Happy Halloween 🎃
See me saying it like I have ever experienced the event 😭😹
Yeah, we don't celebrate Halloween in my country Nigeria, there is no known reason though.
Intro: My Internet Frustrated me 😭
My Nigerian audience can concur with me that MTN and the rest internet service providers need big deliverance. I was initially using MTN to play the tournament, then all of a sudden, the internet ghosted me and my Lichess couldn't work anymore. I was inactive in the game for about 15 minutes. 😭
Proud me had to go and beg my younger sister to turn on her Wi-Fi so I could use to continue the tournament but that one too wasn't responding.
Well, let's not cry over spilt milk, I'm a big boy 😭😎
So, in spite of the drawback faced, I was able to amass a total of 16 points and I secured the 14th place out of 26 players.
As always, I'm proud of myself 🦚
Here's how the final leaderboard looked:
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🥇 ManFromSpain– 50 points
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🥈 Odnoobraz_bcm- 42 points
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🥉 Gmdalods– 35 points
📊
As usual, let's highlight some of the games that are quite interesting and we could learn from 👇🏼
Today's Game Highlights and Analysis
JUST_OLA VS JUST_FAVOUR
I and my friend @justfavour were paired twice. I won the first game but he beat me in the second game we had. In this first match we had, I played white and opened with the Scandinavian Defense. My opponent justfavour was being clever but it led to a blunder. He wanted to lay a trap with his bishop at b6 in attempt to capture my Queen but made a mistake which led to me capturing both his bishop and Queen; hence, me winning.
The Blunder:
Lets watch the gif:
https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/white/sE4fvGun.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett
Game Link: https://lichess.org/sE4fvGun
This is the PGN file of the game:
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R18 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/sE4fvGun"] [Date "2025.11.01"] [White "Just_ola"] [Black "justfavour"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "sE4fvGun"] [UTCDate "2025.11.01"] [UTCTime "15:53:39"] [WhiteElo "1726"] [BlackElo "1834"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+8"] [BlackRatingDiff "-8"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "180+0"] [ECO "B01"] [Opening "Scandinavian Defense"] [Termination "Normal"]
- e4 d5 2. Nc3 d4 3. Nce2 Nc6 4. d3 e5 5. h3 h6 6. Ng3 Nf6 7. f4 a6 8. f5 Bc5 9. Be2 Bb6 10. Bf3 Bd7 11. N1e2 Ne7 12. Nh5 Nxh5 13. Bxh5 Rf8 14. O-O Bb5 15. Qe1 Qd6 16. Qg3 Qf6 17. Qf2 O-O-O 18. Ng3 Nc6 19. Bg4 Kb8 20. Nh5 Qe7 21. Nxg7 Rh8 22. Nh5 Na7 23. f6 Qd6 24. Ng7 Bd7 25. Bxd7 Qxd7 26. Nf5 c5 27. Ne7 c4 28. Nd5 cxd3 29. cxd3 Nc6 30. Nxb6 Qc7 31. Nd5 Na7 32. Nxc7 Kxc7 33. Qf5 Rd6 34. Bd2 Nc6 35. Rac1 Kb8 36. Qh5 Rdd8 37. Qxf7 1-0
JUST_OLA VS IAMCHESSGUY01
This was my first and one of my best games in the tournament. My opponent is a formidable one and I had to be extra meticulous.
My opponent played White and kicked off with the Opening: Queen's Pawn Game: Accelerated London System.
Here, my opponent made a mistake by allowing me dominate the center and also a blunder which made me take a strong piece, the Rook at f3. It became easier to dabble around the board and win because of his errors.
Lets watch the gif:
https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/black/p6dPyzKV.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett
Game Link: https://lichess.org/p6dPyzKV/black
This is the PGN file:
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R18 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/p6dPyzKV"] [Date "2025.11.01"] [White "iamchessguy01"] [Black "Just_ola"] [Result "0-1"] [GameId "p6dPyzKV"] [UTCDate "2025.11.01"] [UTCTime "15:00:07"] [WhiteElo "1896"] [BlackElo "1729"] [WhiteRatingDiff "-8"] [BlackRatingDiff "+8"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "180+0"] [ECO "D00"] [Opening "Queen's Pawn Game: Accelerated London System"] [Termination "Normal"]
- d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Bd7 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. c3 a6 6. Nbd2 e6 7. a4 Na5 8. Bd3 Rc8 9. O-O c5 10. Ne5 c4 11. Be2 Ne4 12. Qc2 g5 13. Bg3 h5 14. Nxe4 dxe4 15. Qxe4 Nb3 16. Ra2 Nd2 17. Qc2 Nxf1 18. Bxf1 h4 19. Nxd7 Qxd7 20. Be5 Rg8 21. h3 Be7 22. Ra1 f6 23. Bh2 Bd6 24. Bxd6 Qxd6 25. Rd1 a5 26. Qh7 Qf8 27. Qh5+ Qf7 28. Qf3 Rc7 29. e4 f5 30. e5 g4 31. Qe3 gxh3 32. Qxh3 Rg4 33. Be2 Rf4 34. Bf3 Qg6 35. d5 Rg7 36. Kh1 Rd7 37. d6 Qg7 38. Qh2 Qxe5 39. Kg1 Rxd6 40. Rxd6 Qxd6 41. g3 Rxf3 0-1
MANFROMSPAIN VS ODNOOBRAZ_BCM
Kudos! to the champ.
