Antichess World Championship 2023

Introduction

88 players registered for this year's Antichess World Championship, second by number of participants only to last year's championship. This year, there will be three stages of the tournament: a Swiss stage, a Candidates stage and the finals.
The Swiss stage will consist of each participant playing a 10-match series against eight different players, with a score of 5.5 enough to claim a win. The top ten players from this stage will then meet the champion and finalist from last year in the Candidates, which involve the twelve remaining players being split into two pools of six players. Each player has to play every other participant in their pool in a ten-match series. After this is finished, the top player from Pool A meets the second-placed player from Pool B in one semi-final, and vice versa.

This is the sixth year that the ACWC has been held on Lichess. In the last two years, ASGMs ChangeOpening and SirKex have met in the final, with both finals ending in a 7-5 score to ChangeOpening. Last year's third-place match featured ASGM SupWitches outplaying ASGM devansh2008 to the tune of 9.5-2.5. The other eight players competing in the Candidtaes tournament were ASGM PepsiNGaming, B72061390VALENTINO (now playing under ASGM Antichess_Valentino), Schizophrenic_Energy, AGM IiTheAruNiI, ASGM sudenurk2, ASGM GrohochetGrom and AM ChessDemon989. I would recommend visiting tolius's ACWC 2022 blog if you want to learn more about last year's edition of the championship.

Swiss

Round 1

In Round 1, players are paired based on their seeding in the tournament. Seedings are determined based on the average of a player's highest rating in the last six months and their rating on September 1, 2023. In Round 1, the first seeded player plays the 45th seeded player, 2nd plays 46th, and so on until the 44th and 88th players. The structure of this round means that upsets are very unlikely to occur. However, in the first match of this year's championships, we saw just that. AGM Asnp was defeated by the relatively unknown CH3CHOHCOOH, in a match that ended 6-4. In the final match, with Asnp trailing 5-4, they missed a mate in 7 to force a 5-5 draw: can you find it?
Asnp vs CH3CHOHCOOH: Analysis board • lichess.org
As is the case most years, some participants realise their newfound lack of spare time as the ACWC starts, and are then forced to forfeit the tournament. The prime example this year is veersingh_74, a well-liked player in the arena tournament community, who we wish all the best in their antichess journey.
As the round continued, the strength of the higher-seeded players began to show, as AGMS UltimateSuperPlayer and RoyalDesperession and AM Antichesskiller won their opening matches. However, this was halted by AlfredDuffyer's outlasting of AGM asvy with a hard-fought 6-4 victory. The French player used 1. a4, a relatively novel opening for White, which nullified asvy's technical play and led to Alfred claiming all five of their wins as white.
The top three seeds, ASGMs Tetiksh1Agrawal, TheUnknownGuyReborn and sudenurk2, both started their ACWC campaigns with convincing wins against Antichess veterans. Tetiksh beat AGM FInLIp 6-0 and TUGR beat Chijss 6-1, while sudenurk took slightly longer to outplay rnbqkrva 6.5-2.5. Racing Kings main QueenEatingDragon also got on the board, showcasing their Antichess prowess in a 6-1 victory over Tinker_bell.
Although the ACWC is a clash between the best of the best in this variant, it can also show how incredibly talented the top players are, and therefore how difficult it is for a lower-ranked player to beat the logic of a 220 or 2300 rated player. This is perfectly summed up by YodaVader here:

Another interesting game came between AIM KOJEKUDE and itsrealone, in which the players traded games until the score was 4.5-4.5. In the position shown below, KOJEKUDE found the intermediate required to win him the game and the series: can you?
itsrealone vs KOJEKUDE: Analysis board • lichess.org
KOJEKUDE played 22. ...Kf6!!, forcing their opponent's rook to capture twice and therefore capture all of their pieces.
Matches continued as normal for the next couple of days, with the higher-rated player either completely outclassing their opponent or being caught off guard and having to work to secure wins. However, possibly the biggest upset of the tournament came from Ivailo_10v, who outplayed last year's Candidates participant AM ChessDemon989 5.5-0.5.
The tightest game of the round came between AGM MiladLouak0 and Maxime109, two realtively equally rated players at the time of writing. Both players resorted to the Dipilato Attack in all ten games played, with no wins as black being recorded as the series ended 5-5. Here is an example from the last game of the series.
MiladLouak0 vs Maxime109: Analysis board • lichess.org
My first match was against ma3ter3ky, a player who I already had a 0.5-3.5 record against in regular play. I managed to secure the win 6-0, mostly playing 1. Nh3 as white and 1. c4 Nh6 as black. Despite the scoreline, all games were hard-fought and required me to think before moving, abandoning every bullet principle I had learnt in the last year.

