? Nxe3+. From here, the game is in the balance until 58...f4? The white king is practically in time to stop the f-pawn from promoting and after a trade of pawns, Evan is winning according to the tablebase. After a bit more shuffling, white's a-pawn promotes and the rook must sacrifice and after a trade of pawns, Tshering resigns the King-rook vs King endgame.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Evan Kennedy"]
[Black "Tshering Gyeltshen"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "3000"]
[Board "2"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. e3 c5 3. b3 Nc6 4. Bb5 f6 $6 5. c4 d4 6. b4 $6 e5 7. bxc5 Bxc5 8.
exd4 Bxd4 9. Nxd4 Qxd4 10. Nc3 Ne7 11. Ba3 a6 12. Ba4 Qxc4 13. Rc1 $6 b5 $2 14. Bb3
Qg4 15. Nd5 $4 Qe4+ $9 16. Ne3 b4 $2 17. Rc4 $9 Nd4 $2 18. d3 $1 Qb7 19.
Rxb4 Nb5 $6 20. Qh5+ Ng6 21. O-O Bd7 22. Bb2 a5 23. Bd5 $2 Bc6 24. Qf3 $2 Bxd5 25.
Nxd5 Kf7 $6 26. Rxb5 $3 Qxb5 27. Nc7 $1 Qxb2 28. Qd5+ $1 Kf8 $6 29. Qxa8+ Ke7 30.
Nd5+ $6 Kd6 $2 31. Qxa5 Rb8 $2 32. Ne3 $1 Qb5 33. Qa3+ $2 Ke6 34. g3 Ne7 35. Rc1 Nd5 $6
36. Nc4 Rd8 37. d4 e4 38. Ne3 $2 Kf7 $9 39. Rc5 $9 Qb1+ 40. Kg2 $2 Nxe3+ 41. Qxe3 Qd3 $1
42. Qf4 Rxd4 43. Rc7+ Kf8 $6 44. Rc8+ Kf7 45. Rc7+ Kf8 46. Qg4 Qf3+ $6 47. Qxf3 $1
exf3+ 48. Kxf3 Ra4 $1 49. Rc2 Ke7 50. Rd2 $6 Ke6 $6 51. Ke2 $2 h5 52. Kd1 h4 $2 53. Kc1
Kf5 54. Kb2 Ke4 55. Kb3 $1 Ra8 56. gxh4 $6 Kf3 $2 57. a4 f5 58. Ra2 f4 $2 59. a5 $1 Kg2
60. Kc4 Kxh2 61. Kd4 Kh3 62. Ke4 $2 Kxh4 $2 63. Kxf4 $1 g5+ $6 64. Ke4 g4 65. a6 Kh3
66. a7 Kh4 67. Kd5 Kh3 68. Kc6 Kg2 69. Kb7 Re8 70. a8=Q Rxa8 71. Kxa8 g3 72.
fxg3+ Kxg3 1-0

