HiveChess Season 10 Round 1: Tournament Video & Games Analysis.

Hello everyone, How are you doing today?
The Hivechess seasons began yesterday with the first of the three tournaments.

_{Yes! 3 tournaments every weekend. To know about them,you can check this post here Play Chess and Earn as the New HiveChess Seasons Begin}

Yesterday, we began the 10th season and the numbers were incredible.

With new strong players like Woman Fide Master @perpz and @wildthougts joining and the return of Candidate Master @sawko, I expected the tournament to be tougher.

And yes! I was right...

The tournament was played by 37 players which i believe is a Round 1 record.
Hive user @sawko,Also known as Sawkito on lichess who won season 8 returned with a blazing performance. From the start of the tournament, he looked liked he wasn't going to settle for anything less than the 1st position. Nevertheless, it wasn't going to be easy, as Defending champion @tungphong, also known as Blackswan21, fought a good fight too. At the end, with a win rate of 83%, @sawko ended first position, leaving @tungphong, second. In third place was @jaki01 who had a comfortable 67% win rate.

The field was indeed a tough one as the average rating was 1891+. We had about 5 players begin the tournament with at least 2300+ which is really incredible.

GAME 1 : @eniolw(2442) 1-0 @sawko(2400)

Although, @sawko won the tournament convincingly, he had alot of difficulties against his chess brother @eniolw. I like the game because it features the Benko Gambit which i love to play. I want to share my thoughts on the opening and the game in general.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5!

The idea of the benko gambit is to sacrifice a pawn or even pawns for quicker development on the queen side.

White plays first and is usually ahead in development, so the idea of the benko gambit is to try and equalize in development with a pawn sacrifice.

On move 7, we can see how black has progressed.

Black played 7.d6 here.

Now white has to develop his bishop to g2, as he wouldn't want to play the immediate e3 because of Bxf1.

After 11.Rb1, I believe the opening phase has been completed. Black is still down a pawn, but unlike other queen pawn positions, he has more ideas to play with, And his Bishop on a6 is very strong and prevents the e4.

As you would see in the game below, black allowed white to re-group and play e4. With so much passive moves, white was totally in control at the start of the middle game.

17.e4 Ba6 18.Re1 Ne8??

It just looks so difficult for black to find a good plan here especially in a blitz game. White dominated from here and converted a brilliant game.

Here is a Gif & Pgn of the game

[Event "Hivechess S10 R1 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/nxTw4Yfe"]
[Date "2022.01.14"]
[Round "?"]
[White "eniolw"]
[Black "sawkito"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2442"]
[BlackElo "2400"]
[ECO "A58"]
[TimeControl "300+1"]
[UTCDate "2022.01.14"]
[UTCTime "20:47:06"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+6"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-8"]
[BlackTitle "CM"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[Opening "Benko Gambit Accepted: Fianchetto Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Source "Analyze This App"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 g6 6. Nc3 Bxa6 7. Nf3 d6 8. g3 
Bg7 9. Bg2 O-O 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Rb1 Nb6 12. b3 Qd7 13. Bb2 Bb7 14. Ne1 c4 15. 
Nc2 cxb3 16. axb3 Rfb8 17. e4 Ba6 18. Re1 Ne8 19. Nd4 Rc8 20. Nce2 Bxe2 21. Nxe2 
Ra2 22. Bxg7 Nxg7 23. Nd4 Rc3 24. Re2 Ra8 25. Rc1 Rac8 26. Rxc3 Rxc3 27. Rc2 Qc7 
28. Qc1 Rxc2 29. Qxc2 Qa7 30. Qb2 Qa5 31. b4 Qa4 32. Bf1 Qd1 33. Nc6 Kf8 34. 
Nxe7 Nc4 35. Qe2 Qb1 36. Qxc4 Kxe7 37. Qc7+ Kf6 38. Qxd6+ 1-0

GAME 2 :

@wildthougts(2327) 0-1 @samostically(2301)

I played the black side of a king's Indian attack three times against @wildthougts. Amongst the three games which i won, I loved this one the most because of the sacrifices i took

After 7.e4 we have a kings Indian setup for white.
This opening is very solid and technical, you can look at some games from Grandmaster Amin Bassem to understand why the KIA is such a special opening.

However, yesterday, playing against the KIA, I had a trick up my sleeve.

I played 12.f6 with a very funny idea which you would see in the next Image.

After 13.h3, I played Nxf2! Sacrificing my knight.

As you can see, the f6 would then capture e5 and give the rook a semi open file which would be dangerous.

With moves like e4, Qxg3. Black ended up getting more pawns for the lost knight.

Then after 18.Qh5? h6. White Is forced to give back the knight.

After the exchanges, black ended up a pawn up with a better position.

On move 23, how should black proceed?

Whichever way, it ended 0-1.

Here is the Gif & pgn of Game 2

[Event "Hivechess S10 R1 Arena"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/MWHJoRCS"]
[Date "2022.01.14"]
[White "Wildthougts"]
[Black "ZGM_Samostically"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2022.01.14"]
[UTCTime "20:04:20"]
[WhiteElo "2313"]
[BlackElo "2297"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-7"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+6"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "300+1"]
[ECO "A07"]
[Opening "King's Indian Attack"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c6 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. O-O e6 5. d3 Be7 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. e4 Nbd7 8. Re1 Qc7 9. e5 Ng4 10. Qe2 Bc5 11. d4 Bb6 12. c3 f6 13. h3 Nxf2 14. Kxf2 fxe5 15. Kg1 e4 16. Ng5 Qxg3 17. Nf1 Qd6 18. Qh5 h6 19. Nxe4 dxe4 20. Bxe4 e5 21. Kh1 Nf6 22. dxe5 Nxh5 23. exd6 Rxf1+ 24. Rxf1 Ng3+ 25. Kg2 Nxe4 26. Bf4 Bd7 27. Rae1 Re8 28. Kf3 Nf6 29. Rxe8+ Nxe8 30. Re1 Bd8 31. Kg3 Kf7 32. h4 Nf6 33. Be5 Nh5+ 34. Kf3 Nf6 35. Bxf6 Bxf6 36. h5 a5 37. a3 b5 38. Ke4 Be6 39. Rf1 Bd7 40. Kf4 Ke6 41. Ke4 Kxd6 42. Rd1+ Ke6 43. Kf4 c5 44. Ke4 Bc6+ 45. Kf4 Bd5 46. Re1+ Kd6 47. Kf5 b4 48. cxb4 axb4 49. axb4 cxb4 50. Re2 Bd4 51. Rd2 Kc5 0-1

In Conclusion...

I know for sure that this season would be interesting. I doubt we would have a clear winner early like the last time. But there are still 9 more rounds! So who knows.

I came fifth and I had a lot of distractions while playing so i couldn't record the whole tournament. I hope you enjoy my tournament video.

♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟

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