The recent Hivechess Tournament was exciting and filled with a lot of interesting games. Some games were filled with blunders, and others were filled with good tactical play. In an attempt to improve my skill in using my mouse to play online chess, I logged in to my Lichess account on my laptop for the tournament, and I could see the event had more participants, a total of 30 participants with everyone playing at least one game. It no longer felt like another online tournament, but this time, it was a battleground, with everyone thirsty for victory.
A huge applause to @stayoutoftherz and @maverieux000 on finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Those long hours of playing lichess is coming in handy, and as usual, @maestroask came with their A game (1st).
Some Interesting Game Highlights from the Tournament
@maestroask (white) vs @stayoutoftherz (black)
Honestly, this game was quite interesting because it happens to be the only game @maestroask drew during the tournament, and it was against @stayoutoftherz. The rest were all wins for the player, and it is obvious the player is a strong chess player. How black got the draw was quite impressive because at some point, black was pushing for a win with the pawn storm on the right flank, and as expected, when there wasn't anything much to do, black quickly positioned well to eliminate any pawn promotion, and white defended well, kudos to both players on knowing that if any bold risk or push for a win will result in an outright loss.
When it came to aggressive attacks on the king, A 1700 player wasn't 1700 anymore
@franu (white) vs @odic3o1 (black)
In this game, @odic3o1 decided to change the dynamics of white being on the attacking side while black goes on the defense, so they decided to go all in against the white king starting with pawn storms, even making a pawn sacrifice just to make the opponent king vulnerable to attacks. After Qb4, it became visible to @franu that the attack would lead to the loss of a piece and even more if the game continued.
Lastly, what is a tournament post without the writer's game?
@rosmarly has officially become a tough nut to crack, at least against me. In this game, I tried all the tricks in my book for positions like this, but she calmly countered all and even held on firmly to the pawn she had grabbed earlier on in the game. Then, she wrapped it up with a bishop's check; at this point, the mate was inevitable.
Although I later had the chance to finish in 2nd place if my last opponent resigned in a mating position, they decided to let the time run down, making it impossible to grab the game point. I even offered a draw that was later on accepted, but it was too late. I ended up with a bittersweet 4th place. Well, what can I say? That is the game.