Greetings to all chess fans and Midnight owls! It's around midnight in our country (UTC+08:00). After missing last week's tournament, I joined the 18th round of the Hivechess Season 1 a few minutes ago and I'm writing this report just after the tournament ended. The Hivechess tournament is a weekly chess Arena blitz tournament which ran for over an hour. It starts at eleven pm our time and ends at midnight. The time control for this round was three minute blitz with an option to go on "berserk". Going berserk will give you half the time (1.5 minutes) but will give you an extra point if you win.
I placed 7th in this tournament. I didn't play as well as I liked. The reason I placed highly was participation of lower rated players. I played with a lot of lower rated opponents in this round and won most of my games. Against higher rated opponents like @jaki, I lost all my games.
The games were fun, even the ones I lost. It's the reason I keep playing even if the hour is late.
White to move and win
From one of my games, the position is common and the winning sacrifice is easy to find.
Against gmdalods-16
I was playing against gmdalods-16 rated 2300+ and he played berserk against me. The position is about equal and I just had to hold on and I would have won on time. I blundered by taking the pawn on b2. Find the winning move for White.
Favorite game
My favorite game in the tournament. My dark squared bishop on a3 controlled the diagonal and tied up my opponent's king. Even if I lost the exchange, my two bishops were stronger than Blacks two rooks.
Later my light squared bishop joined the fray. The position is already winning. My dark squared bishop was beautifully placed on a3.
Game link: https://lichess.org/2WDRIgp8qdCY
Thanks to @sam.chess @samostically for hosting and congratulations to the winners!
Link to tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/lbCrIEkf
Playing chess is great for the mind but let's not forget about physical activities. I recently committed to exercise and to keep me motivated, I joined actifit.io
