The AWC is here! Group Match Game Review #1

AWC is here!

The long awaited Atomic World 2026 has started and we are already off with some great games. This year's AWC is especially crowded, so not only do we have a (single elimination) group stage before proceeding to the top 16 double elimination bracket, but we also have qualifiers for the group stages! Therefore some of the group stage matches can not be played just yet, as they still have to await who their opponents will be. However some matches are already fixed, and in this blog we will look at one of these match ups!

The Match: F55555 vs. Levi

On the one hand we have the veteran and frequently 2300+ rated player @F55555 who is known for his surprising and uncommon opening choices. On the other hand, we have me, a (fairly) new player who is finally starting to understand some of the dynamics of the games (and a notorious Nh3 e3 player :) ). Clearly F55555 will be the favorite going into this match, but nothing is decided just yet. No more talking, let's get into the games.

The first five matches

The match format is a best of 10. So the first player to get 5.5 or more points will win the match. If both players score 5 points (5 wins) the match goes into tiebreaks. But enough said let's see the games.

Game 1: Match Opener

Now already on the first move we can see that this match is going to take a crazy ride. Unlike usual (so far 96% of the time Levi has played 1. Nh3), Levi opts to play 1. e3!?. Perhaps to avoid e5, which F55555 is known to play against most of Nf3 and Nh3. F55555, who is much more experienced in this type of opening, responds with 1. ... Nf6!. And on move 3. Levi is already out of theory and plays the inaccurate move 3. Bb5 with the idea of blocking the Queen's vision, if Black chooses to play Qa5 at some point.

After a few developing moves, Black slides the King to d8 which White decides to get the Queens off the board. We end up with this very unusual situation, where neither King is on their home square, the Queens are gone and lots of holes in the position.

White chooses the wrong way to continue development with Ba3? which is promptly met with d6. In the following sequences, Levi tries to dance around with his Knights to generate an attack.

In this position White seemingly has a strong attack, but looking closely reveals that there is no actual threat. So a few moves later the White's knights get traded against the rook and the knight. And even though White is up a rook for a bishop, it is actually White who finds himself in the defensive position here, because he is down a pawn and ultimately will have to try to not go into a losing endgame.

And after thinking for a bit White finds the only way to draw, which is to sack the Rook for the Bishop and go into a perpetual check. So after c4 and Bc2, we get Rb1! and Bxb1. Now all that's left is to sidestep with the King and bring in the second Rook. And even though Black is just up a Bishop, it can not be put to use and the Rook is stuck between its own pieces. So after a few moves the Rook is able to get to the King. Levi, still not believing that all he could get with White was a draw, tries to go for some scam opportunities, but there is not much left you can scam a 2300 player with. So the first game ends with a draw.

Game 2: F55555's 2N variation

This time the opening choice is much less surprising. F55555 does not go for anything crazy and decides to play his standard 2N variation with 4. e3!?

Levi instantly plays e5 which, however, is not the best move (d5 would have been the top engine choice here) But at this point in the game everything is still open. After a few developing moves, we get to the following position

where according to the engine Black has an advantage, which is probably due to the fact that White's Knight and pawn on g4 are slightly out of coordination and Black will try to go up a pawn at some point by taking on g4. Levi thinks for a bit and ... instantly takes on g4. However this loses him the game on the spot! F55555 finds the only move e4! Instead of directly taking on g4, Black first had to close the center to prevent any trouble with Qb3 or potential exd5 with check. From there, even though Levi finds a way to avoid immediate checkmate, F55555 quickly converts into a completely winning position and gets the job done with a nice mate.

Game 3: Levi strikes back, with a fortress?

And with Levi having the White pieces we get... another e3? We go into another e3 Nf6 opening. But this time Levi seems to remember how to play this (I didn't prepare at all, I just started shuffling moves) and plays Nc3 instead of the incorrect Bg5. The game proceeds normal, as Qa5 and Kd8 by Black are typical in these types of positions. Here Levi spends a good chunk of his time and finds this great maneuver Qf5!

