If you thought the first round of Betman’s Spassky vs. Fischer 1972 Hive Memorial Tournament was exciting, just wait until you see the second!

The first exciting thing in the tournament was the appearance of one of the strongest Fischer chess players at LiChess. It’s dfsocial, who with a Chess960 rating of 2329 ELO (Bullet 2589, Blitz 2600) is ranked 45th on LiChess's Fischer Random leaderboard. He easily ran over the first six opponents, secured first place, and rode off into the sunset before the final game… As mysterious as Rey Enigma, he did not register to Hive community, so his points will not be counted in the prize distribution.

The remaining two places on the podium were taken by our @stayoutoftherz and the winner of the first round @gravitcaper (pereu4uwatch). congratulations to the winners!

We expected our @samostically to appear in this round, who announced an improved Internet connection. Unfortunately, the connection seems to have betrayed him at a crucial moment, as he failed to play a single game. What a pitty! Our @fiona777 pulled out of the tournament just minutes before the start, which was a real disappointment. Thus, the tournament got two favorites, competitors who strongly resemble Spassky and Fischer – @gravitcaper and @stayoutoftherz!

The two of them played two outstanding games in the first two rounds that are worth watching. LiChess awarded white pieces to @gravitcaper in both games. In the first round, @stayoutoftherz got off to a great start, won a pawn, and then made a fatal mistake on move 42. It took less than two seconds for @gravitcaper to punish this mistake and calmly lead the game to victory:

In this round, @stayoutoftherz got his revenge. This time @gravitcaper made a mistake in the 26th move, and then @stayoutoftherz showed his chess prowess: in a maybe not quite perfect, but very meaningful and instructive game, he showed how to build pressure on the opponent, and how to take the initiative to an imminent execution. Don’t miss watching this game!

The current score between the two is as follows: @gravitcaper 59½, @stayoutoftherz 49½. Undoubtedly, an exciting continuation of the tournament awaits us with a completely uncertain outcome. Especially if @pamboy27 and @samostically intervene with their full chess power. And we mustn’t overlook the surprise factor that @rodrook, @stranger27, @mypathtofire and @vasigo can always deliver. Here is how the standings look like after the second round of the tournament according to Lighteye’s Scoring & Reward system:

A small addition to the rules: In case of an equal number of points, the competitor who participated in more rounds will have the advantage. If that number is the same, the competitor with a better performance will have the advantage, which practically boils down to the fact that the competitor with a lower rating will occupy a better position.

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With thanks to all the participants of our memorial, I invite you to join the HiveChess Tournament organized by our @stayoutoftherz in just a few hours today. You can find the schedule of other Hive tournaments here:

See you next Thursday!