Iara Carlson vs Anne Christian-Warren
The Lesbian Pirate Queen Anne Christian-Warren faces off Iara Carlson for the most significant rematch of this round and suffice it to say, the players played incredibly. They opened out with a Najdorf Sicilian and instead of playing a regular bishop development move, Anne Christian-Warren played 6.Qd3. Some development later and it is as of 9.Nb3 that we have a completely new game. So, the game proceeds and Iara basically starts putting pressure on the Bishop on c4 and after swapping it off, Iara wins a pawn after 16...Qxc4. A little later on move 17 Anne Christian-Warren trades off her bishop for Iara's knight. Now this is a very balanced fight the whole time with neither side giving the other any leeway. On move 35, Christian-Warren finds an interesting idea in 35.Rxa6? This sacrifices the rook but black's rook cannot be saved. After 35...Qxa6 36.Ne3, apparently Iara had to play 36...Ba5 to hold on to any advantage because despite the fact that two of her pieces are hanging, white ends up losing a pawn after all the captures. Instead of that, we saw 36...Rc6? This allows Anne Christian-Warren to play 37.b5! This forks the queen and rook and the game is now materially equal. With equal pawns, the players eventually swap off queens and on move 57 the players begin shuffling pieces and the game ends to draw by repetition on move 60.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Anne Christian-Warren"]
[Black "Iara Carlson"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "3000"]
[BlackElo "2766"]
[Board "3"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Qd3 Nbd7 7. a4 Nc5 8. Qe3
e5 9. Nb3 Nxb3 10. cxb3 Be6 11. Bc4 Be7 $6 12. O-O Rc8 13. Qe2 $6 O-O $6 14. Rd1
Qc7 15. Bg5 Bxc4 16. bxc4 Qxc4 17. Qf3 Qe6 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. Nd5 Rc6 20. Ra3 Rb8
21. g3 Bd8 22. a5 g6 23. Kg2 $6 Kg7 $6 24. h4 h5 25. b4 Rc4 26. Rc3 $6 Rxc3 27.
Qxc3 $6 Rc8 $2 28. Qd3 $6 Rc6 29. Rd2 Qc8 30. Ne3 b6 31. axb6 Bxb6 32. Nd5 $1 Bd8 33.
Qe2 Rc4 34. Ra2 Qc6 35. Rxa6 $2 Qxa6 36. Ne3 Rc6 $2 37. b5 $1 Qa4 38. bxc6 Qxe4+ 39.
Qf3 $1 Qa4 40. Qd5 Bc7 41. Nc4 Qb3 42. Ne3 Qa4 43. Qc4 $6 Qxc4 44. Nxc4 Kf6 $6 45.
Na3 $1 Ke7 46. Nb5 $1 Bb6 47. c7 Kd7 48. c8=Q+ Kxc8 $1 49. Nxd6+ Kd7 50. Nxf7 Ke6 51.
Ng5+ Kf6 52. Kf3 Kf5 53. Ne4 Ke6 54. Ke2 Bd8 55. Kd3 Kd5 56. f3 Ba5 57. Nf6+ Ke6
58. Ne4 Kd5 59. Nf6+ Ke6 60. Ne4 Kd5 1/2-1/2

Octávio Vidal vs Margarita Altamiranda
Octávio Vidal with the white pieces versus Margarita Altamiranda with the black pieces opens up with a London System, Octávio's specialty. Altamiranda plays a parallel system with 3...Bf5 4.e3 e6 and after 5.c4 is played, Altamiranda plays into a sideline with 5...Bxb1. It's qute evident that Altamiranda wants to push Octávio out of theory quickly, and after 6.Rxb1, Altamiranda plays 6...b4+! After 7.Ke2 Bd6 8.Bg5 dxc4 we officially have a completely new game. But okay, the game is still very drawn and the players really don't make any big blunders beyond the opening and through the middlegame. London's do tend to be very draw happy after all. It took 35 moves until Altamiranda played 35...Ra4+ and white now has an advantage after 36.Rb4. This allows the white rook to fork the pawns on the 6th rank and create a passed c-pawn. If the rooks are traded, the white king is way too fast and the pawn advantage is fully felt, and black is dead lost. So, 36...Ra3 37. Rb6 Ra4+ 38. Kb3 and now the rook is forced away from the defense of the a-pawn and white is winning. After a few more moves, 40...Ke8 is played allowing 41.Rd6 and the king cannot stop the pawns advance and, after a bit more shuffling, Altamiranda resigns.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Octávio Vidal"]
[Black "Margarita Altamiranda"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2731"]
[BlackElo "3000"]
[Board "4"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. e3 e6 5. c4 Bxb1 6. Rxb1 Bb4+ 7. Ke2 Bd6 8.
Bg5 dxc4 9. g3 Nbd7 10. Bg2 Rb8 11. a4 a6 12. a5 h6 13. Bxf6 Nxf6 14. Nd2 c6 15.
Nxc4 Bc7 16. b4 O-O 17. Qb3 Qe7 18. Rhd1 Ng4 19. h3 Nf6 20. f4 Rfd8 21. Kf2 Nd5
22. Bf3 Qf6 23. Ne5 Bxe5 24. dxe5 Qe7 25. e4 Nc7 26. Qc4 Nb5 27. Qc5 Kf8 28. Be2
Qxc5+ 29. bxc5 Nc3 30. Rxd8+ Rxd8 31. Rxb7 Rd2 32. Ke3 Rxe2+ 33. Kd3 Ra2 34.
Kxc3 Rxa5 35. Kc4 Ra4+ 36. Rb4 Ra3 37. Rb6 Ra4+ 38. Kb3 Rxe4 39. Rxc6 g5 40.
Rxa6 Ke8 41. Rd6 Re3+ 42. Kb4 Re1 43. c6 1-0

While we'd love to cover the Eshialand game as well, we will leave that one to the Eshialand Writers. That is assuming they write about it of course.

