Hivechess Lecture: Communication among your pieces

In this edition of the Hivechess lecture is a study where things work out for the chess pieces. They are not just left on the board like strangers at a party who are too shy to talk to one another. Rather, it is the coming together of these pieces to form a cohesive alliance that achieves a specific purpose.

The game I will be discussing in today's lecture is between Hou Yifan and Lu Miaoyi from the Chinese league, and it is an insightful one because the grandmaster and four-time World Women's Champion (Hou Yifan) lost to an International Master of chess (Lu Miaoyi).

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Qb6 9. a3 Bc5

Hou Yifan kicked off the game with a French opening, characterized by a calm and casual structure typical of the French opening. The center is being questioned with black putting pressure on the structure, with an attack on the knight on the center square d4.

Things remained okay until move 24, where the true essence of this lecture came to life with the positioning of Lu Miaoyi's pieces on the chessboard.

Through a close assessment of the position, you will see that Lu Miaoyi's pieces are strongly placed on good squares. The rooks are doubled up on an open file. Next up, the knight on c4 is on a good square that is causing some serious issues in white's position. It is always easy to get good positions when you place your pieces on good squares, which in turn provides the possibility for good tactics.

Beginners at chess usually wonder if they will be winning any material on their next move, while master players ask themselves, are my pieces working in harmony? This kind of question helps in understanding what you are lacking and how to figure out a solution or find the best move in a given position.

25. Ra1

The placement of two rooks on the open file, which formed the best communication among black's pieces, finally brought the winning advantage for black when she went for the attack on the queen. This is the strong benefit when your pieces are in communication; it becomes easy to launch attacks like what black did to the white queen. Going an exchange down was easy for black to do because the remaining players were going to find it easy to work together with the black queen. The game took a while before the final blow came in, but it was easy to play for blck when there was coordination among the pieces.

Here is the game link:
Game Link

And here is the PGN game:

[Event "2025年中国国际象棋甲级联赛总决赛"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-chinese-chess-league-division-a--finals-/round-2-game-4/FyMzrPuY/NvosZLzv"]
[Date "2026.01.13"]
[Round "6.4"]
[White "Hou, Yifan"]
[Black "Lu, Miaoyi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2613"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[WhiteTeam "深圳鹏城队"]
[WhiteFideId "8602980"]
[BlackElo "2431"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[BlackTeam "杭州银行队"]
[BlackFideId "8618020"]
[TimeControl "90m+30s"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "C11"]
[Opening "French Defense: Steinitz Variation, Boleslavsky Variation"]
[UTCDate "2026.01.13"]
[UTCTime "05:51:04"]
[BroadcastName "2025 Chinese Chess League Division A 中国国际象棋甲级联赛 Finals 总决赛争冠组"]
[BroadcastURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-chinese-chess-league-division-a--finals-/round-2-game-4/FyMzrPuY"]
[GameURL "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-chinese-chess-league-division-a--finals-/round-2-game-4/FyMzrPuY/NvosZLzv"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5
6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Qb6 9. a3 Bc5
10. Ncb5 a6 11. b4 axb5 12. bxc5 Qxc5 13. Qd3 Qe7
14. Nxb5 O-O 15. Be2 f6 16. exf6 Nxf6 17. O-O Bd7
18. a4 Rfc8 19. c3 Na5 20. Qc2 Nc4 21. Bd4 Ra5
22. Bd3 Rca8 23. Rae1 Rxa4 24. Nc7 Ra2 25. Qc1
25... Ra1 26. Qxa1 Rxa1 27. Rxa1 Qd6 28. Bxc4 dxc4
29. Na8 Nd5 30. Ra2 Bc6 31. Nb6 Nxc3 32. Bxc3 Qc5+
33. Rff2 Qxb6 34. h3 Qe3 35. Be5 b5 36. Ra6 Bd5
37. Rd6 c3 38. Rd8+ Kf7 39. Rd7+ Ke8 40. Rc7 Bc4
41. Bxc3 Qxc3 42. Kh2 Qd4 43. Rf3 b4 44. Rg3 Kf8
45. Rc8+ Ke7 46. Rc7+ Kd6 47. Rgxg7 Qxf4+
48. Kh1 b3 49. Rgf7 Qc1+ 50. Kh2 b2
51. Rfd7+ Ke5 52. Rc5+ Kf6 0-1

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_{I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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Thanks For Reading!