Saturday HiveChess S2R10 - 5th Place!

Greetings to all chess fans! I played in the round 10 of Hivechess Season 2. It's a weekly chess Arena blitz tournament which run for over an hour. It starts at eleven pm our time and ends at midnight. The time control for this round was five minute blitz with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (two and a half minutes) but will give you an extra point if you win.

My games were mostly bad, blundering mates in one or two moves. I even lost my first three games before winning one and losing two more. There were many games with winning positions that I managed to lose. Inspite of those mistakes, I still ended up in fifth place because of the absence of strong players like IM Odnoobraz and Hive account@stayoutoftherz. Hive account@jaki01 was a beast in this tournament and took first place while the usual strong players took second and third. Fourth place was a surprise with Hive account@migmag who also beat me in the tournament. Hive account@southgamer didn't play many games and only took eighth place.

Game 1

I had the advantage in this game against Hive account@stranger27. The position below is a familiar one in the London System. I won a lot of games with this position with the White pieces. I won a pawn on f2 at the same time exposing his King.

After a some moves I lost the thread somehow and ended up losing my Queen in a pin!

Game link: https://lichess.org/7FIYPrak/black

Game 2

A few rounds later, we played against each other again and repeated the same opening but this time I learned from my mistake and capitalized on my winning position.

Game link: https://lichess.org/pa4DmsJE/black

Game 3

I had a winning game against Hive account@migmag who took fourth place. I lost the thread again and blundered with Kc8 instead of Ke8. He capitalized on my mistake and mated me in a few moves.

Game link: https://lichess.org/S07hP7Yd/black

Game 4

Perhaps my worst mistake in the tournament. I played against Hive account@fiona777 thrice winning the first two. She is much lower rated than me but in this game she won by sheer grit and determination even with a lost position. Here I missed the mate threat and lost the game. I blundered with Nb5 and was shocked by Qxh2+ and mate next move :)

Game link: https://lichess.org/CRd1EJE8

Game 5

It's not all bad though. I had my winning moments that gave me fifth place. In this game I was the one losing with a piece down but I didn't resign yet as the my opponent's King was exposed and there were some threats in the air. Finally he blundered into a one move mate.

Game link: https://lichess.org/fuDaO0tZ/black

Thanks to Hive account@sam.chess Hive account@samostically for hosting and congratulations to the winners!

Tournament link: https://lichess.org/tournament/xLQCdzTE

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