Dear chess fans,
the first round of anniversary Season 10 started yesterday with a 5+1 Blitz arena - and it broke a few records. 34(!) players participated, seven of which were totally new to Hivechess: 
Hive account@cocacolaron, 
Hive account@perpz, 
Hive account@ibizaki (JasonRoig), 
Hive account@salomijale (summisimeon), 
Hive account@schnitte (Schnittlauchlogge), 
Hive account@alexmag1988 and 
Hive account@nftland1989 (CHeSsdieGOst) showed up for the very first time in the Hivechess arena - welcome! Not less than 19 players with a 2000+ rating, including 6 with a 2200+ rating are competing for the top ranks! We never had such a competitive field.
After quite a long time (back in S8) fourfold champion 
Hive account@sawko could end up as winner, in a relative close match. Runner-up was last season´s champion 
Hive account@tungphong (blackswan21) and the third place went to 
Hive account@jaki01, so the 3 tops spot were all gained by former champions. Congratulations!
Also 2 of the new players managed to land in the Top 10, Hive account@cocacolaron with an excellent 6th place, followed by 
Hive account@perzp. Congrats as well!
Of note, 
Hive account@rodrook had a good day as well (I had a pretty hard time to beat him😄), and took the lead in the category best performance in relation to own rating. Well done!
I was quite happy with my 11th place. I had a win rate of 70% with an opponents average of 2060 and my performance was 2260, it think this is a record, too. For the second time I am now >2100. Let´s see how long this streak holds.
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/sumatI9a
Both 
Hive account@samostically and 
Hive account@vjap55 had streamed the event. Please check out their great posts here and here!
Fatal blunders:
What should Black play here?
https://lichess.org/CeSC5ehK/white#81
In my last move as White against Hive account@jaki01 I had taken a pawn with Re4x, eliminating the defense of Black´s Rook on f3, the only way to defend my pinned Knight. So my Knight was safe for now, as that Rook would fall otherwise. But Black went greedy and moved the Rook to a3, trying to gobble up Queen side pawns. So I could end that game surprisingly quick with Re8 checkmate!
In this game between Hive account@sawko (White) and Hive account@tungphong White has just moved his Queen from h6 to h5! He had even a mate in 7 on the board with the Black king completely "naked" and cornered from White´s Queen and Rook.
But on h5 she was an easy grab for Black´s Queen who didn´t miss the opportunity! Probably the blunder of the day and it shows you that even the best player is not invincible :)
Season 10: 14 Jan to 18 Mar 2022 / Ranking after the first round:
The rules you can look up in the S10 announcement post.
I am looking forward to the next weeks, to see who else might have a chance to succeed in this tough field. I heard that 
Hive account@eniolw was sick, so I hope he gets well and 100% fit very soon. One thing is clear: Missing a round will reduce the chances for the title to a great extent, which makes this an even more brutal battle over the next 9 rounds.
See you all next week - and keep practicing!