With the idea of sliding the Queen to g5 and then taking on g7. The fish finds a way to prevent this exchange, but F55555 is human and does not. We now get a really imbalanced position where Black still has the Queen on the board but is missing a Rook, Knight and Bishop. And while trying to play fast F55555 allows the White Knight to infiltrate and in the following position, decides yet again to keep the Queen on the board and lets Levi take all his remaining minor pieces.

It is now two Bishops, two Rooks, a Knight and a few pawns against a Queen! What an amazing inbalanced position. But don't be fooled by the appearances, the game is still not really over. White will have to try to block the Queen out, as the Rooks (and Knights and Bishops) are still too passive to create an attack on the Black King, it is actually Black who is still pressing for an attack on the White King. And Black is doing a very good job applying more and more pressure. And in the following position F55555 tries one last scam. Qh6! with the idea that if Kf1?? then Qab! is mate.

And even though Levi's time is running low (this will (sadly) be a reoccuring phenomenon in this match up), he keeps his cool and finds the way out of it with g5!, which has been prepared by g4. A few moves later the White Bishop lands on e3 completing the castle for the White King, who is now completely safe. In order to not crowd this blog post any further, I will not put another game embed here, but you can check the game, or the accompanying study for the position. After that all that remains is to push pawns and Queen. Which gets Levi his first win.

Game 4: F55555's relentless pressure

Perhaps inspired by Levi, F55555 also chooses 1. e3 as his opening move. But unlikes F55555, Levi has not mastered the skill of 1. ... Nf6 yet, so he plays the normal response 1. ... e6. In order to avoid any Nf3 Qf6 complications (I have lost to this opening so many times, since I don't know any of the theory), Black plays f6. And a few moves later we get the (second) classic F55555 opening choice which is the Bxg6!? sacrifice.

Now while the computer hates this move it puts Black under a lot of pressure, since the kingside will throughout the game be a problem. And F55555 uses this to his advantage to put Black under constant pressure. After Ne5 and Ng4, F55555 chooses the wrong way to continue in this position and loses his Knight in the process. Levi seemingly not very comfortable with the position plays the rather passive Nf6, a backwards move with the Knight that usually does no good.

In the position above after Ba6, Levi clearly missed b4 for some reason, spends half his time and does not find the winning idea Qd6! (which has been sitting on the board for a few moves already). F55555 meanwhile keeps ripping the the kindside open and generates a dangerous attack. Levi now under time trouble misses 19. ... Nd7!! which would have won the game if the follow up idea was spotted. (You can try to find it in the position, it is not so easy and I would not have found it without the engine). In the end F55555 keeps a cool head and not only equalizes the position but converts it into a mating net, convincingly finishing off the fourth game of the match up.

Game 5: Levi with White, can he win?

Since e3 worked great so far, Levi decides to go again with it (will it become his new main opening? No.) F55555 seeing that Nf6 has not worked out particularly well, decides to go with e5!?. After Qf3 and Qf6 we get Nh3. And in the mess, White ends up able to take on h6 with the Knight, giving him a big material advantage. But unlike the last game (where Levi had White), Black is much more active, while White's pieces are still mostly walled in by pawns.

Even though White spends a good amount of time on his moves, Black is able to infiltrate with the Knight. Levi now feeling uncomfortable with the position and starts spending more and more time. However at the same time he seems to panic and not only lets F55555 bring in his dark squared bishop, but also open up the line for Black's light square bishop. And finally on move 18 White blunders and plays Ne4

This allowed f3. Down a minute on the clock, Levi plays gxf3, instead of long castling which maybe would have helped him to hold out a bit longer.
gxf3 gives Black mate in 5. Can you find it? F55555 in the game does it a bit differently but in the end is able to deliver a beautiful checkmate with Knight and Bishop, bringing the score to 3.5 - 1.5 in his favor in the first half of the matchup.

The Second Half:

Game 6: new opening, new luck

We get a Nf3 e3 from F55555 who feels very comfortable with his 2 point lead, meanwhile, Black plays the e5 variation. However F55555 again plays his Bd3, Bxg6 variation. And after a few moves we get to the position

White unpins his Knight and Levi does not really have a response ready. He plays Bb4 to cut off the Queen from switching to the King side. But F55555 simply infiltrates with the Knight. Both sides spend a few seconds and F55555 sets up a threefold repetition, which Levi gladly accepts.

