Dear chess fans,
yesterday the final round 10 of S18 was played. Only 17 players had participated in a 4+2 "marathon" (90 min.). Maybe I should have postponed it, as at the same time there was the soccer match Netherlands vs. France! Welcome to Hivechess, 
This time finally 
Congratulations to All!
Result table of round 10:
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/lLBXJuWj
Season 18: 19 Apr to 21 Jun 2024 / Final Rankings:
Tournament 1 (0-1449)
Tournament 2 (1450-1749)
Tournament 3 (1750-2099)
Tournament 4 (>2099)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Pavarotty | 2428 | 7 | 128 | 2219,5 |
| 2 | | eniolw | 2422 | 7 | 125 | 2202.8 |
| 3 |  | ZGM_Samostically | 2101 | 4 | 69 | 2099,5 |
| 4 |  | tony1294 | 2340 | 1 | 18 | 2122 |
In tournament 1 
For the rules please refer to the announcement post.
All the results of this season are listed here (the different tiers are labelled with different colors):
Congratulations to the new champions and all participants!
Special price
The price of 5 Hive for the highest average performance in relation to the own rating goes to: 
In addition, the 500 LEO sponsored by 
Season stats
In season 18 in total 42 players were participating (2 players less than in S17). The average participation was with 19,5 players per round similar than in the previous 2 seasons (19,7 and 19,5), but far lower than e.g. in S15 (27,2). So it seems that the concept of breaking it down to several tournaments of different skill levels did NOT increase the engagement.
The number of players who participated regularly was disappointingly low (e.g. 45,2% of players played only one or two rounds, that was even more than in last season (43,2%)). Since the minimum participation threshold was this season 6 rounds instead of 5, only 17 players (=40%) qualify for prices!
The prizepool from the post rewards will be about 600 Hive (last season it was 616 Hive)! Since Hive is so undervalued currently, I decided to use the opportunity and sell some HBD saved in the 
As always, all prizes will be transferred in app. one week, after the payout of this post (and any other posts using 
Thank you all for your participation & engagement (and the upvotes)!
There will be now a break during the summer, so no promises when S19 will start, most likely in Sept.
In between we will have as usual some Hivechess fun tournaments, so stay tuned and keep practicing!
Let me know in the comments, if you would like to go back to a single tournament in the next season or rather keep the different rating groups (but probably with less groups)!