Dear chess fans,
the fourth round of S10 was a (too) fast 3+1 Swiss tournament with 26 players and an average rating of 1766 "only" which shows that also some lower ranked players joined recently - which is great! This week
Hive account@astrolabio and
Hive account@mrsarri newly joined - welcome, and welcome back
Hive account@petreius!
Yesterday we again had a completely new winner:
Hive account@cocacolarun. In his only fourth Hiveches tournament he was dominating the field and stayed as only player undefeated with phenomenal 8,5/9 points. Runner-up was
Hive account@sawko with 8/9 and as third
Hive account@eniolw with 6,5/9. Congratulations to All.
In this position
Hive account@cocacolaron with Black against
Hive account@deadleaf had already the initiative and White´s pieces were quite cramped. Here it was crucial to block the check with Nd4...

but after Kc1 suddenly White´s Queen was trapped and White immediately resigned:

Hive account@cocacolaron played also incredibly fast. In this position with White against
Hive account@samostically he was up a piece and gave a check. Naturally, with only 3 seconds on the clock,
Hive account@samostically in avoiding a trade or a pin, blocked it with g6?? - only to get punished instantly by Rh8 mate!

I was quite happy with my 7th place. I lost only 2 times (no surprise, against
Hive account@sawko and
Hive account@eniolw) but could make some draws against stronger players. This position against
Hive account@rosmarly should be a theoretical draw according to the engine. As long as the Knight keeps his place, the pawn can´t promote. So I just needed to keep the King on c1 and d1, right?

And even if the Black Bishop lands on c2 to prevent any King move, I could have saved the draw by playing (not Nb1 which loses after the trade) but the engine move Nc4! I for sure would have never found this solution:

Unfortunately I had moved the Knight away and consequently the pawn was able to promote to a Queen. But luckily, in a time drama, I was stalemated later :)

I just show it to emphasize that sometimes in Blitz games it is worthwhile to fight until the very end!
Final standing of Round 4:

Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/swiss/7NjPWsn3
Hive account@vjap55 analyzed some games, please check them out here.
A livestream from
Hive account@giacomone you can find here.
Season 10: 14 Jan to 18 Mar 2022 / Ranking after 4 rounds:
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
| | | | | | |
| 1 | Hive account@sawko | CM sawkito | 2397 | 4 | 124 | 2438 |
| 2(+1) | Hive account@cocacolaron | cocacolaron | 2278 | 4 | 120 | 2273,5 |
| 3(+2) | Hive account@jaki01 | jaki01 | 2337 | 4 | 111 | 2292,3 |
| 4 | Hive account@samostically | ZGM_Samostically | 2259 | 4 | 109 | 2228,5 |
| 5(+1) | Hive account@vjap55 | vjap55 | 2174 | 4 | 105 | 2144,5 |
| 6(+1) | Hive account@deadleaf | realdeadleaf | 2114 | 4 | 103 | 1988,5 |
| 7(+1) | Hive account@eniolw | eniolw | 2376 | 4 | 102 | 2209 |
| 8(-6) | Hive account@tungphong | blackswan21 | 2363 | 3 | 96 | 2308,3 |
| 9(+2) | Hive account@emic | emichessmaster | 2123 | 4 | 85 | 2018,3 |
| 10(+2) | Hive account@stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | 2037 | 4 | 84 | 2095,8 |
| 11(-2) | Hive account@kintokris | jonbellionfan | 2115 | 3 | 76 | 2008,3 |
| 12(+1) | Hive account@rosmarly | rosmarly | 2093 | 4 | 75 | 1968,8 |
| 13(-3) | Hive account@pereu4ivatel | pereu4uwatch | 2177 | 3 | 67 | 2242,7 |
| 14(+2) | Hive account@lighteye | lighteye | 1757 | 4 | 65 | 1835,3 |
| 15(-1) | Hive account@wildthougts | Wildthougts | 2254 | 2 | 58 | 2095,5 |
| 16(+5) | Hive account@kreur | Kreur | 2063 | 3 | 52 | 1942,3 |
| 17(-2) | Hive account@schamangerbert | HerbyW | 1757 | 3 | 52 | 1879,3 |
| 18(-1) | Hive account@franu | Tz995 | 2104 | 3 | 51 | 1884,3 |
| 19 | Hive account@rafaelaquino | ajedrezclub2t | 1816 | 4 | 51 | 1868,3 |
| 20(-2) | Hive account@tony1294 | tony1294 | 2226 | 2 | 49 | 2080,5 |
| 21(+4) | Hive account@pamboy27 | pamboy27 | 2142 | 3 | 43 | 1735,3 |
| 22(-2) | Hive account@perzp | WFM perzp | 2171 | 2 | 40 | 2071 |
| 23(+6) | Hive account@fiona777 | fiona777 | 1532 | 3 | 37 | 1632,7 |
| 24(-1) | Hive account@rodrook | rodrook | 1467 | 4 | 35 | 1572,5 |
| 25(+5) | Hive account@stranger27 | stranger27 | 1763 | 3 | 34 | 1790,7 |
| 26(+2) | @bOs | Da_k1ng | 1323 | 3 | 34 | 1537,7 |
| 27(-5) | Hive account@zincheck | ZinCheck | 2082 | 3 | 33 | 1835,3 |
| 28(+3) | Hive account@giacomone | KingJames4 | 1615 | 3 | 30 | 1551,3 |
| 29(-5) | Hive account@agreste | agreste | 1693 | 3 | 29 | 1594 |
| 30(-4) | Hive account@anadello | mandeo | 2309 | 1 | 26 | 2369 |
| 31(-4) | Hive account@sammy00 | migmag | 1543 | 2 | 26 | 1630 |
| 32(+3) | Hive account@nftland1989 | CHeSsdieGOst | 1127 | 4 | 21 | 1324,3 |
| 33 | Hive account@vasigo | vasigo | 1204 | 3 | 19 | 1423,3 |
| 34(-2) | Hive account@levitant | levitant | 1917 | 1 | 18 | 2127 |
| 35(+4) | Hive account@anomadsoul | anomadsoul | 1287 | 3 | 17 | 1393,3 |
| 36(-2) | Hive account@alexmag1988 | alexmag1988 | 1136 | 3 | 16 | 1411,7 |
| 37(-1) | Hive account@ibizaki | JasonRoig | 2109 | 1 | 13 | 2131 |
| 38(-1) | Hive account@syndmitrij | Syndmitrij83 | 1239 | 2 | 12 | 1268 |
| 39(new) | Hive account@petreius | petreius | 1968 | 1 | 11 | 1763 |
| 40(-2) | Hive account@maciejficek | XM9000 | 1523 | 2 | 10 | 1488 |
| 41(-1) | Hive account@thedoc07 | TheDoc07 | 1160 | 3 | 9 | 1297,3 |
| 42(-1) | Hive account@ropavejero | ropavejero | 1991 | 1 | 6 | 2334 |
| 43(-1) | Hive account@salomijale | summisimeon | 1211 | 1 | 5 | 1565 |
| 44(-1) | Hive account@schnitte | Schnittlauchlogge | 1548 | 1 | 4 | 1477 |
| 45(new) | Hive account@astrolabio | astrolabiochess | 946 | 1 | 4 | 1447 |
| 46(new) | Hive account@mrsarri | Freeman21 | 1695 | 1 | 3 | 1785 |
| 47(-3) | Hive account@therealflaws | sayhitothecamera | 1874 | 1 | 1 | 1520 |
The rules you can look up in the S10 announcement post.
Hive account@sawko stayed on the top, but his lead is only 4 points!
Hive account@cocacolaron could overtake
Hive account@tungphong (blackswan21) and is now on rank 2.
Hive account@jaki01 is now third, but needs 13 points to close up the top. Due to his not showing up today,
Hive account@tungphong lost 6 places and is now 8th only. This will make retaining his champion title very hard! Will we have this season a new champion?
Top gainer this week was
Hive account@fiona777, thanks to her excellent 12th place today!
See you all next week - and keep practicing!
