Deep Waters’ Isaac Chiu and Janak Awatramani downed The Angry Birds’ Andrew Tang and Richard Zheng in the deciding third match to rule the inaugural WR Bughouse Championship at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City on Tuesday.
It was the second title together for Chiu and Awatramani after topping a tougher one last year — chess.com’s World Championship last year.
“I’ve been in the bughouse longer than him (Chiu) but I convinced him to join me in 2020,” Awatramani said.
For their feat, Deep Waters pocketed the top purse worth $50,000, courtesy of organizing WR chess founder Wadim Rosenstein, while the Angry Birds got pacified by their $20,000 runner up purse.
It was an impressive performance for the Chiu-Awatramani pair after emerging atop the 12-round eliminations by winning their first 11 matches before dropping their last.
World No. 34 Awonder Liang and Eilia Zomorrodian of Emmy as the goat trounced Alex Guo and Jimmy Lee of Mate in 2 to clinch third place and $10,000 prize.
There were two Filipino teams that made it to the quarterfinals — Palaban’s GM Darwin Laylo and FM David Elorta and Marc Nazario and Vince Angelo Medina — but both suffered heartbreaking defeats and settled for $2,000 consolation purse each.