HiveChess Thematic Arena - Chess Tournament Report Including,Games Analysis And Tournament Stream

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It is my style to take my opponent and myself on to unknown grounds. A game of chess is not an examination of knowledge; it is a battle of nerves.

• David Bronstein

The weekend Hive chess continued today with the thematic tournament hosted by @schamangerbert

Today's tournament was a closed Sicilian defence, another variation of the Sicilian which involves the move f4!

The starting Position

Alot of ideas in this opening were played tonight. I think some players were prepared while some were caught unawares in bad positions very quickly! I think that's the idea of this themed openings and it's makes creativity and preparation important in every game. I have played this opening many times previously and I have a special way to get advantage with the white pieces which I will show you in this post.

The tournament was played with 18 players!. Hive user @tungphong Also known as Blackswan21 continues his dominance on #Hivechess by winning today's arena comfortably. @vjap55 2135+ performance was enough to claim second position and @eniolw finished 3rd.

Black once again won most of the games with 52%,white with 42% and 5% of the games were drawn. That goes to show the level of strategy played with the black pieces, I found some interesting games I enjoyed and would be looking to create another Hivechess study during the week.

Congratulations to The winners And everyone who played

GAME 1

The first game that caught my attention was the game between white @jaki01 against
Black @eniolw . As we all know by now, Jaki01 loves to experiment in the opening. This game,he was caught by surprise after 7.Na3?!

Black played 7. Bb4+ and after 8.Kf2 Bxa3
9.bxa3 0-0 . Black was slightly better.

But @jaki01 did well to hold the position till move 20.

Then 21. Bg1?? (better would have been Bc1 where white still controls that important c1 to h6 diagonal)

Game proceeded with 21.Rf4 as black used the bishop absence immediately!

The game ended with a Spectacular finish by Black!

Here is the full Game Gif / Pgn so you can replay and enjoy the game!

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/xtGLZ0oi"]
[Date "2021.11.20"]
[White "jaki01"]
[Black "eniolw"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2021.11.20"]
[UTCTime "20:44:01"]
[WhiteElo "2374"]
[BlackElo "2449"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/4PP2/8/PPPP2PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1... Nc6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 d5 4. e5 Nge7 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nf5 7. Na3 Bb4+ 8. Kf2 Bxa3 9. bxa3 O-O 10. g4 Nh4 11. Be3 Nxf3 12. Kxf3 f6 13. Kg3 fxe5 14. fxe5 Bd7 15. Bd3 Qe7 16. Rb1 b6 17. Rb3 Rf7 18. h4 Raf8 19. Be2 Na5 20. Rc3 Nc4 21. Bg1 Rf4 22. g5 Qf7 23. Bg4 Rf1 24. Qc2 Qf4+ 25. Kh3 Nd2 26. Rd3 Ne4 27. Qh2 Qc1 28. Be2 R8f2 29. Bxf1 Qxf1+ 0-1

GAME 2

@tungphong was dominant in today's event but fell to our host HerbyW Also known as @schamangerbert on Hive. He demonstrated that activity in chess is all you need to win a chess game.

HerbyW was black and played the opening in such a way that the queens were off the board as at move 8!

He did well to maintain equality and as at move 16 after black played f6!

We arrive at this position where both sides has equal pieces with the positions of the pawns the difference.

It might be easier to play white as the pawns island looks together. But that is more reason why the game is interesting as black won!

What did black do first?

Black found a way to get rid of it's only weakness, the doubled a-pawn!

Then went further to activate the rooks together. Like a well known theory in chess

The Rooks Are Better On the Same Rank or File

White played wrongly with 29.Kc3?? (Where the king will have difficulties protecting the b-pawn)

Suggest a better move for white?

Black played the rest of the game clinically.

Here is the full Game Gif / Pgn so you can replay and enjoy the game!

[Event "Hive Thematic Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/LTFCXOgu"]
[Date "2021.11.20"]
[White "blackswan21"]
[Black "HerbyW"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2021.11.20"]
[UTCTime "20:36:21"]
[WhiteElo "2441"]
[BlackElo "1764"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[TimeControl "300+2"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/4PP2/8/PPPP2PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

1... d5 2. Nc3 dxe4 3. Nxe4 Nf6 4. Nxf6+ gxf6 5. Nf3 Bh6 6. d4 cxd4 7. Qxd4 Qxd4 8. Nxd4 e5 9. fxe5 Bxc1 10. Rxc1 fxe5 11. Nb5 Na6 12. Nd6+ Ke7 13. Nxc8+ Raxc8 14. Bxa6 bxa6 15. Kf2 Rc6 16. Rhe1 f6 17. c4 Rhc8 18. Re4 a5 19. Rh4 Rh8 20. g4 Kf7 21. Ke3 Kg6 22. h3 Kg5 23. Rh5+ Kg6 24. b3 h6 25. Rd1 Rh7 26. Rd5 a4 27. Kd3 axb3 28. axb3 Rb6 29. Kc3 a6 30. Rd8 Rhb7 31. c5 Rxb3+ 32. Kc4 R7b4+ 33. Kd5 Rb7 34. Kc6 a5 35. Rg8+ Rg7 36. Rxg7+ Kxg7 37. Rf5 Rxh3 38. Kb5 Rg3 39. c6 a4 40. Kxa4 Rc3 41. Kb5 Kg6 42. Rf1 e4 43. Rf4 e3 44. Re4 f5 45. gxf5+ Kxf5 46. Re8 h5 47. Kb6 h4 48. c7 Kf4 49. Rf8+ Kg3 50. Rg8+ Kf2 51. Rf8+ Ke1 52. Rh8 Rc4 53. Rxh4 Rxh4 54. c8=Q Rh2 55. Qc1+ Kf2 56. Qc2+ e2 57. Kc5 Kf1 58. Qf5+ Rf2 59. Qb1+ e1=Q 60. Qxe1+ Kxe1 0-1

I did play some interesting games and I enjoyed the white pieces. Like I said earlier I had a strategy playing with the white pieces.

I will show the GIF of two games I played with the white pieces, please if you are reading this, I need you to note the similarities between them and tell me what you think about that strategy in the comments section.

First Game

Second Game

I drew the first game by a misplay in the ending but won the second game.

I wanted to try the same idea in my game against @stayoutoftherz but after 9.Qe2 Black took the important f3 knight with 9.Bxf3

I ended the tournament on 7th place which is not a good one but I think I enjoyed myself. I'm getting used to talking in front of the camera although my results sometimes has been shaky. I can say it is due to increase in strengths in the tournament.

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Please do let me know if you don't want to get mentions/tagged in my report.
Images and Screenshots Used in this article are mine except stated otherwise