I had a hectic day today. I left the house very early and returned tired. I actually participated in a chess competition. You see, my church has many branches in my state, so every year, the organization in charge of sports hosts a sports competition across all churches within my state, which they call Sports Fiesta. Every year, someone from my family represents my church in chess. It is usually me, my brother, or in some rare cases, my cousin. Due to school, I haven't participated in the competition for the last 3-4 years, and this time, fate had it that I would be the one to represent my church in chess. The tournament went pretty well, but that's a story for another day.
Today is Saturday and I totally forgot about the Hive weekly tournament. It wasn't until I got home, ate, and decided to check my Lichess app that I saw that I had missed the whole thing. Still, I reviewed the games and was impressed with the things I saw. As usual, I'll be reviewing some of the games that caught my attention. I was surprised to see that @justola1 made it to the top 5. He won all games against lower-rated players and even won some ones against higher-rated players. He was on fire!
@Justola1 Vs @Iamchessguy
The first game to be reviewed is that of Justola VS Iamchessguy. Justola’s opponent is a very strong player whom I find very difficult to defeat. He often berserks his game, so I was not surprised when I saw that he did the same in his game against Justola. Chessguy opened the game with the Queen’s Pawn Game. In the middle of the game, Justola lost a few pawns, a rook, and more importantly, his queen. I'm pretty sure he was close to resigning after blundering these pieces, but somehow, he kept on playing. Out of the blue, Chessguy started blundering his pieces, and Justola was sure to seize the moment. This game is actually very impressive considering how Justola went from losing pieces to winning the game.
- d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 Nb6 5. c3 Bd7 6. Nbd2 e6 7. Be2 Ba4 8. b3 Bd7 9. O-O c5 10. Ne5 cxd4 11. cxd4 Ne4 12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Qc2 f5 14. Qd1 g6 15. Rc1 g5 16. Bg3 h5 17. h3 g4 18. Re1 gxh3 19. Bxh5+ Ke7 20. Ng6+ Kf6 21. Nxh8 hxg2 22. Bh4+ Kg7 23. Bxd8 Rxd8 24. Ng6 Be8 25. Nf4 Bc6 26. a4 Nd5 27. Nxd5 Bxd5 28. Rc7+ Kf6 29. Qc2 Bd6 30. Rf7+ Kg5 31. Be2 Rh8 32. Kxg2 e5 33. Rg1 Bxf7 34. Kf1+ Kf6 35. Bc4 Be8 36. Bd5 exd4 37. exd4 Rh3 38. Qe2 Rf3 39. Ke1 b5 40. axb5 Bb4+ 41. Kd1 Bh5 42. Kc1 Rc3+ 43. Qc2 Ba3+ 44. Kb1 Rxc2 45. Kxc2 Be2 46. Bc4 Bf3 47. Rg8 f4 48. Rf8+ Bxf8 49. d5 e3 50. fxe3 fxe3 51. b6 axb6 0-1
This is another “close to losing game” that Justola again managed to pull off. The last time I played with Southgamer, they were rated 2000+, but now they are 1900+. Southgamer played beautifully and even pulled off some nice forks,
- e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nge2 d5 4. Ng3 d4 5. Nce2 Nc6 6. d3 Nf6 7. Bg5 e5 8. Nh5 Be7 9. Nxf6+ Bxf6 10. Bd2 h5 11. h4 Bg4 12. c3 Qb6 13. Rb1 Rc8 14. c4 Nb4 15. Qb3 O-O 16. a3 Nc6 17. Qxb6 axb6 18. f3 Be6 19. Ng3 g6 20. b4 Ra8 21. bxc5 bxc5 22. Be2 Rxa3 23. O-O Rfa8 24. Bg5 Bxg5 25. hxg5 Nb4 26. Rfd1 Ra2 27. Kf2 Rc2 28. Ke1 Raa2 29. Rbc1 Rcb2 30. Bf1 Nc2+ 31. Rxc2 Rxc2 32. Rb1 Rab2 33. Rxb2 Rxb2 34. Ne2 b5 35. cxb5 Rxb5 36. Kf2 c4 37. dxc4 Bxc4 38. g3 Rb2 39. Ke1 d3 40. Nc3 Rc2 41. Nd5 d2+ 42. Kd1 Bb3 43. Ke2 Bxd5 44. exd5 Rc5 45. Kxd2 Rxd5+ 46. Ke3 Rd4 47. Bd3 Kf8 48. f4 Rb4 49. fxe5 Ke7 50. Be4 Rb3+ 51. Kf4 Rb4 52. Ke3 Ke6 53. Bg2 Kxe5 54. Kf3 Rg4 55. Bh3 Rxg5 56. Kg2 f5 57. Kf3 Kd4 58. Bf1 Ke5 59. Be2 Rg4 60. Kg2 Re4 61. Bf3 g5 62. Kf2 Rd4 63. Be2 Rb4 64. Ke3 Rb2 65. Kd3 Rb3+ 66. Kd2 Rb6 67. Bd3 Rb4 68. Bc2 Rd4+ 69. Kc3 Rg4 70. Kb3 Rxg3+ 71. Kb2 Kf4 72. Bb3 h4 73. Ka3 h3 74. Ka4 h2 75. Bd5 h1=Q 76. Bxh1 1-0
This time, our best player had a 100 percent win rate. My memories are flawed, but I think Gmdalods is one of the few players who have defeated Odnoobraz, but this game didn't go well for him.
[1. Nf3 g6 2. e3 Bg7 3. d4 d6 4. c3 e5 5. Bd3 Qe7 6. Nbd2 Nh6 7. O-O O-O 8. e4 f6 9. Re1 Nd7 10. Nf1 Nf7 11. Ng3 Kh8 12. h3 a5 13. a4 Nb6 14. b4 Bd7 15. b5 Be6 16. d5 Bc8 17. c4 Nd7 18. Be3 b6 19. Qd2 Re8 20. Rac1 Qf8 21. Nh2 Bh6 22. f4 exf4 23. Bxf4 Bxf4 24. Qxf4 Nfe5 25. Bf1 Nc5 26. Ra1 Ned3 27. Bxd3 Nxd3 28. Qd2 Nxe1 29. Rxe1 Qe7 30. Nf3 Kg7 31. Nd4 Bd7 32. Qf2 Qe5 33. Nf3 Qf4 34. Kh2 h5 35. Kg1 Re7 36. Nd4 Qxf2+ 37. Kxf2 Rae8 38. h4 Kh6 39. Re2 Re5 40. Kf3 Bg4+ 41. Kf2 Bxe2 42. Kxe2 Rxe4+ 43. Nxe4 Rxe4+ 44. Kd3 Rxh4 45. Ne6 Rg4 46. Nxc7 Rg3+ 47. Kd4 Rxg2 48. Ne8 h4 49. Nxd6 h3 50. Ne4 h2 51. d6 h1=Q 52. Nxf6 Qh4+ 53. Ne4 Rg4 54. d7 Rxe4+ 55. Kd5 Rd4+ 56. Kc6 Qd8 57. c5 bxc5 58. Kxc5 Rxa4 59. b6 Rb4 60. Kc6 Rxb6+ 61. Kc5 Qc7+ 62. Kd5 Rd6+ 63. Ke5 Qxd7 64. Kf4 Qe7 65. Kg3 Rd4 66. Kh3 Qe3+ 67. Kg2 Rd2+ 68. Kf1 Qf2# 0-1
As usual, thanks to the host @samostically for today’s tourney. Follow @sam.chess for more updates about this tournament. See you next week!
Thanks for reading.