Round 9 of Hivechess Tournament S12: @sawko is unstoppable!

Dear chess fans,

yesterday the penultimate round of S12 was played, a 7+1 arena with 22 players.

Our season leader @sawko scored yet another victory, his fourth in S12 and second in a row. And what a victory it was - 10 points lead to the runner-up, @vjap55! Third and fourth were the usual suspects for top ranks, @eniolw and @franu (Tz995). Congratulations to All!

In this game from myself (White) against @stranger27 Black wanted to get rid of the annoying Knight with f6??. This further weakens the already loose king and allows the immediate strike with Nxg6.
Such weakening pawn moves are NEVER to be recommended, because sacrifices on g6 are very thematic in such positions!

https://lichess.org/tnXC6xrC/white#42

Here (in a game from @sawko (Black) against @giacomone (KingJames4)) it is less obvious how to proceed for Black, but the semi open g-file looks very scary:

https://lichess.org/cPlT7joS/black#33
The energetic Rxg2! is the way to go and @sawko found it. The rook can´t be taken due to Nh4+ plus Nf3x and a hopeless position, but after Kf1 (the best move according to Stockfish) Rdg8 and a strong attack followed leading to decisive material win and checkmate a few moves later.

This position is from a game between @vjap55 (White) against @rosmarly. Why was the last move from Black, Rc8, a bad decision?

https://lichess.org/QmSee7Uo/black#42
Anyway, White didn´t see this opportunity and even lost the game later.

Blunder of the day:

In this marathon game from myself with Black against @eniolw I managed to create a kind of fortress, defending everything and controlling the 2 passers from White. But in this position I went nuts and played Ne6?? what blundered the Queen.

https://lichess.org/lIpP8PF6/black#115

Which move would have instead led to a quick draw?

Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/fsWm7WxC

Season 12: 03 Jun to 05 Aug 2022 / Standings before the final round:

Rank	Hive name	Lichess name	Rating	Rounds played	Points	Performance
1	@sawko	CM sawkito	2337	9	213	2284,6
2	@eniolw	eniolw	2363	8	188	2336
3	@franu	Tz995	2195	9	172	2160,9
4	@rosmarly	rosmarly	2040	8	152	2033,3
5	@stayoutoftherz	stayoutoftherz	2031	9	149	2034,1
6(+2)	@vjap55	vjap55	2197	8	146	2122,4
7(-1)	@jaki01	jaki01	2307	6	130	2200,6
8(-1)	@pamboy27	pamboy27	2065	7	129	2115,8
9	@pereu4ivatel	pereu4uwatch	2065	9	124	2017,1
10	@samostically	ZGM_Samostically	2144	6	100	2076,6
11(+4)	@petreius	petreius	1975	6	85	1891,2
12(-1)	@stranger27	stranger27	1756	9	83	1775,3
13(-1)	@lighteye	lighteye	1730	9	80	1740,6
14(-1)	@rodrook	rodrook	1359	9	79	1636,3
15(-1)	@fcastro177	FCastro17	2125	4	72	2135,3
16(+1)	@emic	emichessmaster	2065	4	65	1938,3
17(-1)	@deadleaf	realdeadleaf	2141	4	62	1983,3
18	@maciejficek	XM9000	1518	8	51	1598,6
19	@b0s	Da_k1ng	1492	7	50	1607,8
20(+1)	@falcout	falcout	1531	5	37	1590,6
21(+1)	@fiona777	fiona777	1475	8	37	1527,1
22(+1)	@vasigo	vasigo	1284	9	34	1408,9
23(+1)	@giacomone	KingJames4	1589	4	30	1571,3
24(+1)	@mypathtofire	mypathtofire	1409	5	17	1450,8

^{All players with less than 4 participations so far have no chances anymore to make it into the final ranking (50% rule) and thus are not shown.}

The rules you can look up in the S12 announcement post.

No changes in the top ranks. Due to their good results @vjap55 and @petreius could jump a little upward in the ranking. Before the final round it seems too obvious who will be the champion.

See you all next week for the final S12 showdown! To all the players with 4 participations: Please note that having played at 5 tournaments is required to get the lavish prices! So don´t miss out!