Round 2

Prior to the beginning of this round, I was contacted by none other than neverplayfastanti, ASGM and two-time OTB winner. neverplayfastanti informed me that Ivailo_10v was actually their friend's account that they had used to get an entry into the ACWC, sincce tyhe ASGM's account was created after the account creation deadline specified in the rules. Ivailo's account was deemed to have violated the Lichess Terms of Service, and thus NPFA was removed from the tournament. We are keen to see their talents in next year's ACWC.
In Round 2 of the Swiss tournament, players are matched up based on their position from the previous round; thus, the losing players from Round 1 play other competitors who didn't claim a victory in the same round. This makes the competition much tighter.
To start off the round, AGM Asnp and AM Douthy both opened their ACWC accounts, with the former beating NehaBetea 6.5-2.5 and the latter beating adhritthewarrior 6-0. AGM asvy also improved on their first-round defeat, outplaying itsrealone 5-0 before a forfeit from the untitled player. However, the scoreline did not indicate the difficulty of the match in this instance, with the latter creating technical queen and rook races and forcing the grandmaster to find moves in this situation:
asvy vs itsrealone: Analysis board • lichess.org
asvy played 15. Bg2 here, one of the two winning moves alongside 15. Rg1, to guarantee a 2-0 lead.
As stated before, the competition is dialed up in Round 2, and that was certainly the case in a hard-fought battle between AGMs KidCh3ss and MiladLouak0. With the Egyptian leading 5-4, Milad missed a pawn threatening to release his knight, ultimately losing him the series 6-4.
MiladLouak0 vs KidCh3ss: Analysis board • lichess.org
In other results, last round's victim of a horrific draw, AM ChessDemon989, mastered AlfredDUffyer's a4 opening to win 5.5-2.5, while AGM UltimateSuperPlayer roared back from a 0.5-1.5 deficit to outplay lukarell0 5.5-1.5, playing masterful middlegames such as the one shown below, in which their centipawn loss only reached 41.
lukarell0 vs UltimateSuperPlayer: Analysis board • lichess.org
The veterans of the Antichess world displayed their ability to win, with both AGM MagnusXL and apsid winning their respective games.
In possibly the biggest match of the round, two variant worlds collided, as Antichess shield, daily, 3+0, 2+0 and 1+0 tournament record holder TheUnknownGuyReborn played current Racing Kings World #4 QueenEatingDragon, who had demonstrated their ability to play Antichess in Round 1. TUGR was able to outplay QED's Nh3 opening as white, usually due to the release of one of the White rooks. However, the lower rated player held their own as Black, combating the Canadian player's wide range of openings with White to stay level at 2.5-2.5. Eventually, the ASGM prevailed 5.5-3.5.
Another highly-rated pairings was played out between AGM RoyalDesperession and current top 10 member llIVIll. However, this match was not as hotly contested as the previously mentioned match, as the latter triumphed 5.5-0.5. Meanwhile, FiendfyreFrenzy and Chijss got on the board after tough Round 1 opponents, beating ya_ne_shahmatist and huangyudong respectively in Round 2.
Coming in as the fifth seed and having reached number 1 on the rankings recently, AGM Bertfighter was viewed (and still is viewed) as a likely Candidate. However, their conquest was slightly derailed in a seesawing loss against AIM patrickrg, 4-6. Patrick lost the first two games due to some quality intermediate play by Bert, but steadied the ship using g6 as white, an opening they'd only played under twenty times before trying it out on the biggest stage. The AIM won their remaining four games as White, and eventually the series.
The very underseeded player CH3CHOHCOOH continued their brilliant run in this tournament, outplaying AIM KOJEKUDE 5.5-2.5 to stay undefeated. The untitled player started strongly to lead 3.5-0.5, but then dropped the next two games as the AIM warmed up their game. However, at this tight point in the tie, CH3 pulled out one of the most technically sound endgames I have ever seen:
CH3CHOHCOOH vs KOJEKUDE: Analysis board • lichess.org

