Awonder Liang’s hawks go 12 for 12
Four 3–0 sweeps gave Liang the Seirawan Chess title, with seven seconds on the clock for one particularly nasty hawk check.
Awonder Liang won every game he played in the October 2 finals of Chess.com’s 2026 Seirawan Chess Championship. Four matches, four 3–0 sweeps, $750: an efficient evening’s work.
The variant adds a hawk, combining bishop and knight moves, and an elephant, combining rook and knight moves, to each side’s reserves. They can enter on an original back-rank piece’s square as that piece moves away. The board acquires a small, heavily armed zoo.
Official result and annotated games · Tournament dates and variant pieces
Seven seconds and a hawk
Against Patrik Saar in the quarterfinal, Liang had seven seconds left when he played 32.He7+. The hawk on e7 covered f8 with its knight move, cutting off the king’s escape. After 32...Kh8, the line 33.Qa8+ Kh7 34.Qg8# ends with the hawk protecting the queen.
In the winners final against Jakub Chyzy, Liang gave up his queen for a hawk with 20.Qxe5, then built a kingside attack and won on move 53. Chyzy returned through the losers bracket for the grand final. Liang handed him another 3–0.