Saturday HiveChess S2R16- 6th Place!

Greetings to all chess fans! I joined the 16th round of Saturday HiveChess. 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 three minute blitz + second increment every move with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (one and a half minutes) but will give you an extra point if you win.

I had a good start and was in fifth place throughout the tournament. There were struggles against lower rated opponents but in the middlegame but blunders by them gave me the win. I had an upset victory against a higher rated opponent which I will show later. I also had a memorable win through tactics.

Game 1

I had the Black pieces in this game. I had dual threats of a mating attack and winning a piece on c6. There was a defensive resource for White that my opponent missed. I didn't see it too, only after post game analysis did I see Ne7 Rxe7 c6 saves the piece. The back rank mate on d8 ensures that White will recover his piece while avoiding mate.

Instead, White went into a sequence where he lost a piece through a fork. Black wins a piece and the game after a few more moves.

Game 2

I had the White pieces in this game. My opponent blundered and left his Bishop trapped. After f4, the Bishop had nowhere to go. I won a piece and soon the game.

Game 3

I was playing a higher rated opponent in this game. I was in a bind because my opponent's pieces were active while my Bishop was entombed on g3. I made the decision to give up a pawn to liberate my Rook and Queen.

The c4 advance exchanged my two Queenside pawns for one of the opponent's. I lost a pawn but in return, activated my Rook and Queen on the c file.

I now have an attack ongoing while my own King was safe. Rc3 was the right move to save the game but Black panicked and blundered with Qd6. After which, Qf7 threatened both his Rook on b3 and a mate threat on g7 after Rg8.