[TJUN-ia]

Hello and welcome to the 6th Elephant Chess Cup, coming to you live from the Ivory Crown Hotel in Newport, South Newlandia! It's the 2nd half of Saturday and the Super 6 would see the Jaguar Knights of TJUN-ia enter knowing full well that they had a pretty good shot of making it to their 3rd ECC Final on the bounce. Obviously, they were going to take every single one of these games seriously, as defending champions were supposed to do, but how would things go in an environment that was expected to be cut-throat?

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (4-1-2) bt Bungki Gungo
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (5-2-0) bt by Evan Kennedy
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (2-1-4) drew with Iara Carlson
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (4-2-1) bt by Octávio Vidal

Up first was our rematch with Archalit and oh boy, did they do their homework after our meeting on Thursday. Yevgeny Solovyanenko was the only player to actually win their tie, dealing with the chimpanzee Bungki Gungo in an effective way, but everything else simply wasn't fun. Anne Christian-Warren vs Iara Carlson produced another draw, Octávio Vidal managed to use the white to his advantage in knocking off Margarita Altamiranda and a Evan Kennedy managed to pull magic out of his hat to both give Tshering Gyeltshen and TJUN-ia as a whole the first L of this ECC, our first loss in a long old time.

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (5-1-2) drew with Sami Karresh
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (5-2-1) bt Violet Ingram
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (2-2-4) bt Ayla Paloma
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (4-2-2) bt Davesh Dassrami

Losing did sting, but it also was a good thing - as it acted both as a weight off our shoulders and a wake up call for everyone involved. Saterun would be our final opponent on Saturday and oh my word, we showed them no mercy at all. The Fox managed a very tough game against Sami Karresh and had to settle for the draw, but the other 3 games were just fun for us as Tshering managed to overhaul Violet Ingram before she could even reach her infamous endgame, the Lesbian Pirate Queen caused enough chaos to open up holes in Ayla Paloma's defense and Davesh Dassrami's love of Knights was a detriment to him but a benefit to Altamiranda. 3.5-0.5 and yeah, it felt that way too.

No matter what happens, a champion will be crowned tomorrow. The Super 6 continues with the Morning games against our only non-rematch in Galordia Minun and one of the tough ones in the Huron League. No matter what, things are going to get hot as hell from here...and we hope to make it though the chaos. GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Results Table
Group Stage
M1: vs Sky Reavers (Thurs, 4 pm) D 2-2 (T-7th)
M2: vs Archalit (Thurs, 6 pm) W 3-1 (5th)
M3: vs Eshialand (Fri, 11 am) W 3-1 (3rd)
M4: vs Saterun (Fri, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M5: vs Huron League (Fri, 4 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M6: vs South Newlandia (Fri, 6 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M7: vs Atheara (Sat, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st/6-1-0)

Super 6
MS1: vs Archalit (Sat, 1 pm) L 1.5-2.5 (1st)
MS2: vs Saterun (Sat, 6pm) W 3.5-0.5 (1st)
MS3: vs Galordia Minun (Sun, 11 am)
MS4: vs Huron League (Sun, 1 pm)
MS5: vs Eshialand (Sun, 4 pm)

---

Records: YS - 5-2-2/TG - 6-2-1/ACW - 6-2-4/MA - 5-2-2

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff!

Ellies

Super Six Match 3 – Sunday, 11:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

TJUN-ia 2½–1½ Galordia Minun
Eshialand 2½–1½ Saterun
Huron League 1½–2½ Archalit

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA     PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                10    8   1   1    25.5   14.5  +11    17
 2 Archalit               10    6   2   2    23.5   16.5   +7    14
 3 Eshialand              10    4   4   2    22     18     +4    12
 4 Huron League           10    4   3   3    21     19     +2    11
 5 Saterun                10    3   4   3    21.5   18.5   +3    10
 6 Galordia Minun         10    3   4   3    20.5   19.5   +1    10

Super Six Match 2 - Sunday, 13:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

Galordia Minun 2½–1½ Eshialand
Huron League 1½–2½ TJUN-ia
Saterun 1–3 Archalit

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA     PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                11    9   1   1    28     16    +12    19
 2 Archalit               11    7   2   2    26.5   17.5   +9    16
 3 Eshialand              11    4   4   3    23.5   20.5   +3    12
 4 Galordia Minun         11    4   4   3    23     21     +2    12
 5 Huron League           11    4   3   4    22.5   21.5   +1    11
 6 Saterun                11    3   4   4    22.5   21.5   +1    10

Upcoming matchup (tbh only for bronze, with the final already locked in, but still):

MD5

Archalit - Galordia Minun
Saterun - Huron League
TJUN-ia - Eshialand

[TJUN-ia]

Hello and welcome to the 6th Elephant Chess Cup, coming to you live from the Ivory Crown Hotel in Newport, South Newlandia! Today is Sunday...which means by tonight, someone is going to lift that Elephant Chess Cup above their shoulders. The final day is always a stressful time and for the Jaguar Knights of TJUN-ia, they know that they will be under the most...as the other 5 teams left will want a shot at the crown they have defended since ECC4. Now then...let's see how the chaos ensued before lunchtime.

