Greetings to all chess fans and the Midnight Letters community! I played in the 21st round of the Hivechess Season 1 last night. The Hivechess tournament is a weekly chess Arena blitz tournament which ran for over an hour. It starts at eleven pm our time and ends at midnight. The time control for this round was five minute blitz with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (two and a half minute) but will give you an extra point if you win.
I placed sixth place this time in a tournament won by Odnoobraz again. I played the first and second placer and lost to both of them. I also played with the seventh placer, stranger27 twice and lost both my games to him. He's lower rated than me but his rating belies his actual playing strength.
The games were fun and had easy tactical positions that can be solved beginners although it may be tough to find over the board.
White to move and mate in 2
In a typical puzzle position, I felt that there was a mate with Queen and Knight combo but I wasn't able to find the mate in two over the board. I mated my opponent in seven moves. It's not the most efficient solution but I found the mate.
Black to move and win a piece
Another puzzle position came my way. This is much easier to solve with Black winning a piece.
White to move and win a piece
In this game, the position is more complicated. My bishop is trained on my opponent's knight while his queen is protecting it. I need to deflect his queen away from protecting the knight.
I started with Nc4, uncovering the attack on black's c7 knight while attacking his queen at the same time. He replied with Qa4, immediately losing his knight. Qc7 still protects the knight but after 23. b4 Qc6 24. Ne5 Qb6 25. a4 Na6 26. Qd6 Nxg6 winning a piece while uncovering an attack on black's queen. Black won't have time to recapture the knight on g6 since his queen is attacked.
My ranking in this round is a big improvement from last week when I played very poorly. Also, the longer time control allowed me to play berserk against much lower rated opponents thus giving me more points.
Thanks to @sam.chess @samostically for hosting and congratulations to the winners!
Link to tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/M0WVH5aK
Playing chess is great for the mind but let's not forget about physical activities. I recently committed to exercise and to keep me motivated, I joined actifit.io