Game 7: Nh3 is back!

Finally after three e3 games, we finally have the Nh3 game! And of course e5 from Black. Levi plays the d4 variation, to which F55555 responds with c6!? and after Ng4, f5, e4, d4, Levi goes for the Ne6 line. Usually without c6 on the board, this would be a game ending move with Bg5 as a follow up. Levi seems to have missed this up until he plays Bg5.

And after a few moves Black lands Qa5, unpinning the Knight followed up by Ng4 and Ne3+ completely derailing the position for White. For a brief moment, even though the King is running to the middle like a madman, White seems to regain some control and develop counter play. But F55555 finds the amazing Ne4! fork which ends the game instantly

Sending White into a two piece disadvantage, which leaves little chance for a scam. F55555 wraps the game up in clean style, even though White is able to get two connected pawns to the 7th and 6th rank, Black creates a fortress, cuts of any possibility of infiltration for the White Rook, then cuts off the White King and simply promotes one of the pawns and checkmates. Simple and easy as you would like it!
Nh3 was not able to bring Levi's score back up and instead sends him into a 5 - 2. F55555 now only has to draw a single game to proceed to the next match. It is now surely over, right?

Game 8: All hope lost?

In the next three games, F55555 will have White two times and Levi will have White once. In order to get to the tiebreaks, Levi would have to win all three games. A very challenging task, let's see if Levi can even survive the first game with Black.
We get another Nf3 e3 from F55555 with the expected Bd3 and Bxg6 sacrifice. This time after pinning the Knight, Levi plays b5 in order to prevent the Queen from going to a4 and unpinning the Knight. After d4, e5 and Nc6, Levi is putting some decent pressure on the center and has a good pawn break available. However instead of playing the natural exd4, Levi blunders by playing Bh6??

There is mate on the board can you find it? (Hint: try to use the vulnerable h5 square as indicated) However F55555 turns on the Bullet mode and misses mate and plays Qc2?? This is given a blunder by the computer since Black has regained all his advantage! However, the Queen is threatening to infiltrate on many squares and so the position is anything but simple. Furthermore, White's Knight is unpinned yet again. After thinking for almost a minute (!) Levi decides that this Knight has to go and plays Bxe3. But White has now equalized and simply removes the other Bishop with hxg4. In fact the position is starting to look very uncomfortable for Black. The h6 pawn is hanging in two ways, which would allow White to gain a big material advantage. Levi finds the idea on how to equalize the game, which is to now bring in the Queen to cover the square f5 (in order to prevent White from getting the Queen in). Interestingly White can not simply take on h6 with the Rook here, since Black can close off the center with e4! and the Black simply has the more active pieces (White could potentially still draw, but has to play very accurately). None of this happened, as Levi thinks for another minute (now down to 40 sec vs 3 min for F55555) and plays the incorrect Qc8?! with the same idea but not getting out of the way of the Rook. White takes on h6 with the Rook, and Black decides to trade the Queens. We now have the following position

after long castle and Bf8 White simply has an advantage, since the Rook is mostly cut off. All F55555 has to do now is to activate the remaining pieces and convert into a winning endgame. Levi finds the important exd4, which opens up the e-file. This way if White does not play correctly the Black Rook with the help of the f6 pawn could get to the White King. and after Nd2, we get Re8+ and Be7 to block and then Ne5 looking to cause some trouble with the Knight. Here White plays Ne4 and immediately loses all his advantage, instead he apparently had to castle long to bring the King to safety and get the Rook to a more active position.