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (5-2-2) bt by Iván Petrovic
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (6-2-1) bt Amela Hadžić
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (3-2-4) bt Ivan Horvat
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (5-2-2) drew with Amir Duraković

Out of all the teams in the Super 6, Galordia Minun was the only one we had yet to face before today - and we would get them straight away at 11 am. Yevgeny Solovyanenko had to deal with Iván Petrovic, an aggressive player who certainly strives to make things difficult for his opponent to control. Petrovic would catch our Fox out with a quick checkmate while Margarita Altamiranda and the trans warrior Amir Duraković played out an entertaining draw, but the real good stuff for us was in the other 2 games. Tshering Gyeltshen had a tough game against the trap master Amela Hadžić, but managed to escape with the win at the end while Anne Christian-Warren overwhelmed Ivan Horvat with enough chaos to sink his steady play style - and just like that, the win was ours (2.5-1.5).

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (5-2-3) drew with Levi Whitaker
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (7-2-1) bt Mia Gastineau
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (4-2-4) bt Lucy Luton
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (5-3-2) bt by Adam Greiss

Then, it was back to the rematches as we faced off against the Huron League knowing that while our place in the Final was secure, victory would secure us the #1 seed for that final. Our Fox ended up in a great clash against Levi Whitaker that ended up in a draw while Altamiranda saw an improved Adam Greiss take her down in about 8 minutes. Gyeltshen would enter a clutch mode in order to take down Mia Gastineau, Lucy Luton would feel the wrath of the Lesbian Pirate Queen in a tough encounter and we would come out on top 2.5-1.5 in a performance that secured us the top seed in the overall table with 1 game to spare.

We know who we will face in the final but before that, we still have one more game to play in the Super 6 - against Eshialand. All focus will be on getting ready for the final, but getting some more practice in won't hurt anyone. GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Results Table
Group Stage
M1: vs Sky Reavers (Thurs, 4 pm) D 2-2 (T-7th)
M2: vs Archalit (Thurs, 6 pm) W 3-1 (5th)
M3: vs Eshialand (Fri, 11 am) W 3-1 (3rd)
M4: vs Saterun (Fri, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M5: vs Huron League (Fri, 4 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M6: vs South Newlandia (Fri, 6 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M7: vs Atheara (Sat, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st/6-1-0)

Super 6
MS1: vs Archalit (Sat, 1 pm) L 1.5-2.5 (1st)
MS2: vs Saterun (Sat, 6pm) W 3.5-0.5 (1st)
MS3: vs Galordia Minun (Sun, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS4: vs Huron League (Sun, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS5: vs Eshialand (Sun, 4 pm)

---

Records: YS - 5-3-3/TG - 8-2-1/ACW - 5-2-4/MA - 5-3-3

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff!

Ellie baby

Super Six Match 5 - Sunday, 16:00

Results:
(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

Archalit 2½–1½ Galordia Minun
Saterun 1½–2½ Huron League
TJUN-ia 3–1 Eshialand

Table:

P                        Pld    W   D   L    PF     PA    PD   Pts 
 1 TJUN-ia                12   10   1   1    31     17   +14    21
 2 Archalit               12    8   2   2    29     19   +10    18
 3 Huron League           12    5   3   4    25     23    +2    13
 4 Galordia Minun         12    4   4   4    24.5   23.5  +1    12 *Galordia Minun in 4th via H2H result (2-2, 2.5-1.5)
 5 Eshialand              12    4   4   4    24.5   23.5  +1    12
 6 Saterun                12    3   4   5    24     24     0    10

Teams in bold advance to the final. Congratulations to Huron League on 3rd place!

while entirely meaningless, I did want to include the Super-Six-only standings.

