Liam Hereford Crowned Atomic Chess Champion After Explosive Performance

Liam Hereford won the 2025 Chess.com Atomic Chess Championship after winning both the Winners Final and Grand Final Reset. Eduardo Lorenzon lost to Hereford early in the Winners Semifinals but climbed through three matches in the Losers Bracket to have a winner-take-all rematch.

It was incredibly close as Lorenzon won the first match of the Grand Final and nearly came back in the second. But Hereford, after an epic draw, won the last game to complete his victory lap.

Bracket

• Winners Quarterfinals: Lorenzon Starts Strongest
• Winners Semifinals: Hereford, Phan Advance
• Winners Final: Hereford Wins First Final
• Losers Bracket: Lorenzon Climbs Through
• Grand Final: Hereford Wins In Reset

Eight players qualified on the previous day for the knockout phase, which comes with a minimum prize of $100 and, for first place, $750. Gonzalo Rojo, FM Javier Benitez, Johan Phan, Aleksey Matvienko, Lorenzon, Enes Akin, Hereford, and NM Benjamin Krause played in a double-elimination bracket, where every match was best-of-four with a 3+0 time control.

The rules of Atomic Chess are pretty simple: it's like chess, but pieces explode. Whenever a piece is captured, an "explosion" reaching all the squares immediately surrounding the captured piece occurs. This detonation kills all of the pieces in its range except for pawns.

Different from regular chess, where only the captured piece is taken off the board, in Atomic Chess, every capture is suicidal. Even the capturing piece is affected by the explosion and must be taken off the board. Kings not only get checkmated but also lose the game if they're adjacent to an explosion.

Winners Quarterfinals: Lorenzon Starts Strongest

Lorenzon was the only player to win with a clean 3-0 sweep in the Winners Quarterfinals, against Akin. The very first game showcased one of the variant's many quirks, as you might think that 16.Re8+?? wins in the position below. In fact, the king does not have to move. Instead, it is Black who would win with 16...Nxg2, catching the white king in the explosion.

Seeing this, Lorenzon played 16.g3! simply to prevent the capture, and now Black cannot avoid the loss. He resigned, but the game could end with 16...Nxf3 17.Re8+ Kc7 18.Rxc8.

Rojo, Phan, and Hereford also won their matches to advance. 

Winners Semifinals: Hereford, Phan Advance

Lorenzon didn't last much longer in the Winners Bracket, though, as he lost his second match. Hereford beat him 3-1. (They would meet again later.)

In the other semifinal, Phan advanced with a 3-0 sweep against Rojo. In the following position in game two, 9...Na6 10.Nd6+ was a killer discovered attack. After 10...exd6 11.Bxa6 Black lost their queen.

Winners Final: Hereford Wins First Final

Hereford won the Winners Final with a clean 2.5-0.5 against Phan, two wins and a draw.

Game one was the most dominant, where White showed how combustive an attack can be in this variant. 13.Qb3+ was the start of a decisive combination, and Black would resign four moves later. After 13...Be6, 14.dxe5 blew open the center.

So we reached this position where if Black just sidesteps with 14...Kh8, then 15.Qg8 wins, just like in the game. Instead, Black gave up his queen first with 14...Qd5 15.Bxc6+. 

... and there was no stopping the explosion on g7 soon after.

Losers Bracket: Lorenzon Climbs Through 

Lorenzon climbed back through the Losers Bracket to have his rematch with Hereford in the Grand Final. 

In the early rounds, we were treated to some impressive Atomic Chess opening theory in the match between Rojo and Krause. The following clip gives just a taste of how wonky and deep the openings can be.

But, ultimately, Lorenzon won three matches: first, 3-2 against Matvienko, then 3-1 against Krause, and finally 3-0 against Phan.

The last game against Phan was nice, even if a win was unnecessary, as he outplayed his opponent with just six seconds left. 21.Be8 was a maneuver that won the black queen two moves later, after 21...Qe7 22.Bxf7+ Kh8 23.Bxe6.

Grand Final: Rivals Reunite, Rogov Plays "Game Of The Tournament"

Lorenzon won the first match to force a Grand Final Reset. Though Hereford won a very complicated first game, Lorenzon then won two in a row. In the second, Lorenzon sacrificed his queen for a pawn to open the g-file.

Two moves later, after 16...Rh6 (Rg8 is coming anyway), White won with 17.Rg8+ Kf7 Nxe6, detonating the king.

Lorenzon dropped a loss but won the last game to reach the second match.

Grand Final Reset: Hereford 3.5-2.5 Lorenzon

Hereford won the first two games of the Reset and, a half-point away from clinching the match, his triumph looked inevitable. But Lorenzon incredibly won two games on demand.

In the second game he won, his speedy conversion with just 13 seconds stunned Canty, who's quite a speed demon himself. Hereford would later share that he normally plays this variant with a time control of 30, so the lack of increment helped him.

That meant that the next player to win would take the crown. In the tense game that followed, we saw a rarity: an incredible draw.

In the last game, which Hereford won, he alternated between pressuring along three different fronts: the a-pawn being a threat, the rook landing on b8, and when that was blocked, sending the rook to g1 for checkmate. After 30...Bb5 31.Kh2 Kh8 32.Rg1, Black lost on time.

That's it for the Atomic Chess Championship! If you already love 4 Player Chess or want to try, anybody can play in our next community championship in April.

The Atomic Chess Championship is part of the 2025 Chess.com Community Championships, and the event was open to all members of the Chess.com Community Club. The winners of eight qualifiers played in a double-elimination knockout bracket to decide the best atomic chess player on Chess.com. The event featured a $2,500 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • It’s Time To Play With Fire! Join The Chess.com Atomic Chess Championship