He would have won all of his games but had two draws which spoilt the winning streak.
We all know Odnoobraz_bcm is a veryyy good player. I had to see how he lost this match.
Let's dive in 👇🏼
White opened with the Modern Defense and both players were setting up a good formation.
The turning point came when Black overextended on the kingside and blundered on move 38: exf4. It caused black to get a lot a pressure which collapsed his position and it led to checks, white used to advantage and black ran out of time
Lets watch the gif:
https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/white/vpqBVB6R.gif?theme=brown&piece=cburnett
Game Link: https://lichess.org/vpqBVB6R
This is the PGN file:
[Event "Saturday HiveChess S1R18 Arena"] [Site "https://lichess.org/vpqBVB6R"] [Date "2025.11.01"] [White "ManFromSpain"] [Black "Odnoobraz_bcm"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "vpqBVB6R"] [UTCDate "2025.11.01"] [UTCTime "15:55:44"] [WhiteElo "2365"] [BlackElo "2543"] [WhiteRatingDiff "+8"] [BlackRatingDiff "-10"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "180+0"] [ECO "B06"] [Opening "Modern Defense"] [Termination "Time forfeit"]
- e4 g6 2. h4 h5 3. Nc3 d6 4. d4 Bg7 5. Nf3 e5 6. Bc4 Nh6 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Qe2 f6 9. Be3 c6 10. Rd1 Qe7 11. Bb3 Nd7 12. O-O Ng4 13. Na4 Nxe3 14. Qxe3 Bh6 15. Qc3 Bf8 16. a3 Nb6 17. Nxb6 axb6 18. Rd2 Qc5 19. Qd3 Be7 20. Rfd1 Kf8 21. Qe2 Kg7 22. Ne1 Bg4 23. Nf3 Rhd8 24. c3 Rxd2 25. Qxd2 Rd8 26. Qe1 Bxf3 27. gxf3 Rd6 28. Qe2 b5 29. a4 b4 30. Rxd6 Bxd6 31. cxb4 Qxb4 32. Qd3 Qd4 33. Qc2 Bc5 34. Kg2 g5 35. hxg5 fxg5 36. Qe2 Kg6 37. Bd1 h4 38. f4 exf4 39. Qh5+ Kf6 40. Qh6+ Ke7 41. Qxg5+ Kd7 42. Qxf4 Qxd1 43. Qf5+ Kc7 44. Qxc5 Qg4+ 45. Kh2 Qxe4 46. Qa5+ Kc8 47. Qa8+ Kc7 48. Qa5+ Kc8 49. Qg5 Qxa4 50. Qg8+ Kc7 51. Qg7+ Kb8 52. Qf8+ Ka7 53. Qc5+ Ka8 54. Qf8+ Ka7 55. Qc5+ Ka8 56. Qc3 Qf4+ 57. Kg2 Qg4+ 58. Kf1 Qd1+ 59. Kg2 Qg4+ 60. Kh2 Qf4+ 61. Kh3 Qf5+ 62. Kxh4 Qxf2+ 63. Kg4 Qg2+ 64. Kf4 Qd5 65. Qh8+ Ka7 66. Ke3 Qc5+ 67. Kd3 Qb5+ 68. Kc2 Qa6 69. b3 Qb6 70. Kb2 Qa6 71. Qd4+ Qb6 72. Qa4+ 1-0
Thank you all for the games, it was really fun I won't lie. And thank you @samostically for hosting this tournament.
Saturday HiveChess S1R18 Arena
Image generated using Googles Nanobana:
https://aistudio.google.com/prompts/10UGxGzjUAtVa9PVS8qodz38glIPe5Ayp
