Hey everyone,

It is a good feeling to say I won the 3rd round of the Hivechess tournament organized by Hive account@stayoutoftherz. This comes right after winning the second round. Wow. That is a lovely way to kickstart the new season after missing out on the first round. This round was chess960 with a 5-minute flat time control. With that time control, I went all out with my 100% berserk, 9 games played, and 89% win rate. I won 8 games and lost only one to Hive account@southgamer.

Game 1

Zgm_samostically vs Jaki01

Very early on in the game, I obtained a position that seemed somewhat familiar to a standard position from a standard game. The only awkward thing here is my queen on h1, very far from the action of the game. Well, that is what you get sometimes when you play chess960. It was going to be more taxing for me, given that I berserk a strong player and he did not berserk back. I have half the time, and he has all the time he needs.

The game went on for a while until I got lucky. Jaki dropped a free queen when he played the move Qf2+, and I grabbed it immediately since I was already running low on time compared to his 1 minute and 19 seconds. It is not every day one gets lucky with a free queen from a strong player. After capturing the free queen, black resigned.

Here is the game link to view the game:

Game Link

And here is the Game PGN:

[Event "Hivechess S21 Round 3 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/gvVoK6BE"]
[Date "2025.10.10"]
[White "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Black "jaki01"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "gvVoK6BE"]
[UTCDate "2025.10.10"]
[UTCTime "19:06:30"]
[WhiteElo "1796"]
[BlackElo "1965"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+24"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-45"]
[Variant "Chess960"]
[TimeControl "300+0"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "bnrknbrq/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BNRKNBRQ w KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1. d4 b6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. O-O-O Bb4 5. b3 h5 6. Bb2 Qh6+ 7. e3 Nc6 8. a3 Be7 9. Bd3 g5 10. h4 g4 11. Nd2 e5 12. d5 Nb8 13. e4 d6 14. f3 Bb7 15. Kb1 Nbd7 16. Rgf1 Ne8 17. fxg4 Rxg4 18. Rxf7 Qg6 19. Qf1 Rxg2 20. Nc4 Rg3 21. Ne2 Rg4 22. Ne3 Nef6 23. Rxe7 Kxe7 24. c4 Rg8 25. Nxg4 Nxg4 26. Ng3 Ne3 27. Nf5+ Nxf5 28. exf5 Qf6 29. Bc1 Qxh4 30. Qf3 Qg4 31. Qh1 Nc5 32. Bc2 e4 33. Re1 Kd8 34. Bxe4 Nxe4 35. Rxe4 Qxf5 36. Qh4+ Kc8 37. Ka2 Qf2+ 38. Qxf2 1-0

Game 2

ZGM_Samostically vs Southgamer

I played 2 games against Southgamer, the second was the one I lost to him, and like I said earlier in this post, it was the only game I lost in the tournament. It is only fair that I showcase the first game I won against the player.

I went for an idea identically similar to the Phildor Defence: Gambit. I gave up the d4 pawn for faster development of my pieces, and since it's chess 960 that comes with a lot of random placement of pieces, it would not be such a bad idea to get ahead of my opponent to a queen.

I was able to get a head start in development with my pieces, and now I have moved to attack black's pieces, starting with e5. This move attacks the black knight on f6, and it also opens up the position for my pieces that are more ahead in development compared to black's pieces. Pay attention to the position of the black king. It has not gotten the opportunity to castle, and there is an attack heading its way. This is what will later lead to the loss of the game for black.

The trouble begins. Now the black king is under check, and there is no means to castle, only avoiding the check through a block with another piece that will keep more of his pieces struck in the center of the board.

After being struck in the center for a while, black finally got the chance to castle, but he did, it was a blunder. Leaving the knight d7 undefended to the battery formed by my queen and rook on the d-file. This is how I gained the advantage and grabbed the win in this game. It was a game of principle, looking for fast ways to develop my piece through the gambit of a piece, and it paid off.

Here is the game link:

Game Link

And here is the Game PGN

[Event "Hivechess S21 Round 3 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/J9oS9ysw"]
[Date "2025.10.10"]
[White "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Black "SouthGamer"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "J9oS9ysw"]
[UTCDate "2025.10.10"]
[UTCTime "19:29:50"]
[WhiteElo "1832"]
[BlackElo "1755"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+12"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-10"]
[Variant "Chess960"]
[TimeControl "300+0"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rbnkbqnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBNKBQNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Bxc3 Nf6 6. Qe2 Nb6 7. O-O c6 8. e5 dxe5 9. Nxe5 Qe7 10. Rd1+ Bd7 11. Nxd7 Nbxd7 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Qd2 Qe6 14. Nb3 O-O 15. Qxd7 Qe2 16. Bd3 Qxb2 17. Bc4 h6 18. Nd4 Be5 19. Nf5 Rad8 20. Qxd8 Rxd8 21. Rxd8+ Kh7 22. Rad1 g6 23. Ng3 Bxg3 24. hxg3 f6 25. R1d7# 1-0

It was a nice experience for me, and I will be looking forward to keeping up with this winning streak. Will I be able to pull this off in the next round? I guess we would not know; let's see how it goes in the next round. See you all in the next round.

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_{I am Hive account@samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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Thanks For Reading!