Hivechess Season 1 Round 13 Report - 7th Place!

Greetings to all chess fans! I played in the 14th round of the Hivechess Season 1 last night. It was a weekly chess tournament which ran for over an hour. The time control for this round was four minute blitz with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (2 minutes) but will give you an extra point if you win.

I placed seventh in this tournament, good enough to receive a prize of five Hive. But I was not thrilled with my performance. I made a lot of mistakes that lost me games.

For example, in my first game against @stayoutoftherz I blundered a piece by capturing the d4 pawn with my Knight leaving my Bishop on b4 unprotected.

I had a funny game against @humbertoortega. I was already winning when I thought I saw crushing tactic.

I moved Re6 threatening Qxf6 while Bxe6 leads to mate in three. I was congratulating myself for finding the move when I was brought back to my senses with Ng8 and suddenly I'm losing.

I should already resign but I decided to play on because of my advantage on the clock. I moved Nf5 and after gxf5 Qg5+ hoping I can find a way to beg for a draw. Somehow my opponent made mistakes and I won the game.

Game link: https://lichess.org/7wyDHRXu

Most of my wins came from lower rated players and my losses came from higher rated ones. No upsets happened in this tournament. My favorite game was against @justfavour. This is because we are in the same Elo range and our games could go either way. In our game I had the advantage of having the White pieces and playing an opening I'm very familiar with.

In blitz games where time plays a big factor, having a clear plan is an advantage by itself. It pressures your opponent while you find moves easily. In this position my plan was to double my rooks, pawn break on f5 and using the e-file and the b1-h7 diagonal to invade Black's position.

This led to a winning passed e-pawn and cleaning up Black's king side pawns.

Game link: https://lichess.org/ppOT8Y5X

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

Link to tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/dBnzknfb

Playing chess is fun but let's not forget about physical activities. I recently committed to exercise and to keep me motivated, I joined actifit.io

https://actifit.io/signup?referrer=chessguy-actifit