P                       Pld    W   D   L    PF   PA    PD   Pts 
1 Archalit                5    5   0   0    14    6    +8    10
2 TJUN-ia                 5    4   0   1    13    7    +6     8
3 Huron League            5    1   2   2    9.5  10.5  -1     4
4 Galordia Minun          5    1   1   3    8    12    -4     3
5 Eshialand               5    1   1   3    7.5  12.5  -5     3
6 Saterun                 5    1   0   4    8    12    -4     2

Elephant Chess Cup 6 Final

(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

TJUN-ia - Archalit

in case of a 2-2 tie, TJUN-ia will be champions thanks to their superior position in the table.

[Archalit]

Games Recap
The Super Six is over, and Archalit is secured for the final. One chance to take down TJUN-ia and win the cup. Remember, if we tie, it's game over, we need to WIN this final to take home the victory. Lets take a look at the latest match and see what kind of shape each of our players are in.

Bungki Gungo vs Iván Petrovic
This one was a Queen's Gambit Declined with a 5.Bf4 and 6.e3 main line. We had b6, dxc4, and Bungki Gungo began an attack on the queenside with 9...a6 and 10...b5. Out of the opening, it's very pleasent for Petrovic, he has a much better grasp on the center and Gungo can't ever play c5 breaking open the center. With this advantage, Petrovic starts building his advantage with 16.e4 starting to attack the center and, a few moves later, plays 19.f4 and he's just much better. Because of this, Gungo just starts trading pieces, swapping off rooks with 19...Rxd1+ 20.Nxd1 {Rxd1 loses the rook} and plants his queen on d2 to swap them off as well. Still, Petrovic just controls everything; the center is controlled by the pawns, the queen and kingside are under control, the problem is Petrovic has to actually go convert this. Immediately, he tries to break open the kingside with 31.g4 with Rg1 coming but suddenly Gungo trades off the pawns and has 33...c4 and he's created a passed pawn. Now here white is still better but after 34.b4, Gungo lashes out with 34...a5. Now, the computer is unafraid and just says bxa5 is winning, but Petrovic doesn't like that the bishop is coming and Gungo suddenly has connected pawns avalanching down the board. So, Petrovic plays 35.a3 and, here's the thing. While Gungo now doesn't have connected pawns, he does have an entry point with 36...Ra8 and despite Petrovic trying to push for an advantage, Gungo plays 39...Ra3 and is ready to take all of the white pawns and is now better. Petrovic doesn't step off the gas after having had an advantage for so long, playing 44.f5 and playing a bunch of checks, 46.Rg8+ Ke7 47.Nxf5+ Kf7 48.Nh6+ Ke6 49.Re8+ Kd650. Nf5+ Kc7 and the king is just running. Suddenly, Gungo is the attacker, 52...c3+ 53.Kc1 Rh1+ 54.Kc2 Bxe4+ 55.Kxc3 Rxb1 56.Bg3 Bxf5 and where did all of Petrovic's pieces go? Gungo is up a full piece with brilliant and creative defensive play and Petrovic resigns on move 62.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Iván Petrovic"]
[Black "Bungki Gungo"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "2820"]
[Board "1"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 b6 7. Be2 dxc4 8. Bxc4 Bb7 9. O-O a6 10. Qe2 b5 11. Bd3 Nbd7 12. Rfd1 Bd6 13. Ne5 Qe7 14. Rac1 Rfd8 15. Bg3 h6 16. e4 Bxe5 17. dxe5 Ne8 18. Bb1 Nb6 19. f4 Rxd1+ 20. Nxd1 Rd8 21. Bf2 Qb4 22. Bc5 Qd2 23. Qxd2 Rxd2 24. Be3 Rd8 25. b3 Nd7 26. Kf1 c5 27. Nf2 Rc8 28. g3 h5 29. Ke2 f6 30. exf6 gxf6 31. g4 hxg4 32. Nxg4 Kf7 33. Rg1 c4 34. b4 a5 35. a3 axb4 36. axb4 Ra8 37. h4 Ng7 38. Nh6+ Kf8 39. Bd4 Ra3 40. Rd1 Rh3 41. Bf2 Ke8 42. Nf7 Bc6 43. Nd6+ Kd8 44. f5 exf5 45. Rg1 Nh5 46. Rg8+ Ke7 47. Nxf5+ Kf7 48. Nh6+ Ke6 49. Re8+ Kd6 50. Nf5+ Kc7 51. Rh8 Nf4+ 52. Kd2 c3+ 53. Kc1 Rh1+ 54. Kc2 Bxe4+ 55. Kxc3 Rxb1 56. Bg3 Bxf5 57. Bxf4+ Kc6 58. h5 Nb6 59. Rf8 Nd5+ 60. Kd2 Rxb4 61. Be5 fxe5 62. Rxf5 Kd6 0-1

