3rd Place Finish On My Return to Hive Chess

It had been a minute since I last played Hive chess organized by @stayoutoftherz , but the game had always been a favorite of mine. So when I heard about the new Hive Chess season, I knew I had to jump back into the groove.

As usual, the tournament was pretty exciting.

It was a tough field, I knew my chances of making it to the top were minimum as I was hardly in a good form.

I decided to go on a Berzerk spree; i.e start the games with half my opponent's time in a bid to earn more points if I could get the win.

Well, it worked.

I started out the tournament with 3 straight berzerk wins resulting in 9 points instead of the normal 6 I would have gotten without the berzerk. This gave me the initial boost I needed to place top in the tournament.

The first game was an exciting one, It was against @emic AKA emichessmaster (2137); a very decent player.

The game started out as a French defense, my opponent opted for 3. ... Qxd5 which gave me the chance to expand in the center with 4. c4

After castling and 8. Nc3 I had achieved a good position and a slightly easier one to play than blacks.

The game progressed quite normally, with both sides completing their development and improving the piece's placement.

16. Nf7!

There came the first tactical blow, white went on to win a pawn because 17.Nh6+! prevents the night from being captured.

From here on, it was all a matter of technique as black was a pawn down and had an isolated and weak pawn on e6.

After a couple of moves, black succumbed to the pressure and finally broke. Black lost a full piece on move 30.
From that moment, it was only a matter of time. I went on to win the game on move 60

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What goes around comes around

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Remember my last chess blog?

I analyzed a game where my opponent was completely winning but blundered in two moves and I went on to win the game.

Well, this time around, I was the victim.

After my first 3 straight victories, I was paired with the Candidate Master: sawkito (2372). @sawko

I played black and the game started out very optimally for black.

It was the dxc6 line in the Scotch game. Not the most optimum line but black got a good position

After 12. Kh1, the computer gave black a -1.6± advantage.

But I messed it up!

I made three moves blunder

This game was the beginning of so many other losses.

I ened

But in the end, As the dust settled and the scores were tallied, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I somehow managed to finish in third place!

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Thanks For Reading!