Battle Review ⚔: Saturday HiveChess Arena S1R16

First, I am in love with my post cover ♥.

I am a fan of Harry Potter 🧙🏼‍♂️ and I love the concept of Wizards Chess, that was the inspiration behind this Image.

Intro

This week we had a longer time control, it was a blitz game(5+0). As usual, everyone brought their 'A game' and you had be extra sharp and shrewd to land points 🧠.

I was able to amass a total of 15 points and I secured the 11th place out of 25 players. I climbed a bit higher in rank today and I'm proud of myself 🦚

Here's how the final leaderboard looked:

1. 🥇 Odnoobraz_bcm– 37 points

2. 🥈 FCastro17- 37 points

3. 🥉 Gmdalods– 28 points

📊

As usual, let's highlight some of the games that are quite interesting and we could learn from 👇🏼

Today's Game Highlights and Analysis

JUST_OLA VS JUST_FAVOUR

This was my first game in the tournament, @justfavour is a very good player, so the first thing I did was take a deep breath as always LOL. I had read @samostically post on how simple moves, and also how exploiting your opponent weakness in piece development could help you play better. I decided to try that out in my first game.

I opened as white using the Sicilian defense. I won't lie, my opponent had better piece structure and I was at disadvantage. I had to meticulously move my pieces to avoid further damage.

At the end, we were both left with a bishop and pawn. It was a kind of structure that would eventually lead to draw. We both knew so we decided to settle for a draw early enough so we could move on to the next match.

Lets watch the gif:

https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/white/Vy9fdjb5.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett

Game Link: https://lichess.org/Vy9fdjb5

This is the PGN file of the game:

[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R16 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/Vy9fdjb5"] [Date "2025.10.18"] [White "Just_ola"] [Black "justfavour"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [GameId "Vy9fdjb5"] [UTCDate "2025.10.18"] [UTCTime "15:00:17"] [WhiteElo "1755"] [BlackElo "1838"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+2"] [BlackRatingDiff "-1"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "300+0"] [ECO "B01"] [Opening "Scandinavian Defense"] [Termination "Normal"]

e4 d5 2. Nc3 dxe4 3. Nxe4 h6 4. Ng3 e6 5. N1e2 a6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Be2 Nc6 8. O-O Bb4 9. d3 Bxc3 10. bxc3 O-O 11. Bb2 Re8 12. Nh5 Nxh5 13. Bxh5 Ne7 14. Qf3 Ng6 15. c4 Qg5 16. Bc1 Qf5 17. Qxf5 exf5 18. f3 Be6 19. Bxg6 fxg6 20. Bf4 c6 21. Rab1 b5 22. cxb5 cxb5 23. Rb4 Bxa2 24. Rd4 Red8 25. Rb4 Rdc8 26. c4 bxc4 27. dxc4 Bxc4 28. Rc1 Bb5 29. Rd1 Rd8 30. Re1 Rd7 31. h3 g5 32. Bc1 f4 33. Re6 Rad8 34. Bb2 Rf7 35. Rbe4 Rd2 36. Be5 Rd1+ 37. Kh2 Rdd7 38. Bd4 Rb7 39. Rb6 Rxb6 40. Bxb6 Bd3 41. Re8+ Kh7 42. Rd8 Bb5 43. Rd4 Kg6 44. Rd6+ Kh7 45. Ba5 Rf6 46. Rd5 Kg6 47. Re5 Rc6 48. Re7 Bf1 49. Kg1 Bb5 50. Kh2 h5 51. Re4 Bd3 52. Rd4 Bb5 53. h4 Kf5 54. hxg5 Kxg5 55. Bd8+ Kf5 56. Rd5+ Kg6 57. Rg5+ Kf7 58. Rxh5 Rh6 59. Rxh6 gxh6 60. Kh3 Bd7+ 61. Kh4 Kg6 62. g3 fxg3 63. Kxg3 Kf5 64. f4 Bb5 65. Kf3 h5 66. Ke3 h4 67. Bxh4 Kg4 68. Bd8 Kf5 69. Kf3 Bc4 70. Ke3 Bd5 71. Bc7 Bc6 72. Kd4 Bb5 73. Kc5 Bd3 74. Kb4 Bb5 75. Ka5 1/2-1/2

JUST_OLA VS IAMCHESSGUY01

This was my best game today. My opponent is a formidable one and I had to be extra meticulous.

