It takes more than being good!

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In 2020, chess taught me a lifelong lesson — you can be pretty good at something and still suck at it.

How do you mean? You may wonder.

Becoming successful at anything in life, be it academics, business, or even Chess. They all require you to be more than just good at the thing.

In 2020, I had improved a lot chess-wise. I practiced a lot online and it was pretty obvious my skills had really scaled up.

Sometime in the summer of the year, I was sponsored to a closed tournament. The line-up was pretty decent, but I knew for sure I was the strongest.

The day for the tournament came, it was the first round, and minutes into the game I had a winning position and at that point, I could literally hear my heartbeat through my ears.

I was extremely nervous — too nervous!

I ended up losing that game.

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Long story short, I performed pretty badly in the tournament.

Although I was arguably the strongest in the field, that wasn't enough!

Confidence, Resilience, tenacity, and even some degree of luck were needed if I were to come out on top. Not just chess strength.

This can be applied to every aspect of one's life.

• You can be pretty smart or intellectual but still fail a test if you do not study appropriately.

• You could be an expert designer but still not find clients

• There are so many elements to running a business and falling
  slack in a couple of areas will be detrimental to the business for sure.

I think you get the point now.

This lesson though, stuck with me over the years and this has improved my life and approach towards certain things.

Every project I embark on, I make sure to explore the not-so-obvious gems that will make that project a success.

This is another reason why I cannot get enough of saying "Chess is Life"

Well, speaking about Chess, I cannot go by without mentioning I Hive Chess. Yesterday was the fourth round of the 17th season.

Amazing stuff!

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Hive Chess by @stayoutoftherz

Unfortunately, I couldn't make time to play as I had a busy work schedule.

Later at night though, I did scroll through and found a few interesting games I'd like to give my thoughts on.

Game 1

eniolw (2388) vs @vjap55 (2111)| view game here

The game started pretty balanced with eniolw opting for a Zukertort opening formation.

A favorite of GM Hikaru.

I like the position more for white though as white here is slightly up in development - he can castle the next move and he has got his 2 bishops eying black's kingside.

However, the game progressed evenly and at this moment here, black decided to reduce some of the tension in the center with 9... cxd4:

This was a good decision in my opinion as the c-file becomes semiopen and black can put pressure with moves like Rc8.

White recaptured with his e pawn and the game progressed.

The first critical moment for black arose at move 21. after Nd6.

The computer suggested Nb4 counterattacking white's rook. Black understandably didn't play this as Rc7 would seemingly improve the rook's postion reinforcing white's attack on the Bishop.
But the rook does nothing and the game could have continued: 21...Nb4 22.Rc7 Bd5 23.Bg2 Bd8 24.Bxd5 Bxc7 25.Bxa8 Rxa826. Nb5 Bd8 27.Nxa3 Nd5 28.Nb5.

This is not what happened though.

Black continued with 21. Ba6

The computer categorizes this move as a blunder but I do not understand why that is.

The game progressed with both sides having their fair share of blunders, mistakes, and inaccuracies. The decisive blunder however, came in move 27 :

Black took on f5? but this allowed Nb7 and the Bishop on d8 has no free squares to go.

The better move was b5 creating space for the bishop to run. Still, white would have still had a better position though but at least black would still have some fighting chances.

From this point on. White would have no issue converting into a win. Black resigned a few moves later

Game 2

A Miniature from the tournament winner
tortyllan (2032) vs @lighteye (1697) | view game here

First thing I'd like to point out is White berzerked.

For those who do not know what berzerking is :

It is when a player clicks the Berserk button at the beginning of the game, they lose half of their clock time, but the win is worth one extra tournament point.
Lichess.org

Additionally, since the time control is incremental, the berzerker also loses their rights to the increment. in this case a 2-second addon.

The game started as a c3 Sicilian.

White had a pretty good space advantage in the center of the board and went on to advance it with e5 pawn push.

Here white had just played 10.h4 and black made the fatal blunder of castling.

Check if you can find the killer blow after 10... 0-0

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Bxh7!
a thematic bishop sacrifice.

The game ended a few moves later 11. Bxh7+ Kxh7 12. Ng5+ Kg6 13. h5+ 1-0

There's nothing black can do to save the game now.

Kf5 will lead to Qf3# and Kh6 loses the queen and eventually the game.

White still had 2 mins to finish the game - more than enough time. Berzerking paid off

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There you have it!

Feels awesome to be writing again, especially about Chess.
This is a link to the tournament in case you wish to check out some more games => Hivechess S17 Round 4 Arena

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Thanks For Reading!