Chess960 Madness: A Hive Tournament Victory!

_{"Perhaps you don’t need to use all the 960 starting positions but, let’s say, 200 or 300? I don’t know the exact number. I think that really would get rid of all the forced draws, because it’s impossible to analyse 100 starting positions, never mind 900. I think the most promising option is Fischer Chess.
— Alexander Grischuk, from chessintranslation.com"}

Hello Everyone! Happy Sunday! Two nights ago, I competed in the round 3 of the Hive chess arena organized Hive account@stayoutoftherz. It was a chess960 variant, a mix of unpredictable starting positions. Good thing was that I prepared and even wrote a post about the variant.. Chess 960 always brings chaos but this time I thrived in it!

My Tournament Experience

With new hive chess players joining the mix, it was a different atmosphere,aside the unpredictability of the variant, the players also were unfamiliar hence it was also difficult to predict the style of play.

I emerged victorious winning 8 games out of 9 with my only loss coming from the highest rated player on Hive chess. I could argue if I didn't berserk I could have won however time is part of chess and I lost. I had my pound of flesh in a very interesting tactical game.

Odnoobraz_bcm vs Samostically 0-1

This was one of my memorable game from the tournament. I lost the first time we played and he was behind me chasing me for the number 1 spot, I knew I had to win, it's chess960, all I had to do was be creative.

He doesn't berserk, and I beserk so it means I had to be fast while trying to get a good position. The game was equal until my opponent made a very wrong tactical move.

white just played Nd5+?? Aming to trap my rook after the exchanges on d5. However it turned out to be a very tactical mistake which loses on the spot.

_{can you find how black should proceed?}

Hint: The game ended with the final position below. Black cruised with two passers and eventually had a queen and won.

_{solution can be found in the real game here}

Conclusion

The last Chess960 tournament was really interesting, I enjoyed playing chess with so much randomness and not having to come against tough or unexpected opening lines. Every game I played was a puzzle and enjoyed it. And to all my opponents, I say good games,till we meet again on the board next Friday!

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Thanks For Reading!