Dear chess fans,
the third round of Season 13 was played yesterday - a 3+2 Blitz arena with 30 players. The average rating was 1873, the highest so far in S13.
This time our multi-champion 
Hive account@sawko won very convincingly, with 6 points lead. Second was 
Hive account@tony1294 and 4 points behind were 
Hive account@kintokris (jonbellionfan) and 
Hive account@eniolw as third and fourth. Congratulations to All!
The winner of the first 2 rounds, 
Hive account@maestroask (Odnoobraz_bcm), landed only on rank 11, but he didn´t seem to play for the full hour. Maybe on purpose, maybe a technical problem, but on top of it he had a really tough pairing (av. opponent ranking 2242)!
I was able to luckily land in the Top 10, with such a strong field this is already an achievement. In this game against 
Hive account@samostically I (Black pieces) survived the opening and defended the pressure and after lots of trading ended up in a queen endgame (I hate queen endgames). A few mutual blunders it is a dead draw:
https://lichess.org/U32vFOiV/black#110
But only if White moves his king to c4. Then it is an easy perpetual (Qa2+ and the king has to return to d4 - if I would have found this is another storyđ). Instead Hive account@samostically made Ke4?? and after f5+ he suddenly loses his queen! Kf3 followed by Qxd5 ended the game. What a surprise! Also Ke5 wouldn´t have been any better. After Qe3+ it is a bizarre mate in 1 - in the middle of an almost empty board.
The biggest upset in round 3 was this victory of 
Hive account@fiona777 against 
Hive account@fcastro177 (rating difference 655). It doesn´t happen that often, that a 2100+ player is mated in 16 moves! 1 Hive and 5 LEO well-deserved go to Hive account@fiona777!
Yesterday was indeed the day of surprise mate in ones! Here an example of a game between Hive account@sawko (White) and 
Hive account@rosmarly. White is completely lost, the pinned bishop is soon falling and Black is up a bunch of pawns.
https://lichess.org/jhrbsQyS/white#105
But again the King chose a fatal square, in this case f8 and was instantly mated by Qh8++.
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/4v7wNUJ3
Season 13: 02 Sep to 04 Nov 2022 / Ranking after 3 rounds:
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|
| | | | | | |
| 1(+1) | Hive account@sawko | CM sawkito | 2447 | 3 | 102 | 2363 |
| 2(-1) | Hive account@maestroask | Odnoobraz_bcm | 2572 | 3 | 95 | 2570,7 |
| 3(+1) | Hive account@tony1294 | tony1294 | 2281 | 3 | 94 | 2251 |
| 4(+1) | Hive account@eniolw | eniolw | 2374 | 3 | 86 | 2301 |
| 5(+2) |  Hive account@pamboy27 | pamboy27 | 2165 | 3 | 84 | 20065 |
| 6(+4) | Hive account@kintokris | jonbellionfan | 2024 | 3 | 81 | 2102,3 |
| 7(+1) | Hive account@fcastro177 | FCastro17 | 2122 | 3 | 74 | 2083 |
| 8(+4) | Hive account@samostically | ZGM_Samostically | 2107 | 3 | 73 | 1982 |
| 9(+4) | Hive account@rosmarly | rosmarly | 2061 | 3 | 72 | 2133 |
| 10(-7) |  Hive account@lucianosky | Pavarotty | 2333 | 2 | 71 | 2416 |
| 11 |  Hive account@emic | emichessmaster | 2087 | 3 | 63 | 2023,7 |
| 12(+3) |  Hive account@stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | 2007 | 3 | 60 | 1903,7 |
| 13(+1) |  Hive account@iammanythings | iammanythings | 2163 | 3 | 59 | 1943,7 |