Evan Kennedy vs Amela Hadžić
The game begins with an advance Caro-Kann, Evan Kennedy with the white pieces and Amela Hadžić with black. 4.dxc5 e6 5.a3, this is a main line. 5...Bxc5 and Evan has a variety of options here. He goes for Nf3 and b4. Now after a few relatively normal looking moves, Evan goes for 10.b5 which is actually never played in this variation. You'd think it's pretty normal, just attacking the knight, but that knight can really go to any of the free squares and white doesn't really get anything. But now, after 10...Na5, Evan plays 11.h4 Qc7 12.h5 Nf4 13.Bf1 Nc4 and now Amela has just put all her pieces forward and after 14.Bd4 Ba5+ 15.c3 she plays 15...f6. Now that pawn can't be captured because after 16.exf6 there is 16...e5 and everything is somehow defended by everything. Instead of that 16.g3 is played by Evan, and now fxe5 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. gxf4 and Amela slides her knight away with Nf7 and the Queen attacks the pawn on f4. Now Evan plays h6, not slowing down and getting the pawn to g7. The rook slides out of the way, Be2, Bd7, and black seems to have a much better position. Several attacking ideas are available and five of whites pieces are on the back rank. Rh3, e5, Be3, the queen slides out of the way to f6, Rf3 attacking, and if you take on g7, the d-pawn hangs and there is also Rg3 possible and the advantage is lost. Instead of that, Qe6 defending the central pawns and Evan plays Qa4 attacking the bishop. If takes, queen takes, so Evan plays Rg3 and takes-takes. Now visually, Amela has the biggest advantage she had in this game, stable center, good development, and the attack is coming. She plays Qh6, attacking the pawn with some infiltration ideas, and 28.Nd2 Nd6 and now Evan plays O-O-O. Qh2 is played, and is a fork, but Evan finds some counter-play; Rg5!, and if Qxe2, Rxe5+ is apparently winning. Now that actually happens after first 30...Rc8 31.Qb4. 31...Qxe2 32.Rxe5+ Kd8, and here the knight is just hanging and Evan plays Qxd6. Except now Amela finds Rxc3+, Kb2, and now the rook and queen team up with the critical Qd3 and Amela is now ready to tear apart Evan's queen. The only move that doesn't lose is Nb1 which Evan finds, and now if Rc2+ there is a perpetual for Evan after 36.Ka1 Qxd1 37.Re6 and now there is a queen sac on the way with Qf8+ and it's perpetual. Instead of that, Amela plays 35...Qc2+ 36. Ka1 Qxd1 and now Re7 threatening mate, Qg4 stops it, and Qf6 threatening the rook and discovered check after Re4+, and threatening Qf8 sacrificing the queen. However after Rc4, instead of simply winning the queen, beyond everyone's comprehension, Evan plays 39.b6 and the advantage is totally lost after Qg6, and after Qf8+, there is Be8. The queen cannot take anything because it must guard the rook, so Evan takes on a7, but Ra4, the pawn is stopped, so now Evan plays Rxb7. This threatens several ideas, including checkmate, promotion, and there is only one way to secure a draw for black. Qxg7+!! If you take with the rook, Rxf8 is now winning for black, so Qg7, Rxg7, Rxg7 and now Amela is just in time to disconnect the rook and pawn with Bd7 and after trading off all of their pieces, the players agree to a draw.

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Evan Kennedy"]
[Black "Amela Hadžić"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[Board "2"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. dxc5 e6 5. a3 Bxc5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. b4 Bb6 8. Bb2
Nge7 9. Bd3 Ng6 10. b5 Na5 11. h4 Qc7 12. h5 Nf4 13. Bf1 Nc4 $2 14. Bd4 $9 Ba5+ $1
15. c3 $1 f6 $1 16. g3 $1 fxe5 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. gxf4 Nf7 $1 19. h6 Qxf4 20. hxg7 $6 Rg8
21. Be2 Bd7 22. Rh3 $2 e5 23. Be3 Qf6 $1 24. Rf3 Qe6 $6 25. Qa4 $2 Bb6 $9 26. Rg3 $6 Bxe3
27. fxe3 Qh6 28. Nd2 Nd6 $2 29. O-O-O $1 Qh2 $4 30. Rg5 $1 Rc8 31. Qb4 $6 Qxe2 32.
Rxe5+ $1 Kd8 33. Qxd6 $2 Rxc3+ $1 34. Kb2 $1 Qd3 $1 35. Nb1 $1 Qc2+ $9 36. Ka1 Qxd1 37. Re7 $1
Qg4 38. Qf6 $1 Rc4 39. b6 $9 Qg6 $1 40. Qf8+ $1 Be8 $1 41. bxa7 Ra4 $1 42. Rxb7 Qxg7+ $3 43.
Qxg7 Rxg7 44. Rxg7 Bd7 45. Rg8+ Be8 $1 46. Rg7 Bd7 47. Nc3 Rxa3+ 48. Kb2 Rxa7 49.
Nxd5 Rb7+ 50. Kc3 Bc6 51. Rxb7 1/2-1/2

