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The Meeple Guild: Touching base with a Hive champion

Ben Harris who said he was initially introduced to Hive by a friend, said he felt he could win it all this year.
hive
Champion Ben Harris says the game is evolving to a more control-oriented style of play amongst many of the top players.

YORKTON - The 2024 edition of the online World Hive Championship was held recently and Scotland’s Ben Harris emerged the winner.

“It was very cool,” said the 27-year-old via a recent email interview. “I put a lot of work into studying and preparing for the tournament so to see it finally pay off, and with a convincing scoreline in the final, was very satisfying.”

Harris who said he was initially introduced to Hive by a friend, said he felt he could win it all this year.

“I definitely thought that I had a decent chance to win this year, but there were other players who I knew would put up a very strong fight,” he said. “This was my third world championship tournament and after the second one last year I spent some time reflecting on why I hadn’t performed as well as I hoped. I changed my approach to some areas of the game in response to that -- particularly openings -- and I think that definitely helped me feel more prepared this year.”

That said it gets more challenging every year at the highest level of the game created by John Yianni and initially released in 2001.

“I think the standard of play in the world championship continues to increase every year,” offered Harris. “I think there were at least five players who had a good chance of competing for the title this year, and many more who were not easy to get past either.

“Interestingly the reigning, and four-time, champion ‘Jewdoka’ (Joe Shultz) was not the player who I feared the most. I actually have a decent record against him in recent tournament play, and I think that my playing style matches up well against his.

“But several of my matches against other players went to tiebreaks and it could easily have gone either way.”

In the end it was ‘HappyKiwi’ aka Patrik Berggren that Harris defeated in the event final.

So what does the new champion see as the biggest development in terms of game play with Hive?

“There has been a trend in the last couple of years towards a more control-oriented style of play amongst many of the top players,” he said.

“Previously players tended to play quite aggressively with white, sacrificing pieces to go for a quick attack against the opponent’s queen.

“Nowadays, most top players tend to build up their position more slowly, giving themselves multiple options for how to pursue the attack, and only fully committing once they are more confident of success.”

The new approach was one Harris himself favoured in the championship.

“I certainly employed this style in most of my games, and it contributed to me not losing a single game with the white pieces in the entire tournament, although I did have some draws,” he said.

Harris said the evolution seems to have something in common with chess’ past.

“In chess they talk about the romantic era - where players played crazy, aggressive lines and tried to checkmate their opponent,” he said. “I think the romantic era in Hive is coming to an end, and we are moving into a different level of game play. I think we are realizing that although Hive can be a very attacking game, it might not be the best way to play in many situations, and it is actually a very fascinating positional game as well.”

Harris said he now tends to play a more control-oriented style.

“I use the ants and spiders to pin the opponent’s pieces on the outside of the hive, and I focus more on long term factors such as the material count, which will give me a small advantage throughout the whole game that I can eventually convert to a win in the endgame,” he explained.

“But of course every game is different and sometimes the position just requires you to go all in and attack as well.”

Does the style favour certain pieces?

“I don’t really have a favourite piece to attack with, since I am not so much of an attacking player, but my favourite piece in general is the pillbug,” said Harris.

“Everyone knows that the pillbug is useful for defending your queen, but it can also be extremely useful in other ways. In particular, it creates many opportunities to rearrange the shape of the hive into more favourable configurations, particularly when you can use it to warp your opponents pieces into places that they did not want them to go.”

Of course it was only natural to ask the champion’s thoughts on the much-maligned spider?

“The spider is very useful for creating threats against more valuable pieces, such as ants, beetles or the opponent’s queen,” said Harris. “If you can use the spider to create a threat that must be responded to, then you save your ants for later when they are needed.

“One of my main opening setups with black this year made use of an early spider placement and it would not work if this piece was an ant instead. If you are ever wondering how to use the spider effectively, watch some games between strong players and you will see why it is not a useless piece.

Another tip for newer players: the spider is one of the worst starting pieces -- I think only the ant is worse -- because it cannot jump out once it gets surrounded.”

On a number of sites you see Hive players offering variant piece ideas, and discussing whether another official ‘bug’ might ever be created. Would that be good for game?

“I don’t think another expansion is necessary,” said Harris. “The game seems in a good place right now and I think there is a lot that we still have to learn about the current game.

“For example, opening theory is still quite underdeveloped, and I think that our understanding of positional play has a long way to go.

“Also any new expansion would require very extensive play testing to understand how it affects the balance of the game.

“If there was to be a new expansion it should be a defensive piece, since white already has some advantage so adding additional attacking pieces would be unwise.”

Now nearing a quarter of a century old, can Hive become more akin to chess in the abstract strategy game space?

“I certainly hope to see that day,” said Harris. “Hive has sold over one million copies, which is pretty good for a modern abstract game, but the competitive scene is still pretty small.”

In that regard Harris has some ideas to grow the game play.

“One thing that I think would benefit the game in the long run, is if they stop having different versions of the game with or without the expansion pieces,” he said. “Virtually all top players think that the complete game (pillbug + ladybug + mosquito) has the most strategic variety, and is also the most balanced, and I think we would benefit if the complete game was simply referred to as Hive, and the other versions are referred to mainly for historical interest.

“Recently Gen42 released Hive Ultimate - the complete game in one box - which is a good step forward, and I hope that they market this as the standard going forward.

“Aside from that, promoting Hive on the internet is probably the fastest way to grow the game.”

For Harris Hive has become his favoured game, as he noted he plays no other at such a high level.

“I was previously a decent amateur chess player (1800 elo on lichess), and I think my calculation ability in chess helped me to pick up Hive fairly quickly, but I pretty much gave up chess after I found Hive.

“I have also dabbled in a couple of other abstract games - Santorini, Tumbleweed, Abalone - but never got really hooked on any of them.”

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