Samosas, Skewers and Shattered Kings: Joel and Prakhar Dominate COB Revival Day 1

by Vivek Sohani - 02/06/2026

The return of Comedians on Board – COB Revival kicked off with absolute madness on Day 1. Moving away from massive 32 player elimination formats of the lockdown era, this edition gathers 8 battle-hardened Indian Comedian Chess Players for a intense round robin tournament held over the board for the qualification into the Knockouts. The tournament is held over four days at Habitat, Mumbai where audience can join in to witness live commentary sitting in front of casters, meet and greet sessions and much more. The event is produced by Nodwin Gaming and Sponsored by Airlearn. The top 4 players from the group stage will advance to knockout semifinals. The time control for the event is 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment from move 1. Photos: IA/NI Vivek Sohani

The Pre-Show Exhibition match: The Elements Collide

Before the clocks started officially, the legendary Atul Khatri took the white pieces against the self-proclaimed “King Walker” GM Abish Mathew! Abish opened with a bizarre variation of the King's Indian defence because “it had the words King and Indian in it, so it’s my opening.”

The game was pure, beautiful chaos. Abish managed to blunder a full Queen within the first few minutes. Atul clinically liquidated the position, avoiding numerous illegal King moves from Abish to finish with a checkmate in one.

Round 1: Joel D'souza vs. Samay Raina (1-0):

The Tournament opened with its most anticipated, legacy-defining marquee match. Joel utilised a secret online training account to hide his recent prep, pushing his baseline playing strength close to 1950 online ELO. Joel started the game with a Stonewall setup.

Samay was better in the opening itself and had a winning advantage. But eventually he made series of blunders with 17. Bxh2 followed by Ke7 and f6. Joel capitalized on the opportunity he got and converted his advantage into a smooth win.

Vivek Desai vs. Balraj Singh Ghai (1-0):

Vivek initiated with a hyper-modern English opening (1.c4), out-developing Balraj within the first 10 moves. Balraj entirely missed a basic tactical fork, dropping a full minor piece early. Vivek spent the remainder of the game comfortably translating his material advantage into a clinical endgame victory.

Tracy Allison vs. Vaibhav Sethia (1-0):

Tracy delivered a masterclass in in the first round itself. Vaibhav miscalculated a central exchange, allowing Tracy's pieces launch a fearsome attack on the Vaibhav's castled king which eventually forced Vaibhav to resign the game after he saw mate in one - 23. ... Kd8 24. Rd7#

Prakhar Gupta vs. Anirban Dasgupta (1-0):

Prakhar systematically dismantled Anirban's solid Opening structure in Modern Scandinavian Defence. Anirban didn't manage to stop the central pawn march from the white army and lost a Knight in the time scramble. Immediately he resigned his game.

Replay Round 1 Games

Round 2: Balraj Singh Ghai vs. Samay Raina(0-1)

Riding high on his Round 1 triumph, Samay opened with a Sicilian defence. Balraj played quite decent opening.

Except he missed 12. … cxd4 13. Bd4 c5 14. Bd3 where Samay could have won a piece by playing Qe5.

But game continued almost equal and Balraj had a completely winning advantage after Samay played 22. … Ne5.

Can you spot a winning continuation for White here?

He could have gone 23. Bf4 pinning the knight followed by 23. …. f6 24. Bxe5! If black plays Qxe5, Qxe5 followed by Nc5 winning a piece as Rook on e1 also joins the party. If black plays fxe5, Qg6 wins a piece!

But Samay started trash talks and Balraj lost his composure He completely panicked under the verbal onslaught, misinterpreting Black’s counterplay. Samay instantly responded with an intuitive, shot style rook lift to b5, trapping Balraj's completely unprotected Queen. Upon realizing he had dropped his most valuable piece in a single move, Balraj lifted his King and hurled it across the room in a rare moment of anger, before resetting the pieces with a handshake.

Vivek Desai vs. Prakhar Gupta (0-1):

Vivek generated an incredibly sharp middle-game attack and executed a textbook skewer that trapped Prakhar’s Queen against his rook. Facing a completely won +4.0 endgame, collapsed under severe time pressure, allowing Prakhar to execute a stunning backdoor pawn-promotion sequence to steal the win.

