Welcome! Chess fans, to the Games showcase post, where we will look at some interesting games from the eleventh round of the Saturday Weekly Tournament. My sincerest apologies for last week. I wasn’t available to write a showcase post for the last round.
The highlighted games feature either brilliant tactics, resilience, or good upsets. Game winners will share in the reward for their games being featured in this post. Rewards would be paid in Liquid.
Please don't forget, if you feel confident about any of your games during the Saturday weekly event, drop a link in the comment section in the report post next Sunday.
Game 1
@poseout87 vs @tangibleay
1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 g6
The position springs from the Sicilian Defense, Alapin variation, where black strikes the center and white tries to keep control of the center. The opening is not that bad and quite popular, but personally, I am really a big fan of it, because there are too many theories to remember, and what happens when I mix up the move order.
11. exd6 Qxd6
Here things get tricky for both sides. White has a space advantage in how he wants to move his pieces or mobilize them to battle, while on the other hand, black has piece activity with his two knights on the other side of the board, and his queen can become active after Qxd6.
19. Ba4!
With this move, black seizes the initiative in the game and begins to give white trouble. Ba4 attacks both the white queen on b3 and the white rook on d1. Making white question which piece he would choose to save. Obviously, it has to be the queen because it is more powerful compared to the rook.
34. Nxf4??
The game got interesting when black blundered by capturing the bishop on f4, giving white a huge advantage as Nxe8 will be attacking his queen, making it hard for him to ignore since it is his most powerful piece that is under attack. The game is quite an interesting one, as when both sides got into time trouble, blunders were floating left, right, and center. Who can blame? At that point, it is the faster finger that wins the game.
@tangibleay went on to win the event once again, and a huge congratulations to him.
You can use the link below to watch the game on Lichess:
Game Link
And here is the game PGN
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R11 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/NniuZ2sG"]
[Date "2025.09.13"]
[White "ManFromSpain"]
[Black "Tangible_ay"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "NniuZ2sG"]
[UTCDate "2025.09.13"]
[UTCTime "16:01:13"]
[WhiteElo "2349"]
[BlackElo "2248"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-8"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+7"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "240+0"]
[ECO "B22"]
[Opening "Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]
1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 g6 5. Bc4 Nb6 6. Bb3 Bg7 7. d4 cxd4 8. cxd4 O-O 9. Nc3 d6 10. O-O Nc6 11. exd6 Qxd6 12. Ne4 Qc7 13. h3 Bf5 14. Ng3 Bd7 15. Re1 Rfe8 16. d5 Na5 17. Be3 Nxb3 18. Qxb3 Qd6 19. Rad1 Ba4 20. Qd3 Bxd1 21. Rxd1 h6 22. Ne4 Qb4 23. b3 Rad8 24. Bc5 Qa5 25. Qc2 Nxd5 26. Nd4 Nf4 27. b4 Qa6 28. Kh2 b6 29. b5 Qb7 30. Nc6 Rxd1 31. Qxd1 e6 32. Be3 Nd5 33. Nd6 Qc7 34. Bf4 Nxf4 35. Nxe8 Qc8 36. Nxg7 Kxg7 37. Qd4+ Kg8 38. Qxf4 Qd7 39. Qb8+ Kh7 40. Qe5 Qc8 41. Qf4 Qf8 42. Ne5 f6 43. Ng4 Kg7 44. Qe3 e5 45. Qxh6+ Kf7 46. Qxf8+ Kxf8 47. Nxf6 Kf7 48. Ne4 Ke6 49. Ng3 e4 50. Ne2 e3 51. fxe3 Ke5 52. g4 Ke4 53. h4 Kxe3 54. h5 gxh5 55. gxh5 Kxe2 56. h6 Kd3 57. h7 Kc4 58. h8=Q Kxb5 59. Qb2+ Ka4 60. Qb3+ Ka5 61. Qa3+ Kb5 62. Qd3+ Ka5 63. Qe3 b5 64. Qe7 a6 65. Qa7 Kb4 66. Qc7 a5 67. Qb6 Ka4 68. Qc6 Kb4 69. Qd5 a4 70. Qe4+ Ka3 71. Qe3+ Kxa2 72. Qd2+ Ka3 73. Qb4+ Kxb4 74. Kg3 a3 75. Kf4 a2 76. Ke5 a1=Q+ 77. Kd6 Qc3 0-1
Game 2
@jaki vs @stuffings
1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3
The bird opening is what is being employed here. Jaki's weapon as white lately, and Stuffings on the other end with the black pieces decides to keep it simple by striking in the center with his d5 pawn. Going for a center pawn control is quite ideal.
9.e5
White decides to go for more space advantage by going e5 as black, to retreat his knight back, reducing the actions for black. The retreated knight will then have limited squares it controls and can run to.
- g4
White does not stop with the attack on the knight; instead, he moves further to do the same to black's bishop as well, forcing it to retreat, making it an expansion of pawns on his kingside and an incoming attack on the kingside as well against the black pieces. The game made up a mixture of white attacking on the king's side and black attacking on the queenside.
20. Rxd2
Things were looking good in black's favour until the blunderous move rook captures the bishop on d2, allowing a checkmate in 3 moves for black, which black did not fail to miss. When in a position like this, the king being left at the center of the board is a flight risk for the game, and that is what costs stuffings the game.
You can use the link below to watch the game on Lichess:
Game Link
And here is the game PGN
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R11 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/ts3G2Onm"]
[Date "2025.09.13"]
[White "jaki01"]
[Black "stuffings"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "ts3G2Onm"]
[UTCDate "2025.09.13"]
[UTCTime "15:39:26"]
[WhiteElo "2298"]
[BlackElo "2333"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-6"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "240+0"]
[ECO "A03"]
[Opening "Bird Opening: Dutch Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O Bg4 6. d3 Rc8 7. Nc3 e6 8. e4 Be7 9. e5 Nd7 10. h3 Bh5 11. g4 Bg6 12. Qe2 a6 13. Bd2 h5 14. Rae1 hxg4 15. hxg4 Nd4 16. Nxd4 cxd4 17. Nd1 Rxc2 18. f5 exf5 19. Bxd5 Bb4 20. e6 Rxd2 21. exf7+ Kf8 22. Qe8+ Qxe8 23. Rxe8# 1-0
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The reminder post with the tournament link and time will be up soon. Looking forward to the next round. Special thanks to @edicted for the idea of rewarding brilliant games weekly.
See You on Saturday!
Posted Using INLEO
@sam.chess, I'm refunding 0.506 HIVE and 0.099 HBD, because there are no comments to reward.