Saturday HiveChess - 5th Place!

Greetings to all chess fans! I played in the round 6 of Hivechess Season 2. It's a weekly chess Arena blitz tournament which run for over an hour. It starts at eleven pm our time and ends at midnight. The time control for this round was three minute blitz with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (one and a half minute) but will give you an extra point if you win.

I missed a couple of rounds in this tournament but now I'm back and happy to place in the top ten. I faced some tough opponents playing against tournament winner IM Odnoobraz twice and stayoutoftherz twice. I had twenty two points for fifth place.

There were a lot of memorable games. I won some fun games and had some painful defeats. My favorite game had a clear cut plan even in a 3 minute blitz, it was like the game was playing itself, I just had to move the pieces to their logical squares.

I've been trying e4 these days and not my usual d4 to start the game. My opponent chose the Philidor Defense. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Be6 4. Bb3 Qd7 5. c3 Nc6 6. d3 O-O-O

My opponent chose to castle on the Queen side. I immediately thought to start an attack with a4, b4, etc. 7. Nbd2 h6 8. Ba4

A nice way to break open Black's castled position. If his Queen leaves the defense of the Knight then I would take. There's also a pin that I can take advantage of. 8. ...g6 9. d4

Threatening to win a piece with d5. 9. ...exd4 10. cxd4 d5 11. Ne5

Now Black is forced to recapture the b7 pawn. 11. ...Qe8 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. Qe2

A quiet move but threatens Qa6+ with a deadly attack. 13. ...Kb7 14. e5 Bb4 15. O-O Ne7 16. Nb3

The Knight will join the attack on the Black King via a5 or c5 square. 16. ...Nf5 17. a3 Be7 18. Na5+ Kb6 19. Nxc6 Qxc6

Nxd4 will be met by Be3. Black was forced to give up his Queen, it's already a won game for White. 20. Bxc6 Kxc6 21. Be3 Kd7 22. Qb5+ c6 23. Qb7+ Ke8 24. Qxc6+ Kf8 25. Qa4 Kg7 26. Rac1 Rb8 27. b4 Rb7 28. Rc3 Rhb8 29. Rfc1 Bd7 30. Qc2 Bb5 31. h3 Bc4 32. g4 Nh4 33. Rxc4 dxc4 34. Qxc4 Rb5 35. d5 { White wins on time. } 1-0

Thanks to @sam.chess @samostically for hosting and congratulations to the winners!

Tournament link: https://lichess.org/tournament/acytbEJG

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