They say that perseverance pays off. The truth is that chess is a proof of this. Many times we want to throw in the towel because things do not seem to be going in the right direction.But to win you have to know how to lose as an old song says.
But it is not just about being "stubborn" but rather about identifying those failures and improving in order to get better results in the future. It is hard to get up after a defeat, but it is more painful to stay lying on the floor without doing anything.
Chess has been for me that great help to want to improve, it has been that way since I was a child. Of course I have had some bitter moments on the board but in the end there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
We must always think of ways to improve ourselves, especially psychologically. Losing a game is a hard blow but if you are not willing to turn the page things will be much worse.
Well, I'm telling you all this because something like this happened this Friday at the Hive Chess Tournament organized by 
As usual we played a great tournament with many strong players. Everyone is giving their best as the season is coming to an end. Round 7 was played and we have only 3 rounds left to define the leaderboard.
Things went pretty well this time although I have to say that I had a pretty bad start losing the first 3 games. I was pretty beaten up about it but I didn't let those toxic thoughts affect me so much and decided to go ahead with a good attitude.
I started to gain a little more confidence when I won the first point (game number 4). And things got better and better, in fact I won 8 games in a row and with that I managed to get the 4th place. I even managed to take revenge on 
I won against 
As for the results of this round there were not many surprises: 
You can see the full results here
As you can see in the game my opponent decided to use the petrov defense which is one of the most solid and difficult to defeat, so I was forced to play a rather unbalanced and complicated variation with sacrifices in the enemy's castle.
I got a very good position but the time pressure as always spoiled my whole strategy, but this is blitz that's what it's all about, isn't it? I managed to get to an endgame of queen and knight against queen and bishop in which I felt quite comfortable.
However, as you can see I didn't give the last blow, a simple mate in 2. White plays and wins! Your answer in the comments!
How sweet is revenge! just kidding xd
In this game I was able to give one of the blows back to luciano and this time he wouldn't be saved. I really like this game veyond the mistakes made. This confrontation demonstrates the fight of bishops of different color. Many times players think that this is "equality" but the truth is that in the middle game the side that attacks in the opposite color of the enemy will have the advantage. The final position is very nice, white simply cannot avoid mate on "g2".
Black decides to play a side ine in the Spanish opening, in fact this development of the knight on e7 got me a lot of issues when I was a kid in tournaments but I decided to prepare myself better to fight against this variation.
Several years ago I had prepared some traps against this specific move order but I had forgotten them lol So in this game I wasn't sure if I was doing it right, the only thing I remembered was that you can sacrifice the pawn on d4 in exchange for initiative in the center, also there is a queen sacrifice on d4 but I don't remember very well how it works.
The truth is that here Black has been left with a difficult position and it is very difficult to make a move. It seems that the best option is to take the bishop on f6 which would lead to Black's king losing its castling and White would be quite well off.
Another Petrov! but what happens? Is this defense becoming more fashionable? Well, the truth is that I think it makes sense, it is a real annoyance for White to get some advantage in this type of structures that are so symmetrical and solid.
In short, in this ending I am two pawns down but if given the choice again I would choose the white pieces !.
It is a complicated endgame because it translates into a fight of material against time. It seems to me that white is somewhat better because it is easier to mobilize the pieces, in fact the white king is much safer than his opponent who is quite exposed to the attacks of the queen and white rook.
Sawko was certainly in a hurry for time due to bersek so my strategy was to prolong the game as much as possible. In that struggle he committed the last blunder and I was able to checkmate.
I am so excited to see how the leaderboard evolves after this round. Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoy my gameplay. I wish you good moves and see you in the next opportunity!.
▶️ 3Speak
