Image from pixabay and designed with figma

Image from pixabay and designed with figma

The third round of the 20th Hivechess kicked off on Friday 14th February 2025. It was indeed a lovely event as the Love in the Air Day suggests, at least for the winners but I can tell you it wasn't lovely for me at all. With the dropping of pieces left and right to even getting checkmated on the board and not noticing it is all over for me.

Well, what can I say?

Probably it is true what they said:

Pride comes before a fall

I could easily blame it on my previous post I AM BACK TO WIN HIVECHESS
where I must have overly boasted in my confidence to win this edition of Hivechess

Or

Was I distracted by the lady in the room with whom I was celebrating Valentine's Day?

Nah, that is not it.

There is no need to look for some awful excuse to justify the fact that I suck at chess960. That variant is harder than it looks and I barely remember where the pieces are placed. Oh my! I need to practice more.

I have to honor those who should be honored for their outstanding performance especially @samostically who was on fire during the tournament with a 100% berserk rate.


That is how to make a statement, man.

• @samostically finishing in 1st Place
• @maestroask finishing in 2nd Place
• @rosmarly finishing in 3rd Place

Let's look at the top 5 games that were the highlight of the event.

Game 1 - @samostically vs @maestroask

This was a cruciating battle between two talented chess960 rockstars. One pumps with his white pieces for a well-structured coordination and the other aims for aggressive counter-play in the middle of the board with his devoted pawn soldiers. With the way both players played with strong fighting spirit, you can tell that both sides were looking for a win to clinch the lead on the standing and probably win the tournament. As much as I would love to talk about the opening played and its advantages, it is so sad I can't. Well, that is what you get when you play chess960, a style of chess where you are left in a jungle filled with pieces placed on unimaginable squares, some squares may even delay the development of a piece.

Despite all this, black still maintained a kind of structure gotten when one plays the Giuoco piano with Knight on c6 and pawn on e5 but the only thing missing was a bishop on c5, at least in my honest opinion. Notwithstanding, that didn't stop black's continuous play for control of the center which later paid off after an exchange down sacrifice on d5 where white might have thought he was better off since he gave up the knight for a rook. Little did White know that after Black gains a pawn, black's counter-play with two pawns at the center of the board would lead to a victory. Then finally, it was all over after Black's Bishop gave a check on f3, leading to the undeniable promotion of a pawn to a queen.

Game 2 - @stayoutoftherz vs @kintokris

Let's not forget there was another player who was gradually grabbing wins while punishing his opponent when they got low on time. No other than @stayoutoftherz. He had a total of 17 points gotten from 9 game wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses. Thereby finishing 4th in the standing at the end of the tournament. The highlighted game happens to be one out of the two games I lost to him where he played dutifully well, especially in the art of defense and knowing to keep his pawns on board making it close to impossible for me to get a draw, talk more about winning.

Game 3 - @rosmarly vs @franu

She knows how to put her pieces on ideal squares and with my past encounter against her in previous tournament games, I know she can punish a blunder when she sees one. However, this time around she was lucky in this game against Tz995(@franu) as she had a drawish endgame position with equal pawns and her bishop against her opponent's knight but she still got the win by flagging her opponent.

Game 4 - @giuatt07 vs @dhilan04

From the start of the game, you can tell that white wasn't here for jokes, they wanted the win. Starting from the pawn moves, the piece development, down to the expansion of pawns on the left flank. Oh, this was no joke, it was war. Then things began to get wicked after exchanges occurred on the board leading to the creation of a passer that later led to a win. Thumbs up for the final rook move attacking the knight and the same time protecting the passed pawn. It goes to show that simple attacking moves can cause more damage than expected.

Game 5 - @masterswatch vs stranger27

What is a chess tournament without a draw? The game had some fireworks at the beginning when white gained the advantage after gaining a free knight. But somehow later along the line, the piece was returned when certain attacking threats failed to yield a defining result. Then the moment came when the wheel of fortune smiled on black as they got the opportunity for a counterplay which led to a threefold perpetual check on the white king.

To view the tournament games and standing:
https://lichess.org/tournament/eRNLSvlA

Well, that's a wrap for the 3rd round of the Hivechess. It wasn't my best but hopefully a better try for me next week. I hope it will be another chess960. I need to redeem my repetition for my fans.