Dear chess fans,
yesterday the 8th round of season 15 was played. It was a 4+2 Chess960 arena with 24 players.
Hive account@eniolw ended up as the winner (his second win this season!), closely followed by 
Hive account@maestroask (Odnoobraz_bcm) and 
Hive account@sawko. Also remarkable the results of 
Hive account@b0s (Da_k1ng) and 
Hive account@schamangerbert! Congratulations to all!
Result table of round 8:
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/ta4YBehf
Season 15: 03 Mar to 5 May 2023 / Ranking after 8 rounds:
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|
| | | | | | |
| 1 | Hive account@maestroask | Odnoobraz_bcm | 2653 | 8 | 222 | 2489,6 |
| 2 | Hive account@sawko | CM sawkito | 2247 | 8 | 203 | 2121,3 |
| 3(+2) | Hive account@eniolw | eniolw | 2390 | 7 | 177 | 2324,8 |
| 4 |  Hive account@vjap55 | vjap55 | 2132 | 8 | 174 | 2087,6 |
| 5(-2) |  Hive account@dhilan04 | tortyllan | 2001 | 7 | 163 | 1977,6 |
| 6 |  Hive account@stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | 2006 | 8 | 155 | 2010,7 |
| 7 |  Hive account@pamboy27 | pamboy27 | 2109 | 7 | 150 | 2093,7 |
| 8 |  Hive account@rosmarly | rosmarly | 1948 | 8 | 146 | 1854 |
| 9 |  Hive account@emic | emichessmaster | 2095 | 6 | 136 | 2012,6 |
| 10 |  Hive account@agreste | agreste | 1747 | 8 | 122 | 1756 |
| 11(+2) | Hive account@schamangerbert | HerbyW | 1699 | 6 | 109 | 1787 |
| 12(-1) |  Hive account@samostically | ZGM_Samostically | 2156 | 4 | 98 | 2018 |
| 13(-1) |  Hive account@therealflaws | Jean1301 | 1890 | 6 | 98 | 1818,3 |
| 14 |  Hive account@lighteye | lighteye | 1706 | 8 | 95 | 1764,1 |
| 15(+2) | Hive account@b0s | Da_k1ng | 1608 | 7 | 91 | 1525,3 |
| 16(+2) |  Hive account@stranger27 | stranger27 | 1620 | 7 | 87 | 1601,2 |
| 17(-1) |  Hive account@rodrook | rodrook | 1437 | 8 | 83 | 1513,9 |
| 18(-3) |  Hive account@mundocuriosidad | Tonystar111 | 1980 | 4 | 81 | 1902,3 |
| 19 |  Hive account@gabotask | GVillalobos | 2084 | 4 | 69 | 1968,3 |
| 20(+4) |  Hive account@hannes-stoffel | hannes-stoffel | 1380 | 7 | 69 | 1436,8 |
| 21(+1) |  Hive account@fiona777 | fiona777 | 1446 | 7 | 68 | 1548,2 |
| 22(-2) |  Hive account@lucianosky | Pavarotty | 2251 | 3 | 65 | 2075,7 |
| 23(-2) |  Hive account@pokerarema | ragnarokgame | 1566 | 6 | 60 | 1632,5 |
| 24(-1) |  Hive account@jaki01 | jaki01 | 2327 | 2 | 55 | 2237,5 |
| 25 |  Hive account@pravesh0 | pravesh007 | 1733 | 3 | 53 | 1766,7 |
| 26 |  Hive account@nikoszzz | nikoszzz | 1779 | 3 | 51 | 1661,3 |
| 27 |  Hive account@tony1294 | tony1294 | 2261 | 2 | 48 | 2025 |
| 28(+3) |  Hive account@olujay | Olu-jay | 1604 | 4 | 41 | 1547,7 |
| 29(-1) |  Hive account@grafo07 | Grafo_07 | 1137 | 5 | 41 | 1401,4 |
| 30 |  Hive account@justfavour | justfavour | 1673 | 4 | 39 | 1613 |
| 31(+1) |  Hive account@vasigo | vasigo | 1182 | 8 | 37 | 1298,9 |
| 32(-3) |  Hive account@yinjuolu | Yetundefemii | 2015 | 2 | 36 | 1904,5 |
| 33(+3) |  Hive account@pokermaria | pokermaria | 1049 | 6 | 33 | 1118,4 |
| 34(+1) |  Hive account@mypathtofire | mypathtofire | 1318 | 5 | 28 | 1411,8 |
| 35(-2) |  Hive account@fcastro177 | FCastro17 | 2123 | 1 | 26 | 1978 |
| 36(-2) |  Hive account@tin.aung.soe | TinAungSoe | 1288 | 5 | 26 | 1277,2 |
| 37 |  Hive account@engilhramn | engilhramn | 1223 | 4 | 19 | 1362,3 |
| 38 |  Hive account@iamchessguy | Iamchessguy01 | 1933 | 1 | 18 | 1957 |
| 39 |  Hive account@anomadsoul | anomadsoul | 1485 | 2 | 15 | 1613,5 |
| 40 |  Hive account@maciejficek | XM9000 | 1463 | 2 | 14 | 1583 |
| 41 |  Hive account@awesomeintrigue | zackawesome | 1739 | 1 | 13 | 1712 |
| 42 |  Hive account@rafaelaquino | ajedrezclub2t | 1715 | 1 | 5 | 1793 |
| 43 |  Hive account@timix648 | timix648 | 918 | 2 | 5 | 1278 |
| 44 |  Hive account@cryptopi314 | cryptopi314 | 915 | 2 | 5 | 1036,5 |
| 45(+4) |  Hive account@solymi | solymi-Hive | 962 | 2 | 5 | 858 |
| 46(-1) |  Hive account@sammy00 | migmag | 1476 | 2 | 4 | 1259 |
| 47(+1) |  Hive account@alucian | alucian | 844 | 3 | 3 | 1012 |
| 48(-1) |  Hive account@memess | hive-memess | 1184 | 1 | 2 | 1523 |
| 49(-2) |  Hive account@nftland1989 | CHeSsdieGOst | 981 | 1 | 2 | 1119 |
The rules you can look up in the S15 announcement post.
Two rounds to go and the top 2 ranks seem pretty undisturbed for Hive account@maestroask and Hive account@sawko. Hive account@eniolw due to his win today could finally make it to the third spot on the podium.
See you all next week - and keep practicing!
Have you heard about the staggering leak of preparation from Ding Liren?
A line identical to that of WCC game 8 was played a month earlier between 1471-rated opqrstuv and FVitelli (1540) on Lichess! They had played some other lines e.g. featuring the 4.h3!? move in game 2 of the match. Hardly a coincidence! This is probably the biggest World Championship preparation fail ever, surpassing by far the one of 2018, when Saint Louis Chess Club accidentally filmed a glimpse of Fabiano Caruana’s database (source).
