Expectations vs. Reality: My Latest Hivechess Arena Run

"Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent
has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about!”
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Hello Everyone, welcome to another post of mine where I briefly share my Hive chess experience. I've been somewhat busy of late but I always wanted to always share my experience no matter how every tournament turns out. In my previous post, I shared the things I looked forward to - Let's see how it turned out.

Gearing Up for Battle: My Hivechess Arena Expectations

One of the things I anticipated was playing or doing better against the highest rated chess player. It didn't take to long for lichess to pair us.

Game 2 - @maestroask Vs @samostically

I think he read my post, because for the first time, he played something different.

Queens pawn game!!! I was happy after I saw this, I felt I would perform better and I did in all honesty.

The game continued and it reached a critical point. I was down a pawn but with opposite side casting, there was room for counterplay. In the position below, my opponent blundered the initiative back to me with the move d5??

Without thinking I played the sharp Bh3 and forced my opponent to play without a queen

Bh3	dxc6

At this point I knew I couldn't lose because I had a queen in a comfortable position, but with little on the clock and a road distraction as I was outside and on my way home. I needed to be fast. We played and got to the endgame where I was totally better and should have won. I created a neat trick which my opponent fell for and after g4?? I was winning but I couldn't find a good continuation.

I played and exchanged a rook. Postion was a drawn but didn't want one so I kept on with my checks till i blundered my queen

Boom 1-0

This was the type of game I anticipated, just not the result. It's a very instructive game and if you want to go over it on a board move by move. Here is a pgn.

[Event "Hivechess S20 Round 7 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/hCRnPyVz"]
[Date "2025.03.14"]
[White "Odnoobraz_bcm"]
[Black "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2500"]
[BlackElo "2143"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+4"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-2"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "240+2"]
[ECO "A45"]
[Opening "Trompowsky Attack: Classical Defense"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]

1. d4 Nf6  
2. Bg5 e6  
3. e3 d5  
4. Nd2 c5  
5. c3 Nc6  
6. f4?! cxd4  
7. exd4 Qb6  
8. Rb1 Be7  
9. Bd3 h6  
10. Bh4 Bd7  
11. Ngf3 Ne4??  
12. Nxe4 dxe4  
13. Bxe4 Bxh4+  
14. Nxh4 O-O-O  
15. Nf3 Qc7  
16. g3?! f6  
17. O-O e5?  
18. d5?? Bh3  
19. dxc6?? Rxd1  
20. Rfxd1 bxc6  
21. fxe5 fxe5  
22. Rd2 Rd8  
23. Re2 Bg4  
24. Kg2 Rf8  
25. h3 Bxf3+?!  
26. Bxf3 Kb8  
27. Rbe1 Re8  
28. Re4 a5  
29. Rc4 Re6  
30. b4 axb4??  
31. cxb4? Qa7  
32. Re2 Qa6  
33. Rce4 Qa3  
34. Bg4 Re7  
35. Bf5 Qc1  
36. a4 Qd1  
37. b5?! Rf7  
38. g4?? g6  
39. Re1 Qd2+??  
40. R4e2 Qf4  
41. Bxg6 Qf3+  
42. Kh2 Qf4+  
43. Kg2 Qf3+  
44. Kh2 Rf4  
45. Be4 Qb3  
46. bxc6 Qxa4  
47. Bg2 Kc7?!  
48. Rxe5 Rf2??  
49. Re7+ Kd6?!  
50. R1e6+ Kc5  
51. c7 Qf4+  
52. Kg1 Rxg2+  
53. Kxg2 Qd2+  
54. Kg3 Qd3+  
55. Kh4 Qf3  
56. c8=Q+ Kd5  
57. Re5+ Kd4  
58. Qc5+ Kd3  
59. Rd7# 1-0

Podium finish

The tournament didn't go well for me, had lot of difficulties - internet and lack of concentration, plus I had a class few minutes to the completion of the tournament. Overall I wasn't able to finish the arena but even at that, I didn't play well.

Congratulations to the winners. My homeboy @kintokris almost won the arena, just got held back by tiebreak.

Congratulations to everyone that played and see you next week. Before next Friday, I'd do some themed analysis on some games.

Other Themed analysis from Hivechess tournaments includes; Learning about Invisible moves and also The Art of bluffing in chess

_{Hivechess is played every friday on lichess.org hosted by @stayoutoftherz! For more information, join the community and follow the host for reminders and tag}

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Thanks For Reading!

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