| 14(-8) |  Hive account@andzhi | andzh1 | 1979 | 2 | 58 | 2075 |
| 15(+3) |  Hive account@vjap55 | vjap55 | 2173 | 3 | 56 | 2012 |
| 16(-7) |  Hive account@beyondhorizonmm | beyondhorizonmm | 1583 | 3 | 55 | 1785,7 |
| 17(+6) |  Hive account@wildthougts | Wildthougts | 2219 | 2 | 50 | 2069 |
| 18(+2) |  Hive account@stranger27 | stranger27 | 1696 | 3 | 48 | 1763 |
| 19(+1) |  Hive account@b0s | Da_k1ng | 1639 | 3 | 45 | 1618 |
| 20(+6) |  Hive account@kreur | Kreur | 2064 | 2 | 41 | 2226 |
| 21(+1) |  Hive account@agreste | agreste | 1773 | 3 | 36 | 1740,3 |
| 22(+5) |  Hive account@lighteye | lighteye | 1708 | 3 | 35 | 1845,3 |
| 23(-6) |  Hive account@yazp | zulukill | 1988 | 1 | 34 | 2061 |
| 24(-5) | @? | G174R | 2045 | 1 | 33 | 2021 |
| 25(+6) |  Hive account@rodrook | rodrook | 1457 | 2 | 32 | 1817,5 |
| 26(-5) | @? | Oyuncu07a | 2436? | 1 | 29 | 2453 |
| 27(+15) | Hive account@fiona777 | fiona777 | 1505 | 3 | 26 | 1549,3 |
| 28(-3) |  Hive account@sammy00 | migmag | 1486 | 3 | 26 | 1540,3 |
| 29(-5) | @? | ajedrez_64 | 2070 | 1 | 25 | 2071 |
| 30(+8) |  Hive account@schamangerbert | HerbyW | 1723 | 2 | 25 | 1730 |
| 31(-3) | @? | Gornyi_Roman | 2007 | 1 | 22 | 1818 |
| 32(-3) | @? | art_rozov_17 | 1715 | 1 | 21 | 1774 |
| 33(-3) | @? | Bishopmaker2018 | 1840 | 1 | 20 | 1783 |
| 34(+3) |  Hive account@vasigo | vasigo | 1277 | 3 | 18 | 1416,7 |
| 35(-3) | @? | bassam49 | 1608 | 1 | 17 | 1858 |
| 36(+4) |  Hive account@pokerarema | ragnarokgame | 1353 | 3 | 16 | 1448 |
| 37(-1) |  Hive account@maciejficek | XM9000 | 1481 | 3 | 16 | 1440 |
| 38(-5) | @? | Alireza_1342 | 1662 | 1 | 15 | 1985 |
| 39(-5) |  Hive account@petreius | petreius | 1902 | 1 | 15 | 1827 |
| 40(-5) |  Hive account@deadleaf | realdeadleaf | 2144 | 1 | 13 | 1628 |
| 41(+4) | @? | Yetundefemii | 1880 | 2 | 11 | 1790 |
| 42(new) |  Hive account@philipp87 | Philipp87 | 1773 | 1 | 10 | 1651 |
| 43(-4) | @? | moscatel10 | 1783 | 1 | 9 | 1748 |
| 44(-3) |  Hive account@grafo07 | Grafo_07 | 1055 | 2 | 9 | 1383,5 |
| 45(-2) |  Hive account@falcout | falcout | 1538 | 1 | 8 | 1584 |
| 46(-2) |  Hive account@ptmaker | ptmaker | 1526 | 1 | 8 | 1527 |
| 47(new) | @? | emprendemesta | 2022 | 1 | 6 | 1993 |
| 48(-4) | @? | juliandav | 2058 | 1 | 3 | 1827 |
| 49(-2) |  Hive account@artistparthoroy | artistparthoroy | 1075 | 2 | 3 | 1212 |
| 50(-2) |  Hive account@mypathtofire | mypathtofire | 1299 | 1 | 1 | 939 |
The rules you can look up in the S13 announcement post.
After 3 rounds Hive account@sawko is now leading. But please don´t forget that the worst result will be deleted. So if this season would end here already, Hive account@maestroask (Odnoobraz_bcm) would still be the winner!
Hive account@samostically and Hive account@rosmarly both could jump into the Top 10.
Hive account@philipp87 in his very first Hivechess tournament scored already 10 points - nice start!
By far the biggest gainer in R3 (+15!) was Hive account@fiona777 with a terrific performance!
See you all next week - and keep practicing!
Gentle reminder: Today the new Super Crypto Chess League (SCCL), hosted by Hive account@schamangerbert starts! Read more about it here and don´t forget to register in advance!