Round 4

Round43 saw some more evenly matched series, since the rankings had returned more or less to the seedings. To start the round, AGM Passionate_Player fought hard against ASGM sudenurk2, but failed to convert a 3-0 lead, as the ASGM's unusual response to 1. e3 with 1. ... c6 confused the former. The ASGM eventually prevailed 6-4. In other matches early in this round, Pebblerye beat Douthy 6-3, while Anti veteran bwmtone outplayed UglySwede 6-1.
After an impressive first two rounds of the tournament, patrickrg met his match, falling to AGM IiTheAruNiI 6-0, in what could be called a statement from Arun to the rest of the competitors. The AGM cleverly controlled space with his rooks and calculated difficult races throughout the series, such as this position where Arun hold control over a large portion of the board.
patrickrg vs IiTheAruNiI: Analysis board • lichess.org
In another hotly contested match between two AGMs, aleksschtin beat RoyalDesperession 6-2, cementing their status as a threat to advance to the Candidates stage of the tournament.
In possibly the biggest match of the round, ASGMs TheUnknownGuyReborn and GrohochetGrom clashed in what would turn out to be an enticing 5-5 draw. The Eastern European champion sprung out to a 4-0 lead, before the Canadian player found a streak of form to claw back to 5-4, with both players playing theoretically almost perfect games. Only slight imperfections separated the players in the early games. In the final match of the series, TUGR had a complicated mate in this situation: can you find it?
GrohochetGrom vs TheUnknownGuyReborn: Analysis board • lichess.org
Instead of the winning Nf4, TUGR played Qc7, neutralising the position. From this position, TUGR's bishops were cornered, leading to a loss of the match and a resulting 5-5 draw.
After their Round 1 slip-up, Asnp took advantage of their dominance as White to beat drooksh 5.5-2.5.

Round 5

Round 5 saw more interesting matchups between future Candidates members, such as the first match of the round, between top seed sudenurk2 and underdog CH3CHOHCOOH. CH3 fought bravely to create a 2-1 lead, but in the end was outplayed by the ASGM, who continued their unbeaten streak with a 6-2 win.
On the same day, llIVIll battled ASGM Somebody_4AM, with the score emerging 5.5-4.5. In a tight situation at 5-4, the former was able to force a draw through promotion to a bishop.
In an all-European battle, top four seed Bertfighter beat last year's Candidates competitor ChessDemon989 5.5-1.5, finishing with this beautiful move:
Bertfighter vs ChessDemon989: Analysis board • lichess.org
Bertfighter traps Demon's bishop with this move, forcing it to retreat to b1. Black is then forced to move the bishop to d3 to prevent imminent mate, allowing the king to draw next to the f-pawn and ultimately win the game.
ASGM TheUnknownGuyReborn continued his hard run of luck with draws, eventually succumbing to AGM IiTheAruNiI in a well-contested (albeit blunderful) series, which finished 5.5-3.5. Playing against an ASGM with possibly the widest range of opening knowledge in Antichess, Arun converted difficult positions to cement his place in the top 3 of the rankings. Similarly, ASGM Antichess_Valentino made their statement to the rest of the competition, defeating GrohochetGrom 6-3, in a match defined by knowledge of the 1. e3 opening.
The standings at the end of this round showed sudenurk2 and seventh seed Arun on 5 points, with Valentino and thirteenth seed UltimateSuperPlayer on 4.5 points, and seven players on 4 points closing out the top 10.

Conclusion

This post will be updated after every round of the ACWC, so if you have any ways I can improve it as I go please don't hesitate to PM me and let me know. Good luck to everyone participating :)