Iara Carlson vs Ivan Horvat

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Ivan Horvat"]
[Black "Iara Carlson"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[BlackElo "2766"]
[Board "3"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3
Na5 9. Nxe5 Nxb3 10. axb3 Bb7 11. d3 d5 12. exd5 Qxd5 13. Qf3 Bd6 14. Kf1 Rfb8
15. Qxd5 Nxd5 16. Bd2 c5 17. Nf3 Rd8 18. Nc3 Nb4 19. Rec1 Rac8 20. Ne2 Nc6 21.
Be3 Ne7 22. Bf4 Bxf3 23. gxf3 Bxf4 24. Nxf4 Rc6 25. Re1 Nf5 26. c3 Nh4 27. Re3
Kf8 28. Ng2 Nf5 29. Re5 g6 30. Ne1 Ng7 31. Re4 f5 32. Re3 Ne6 33. Ng2 b4 34. Ke2
Rb8 35. Kd2 bxc3+ 36. bxc3 Rxb3 37. Kc2 Rb7 38. h4 Kf7 39. Ree1 Kf6 40. Ne3 Rd7
41. Nc4 Re7 42. Ne5 Rd6 43. Nc4 Rc6 44. Ne5 Rd6 45. Nc4 1/2-1/2

Octávio Vidal vs Amir Duraković

[Event "6th Elephant Chess Cup"]
[Site "Newport SNL"]
[Date "2033.03.30"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Octávio Vidal"]
[Black "Amir Duraković"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2731"]
[Board "4"]
[Stage "Super Six"]
[EventType "tourn (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "SNL"]
[TimeControl "15+5"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bd3 e5 7. Nde2 Be7 8. O-O
Nc6 9. Ng3 Be6 10. a3 Rc8 11. Re1 h6 12. Nf1 d5 13. exd5 Nxd5 14. Nxd5 Qxd5 15.
Ne3 Qd7 16. Qh5 g6 17. Qd1 O-O 18. Nc4 Bxc4 19. Bxc4 Qxd1 20. Rxd1 Nd4 21. Bd3
Nxc2 22. Bxc2 Rxc2 23. Bxh6 Rfc8 24. Rac1 g5 25. Rxc2 Rxc2 26. h4 gxh4 27. b4
Ra2 28. Rd7 Bf6 29. Rxb7 Rxa3 30. Rb6 Be7 31. Rb7 Bf6 32. Rb6 Be7 33. Rb7 Bf6
1/2-1/2

[OOC: I have homework, this might not get done, so I'm going to submit what I've finished now and work on it later if the opportunity arises]

[TJUN-ia]

Hello and welcome to the 6th Elephant Chess Cup, coming to you live from the Ivory Crown Hotel in Newport, South Newlandia! It's Sunday Afternoon...which means that the Jaguar Knights of TJUN-ia have only 2 games left to play - the final game in the Super 6...and the final game of the ECC itself. The Final itself is already sorted, we know who we will be facing later on tonight, but we still had one more game to play in the Super 6 to play...and no one wanted to show weakness before the big one, of course.

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (5-3-3) bt Jason Severn
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (8-2-1) drew with Mary Nerata
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (5-2-4) drew with Alan Blaine
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (5-3-3) bt Stephanie Jacobson

Eshialand were the opponents for the closing act of the Super 6 and this fixture would go the way many people did indeed expect after the fixture we had on Friday. Many did expect both Tshering Gyeltshen and Anne Christian-Warren to come away with draws as Mary Nerata would always prefer the draw over defeat and the Lesbian Pirate Queen vs Alan Blaine was just too chaotic of a match-up to produce a result either way, but the other two matchups were always going to be key...and they delivered in droves. Yevgeny Solovyanenko had a tough contest but ultimately prevailed over Jason Severn and Margarita Altamiranda managed to overhaul knight-loving Stephanie Jacobson to seal the 3-1 win.