Here Levi incorrectly plays Nc1 and White could have won with the in-between move Bd8 threatening checkmate by explosion. But F55555 (still in Bullet mode) chooses to h4 (so that the Rook would not get traded). And now we get get d4!, taking with the pawn would not only erase White's material advtange, but also bring him in a worse spot, since the White King is weaker than the Black King. F55555 correctly plays c4. A few moves later the black pawn advances to the second rank with only the White King preventing promotion. White now decides to trade the Rook for the Knight in order to prevent any possible checks to the King, but this is actually a blunder! Even though it seems like two pieces (Knight and Bishop) could defend / block out a Rook, in this position there was a way to get around that. Levi with 15 seconds left does not find the correct approach. And at first it seems the Knight and the Bishop cover all square for infiltration. But then as the position develops, White overextends his f pawn allowing for a potential attack with the Rook
There are now many ways to go for the win, but with 10 seconds left, Black finds the correct maneuver (and in my opinion the most humanly findable appraoch here) with Rh4! and after Bd6 which seemingly cuts off all the possible squares...

We get Rf4!! (I know, " brilliant" might be an exaggeration here, but I think the sequences Rh4, Rf4 is quite nice). White is forced to take, otherwise the Rook can get in through f2-e2-e1. And anyone who is familiar with Atomic endgame will already have seen that it is a position where both sides have the same number of pawns, but Black is already only one step away from promotion. So all that's left to do is to bring the King over to stop the g and f pawn from White. And even under time pressure, with increment Levi gets the job done.

Game 9: Nh3 or e3?

Levi is back at 1. e3 again, probably to avoid any e5 complications. We get into a position that resembles some of the Nh3 e6 Ng5 f5 opening lines (though I am pretty sure e3 is not the best move here in those cases). After Nf7, F55555 decides to trade the Knight for the Bishop, a very bold choice. But we have already seen that with enough pressure, you can even come back from completely loosing positions. But this time after Bd6, Black probably missed Ne5.

and after castle from Black, White simply gets a comfortable material advantage on top of having the Queen. And so this not very interesting game, progresses by White trading off Black's remaining two Knights and just trying to find an opening for the Queen, while making sure the Rooks are not getting any room. It takes another 20 moves or so, but eventually another Rook is traded off and Black can no longer properly defend all squares and White gets a convincing win. Two games in a row so far, the score is back to 4-5. Can Levi make the comeback?

Game 10: Comeback or not comeback?

F55555 now goes back to his classic 2N variation, as the Nf3 e3 openings have not gone too well in this match up so far. And this time Levi correctly plays 4. ... d5. And after another Bd3 followed by Bxg6, White seemingly goes up a pawn. But Black is now a lot more active and is the one generating an attack. A few moves later, White and Black put their rooks on the g-file and the White Knight has been traded off for the light-squared Bishop.

Now Black goes for the White King with Qb6. And after Kf1, Black wins back his pawn, by taking on d3. The bishop infiltration and the Knight getting into the White position add to the pressure and after long castle. Black is looking to get the center of the board open to bring in his Rooks as well

So two moves later we get d4! by Black and from here it is just a matter of technique to get the mate. Feel free to find the mate before heading over to check how the match went!
And with this the comeback is complete! The match now goes into tiebreaks! How amazing.

Tiebreaks: the tragic end of the match

First Tiebreak Game

Levi with the White pieces, another e3 game. But the game turns into a weird Nh3 e6-f5 game, where the White Knight is somehow on the g6 square.

After the slightly incorrect Ba6 (Black had to do instead take the Knight on g6 and just play the position down a pawn), White gets Nf8 and Nxh7 as a follow up later. Having a big material advantage White can now simply play it out, but the position is still not completely over. Black brings in his Queen, however now F55555 is the one in time trouble and actually even gets down to 0.8 seconds (the 2s increment saved him). Even though Levi manages to trade off all minor pieces, time is ticking low for him too, and with 10s left he plays the move Qb3 a bit too fast and blunders all his material advantage!

Lucky for him F55555 does not have enough time to calculate the correct sequence, so even though the d pawn advances to the third rank, there is no time to promote it, as White has pushed his h pawn to the 7-th rank as well. A few moves later we get a draw by repetition.

Second Tiebreak Game

F55555 seeing that Levi too well prepared (that's not true at all :) ) against 2N, chooses e3 Nf3. and again with c3 we get into a similar position like before. However this time after Bd3, Levi decided he had enough of all the Bxg6 sacrifices and plays f5!?

