Hello Everyone,
I could not give another back-to-back win in the 4th round of the Hive chess tournament, 21st edition. It was a tough one to berserk for me because of the time control, 2 minutes plus 3 seconds, meaning on each move you make, you get an additional 3 seconds. But if you berserk, the right to 3 seconds is revoked, and you are left with half the time, which is 1 minute. That was the case for me in most of my games.
I had a rating performance of 1932, played 13 games, a win rate of 46% and a berserk rate of 69%. With this performance, I was able to finish in 4th position on the player standings.
Let's check out some interesting games I played:
ZGM_Samostically vs Madchess64
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5
I played against the Caro-Kann in this position. I am not surprised whenever I encounter this opening because I am used to it. I have played against it in the past, and I have even done a Hivechess Lecture on the opening. The idea is always simple: develop your piece as quickly as possible and then castle your king. But most importantly, the early contest is for the center.
8.Qe2
On move eight, I decided to switch it up by going to e2 with my queen. I was looking for something fast and attacking by placing my pieces in precise squares to boost my chance of some attack on the black pieces, or better still, on the king when he castles short.
20. Rhd1.
This became interesting for me when I doubled my two rooks on the d-file and noticed that we had both castled to the queenside. Now it is the fastest finger game of who gets to launch an attack first on the opposing king, which might get the edge in this game.
23.Qd3
The winning move came in for me after black went ahead to grab my pawn on f4. With the move, Qd3 was able to triple the pieces on the d-file, all hitting on the d7 bishop. Now the bishop has to go. Any move of the bishop away will drop a stronger piece or worse checkmate threat.
After dropping the bishop and exchanging rooks, the path to winning the game was clear for me since I had the winning edge with the extra piece.
Here is the game link to view the game:
Game Link
And here is the Game PGN:
[Event "Hivechess S21 Round 4 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/rdpw6kv7"]
[Date "2025.10.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Black "MadChess64"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2174"]
[BlackElo "2015"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+3"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-3"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "120+3"]
[ECO "B15"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann Defense: Main Line"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 dxe4 4. Nxe4 e6 5. Nf3 Be7 6. Ne5 Nf6
7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. Qe2 Nxe5 9. dxe5 Qa5+ 10. Bd2 Qxe5 11. O-O-O Qc7
12. Bc3 Bd7 13. f4 O-O-O 14. Be5 Qa5 15. Kb1 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 Bf6
17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. Rd6 f5 19. Bf3 Qb4 20. Rhd1 Qxf4 21. Qd3 Kb8
22. Rxd7 Rxd7 23. Qxd7 Qxh2 24. Qxf7 Qe5 25. a3 h6 26. Rd7 Qb5
27. Qxe6 h5 28. Qd6+ Ka8 29. Rd8+ Rxd8 30. Qxd8# 1-0
Stuffings vs ZGM_Samostically
1. Nf3 e5 2. Nxe5 Qf6
Quite an odd opening if you ask, but just like every move in chess, it has an opening name as well. It is the Zukertort Opening: Ross Gambit.
8. Ne5
The position looks odd because of the placement of my knight. Aside from that, every other piece is still on good enough squares. What I have in my advantage are the space for my white square bishop to jump out, a castled king, and a centered knight.
11. Ng4
After exchanging the center knight with white's f3 knight, I was able to improve the position of my knight previously at the edge of the board. This is very important to note. Do not place your knight at the edge of the board for long. Improve it immediately with the slightest chance you get.
26. c6
By move 26, the advantage was already in white's favor because of his advanced pawns and the poor placement of my retreated bishops.
36. Rc1??
Despite not having the advantage, I still created counter chances for myself, even with the pawn push e3, where black responded with a bad move that gave me the advantage immediately, Rc1. This changed my fate of losing the game to a fighting chance of winning.
- Be4??
Then I returned the favor by playing the blunderous Be4. This gives white the perpetual check once he plays Qxh5, and that was how the draw in the game came about. What a painful one to gain the advantage after coming from a disadvantage, only to give it all away to settle for a draw.
Here is the game link:
Game Link
And here is the Game PGN:
[Event "Hivechess S21 Round 4 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/Vs4mM83L"]
[Date "2025.10.17"]
[Round "-"]
[White "stuffings"]
[Black "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2348"]
[BlackElo "2175"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-2"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+2"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "120+3"]
[ECO "A04"]
[Opening "Zukertort Opening: Ross Gambit"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. Nf3 e5 2. Nxe5 Qf6 3. d4 Nc6 4. Nf3 Nh6 5. g3 d6 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O O-O
8. d5 Ne5 9. Nxe5 dxe5 10. c4 Bc5 11. Nc3 Ng4 12. Ne4 Qb6 13. h3 Nf6
14. Nxf6+ Qxf6 15. Bd2 Re8 16. Bc3 a6 17. e3 Qg6 18. b4 Ba7 19. c5 Bf5
20. Qf3 Rad8 21. Rfd1 Bb8 22. e4 Bc8 23. a4 h5 24. b5 axb5 25. axb5 f5
26. c6 fxe4 27. Qe3 bxc6 28. bxc6 Bf5 29. Ra8 Kh7 30. Rb1 Rxd5 31. Rxb8 Rxb8
32. Rxb8 Rd3 33. Qe1 Qxc6 34. Ba1 Qc2 35. Rb1 e3 36. Rc1 exf2+ 37. Qxf2 Qxc1+
38. Kh2 Bg6 39. Bxe5 Rd2 40. Qf3 Qc2 41. Bf4 Rf2 42. Qd5 Re2 43. h4 Be4
44. Qxh5+ Kg8 45. Qe8+ Kh7 46. Qh5+ Kg8 47. Qe8+ Kh7 48. Qh5+ 1/2-1/2
I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.
♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟
Posted Using INLEO
It's the way I was expecting to see Bishop mentioned in the second game too for me 😁
But that was a giant rating I must say. A lot of chess work and from my end as a novice, I think playing draw is still better than losing. So well-done Sam
Yes the second game was different. It was a draw against a very strong international master.
Thanks for stopping by!
That's one special feelings there o. Not been beaten by a very strong International master
You're welcome