Hundreds Meet Again In Arena Kings Team Competition

The second edition of the new, monthly version of Arena Kings happened on November 5. In this month’s multi-club arena with more than 1,800 total players representing 52 squads, K2N Chess won the overall standings, while GM Jose Ibarra took home the individual standings. Ibarra’s own club took seventh place and was one of just four teams with more than 100 participants (although every team only counts their top 30 scores in the final standings).

In a stunning display of consistency, Ibarra won his first 22 games of the tournament. From there, he held on to win the event. His closest rival for most of the tournament was IM Yoseph Taher and the last game that Ibarra completed on his way to victory came against the very same. With both players refusing a draw in a bishop ending, it was Taher who blinked.

Taher’s team still got the last laugh by finishing in second place. Meanwhile, GM Oleksandr Bortnyk followed his second-place individual finish in October by doing the same in November. One moment in particular demonstrated the sudden shifts in emotion that only chess can offer—thinking you’re winning… until you see that your opponent has a move… but then the opponent doesn’t realize it, and so you win anyway.

GM Benjamin Bok, WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian, GM Mitrabha Guha, and Phoebe Witte were among other high-profile players to stream, and that was just in English. Streaming in Spanish, Ibarra enthusiastically celebrated his victory in what was another successful rendition of the new Arena Kings, bringing chess to a diverse array of streaming audiences worldwide.

The next edition of Arena Kings will be held on December 3 at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CET. You can catch your favorite streamers competing for prizes then, or apply below to participate yourself! Full regulations can be found here.

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November 5 Arena Kings | Final Standings (Top 25)

November 5 Arena Kings | Top 20 Individual Finishers

(Full final standings.)