PogChamps 4 Day 2: Nervous Ludwig Turns MrBeast Into Cat Maid

The first match of the day was as exciting as it was fast. Fundy showed he’s one of the Poggers to watch during the event after winning a clean match against Tectone.

Viewers who decided to grab a quick snack to prepare for the second day of PogChamps 4 might’ve missed the first game altogether. Tectone was counting on the solidity of his beloved Hippo defense to face his higher-rated opponent, but his strategy backfired. Fundy delivered checkmate only 11 moves after the game started, making this the second-quickest game in PogChamps history.

“The Hippo, to me… I thought it was an impenetrable defense,” Tectone said in his post-match interview. “Well, today it got penetrated. And that sucked!”

The second game was not as quick, but Fundy still dominated the game. Tectone went for the Hippo with the white pieces, which seemed to confuse Fundy. Still, the Dutch streamer got a good position out of the opening, especially after taking advantage of a well-known Chess.com “glitch.”

Even though JustaMinx was not optimistic about her chances against boxbox, she was making great moves even before the game started. The Irish streamer promised she would make donations to cancer research after each blunder, loss, or if she checkmates her opponent.

Minx played well during the opening stage of the second game. She did a good job developing her pieces and keeping her king safe but eventually erred and blundered a knight. Boxbox once more had no trouble using his material advantage to put pressure in the position and checkmate Minx.

After his victory, boxbox seized his opportunity to send his chess nemesis Ludwig a message:

Stakes were high for the last match of the day. The higher-rated player and Pog veteran Ludwig was confident about his chances to win the rematch against MrBeast. Just like in PogChamps 3, Ludwig went to Twitter to propose a bet, which MrBeast accepted:

MrBeast’s generosity, however, made Ludwig’s life much easier. After the Beast gave his opponent the piece back, Ludwig got a significant advantage in the endgame. Shaken by his defeat, Ludwig took considerable time to win the game, leading MrBeast to call him during the game. The two players eventually connected over the phone during the break for a little more trash talking.

It seemed like Ludwig was about to guarantee his victory until time pressure got the best of him. In an unimaginable turn of events, Ludwig stalemated MrBeast’s king, taking the match to a second tiebreak blitz game.

In yet another close game, MrBeast made his higher-rated opponent sweat for the win. The players entered a drawn endgame with opposite-colored bishops, making it seem like a third blitz game would have to take place. Sadly for MrBeast, he caved under time pressure and allowed Ludwig to create an unstoppable passed pawn. Ludwig let out a sigh of relief after checkmating his opponent to secure the win.

After the games, MrBeast said that his position as the underdog motivated him to try to win. “Before the match, you guys said they bet 3 million points on Lud and only 100,000 on me? Oh, no! Now I gotta win!” He also pointed out that the secret to his success was his opening preparation: “It’s the same as last year. Lud, you literally do the same thing every single game. I know your first 25 moves like the back of my hand. I’m not going to win a single other match for the rest of this tournament.”

Ludwig commented on MrBeast’s strategy and revealed how he handled it. “I realized pretty quickly that [MrBeast] knew every single thing I was going to do, so then I was like ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, so if I don’t know what I’m going to do, he doesn’t know what I’m going to do.'”

All Games Day 2