Hivechess Tournament Season 15 Round 1: @maestroask won, @samostically best untitled player

Dear chess fans,

yesterday the first round of season 15 started with a 4+2 arena. 30 players had participated including many new (and old) faces! Welcome Hive account@dhilan04, Hive account@hannes-stoffel, Hive account@timix648, Hive account@solymi to Hivechess, and welcome back Hive account@gabotask, Hive account@justfavour, Hive account@awesomeintrigue and Hive account@therealflaws!

Hive account@maestroask started the new season like he ended the last season - with a win. He is basically a class on his own, only Hive account@vjap55 was able to grab 2 points from him, and Hive account@nikoszzz one more, otherwise he was undefeated. Hive account@sawko was Hive account@runner-up, followed by Hive account@samostically as third and therefore best untitled player who had a great start as well (after missing many rounds last season). Newcomer Hive account@dhilan04 (tortyllan) ended up with an excellent 4^th place, ex aequo in points with Hive account@fcastro177. Congratulations to All!

I case you are wondering why I emphasized the "untitledness": IMs (and to some extent also CMs) have such an advantage that it is no surprise when they win. So in order to bring more life and change to the post titles, I include others as well.

In this position from my game (with Black) against Hive account@dhilan04 (tortyllan) White is totally winning. But in the game Hive account@dhilan04 couldn´t find the only winning move and lost. Can you find it?

White to win:

! [Solution] e4! is the only way to bring back the knight (via e3) to prevent the a-pawn from passing. Once that passer is blocked, the pawn majority on the king side wins for White. Easy, once you know it 😃.
The game:
https://lichess.org/YzcCmQHC/black#92

Result table of round 1:

Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/8uYXPNxi

Hive account@vjap55 streamed the event, you can find his great post here!

Season 15: 03 Mar to 5 May 2023 / Ranking after the first round:

Rank	Hive name	Lichess name	Rating	Rounds played	Points	Performance
1	Hive account@maestroask	Odnoobraz_bcm	2591	1	30	2401
2	Hive account@sawko	CM sawkito	2360	1	29	2319
3	Hive account@samostically	ZGM_Samostically	2175	1	28	2022
4	Hive account@dhilan04	tortyllan	1842	1	27	1997
5	Hive account@fcastro177	FCastro17	2123	1	26	1978
6	Hive account@vjap55	vjap55	2157	1	25	2484
7	Hive account@emic	emichessmaster	2155	1	24	2228
8	Hive account@lucianosky	Pavarotty	2258	1	23	1938
9	Hive account@agreste	agreste	1651	1	22	1850
10	Hive account@stayoutoftherz	stayoutoftherz	1978	1	21	1967
11	Hive account@therealflaws	Jean1301	1955	1	20	1892
12	Hive account@nikoszzz	nikoszzz	1758	1	19	1432
13	Hive account@gabotask	GVillalobos	2078	1	18	1998
14	Hive account@rodrook	rodrook	1452	1	17	1541
15	Hive account@lighteye	lighteye	1728	1	16	1840
16	Hive account@pravesh0	pravesh007	1741	1	15	1797
17	Hive account@b0s	Da_k1ng	1625	1	14	1786
18	Hive account@awesomeintrigue	zackawesome	1739	1	13	1712
19	Hive account@rosmarly	rosmarly	1968	1	12	1694
20	Hive account@grafo07	Grafo_07	1115	1	11	1541
21	Hive account@pokerarema	ragnarokgame	1556	1	10	1408
22	Hive account@hannes-stoffel	hannes-stoffel	1454	1	9	1406
23	Hive account@justfavour	justfavour	1658	1	8	1677
24	Hive account@anomadsoul	anomadsoul	1478	1	7	1634
25	Hive account@tin.aung.soe	TinAungSoe	1288	1	6	1535
26	Hive account@stranger27	stranger27	1605	1	5	1437
27	Hive account@fiona777	fiona777	1414	1	4	1463
28	Hive account@vasigo	vasigo	1201	1	3	1374
29	Hive account@timix648	timix648	968	1	2	1372
30	Hive account@solymi	solymi-Hive	962	1	1	858

The rules you can look up in the S15 announcement post.

See you all next week - and keep practicing!