Dear chess fans,
yesterday the 9th and penultimate round of S16 "Untitled" was played. It was a 4+3 arena tournament, with 20 players participating. Welcome 
Hive account@amit.pangeni and 
Hive account@omonomo to Hivechess and welcome back, 
Hive account@maciejficek (XM9000)!
Hive account@lucianosky was the winner again. Runner-up was - of course - 
Hive account@pamboy27 and the third rank went to 
Hive account@rosmarly! Congrats to All!
I tried to berserk some games, but it didn´t turn out too well, losing on time in a winning position and generally playing badly. Lesson learned.
Result table of round 9:
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/Jy8uitWf
Season 16: 18 Aug to 20 Oct 2023 / Ranking before the final round:
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|
| | | | | | |
| 1 | Hive account@lucianosky | Pavarotty | 2327 | 9 | 168 | 2268,4 |
| 2 | Hive account@pamboy27 | pamboy27 | 2210 | 8 | 151 | 2128,3 |
| 3 | Hive account@rosmarly | rosmarly | 2037 | 9 | 149 | 1950,7 |
| 4 |  Hive account@stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | 2035 | 9 | 141 | 1874,6 |
| 5 |  Hive account@agreste | agreste | 1781 | 8 | 105 | 1713,3 |
| 6(+2) |  Hive account@lighteye | lighteye | 1735 | 9 | 102 | 1674,4 |
| 7 |  Hive account@giuatt07 | guisep73 | 1634 | 8 | 98 | 1746 |
| 8(-2) |  Hive account@jaki01 | jaki01 | 2361 | 4 | 90 | 2201,5 |
| 9(+1) |  Hive account@rodrook | rodrook | 1406 | 9 | 88 | 1558,9 |
| 10(-1) |  Hive account@b0s | Da_k1ng | 1655 | 9 | 86 | 1598,9 |
| 11(+3) |  Hive account@justfavour | justfavour | 1747 | 6 | 62 | 1553,4 |
| 12 |  Hive account@sammy00 | migmag | 1500 | 9 | 61 | 1469,3 |
| 13(-2) |  Hive account@samostically | ZGM_Samostically | 2135 | 3 | 52 | 1920,7 |
| 14(+3) |  Hive account@schamangerbert | HerbyW | 1611 | 4 | 51 | 1614,5 |
| 15(-2) |  Hive account@mundocuriosidad | Tonystar111 | 2104 | 2 | 45 | 2078 |
| 16(-1 |  Hive account@dhilan04 | tortyllan | 1995 | 4 | 43 | 1824,7 |
| 17(-1) |  Hive account@vasigo | vasigo | 1189 | 9 | 43 | 1313,9 |
| 18 |  Hive account@stranger27 | stranger27 | 1689 | 3 | 37 | 1608 |
| 19 |  Hive account@engilhramn | Engilhramn | 1386 | 5 | 31 | 1310,3 |
| 20 |  Hive account@olujay | Olu-jay | 1603 | 2 | 27 | 1792,5 |
| 21 |  Hive account@giacomone | KingJames4 | 1635 | 3 | 25 | 1647,5 |
| 22 |  Hive account@fiona777 | fiona777 | 1352 | 5 | 23 | 1341 |
| 23 |  Hive account@acidtiger | acidtiger-hive | 1343 | 4 | 21 | 1344,3 |
| 24(+2) |  Hive account@og-gamershub | bossgaius | 1093 | 6 | 19 | 1212,2 |
| 25(-1) |  Hive account@hannes-stoffel | hannes-stoffel | 1572 | 2 | 18 | 1539,5 |
| 26(-1) |  Hive account@mister-omortson | mister-omortson | 1592 | 2 | 17 | 1772 |
| 27(+10) |  Hive account@darruiz | darruiz | 1283 | 2 | 17 | 1397,5 |
| 28(-1) |  Hive account@tony1294 | tony1294 | 2203 | 1 | 16 | 2071 |
| 29(-1) |  Hive account@pravesh0 | pravesh007 | 1658 | 2 | 16 | 1412 |
| 30(+3) |  Hive account@mypathtofire | mypathtofire | 1286 | 5 | 14 | 1316,3 |
| 31(-2) |  Hive account@artistparthoroy | artistparthoroy | 973 | 3 | 11 | 1233,5 |
| 32(-2) |  Hive account@vjap55 | vjap55 | | 0 | 10 |
| 33(new) | Hive account@amit.pangeni | Amit_pangeni | 1591 | 1 | 8 | 1783 |
| 34(-1) |  Hive account@heathbadger | Heathbadger | 1512 | 1 | 8 | 1760 |
| 35(-3) |  Hive account@pokermaria | pokermaria | 1279 | 1 | 7 | 1345 |
| 36(-2) |  Hive account@solymi | solymi_hive | 666 | 2 | 6 | 1100,5 |
| 37(new) | Hive account@maciejficek | XM9000 | 1461 | 1 | 5 | 1418 |
| 38(new) | Hive account@omonomo | omonomo | 965 | 1 | 4 | 1360 |
| 39(-4) |  Hive account@yonnathang | Yonnathang | 1047 | 1 | 3 | 1382 |
| 40(-4) |  Hive account@grafo07 | Grafo_07 | 1036 | 1 | 3 | 1290 |
| 41(-3) |  Hive account@alberto0607 | alberto_0607 | | 1 | 3 |
| 42(-3) |  Hive account@vaipraonde | vaipraonde | 824 | 1 | 2 | 1116 |
For the rules please refer to the announcement post.
Just one round left and no changes in the top ranks. It seems nothing can stop Hive account@lucianosky from winning his first champion title!.
See you next week - and keep practicing!
In one of the biggest upsets in the last years, Magnus not only lost to but was "completely crushed" (as he had tweeted afterwards) by the Kazakh GM Alisher Suleymenov, rating 2512, in round 2 of the Qatar Masters.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/2023-qatar-masters-round-2
After move 17 (with Black) he was already totally lost! Can you spot the winning move for White?
Check out the game here: https://lichess.org/broadcast/qatar-masters-2023/round-2/BCjUungb
Later he blamed his opponent for wearing a watch which is forbidden according to FIDE rules.
What do you think? Did Suleymenov cheat with his watch? Theoretically I think it would be possible.
https://x.com/1ncognite/status/1712585889367334963?s=20
