Dear Chess fans,
the fourth round of Season 9 was a 3+2 arena with an average rating of 1914, again the highest so far in this season! With 28 players this round was well equipped with good players and many points could be distributed.
Like in the previous round, both 
Hive account@samostically and 
Hive account@vjap55 wrote already a report about the event including a video. Find them here and here. So not much left for mo to do 😄.
Hive account@tungphong (blackswan21) had apparently a great flow and left his peers no chances! He won with a huge lead of 11 points. Despite he lost more games than others, he played incredibly fast and could complete a lot of games. Congratulations! The second rank went to 
Hive account@jaki01 (his best result in this season!), equal in points with Hive account@vjap55 as 3rd again.
Hive account@eniolw ended up as 4th, followed by 
Hive account@kintokris (jonbellionfan) and 
Hive account@zacherybinx (sirtetris).
Of note, the pairing this time was quite unequal. While e.g. Hive account@eniolw ´s opponents had on average rating of 2192 (!), the ones from Hive account@jaki01 and Hive account@vjap55 had only 1828 and 1861, respectively. That is quite a difference.
I could again land in the Top 10 which is pretty decent.
In this position against 
Hive account@franu (Tz995) I had White and was totally hopeless (Stockfish says this is -6 already!). I am down 2 pawns, and Black is dominating on the open lines, right?
https://lichess.org/f79WpYdB/white#55
But instead of bringing the Knight back to c4 (after he had grabbed the a3 pawn), Black got greedy and defended his Knight with Qb4x. This allowed me to sacrifice my Bishop with Bg6x Rd2 Qe5 fg6x and Qe6x+.
After Kg7 and Rg3 (my last hope) it is still lost for Black, but only if White finds the correct way. Instead he played in time pressure too fast Qb1+?? Kh2 and all of a sudden there is no good way to prevent a deadly attack with Qe7 while defending g6, and he was forced a few moves later to give back a Rook to prevent mate.
Here the result table of R4:
The games of this round you can find here.
Season 9: 29 Oct to 17 Dec 2021 / Ranking after 4 rounds:
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Total | Performance |
|---|
| | average rating | | | 1882 | 1892 | 1911 | 1914 | | | |
| | players | | | 23 | 23 | 30 | 28 | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1 | Hive account@tungphong | blackswan21 | 2439 | 4 | 22 | 23 | 29 | 28 | | 102 | 2409,5 |
| 2(+2) | Hive account@jaki01 | jaki01 | 2396 | 4 | 20 | 19 | 22 | 27 | | 88 | 2186,5 |
| 3 | Hive account@vjap55 | vjap55 | 2155 | 4 | 14 | 20 | 28 | 26 | | 88 | 2123,5 |
| 4(-2) | Hive account@samostically | ZGM_Samostically | 2256 | 4 | 18 | 21 | 27 | 18 | | 84 | 2174,5 |
| 5 |  Hive account@pamboy27 | pamboy27 | 2183 | 4 | 15 | 22 | 24 | 22 | | 83 | 2015 |
| 6 | Hive account@eniolw | eniolw | 2444 | 3 | 23 | | 30 | 25 | | 78 | 2460,7 |
| 7(+1) | Hive account@kintokris | jonbellionfan | 2095 | 4 | 21 | 17 | 14 | 24 | | 76 | 2037,3 |
| 8(-1) |  Hive account@stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | 2041 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 26 | 21 | | 74 | 2073,3 |
| 9 |  Hive account@emic | emichessmaster | 2149 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 23 | 20 | | 70 | 2186 |
| 10(+2) |  Hive account@rosmarly | rosmarly | 2084 | 3 | | 18 | 20 | 14 | | 52 | 1919 |