And that is that. 12 Matches played, 10 wins achieved, with the odd ones out being a draw to the Sky Reavers on Thursday and a loss to Archalit yesterday...and it will be Archalit who we face on primetime.
We beat them on Thursday 3-1, they beat us on Saturday 2.5-1.5 - so it makes sense that the team who beats us plays us in a Decider for all the marbles.
Whoever wins will claim both the series and the ECC crown. If it is a draw, then we would win the title due to Overall Record (10-1-1 vs 8-2-2).
Despite that advantage, many back home will not want to secure a threepeat on a tiebreaker. And the Jaguar Knights know it.

This Gang of 4 is already etched into TJUN-ian immortality.
Tonight, we will see if this historic run continues...or if Archalit writes their own name into the stars.
No matter what, history will be made.
GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Results Table
Group Stage
M1: vs Sky Reavers (Thurs, 4 pm) D 2-2 (T-7th)
M2: vs Archalit (Thurs, 6 pm) W 3-1 (5th)
M3: vs Eshialand (Fri, 11 am) W 3-1 (3rd)
M4: vs Saterun (Fri, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M5: vs Huron League (Fri, 4 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M6: vs South Newlandia (Fri, 6 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M7: vs Atheara (Sat, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st/6-1-0)

Super 6
MS1: vs Archalit (Sat, 1 pm) L 1.5-2.5 (1st)
MS2: vs Saterun (Sat, 6pm) W 3.5-0.5 (1st)
MS3: vs Galordia Minun (Sun, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS4: vs Huron League (Sun, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS5: vs Eshialand (Sun, 4 pm) W 3-1 (1st/4-0-1 in S6/10-1-1 Overall)

ECC6 Final: vs Archalit (Sun, 6 pm)

---

Records: YS - 6-3-3/TG - 8-3-1/ACW - 5-3-4/MA - 6-3-3

[South Newlandia]

Cutoff! Time to find a champion.

The last elephants

Elephant Chess Cup 6 Final

(the team listed first has white on boards two and four)

TJUN-ia 1-3 Archalit

Congratulations to Archalit, champions of Elephant Chess Cup 6!
Commiserations to TJUN-ia, who fall just short of a three-peat, and thank you to everyone for participating!

[TJUN-ia]

GIC Yevgeny Solovyanenko (6-3-3) bt Bungki Gungo
GIC Tshering Gyeltshen (8-3-1) bt by Evan Kennedy
GIC Anne Christian-Warren (5-3-4) bt by Iara Carlson
GIC Margarita Altamiranda (6-3-3) bt by Octávio Vidal

Fair Enough.
Seriously...fair enough.
If you beat us twice in two days, then you deserve this crown.
Archalit did something not even we could do - win the crown as a debuting team.
But they deserved it and are worthy champions.

As for us? Well, it is the end of the most glorious era any TJUN-ian team has ever had.
That will be solidified as Yevgeny Solovyanenko retires from international competition.
However, he will play for all time domestically as a Hall of Famer and as a Grandmaster of the International Community.
The rest will be back with a new semi-pro teammate (per the rules), ready to claim revenge and reclaim the crown.

We have fallen...for now.
GO JAGUAR KNIGHTS!

---

Results Table
Group Stage
M1: vs Sky Reavers (Thurs, 4 pm) D 2-2 (T-7th)
M2: vs Archalit (Thurs, 6 pm) W 3-1 (5th)
M3: vs Eshialand (Fri, 11 am) W 3-1 (3rd)
M4: vs Saterun (Fri, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M5: vs Huron League (Fri, 4 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M6: vs South Newlandia (Fri, 6 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
M7: vs Atheara (Sat, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st/6-1-0)

Super 6
MS1: vs Archalit (Sat, 1 pm) L 1.5-2.5 (1st)
MS2: vs Saterun (Sat, 6pm) W 3.5-0.5 (1st)
MS3: vs Galordia Minun (Sun, 11 am) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS4: vs Huron League (Sun, 1 pm) W 2.5-1.5 (1st)
MS5: vs Eshialand (Sun, 4 pm) W 3-1 (1st/4-0-1 in S6/10-1-1 Overall)

ECC6 Final: vs Archalit (Sun, 6 pm) L 1-3 (10-1-2)

---

Records: YS - 7-3-3/TG - 8-3-2/ACW - 5-3-5/MA - 6-3-4