Vaibhav Sethia vs. Joel D'souza (0-1):

Joel after winning to Samay in round one, blundered the full Rook but Vaibhav didn't spot it. Instead he retreated his attacked Queen back to f3 square neutralizing his advantage. Joel again blundered with 35. ... Re2 where Vaibhav could have simply chopped off a pawn on f7 and again get a decisive edge in the game. Afterall, they are comedians and not serious players. He missed that chance in time pressure and eventually lost a game to Joel.

Anirban Dasgupta vs. Tracy Allison (0-1):

Tracy defended brilliantly against a relentless kingside attack from Anirban, using small tactical edge-moves to pick off his attacking pieces one by one until he was forced to resign.

Replay Round 2 Games

Round 3:

Tracy Allison vs. Vivek Desai (0-1)

Tracy entered the third round as the undisputed favourite alongside Prakhar with a flawless 2-0 record. Vivek, completely resetting after his agonizing time-scramble loss to Prakhar, opted for a highly unorthodox tactical setup against Tracy's standard defensive structure.

Relying on his sharp visualization skills, Vivek intentionally left a tempting central pawn bait on e5. Tracy took the bait, moving her pieces forward to claim the center, but entirely overlooked a deep, multi-move tactical net Vivek had prepared on the queenside. Vivek executed a sharp sequence that completely trapped Tracy's highly active light-squared bishop on b5. Forced to surrender a full minor piece for two insufficient compensation pawns, Tracy fought hard till the end but Vivek systematically defused her threats to hand the defending champion her first defeat of the tournament.

Joel D'souza vs. Anirban Dasgupta (1-0):

Anirban launched a wild, asymmetric attack by choosing long-side castling. Anirban looked in his good shape until the clock ticked down 3 minute mark. But in panic of a situation he was unable to spot a free central pawn. It would have given Anirban an edge as he had Two connected passed pawns on queen side. But It was Joel's day! He won his third consecutive game from a difficult position spotting most of the tactical mistakes from his opponent in a professional manner.

Samay Raina vs. Vaibhav Sethia (1-0):

Samay showed excellent technique in a standard Italian game. Vaibhav completely blundered a back-rank mate threat, after Samay Sacrificed his queen by Qxh3!! leading to a quick resignation that put Samay at a brilliant 2-1 start.

Prakhar Gupta vs. Balraj Singh Ghai (1-0):

Prakhar missed a spectacular Greek Gift Sacrifice earlier in the game which could have sealed the deal there itself, but still cruised to an effortless victory after Balraj walked into a routine knight fork.

Replay Round 3 Games

Round 4:

Anirban Dasgupta vs. Samay Raina (1-0)

The final match of the evening revived one of COB's most legendary lockdown rivalries. Samay, riding a wave of confidence and sitting with 2-1 score, played far too casually in the opening moves. He confidently advanced a central pawn structure, completely miscalculating a deep tactical line. Anirban capitalized immediately, executing a stunning queen sacrifice a classic London system trap followed by a devastating discovery that stripped Samay of two critical central pawns.

Realizing he was completely lost in the opening itself, Samay checked out of the game mentally, ordered a hot samosa to the board, and casually ate it while his position fell apart. Anirban didn't slow down, implementing a strict squeezing strategy. He pushed Samay's active knight directly into the corner of the board on the f1 square, rendering it entirely useless. Sagar Shah highlighted this over the microphone, screaming out the classic chess axiom: "Kone mein ghoda, kaam kare thoda!" With his king completely trapped in a corner box and lacking any counter-play, Samay was ruthlessly checkmated, spoiling his perfect day.

Prakhar Gupta vs. Tracy Allison (1-0):

Tracy completely collapsed structurally in the opening, doubling her own f-pawns. Prakhar exploited her weak pawn islands with robotic precision, sweeping the board to finish Day 1 with a perfect 4/4 score

Vivek Desai vs. Joel D'souza (0-1):

In an incredibly close tactical battle, Vivek missed a brilliant backdoor winning sequence under heavy time pressure. Joel turned the table with a clever king-safety manoeuvre, preserving his comeback momentum to finish the day strong with an undefeated score of 4/4.

Balraj Singh Ghai vs. Vaibhav Sethia (0-1):

Balraj completely outplayed Vaibhav to reach a totally winning endgame, but completely forgot that Black had a light-squared bishop defending the back rank. Balraj blundered his entire Queen, handing Vaibhav his first win of the day.