Dear chess fans!
The prices and payouts from Season 10 were in the meantime sent to to all eligible players.
In total 477 Hive were distributed among 40 participants - more than ever before (at least $-wise), plus the unique NFT trophy!
Thanks again to all the Upvoters and Supporters!
đ Here is the payout table of Season 10 đ
As a reminder, it was required to have participated at least three times to qualify for a reward.
One player was banned from Lichess and until things aren´t solved, his price (23,2 Hive) will be carried over to the pricepool of the next tournament.
The Hivechess Hall of Fame:
Winner of Season 10 was
Winner of Season 9 was
Winner of Season 8 was
Winner of Season 7 was
Winner of Season 6 was
Winner of Season 5 was
Winner of Season 4 was
Winner of Season 3 was
Winner of Season 2 was
Winner of Season 1 was
Instead of Season 11 we will do a "Hivechess Candidates Tournament" (HCT) which will be conducted as a Double Round Robin Tournament - like traditionally in the Candidates Tournaments. It means that everybody will play against everybody, with both Black and White!
Please read the rules carefully as they are totally new! After 10 identical seasons there is time to do something new, isn´t it!
In order to better plan this, there will be a registration fee of 10 Hive, to be paid upfront to the account 
Please register within a week (deadline is the post payout of this post, on the 7th April). Late registrations can´t be considered anymore, because the scheduling is fixed in advance! There are only 32 seats available!
You will get your registration fee back at the end of the tournament, unless you do not show up on one of the tournament days. In such a case all your games are forfeited and 2 Hive of the entrance fee is kept as penalty. I hope this will reduce missed games. If the player with the White pieces starts a match (see below), his opponent might still be in the previous game (unlikely, but possible if the previous game goes over 150 moves or started later). In such a case he needs to wait until that game has finished. If an opponent does not accepts the challenge within 5 minutes, please notify me in the Lichess team chat. If you, scheduled as Black, are not challenged by your opponent within 5 minutes, please likewise notify me in the chat. Sometimes a game might have not occurred, because both players didn´t show up. If I don´t get a feedback from neither of the players, the game will be counted 0 for both players. I hope such a case won´t happen too often.
Apparently I don´t know in advance how many players will participate. Since we can play 5 (max. 6) rounds per day, with 16 players we would be finished in 6 weeks (15x2/5). If the number of players would go beyond 32, the tournament would take 13 weeks, so I decided to cap the max. participants to 32. It´s "first come, first serves", so the first 32 who register get a seat in the tournament! Anyone registered beyond that limit will get the fee instantly refunded.
One day before the start of the tournament, which will happen on Friday the 8th April, I will announce the schedule with the first pairings. Scheduling will be done using the software "Playpass", unless someone knows a superior free round robin manager software. On the tournament day - unlike we are used to - you have to do the actual pairings by yourself (White challenges always Black!), I hope this will work out well, without too much chaos. Further down I have explained exactly what to do in order to start a match.
Time mode is 5+1. Although berserking doesn´t bring more points, I recommend for much higher ranked players to anyhow berserk (I also thought about making berserking mandatory from a certain rating difference onwards, but that complicates things even more). After the games feel free to post your results in the comments of the reminder posts or in the team chat, but I will dig them out anyhow and transfer them manually in a table đ¨. I hope one day Lichess can manage round robins too :)
The payout will chance slightly. I think in the pure Lighteye system the less strong players aren´t incentivized enough for participating. So in the HCT the tournament points count only 50% and half of the pricepool is paid out equally.
It is an experiment and I hope I have not missed anything relevant. If this works out well, we could think about as a next step e.g. tiered tournaments, like one for 2000+ players and one for all others. Or a 2-step tournament with playoffs. But let´s see first how this one will end up.
RULES
- For Hive users only (at least a Hive username is needed)!
- 32 players maximum can join!
- Players of all skill levels are welcome, from newbies to experts, you just need a free Lichess-account!
- Registration fee is 10 Hive, to be paid to
- Not showing up at one tournament day forfeits not only the games (i.e. counted as losses), but also 2 Hive of your registration fee (missing one game only costs 0,5 Hive)
- Every Friday 4 to 5 rounds are played (sometimes maybe 6), every 15 minutes, according to the schedule announced in the reminder posts; showing not up within 5 minutes forfeits the game
- The player with the White pieces always starts the game
- The time mode is 5+1. Players can agree upfront to a different (time) format (e.g. 3+2 Chess 960), but the game should not take more than 15 minutes!
- Please post all your results in the team chat
- The winner of each match gets 1 point, a draw gives half a point, all points are summed up and the player with the highest total score is the champion
- In case two players have the same number of points, the direct match(es) count. In case this is draw, the one with the more wins scores higher. In case this is equal too, the Neustadtl SonnebornâBerger score will be applied.
- PAYOUT: 70% of all tournament-related post rewards (and the penalties of missing participations) go to
How to challenge a player and kick off a game?
1.Click on the magnifier symbol on the upper right corner of the Lichess site.
2.Type your opponent´s Lichess name (it´s not case sensitive) and click on the "challenge" symbol on the hovering menu!
3.A menu pops up. Ensure that "standard", the correct time format and "rated" is set (unless both players agree upfront otherwise).
4.Once all is set correctly, click on the White king, to start the challenge. As soon as your opponent confirms the challenge, the game starts.
Any questions left? Just let me know here or in our Chess Discord!
I am looking forward to the very first Round Robin Tournament on Hive!!
See you next week and don´t forget to register yourself!
Potentially of interest to:
(just let me know if you don´t want to get the mentions)
EDIT: One rules was changed. It is not the stronger player who starts the match, but White! Also I added the possibility to deviate from the 5+1 time format, if both players agree upfront and the game does not take more than 15 minutes!