In the following moves a lot of (boring) pawn moves are played, the Queens are traded and we get the pretty much equal (and a bit weird looking) position.

For some reason Black goes for a break in the center with exd4!? (in retrospect this probably cost me the game). The computer evaluates it as the correct move to play for a win with black here. But as a human, Black should have just played e4 and taken the draw.
Both Black and White are able to infiltrate with the Bishops, however Black has moved the rook away from the h file which allowed the following pawn break for White. And now Black is just worse off

After Bd5+ Black is forced to trade off his Rook for the Bishop and later somehow misses Rb8 to take the open file. Instead, White gets to play Rb1 and gets a very comfortable position. By this time Levi is back in time trouble again, trying to find a way to (at least) draw the game. But in the midst of everything, the clock relentlessly runs down and on move 38 even though the position was still somewhat playable, Levi flags! And this marks the end of the dramatic match between F55555 and Levi.

Epilogue

Comment on the Match and Atomic Chess

I have to be honest, I am not the most active Atomic Chess player (for example every time I join in on the Daily Atomic Arena, I always see ReChesster already in the lead with a comfortable amount, truly admire his dedication!). However even I heard a few things that have started recently, for example the community project to "brute-force" Atomic Chess and the question that this project brings along of whether Atomic Chess is dead. Or the development of an alternative to Atomic960, which is WolfRandom. Anyone who has not heard of it, can either check @Wolfram_EP 's blog / team or read one of @ElioTheDog 's article (which are all great, and he has a lot of blogs regarding different topics in atomic chess and chess in general). I have played a few games of WolfRandom and it is really fun! So I can only suggest everyone to try it out. Having a high Atomic elo will certainly help, but WolfRandom is much more about calculation than standard Atomic is.
I think what this match up has shown though, is that (so far) if you play Atomic Chess the (not) right way, you can still get a lot out of it. One thing to note is of course that Neither F55555 nor I have been able to get much theory on the board in our matches. And perhaps that's why I found them so interesting. Higher rated players, especially the top 10 might look at the games and find it hilarious how we played. I am not that strong, so I can't tell. For players in the 2100–2300 range, who are fairly good but not at the very top level, Atomic can still be a very enjoyable game variant, somewhere between opening spam and top-level calculation. You can have a completely winning position on the board but simply fail to see the winning idea (see for example game 4, where I just kept missing Qd6).
Honestly, I am really glad that I played F55555, because he is such a dynamic and unpredictable player and his style of voluntarily going into a worse position that are double-edged will certainly inspire me to play more aggressive.
Of course loosing a match (especially since it was only the first match, and my first ever AWC match) is definitely a bit sad, but I am pretty happy with my performance. The comeback was quite nice, and in the end I just lost my cool in the tiebreaks and F55555 deservedly took the win. A little heartbreaking to blunder a winning position and then flagging, but in the end that's just how (atomic) chess is. I wish everyone else good luck on their pairings and look forward to more exciting matches!

Last notes from the author

This is my first (and extremely long) blog post. If you read this far, thank you for your patience! But more importantly I hope you enjoyed the read! I am very inexperienced when it comes to blog writing (unlike @ElioTheDog and others), any feedback is welcome! For example, what did you think of the board-view to text ratio? When I was writing the post, there were a few games where I simply wanted to include the board view however I was also concerned that it would get too crowded in the end, so do tell me your impression! If this kind of commentary is well received I will also try to cover some other group stage games (so far I am going to try and watch the full match between the Horde God @Matvei-e2e4 and @VenusaurBeedrill and might cover it with a blog as well). I will also try to publish them a bit faster :), though they might be less comprehensive (this one has been sitting in my drafts for way too long).
For this blog I have also created an accompanying study where I tried my best to analyze the game from the match. Here is the link. Feel free to review it if you like and give comments on where my analysis is flawed or you see a better way forward.

So yeah that's all I've got, be sure to give me some feedback if you like and see you in some arenas or the AWC (match / watchroom).
I hope you all have a great day!