| 11(-1) |  Hive account@pereu4ivatel | pereu4uwatch | 2140 | 4 | 16 | 7 | 19 | 6 | | 48 | 2199,8 |
| 12(-1) |  Hive account@zincheck | ZinCheck | 2143 | 4 | 17 | 9 | 15 | 7 | | 48 | 2056,3 |
| 13(+1) |  Hive account@petreius | petreius | 1986 | 4 | 13 | 8 | 12 | 12 | | 45 | 1884,3 |
| 14(+6) | Hive account@zacherybinx | sirtetris | 2011 | 2 | | | 21 | 23 | | 44 | 1972,5 |
| 15(+3) |  Hive account@schamangerbert | HerbyW | 1766 | 3 | | 13 | 11 | 15 | | 39 | 1760 |
| 16(-1) |  Hive account@burnoutawesome | burnoutawesomehive | 2132 | 3 | | 10 | 17 | 10 | | 37 | 1875 |
| 17(+4) |  Hive account@agreste | agreste | 1668 | 3 | 10 | | 9 | 17 | | 36 | 1738,3 |
| 18(-2) |  Hive account@rodrook | rodrook | 1563 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 13 | 9 | | 36 | 1754,3 |
| 19(-6) |  Hive account@sawko | CM sawkito | 2366 | 3 | 19 | 6 | 8 | | | 33 | 2019,7 |
| 20(+8) |  Hive account@kreur | Kreur | 2105 | 2 | | | 10 | 19 | | 29 | 2007,5 |
| 21(+4) | Hive account@franu | Tz995 | 2096 | 2 | | 14 | | 13 | | 27 | 2134,5 |
| 22(+2) |  Hive account@lighteye | lighteye | 1658 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 11 | | 27 | 1602,8 |
| 23(+4) |  Hive account@maciejficek | XM9000 | 1521 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 16 | | 27 | 1468 |
| 24(-5) |  Hive account@b0s | Da_k1ng | 1271 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 4 | | 26 | 1709,5 |
| 25(-7) |  Hive account@tony1294 | Tony1294 | 2327 | 1 | | | 25 | | | 25 | 2333 |
| 26(-4) |  Hive account@eliaschess333 | eliaschess333 | 1962 | 1 | | | 18 | | | 18 | 1987 |
| 27(-4) |  Hive account@walner | walner03 | 1821 | 1 | | | 16 | | | 16 | 1999 |
| 28(+4) |  Hive account@vasigo | vasigo | 1130 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | | 12 | 1448,3 |
| 29(-3) |  Hive account@kharrazi | kharrazi | 1205 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | | 12 | 1395,5 |
| 30(-1) |  Hive account@maverieux000 | Keylix | 2074 | 2 | 8 | | | 2 | | 10 | 1658,5 |
| 31(+3) |  Hive account@sammy00 | migmag | 1488 | 2 | | | 2 | 8 | | 10 | 1556 |
| 32(-2) |  Hive account@pirex | karik10 | 1457 | 1 | 7 | | | | | 7 | 1671 |
| 33(-2) |  Hive account@giacomone | KingJames4 | 1593 | 2 | | 4 | 3 | | | 7 | 1413 |
| 34(-1) |  Hive account@manncpt | Toful | 1256 | 1 | 6 | | | | | 6 | 1573 |
| 35(new) |  Hive account@anomadsoul | anomadsoul | 1304 | 1 | | | | 3 | | 3 | 1481 |
The rules you can look up in the announcement post.
Hive account@tungphong (blackswan21) as the by far most consistent player (2 wins and 2 second places!!) could extend his lead to now 14 points, but the battle for the runner up is quite intense. Ranks 2 to 5 are only separated by 5 points. Hive account@jaki01 with his good result today could get the 2nd rank for the first time, while Hive account@samostically fell to the 4th. Hive account@vjap55 could keep the 3rd spot. Hive account@eniolw could not improve further and is still on the 6th place behind Hive account@pamboy27 who is also playing very solid and consistent. I would say all of them have good chances for the title, as there are still 5 rounds to go!
Also some players like Hive account@kreur, Hive account@agreste and Hive account@maciejficek (XM9000) had their best results in this season and could jump up quite a few ranks in the table.
See you all next week!
Any idea about a motive for the winner´s NFT? I have already an idea but suggestions are highly welcome!
