Published via Ecency

Intro

Life got pretty serious so sadly I have been out of hive for weeks now. Chess decided to bring me back from my long absence.

alt

A friend sent me the link to @stayoutoftherz post where he organized a tournament to get the blockchain team back in shape. I actually needed it cos I was getting pretty rusty myself.

We played the Chess960:fischer variation, a mode I disliked because I always lose, LOL. Surprisingly, I actually played pretty well today.

I found myself climbing the leaderboard till I settled at the second place. 🥈

alt

Here's how the final leaderboard looked:

🥇 ZGM_Samostically– 21 points
🥈 just_ola- 19 points
🥉 keylix– 17 points

📊

Today's Game Highlights and Analysis

JUST_OLA VS ZGM_SAMOSTICALLY

I enjoyed this game with my opponent.

I played white here. My primary focus was trying to just develop my pieces. There really wasn't a grand plan to win especially since it is a Chess960 game where the pieces are randomly placed.

Black's Blunder:

I got advantage of the center and also the advantage of Black's blunder when he moved his bishop to a1. It gave me opportunity to put pressure on Blacks pieces.

We both promoted our pawns but I had the most advantage so I was able to deliver a checkmate at move 59.

Game Gif:

Game Link:https://lichess.org/89G5tJyb

This is the PGN file of the game:

[Event "Hivechess fun tournament Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/89G5tJyb"] [Date "2026.01.23"] [Round "-"] [White "Just_ola"] [Black "ZGM_Samostically"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "89G5tJyb"] [UTCDate "2026.01.23"] [UTCTime "20:18:55"] [WhiteElo "1530"] [BlackElo "1807"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+21"] [BlackRatingDiff "-37"] [Variant "Chess960"] [TimeControl "180+2"] [ECO "?"] [Opening "?"] [Termination "Normal"] [FEN "bqnrnkrb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BQNRNKRB w KQkq - 0 1"] [SetUp "1"]

Ncd3 Nf6 2. b3 d6 3. Nf3 e5 4. Nde1 Ne7 5. d4 e4 6. Nd2 Ng6 7. g3 b6 8. c4 Bb7 9. d5 Re8 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Bxe4 O-O 12. Nf3 Qc8 13. Bf5 Qd8 14. h4 Bc8 15. g4 Nxh4 16. Bxc8 Nxf3 17. exf3 Qxc8 18. Qf5 Qd8 19. Rh1 g6 20. Qf4 Bxa1 21. Qh6 Re1+ 22. Rxe1 Re8 23. Qxh7+ Kf8 24. Rxe8+ Kxe8 25. Qg8+ Ke7 26. Qxd8+ Kxd8 27. Kg2 Bd4 28. Rd1 Be5 29. Rd3 Ke7 30. Re3 g5 31. a3 Kf6 32. Re1 Bc3 33. Rh1 Bb2 34. a4 Bd4 35. Rh8 Ke5 36. Rb8 Bc5 37. Rb7 Kd4 38. Rxc7 Kc3 39. Rxf7 Kxb3 40. Rf5 Kxa4 41. Rxg5 Kb3 42. Rf5 a5 43. g5 a4 44. Rf4 a3 45. Rh4 a2 46. Rh1 Kb2 47. f4 Bd4 48. f5 Be5 49. f6 Bf4 50. g6 Bc1 51. g7 a1=Q 52. g8=Q Kb3 53. Qg3+ Kxc4 54. Rh4+ Kxd5 55. Rh5+ Ke6 56. Qg4+ Kxf6 57. Qf5+ Ke7 58. Rh7+ Ke8 59. Qc8# 1-0

JUST_OLA VS KEYLIX

My game with Keylix was another interesting one.

We both played well. I won't lie, I fidgeted a bit because my opponent seemed to have a good counter for every move I made.

Lucky for me, I saw an open that I leveraged which secured my win. 👇🏼

Black moved his Queen to f8 as a response to capturing his Rook. That was a big mistake. I then moved my bishop from e4 to d5. That golden move meant black was going to lose his Queen. Black resigned and I won this round.

Game Gif:

Game Link: https://lichess.org/iv6ks5SE

This is the PGN file:

[Event "Hivechess fun tournament Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/iv6ks5SE"] [Date "2026.01.23"] [Round "-"] [White "Just_ola"] [Black "Keylix"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "iv6ks5SE"] [UTCDate "2026.01.23"] [UTCTime "20:59:59"] [WhiteElo "1572"] [BlackElo "2012"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+20"] [BlackRatingDiff "-75"] [Variant "Chess960"] [TimeControl "180+2"] [ECO "?"] [Opening "?"] [Termination "Normal"] [FEN "nbbrqnkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBBRQNKR w KQkq - 0 1"] [SetUp "1"]

e4 e6 2. Nb3 d5 3. Ng3 c6 4. d3 Ng6 5. Bg5 f6 6. Bd2 Nc7 7. h4 b6 8. h5 Ne5 9. Qe2 Nb5 10. d4 Nc4 11. Be1 Nbd6 12. Bc3 Qf7 13. e5 fxe5 14. dxe5 Nf5 15. Nd2 Nxd2 16. Rxd2 Rf8 17. Bb4 c5 18. Ba3 Nxg3 19. fxg3 Bd7 20. c4 d4 21. Be4 Bxe5 22. b4 Bxg3 23. bxc5 e5 24. cxb6 axb6 25. Bxf8 Qxf8 26. Bd5+ 1-0

STAYOUTOFTHERZ VS ZGM_SAMOSTICALLY

This was a pretty good watch from two strong players.

White pushed for an early kingside attack, but it left his position vulnerable and hard to defend. Black took advantage with Nxc3+ and Qxa1, and keeping White's king under nonstop pressure. After that, it was mostly a long chase that ended in a clean checkmate for Black.

Thank you all for the games, it was really fun I won't lie. And thank you @stayoutoftherz for hosting this tournament.

See you all at Saturday HiveChess Tournament tomorrow 🔥

alt