This weekend was one of those weekends where there were three Hivechess tournaments unlike the previous weekend which was usual.
If you have been following my blog especially the ones about my chess performance, you will know that I am not experienced when it comes to playing chess960. I only try my best.
Anyway, today's round was 960 and I tried to play some decent games. The highlight of the event of the tournament was @stayoutoftherz who performed well. I guess chess96 is his strong suit. Then the strong Odon player won the tournament while I finished in 3rd place.
A decent performance if you ask me in chess960. A win rate of 60%, berserk rate of 40% and a rating performance of 1800+.
This was one of the games I won against Stayouoftherz. I played simple chess while waiting for a weak or two from my opponent. The opportunity finally gave me an intro when he castled. I began to focus my attention in that direction starting with knight moves.
The winning opportunity came in at this point when both my knights were attacking his knight and alongside position. I went for the knight exchange and after he captured back with his queen, it was a loss because the knight captures a7 pawn and gives a fork on the king and queen. He resigned afterwards.
You can watch the game:
https://lichess.org/j2SGlHsr/white#27
This second game is also against the same opponent and this is the game I lost. Although I lost another game to him but I didn't make in move in that game. I didn't get notified when I was paired.
In this game, he defended well and the moment I played the blunderous Nb6+, all my edge in the game was gone faster than I knew it. My opponent went for Kb7, the right move and he didn't fall for the trick on the Nb6+. It was afterwards that I had to prove my true chess strength but I just could not find the best moves. Things in the game became complicated for me instantly. My bishop got trapped, my knight as well. In due time, the bishop was picked up followed by the knight. But the worst part of the game was when my king ran into a completely cramped position. Making it hard for me to even find any surviving moves. The game ended in a forced mating position.
You can watch the game here:
https://lichess.org/3NwWMhcO/white#68
It was a decent performance for me. Huge congratulations to the winners.