Dear chess fans!
Finally S18 has arrived! But as always first let´s talk a little about the past season.
The prizes from Season 17 were in the meantime sent to the players.
In total 616 Hive, currently worth app. 193$ (last season it was 667 Hive, worth app. 230$ back then) have accumulated in the 
I got 50,61 HBD for the 123,2 Hive and put them into the savings, in order to generate a regular, automatically increasing add-on to the prizes of the upcoming seasons!
Thanks a lot to all the upvoters and supporters!
As always, this account will now be powered down to cover the expenses (as I have paid out the prizes already out of my pocket) and the other one, 
🏆 Payout table of Season 17 🏆
Tournament 1 (0-1499)
Tournament 2 (1500-1799)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Price (Hive) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | agreste | 1836 | 10 | 118 | 40 |
| 2 |  | guisep73 | 1649 | 10 | 95 | 35 |
| 3 |  | lighteye | 1697 | 10 | 93 | 30 |
| 4 |  | stranger27 | 1724 | 6 | 54 | 15,5 |
| 5 |  | Da_k1ng | 1606 | 5 | 31 | 9,7 |
Tournament 3 (1800-2099)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Price (Hive) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | tortyllan | 2036 | 9 | 173 | 35 |
| 2 |  | rosmarly | 2001 | 10 | 153 | 30 |
| 3 |  | stayoutoftherz | 1953 | 10 | 144 | 25 |
| 4 |  | onthewayout | 1847 | 5 | 61 | 16,5 |
Tournament 4 (>2099)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | eniolw | 2383 | 7 | 143 | 30 |
| 2 |  | ZGM_Samostically | 2079 | 8 | 116 | 25 |
| 3 |  | Pavarotty | 2319 | 6 | 107 | 20 |
Quite a mixup in the prizes compared to the past - that was part of the idea of the 4 skill groups.
In addition, 50 LEO each were sent to these players as an incentive for having participated in at least 8 rounds, sponsored by 
The Hivechess Hall of Fame
is located here as a post collection (and includes ALL chess tournaments on Hive):
@badge-646464/the-hivechess-hall-of-fame
Select "View as post" in order to see it in a better way!
About Season 18
After the break and the 3 fun tournaments Season 18 will start this Friday, the 19th April, 19h GMT (at the usual time)! It will go over 10 rounds, again grouped in skill groups based on Blitz rating.
Of note, if I don´t know the Hive user name belonging to your lichess name (let me know in the comments here), you can play but your result won´t be counted!
The percentage of post rewards feeding the prize pool is again 65% and as mentioned the
What is different is the grouping thresholds. This time there will be separate prize pools for players rated <1400, <1750, <2100 and for players 2100 and above. The change is based on the number of players in the groups in season 17. Far more were in the 0-1499 group than in the others.
Rating means the average rating over the whole season, i.e. players can change tiers if their (Blitz) rating changes!
So in effect, we have 4 tournaments with 4 winners of these rating tiers:
Tournament 1: 0-1399
Tournament 2: 1400-1750
Tournament 3: 1750-2099
Tournament 4: 2100 and above
The size of the prize pools will again depend on how many players will end up in those groups. To be more exact, how many will be qualifying for prizes, because it doesn´t matter if e.g. 10 players are in a table who played only once. In this season you need to play 6 out of 10 rounds to earn a prize, to incentivize regular players over occasional ones.
Again I encourage any tournament or streaming report to set
Round 1
Time Mode: 5+0 (5 minutes per game, no increment), 70 min. arena
Tournament Link: https://lichess.org/tournament/dJxFN4gl
Rules
- All players are welcome, also newbies, you just need a free Lichess-account and join our team in Lichess here (password is "Hive")!
- Every Friday is one round.
- Time mode is varying (5+0, 3+2, 2+1,...), sometimes Swiss, sometimes maybe Chess960 (Fischer Random).
- The winner of each round gets the number of points equaling the number of players in that round, the second ranked one point less and so forth until the one on the bottom of the table who gets one point (i.e. the Lighteye-scoring). In order to be counted, at least 3 games must have been played.
- In case two players have the same number of points, the one who played less rounds is first. If that is equal too, then the average tournament performance decides.
- PAYOUT: The tournament points of the 10 rounds are summed up. 65% of all Hivechess-related post rewards go to the prize pool (PP). Each of the 4 rating-tiered tournament winners will get "x" Hive (at least 20), the runner-up "y" and the third "z" Hive (depending on the no. of players in each group). The rest of the PP is divided among all other players according to the number of tournament points achieved (75%) and the number of rounds played (25%). In order to qualify for a prize you have to participate in at least six of the 10 rounds!
- There will be a special prize of 5 Hive for the player with the highest tournament performance in relation to his rating.
- 500 LEO will be again sponsored by
- If I don´t know your Hive username, you won´t be considered for prizes, so please let me know your Hive name in the comments! Community or badge accounts can participate but are not qualified for rewards! Only individuals can get prizes.
Please share this announcement among your (chess) friends and colleagues!
The more participate, the more fun! And maybe some are even interested to join Hive and it´s Chess Community?
See you all on Friday and good luck!
! [Mention List]
Potentially of interest to:
(just let me know if you don´t want to get the mentions)
Who will win the Candidates Tournament? 4 rounds to go, and 5 players are only half a point apart!
Any guess?
https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-candidates-2024--open/round-10/vfqUR38R#leaderboard
