Welcome! Chess fans, to the Games showcase post, where we will look at some interesting games from the fifth round of the Saturday Weekly Tournament.
The highlighted games feature either brilliant tactics, resilience, or good upsets. Game winners will share in the reward for their games being featured in this post. Rewards would be paid in Liquid.
In the last game feature post, I paid @stuffings and @dadapizza 4.8 Hive each, 10% each of the previous post reward.
20% of this post will be shared among the featured players, and it will be paid out in liquid.
Please don't forget, if you feel confident about any of your games during the Saturday weekly event, drop a link in the comment section in the report post next Sunday.
Game 1
@dakods vs IM @maestroask
The first game on the list is a game between Dakods and Maestroask, which involved a lot of positional play. If you do not know by now, Maestroask is an International Master of chess who loves to play weird lines, something unorthodox, and unconventional from the traditional way of playing chess openings, and the best part he gets his wins. I believe it works and it is not broken, so do not change it.
1. Nf3 g6 2. e3 Bg7 3. d4 d6 4. c3 e5 5. Bd3 Qe7
With his g6 response, I thought black wanted to play the Pirc defense, but as it turns out, he did not anymore, the moment he went for Qe7 and f5 pawn push. The best part of the game is how well Dakods continues playing with opening principles, developing his pieces towards the center, and he has even created space for his king to castle. But he saw black's approach with a pawn storm on the kingside, immediately he broke the center open to give himself some fighting chance.
6. Nbd2 f5 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. e4 f4 9. O-O Nf6?
Knight to f6 was the first move the computer marked as off for black because of how weak the center pawn of e5 is, and the open a2-g8 diagonal for white to take advantage of if black decides to castle king side.
As I anticipated, the light square diagonal has been exploited by the light square bishop, and it will even lead to black dropping an exchange in the not-so-far future. Once white plays Ng5, bringing in more threat to the black king. But when things got interesting, it was when this opened diagonal led to black's rook getting trapped.
From this point, there is much black can do to save the rook except go an exchange down in the position and going fighting, hopefully, white makes some mistake in the course of the game, which did not soccer. White went on to win the game from this point.
Here is the game link to view the game
Game Link
And the Game PGN:
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R5 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/TRPrtueq"]
[Date "2025.08.02"]
[White "Dakods-16"]
[Black "Odnoobraz_bcm"]
[Result "1-0"]
[GameId "TRPrtueq"]
[UTCDate "2025.08.02"]
[UTCTime "15:36:56"]
[WhiteElo "2271"]
[BlackElo "2572"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+10"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-14"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "240+0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[Opening "Zukertort Opening: Kingside Fianchetto"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]
1. Nf3 g6 2. e3 Bg7 3. d4 d6 4. c3 e5 5. Bd3 Qe7 6. Nbd2 f5 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. e4 f4 9. O-O Nf6 10. a4 O-O 11. b3 Rd8 12. Ba3 Qe8 13. Bc4+ Kh8 14. Ng5 Rd7 15. Be6 h6 16. Bxd7 Bxd7 17. Ngf3 g5 18. h3 Bc6 19. Nc4 Nbd7 20. Re1 Nxe4 21. Qc2 Nd6 22. Bxd6 cxd6 23. Nxd6 Qe6 24. Ne4 Rc8 25. Rad1 g4 26. hxg4 Qxg4 27. Nh2 Qg6 28. Qe2 Bxe4 29. Qxe4 Qxe4 30. Rxe4 Nc5 31. Rc4 Rc6 32. b4 Nxa4 33. Rxc6 bxc6 34. Rd8+ Kh7 35. Rc8 Nxc3 36. Rxc6 Nd5 37. b5 e4 38. Kf1 h5 39. Ke2 Nc3+ 40. Kd2 Nxb5 41. g3 e3+ 42. fxe3 fxg3 43. Nf3 a5 44. Rc5 Nd6 45. Rxa5 Ne4+ 46. Ke1 Kg6 47. Kf1 Bc3 48. Rd5 h4 49. Kg2 Kf6 50. Nxh4 Be5 51. Nf3 Bc7 52. Rh5 Ke6 53. Rb5 Kf6 54. Nd4 Be5 55. Rb6+ Kg5 56. Nf3+ Kf5 57. Rb5 Nc3 58. Rxe5+ Kf6 59. Rc5 Ne2 60. Rc6+ 1-0
Game 2
@poseout87 vs @iamchessguy
Iamchessguy did well in this round of HiveChess. Finishing 7th on the standings in the midst of strong chess players and this is means that to achieve this, you have to take down a couple of strong players as well. One of the strong players he won is poseout87, and he did it in a simple style, with the help of two passed pawns.
- e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5, Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation was the choice of opening. It is simple to play but can get white into a lot of trouble if he underestimates black's threats.
With the exchange of pawns, it looks like it is not that both sides simply played e4 e5, but on a close look, the c-file pawn is no longer on the board for black, and the e-file pawn is not on the board for white.
Things got interesting from here, white went for a pawn on b7 and black when for the center pawn. Those center pawns will later move on to give black the advantage in the endgame.
Qe7? is white first blunder in the position as it allows black to grab a pawn and initiative along the queenside once his rook is on b2, hitting the knight on d2 and the pawn on a2.
After queens are traded and it is the endgame, blacks two pawns at the center are strong threats for white that cannot be stopped. Making it hard to avoid promotion on the board for black. Once again the power of passed pawns cost poseout87 the game.
Here is the game link
Game Link
And the Game PGN:
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R5 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/82iJqr54"]
[Date "2025.08.02"]
[White "ManFromSpain"]
[Black "iamchessguy01"]
[Result "0-1"]
[GameId "82iJqr54"]
[UTCDate "2025.08.02"]
[UTCTime "15:16:10"]
[WhiteElo "2326"]
[BlackElo "2089"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-10"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+10"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "240+0"]
[ECO "B13"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Nf3 Bf5 5. h3 Nf6 6. Bd3 Bxd3 7. Qxd3 e6 8. Ne5 Bd6 9. Qb5+ Nbd7 10. Qxb7 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Bxe5 12. O-O O-O 13. Re1 Bd4 14. c3 Bb6 15. Be3 Bxe3 16. Rxe3 Qa5 17. Nd2 Rfb8 18. Qe7 Rxb2 19. Rg3 Qd8 20. Qxd8+ Rxd8 21. Nb3 Ne4 22. Rf3 Rc2 23. Nd4 Rxc3 24. Rxc3 Nxc3 25. a4 e5 26. Nf5 d4 27. Re1 f6 28. Ne7+ Kf7 29. Nc6 Rd7 30. f4 e4 31. Kf2 d3 0-1
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In two days, The reminder post with the tournament link and time will be up. Looking forward to the next round. Special thanks to @edicted for the idea of rewarding brilliant games weekly.
See You on Saturday!