I kicked off with the Opening: Pirc Defense. I was getting anxious cos my opponent kept seeing though all my traps and was intelligently maneuvering it all.

He was doing well until I played the move knight to e6 which would ascertain the capture of my opponents rook. Black saw the blunder he made, he resigned and I won the round.

Lets watch the gif:

https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/white/3diU6kVB.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett

Game Link: https://lichess.org/FuxZ0DfQ

This is the PGN file:

[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R16 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/FuxZ0DfQ"] [Date "2025.10.18"] [White "Just_ola"] [Black "iamchessguy01"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "FuxZ0DfQ"] [UTCDate "2025.10.18"] [UTCTime "15:59:04"] [WhiteElo "1742"] [BlackElo "1876"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+8"] [BlackRatingDiff "-8"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "300+0"] [ECO "B00"] [Opening "Pirc Defense"] [Termination "Normal"]

e4 d6 2. Nc3 g6 3. Nge2 Bg7 4. Ng3 Nf6 5. Bc4 O-O 6. d3 c6 7. Bb3 a5 8. a4 Nbd7 9. d4 e5 10. d5 Nc5 11. O-O Qe7 12. Re1 Nxb3 13. cxb3 c5 14. f4 Bd7 15. fxe5 Qxe5 16. Rf1 Bg4 17. Qe1 Nh5 18. Ra2 Nxg3 19. Qxg3 Qxg3 20. hxg3 Bd4+ 21. Kh2 Kg7 22. Nb5 Be5 23. Bf4 Bxf4 24. Rxf4 Bd1 25. Nxd6 Bxb3 26. Ra3 c4 27. Nxb7 Ra7 28. Nc5 Bc2 29. Rc3 Bd1 30. Rxc4 Rc8 31. e5 Be2 32. Rc2 Bd1 33. Ne6+ 1-0

ROSMARLY VS MADCHESS64

@rosmarly 's game was very impressive. White opened with the Queen's Pawn Game: Colle System.

White was in control, black tried to dominate the center but white was able to stop his advancement.

Rook c5 to c7 was a brilliant move that secured a winning for White

Lets watch the gif:

https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/white/5PMyYXBV.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett

Game Link: https://lichess.org/5PMyYXBV

This is the PGN file:

[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R16 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/5PMyYXBV"] [Date "2025.10.18"] [White "rosmarly"] [Black "MadChess64"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "5PMyYXBV"] [UTCDate "2025.10.18"] [UTCTime "16:00:37"] [WhiteElo "1973"] [BlackElo "2026"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+6"] [BlackRatingDiff "-6"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "300+0"] [ECO "D04"] [Opening "Queen's Pawn Game: Colle System"] [Termination "Normal"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bg4 4. Be2 e6 5. Nbd2 Bd6 6. h3 Bh5 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 Nbd7 9. Bb2 c5 10. c4 a6 11. Rc1 dxc4 12. Nxc4 Be7 13. Nce5 cxd4 14. exd4 Nxe5 15. Nxe5 Bxe2 16. Qxe2 Nd5 17. Rfd1 Bf6 18. Qf3 Qa5 19. Nd7 Rfd8 20. Nxf6+ Nxf6 21. a3 b5 22. b4 Qb6 23. d5 Nxd5 24. Qg4 f6 25. Re1 e5 26. Rc5 Nf4 27. Rec1 Nd3 28. Rc7 Qxf2+ 29. Kh1 g6 30. Qe6+ Kh8 31. Qf7 1-0

Thank you all for the games, it was really fun I won't lie. And thank you @samostically for hosting this tournament.

Saturday HiveChess S1R16 Arena

Image generated using Googles Nanobana:

https://aistudio.google.com/prompts/10UGxGzjUAtVa9PVS8qodz38glIPe5Ayp