Chess gameplay review | Hivechess S19 Round 9

Hivechess S19 Round 9, by @stayoutofherz. Perhaps the most interesting tournament so far. Although I only won four matches out of eight, it was about the games for me. I would say I did better than the last week. And the previous was better than the one before. So, I guess I'm getting the hang of things again. Anyway, here are some of my games.

vs FCastro17

I played white in the first game against user FCastro17. Seeing that he was 2100 rated, I just sighed, but I gave it a try. Then things were going well for a while. I felt I was holding up nicely until, well, everything started crumbling slowly.

Analysing the game later on, I started to slip badly somewhere in the middle of the game. Made a blunder, and this other guy didn't miss it. It was a slow burn—man took his time—and then I lost on time.

vs RDcast

I played black and went with the French defence against RDcast's opening with d3. We pawned pieces for a while in the beginning before we traded knights. Then we stuck with our pieces, and things got really choked up.

Choked up because we didn't touch our pawns until the 41st move, when I made a bishop sacrifice to gain advantage by eventually promoting a pawn into a queen. The opponent knew I had greater chances of winning, so they just resigned.

vs Kon_1

This was a very concerning game for me. I played white against this really low-rated player [at 929]. Easy to underrate, but it's chess—underrating anybody could be the beginning of your loss. I didn't let my guard down and stayed on my toes.

I already knew from the first four moves that this opponent was way better than their rating was telling. The game didn't last long. 30 moves, and I won by checkmate. Kon_1 played like someone around my rating, between 1500 and 1600. Not sure what they were doing at 900.

vs lighteye

This game took a while. 61 moves to, and I lost by checkmate. I played French defence with black against lighteye. Although the game took long, I was already not feeling my stand, and the opponent held strong all through.

We both had very little time on our clocks in the end. I thought if I could hold on a little longer, they'd overthink and lose on time instead. But they held strong and managed to promote a pawn to a queen. With two queens on the board, four seconds was enough for them to land a checkmate with an open board.

vs Yetundefemii

Got paired with my brother (@yinjuolu). The game surprising went better than I expected. I mean, I did lose in the end, but we were definitely going to agree on a draw if time wasn't an issue.

From the analysis, he had a little more edge in the beginning. And I did feel like he was having it better for most of the opening and the middle game. But there was a point when things flipped and I had the advantage. I blundered a pawn, and then we were just back to playing draw. And then I lost on time.

I won four out of eight matches and finished 13th place. Next week will be better. Took my rating from 1400s to 1600 in a week. Let's see what I do in another week. Till then, "The knight fork is beautifully devastating..."

_{Posted Using InLeo Alpha}