Reminder: Round 8 of the Hivechess Tournament S14 plus Semifinals, Friday 20h GMT

Dear chess fans!

Round 8 of S14 is played this Friday, 20^th Jan., at the usual time.
At the same time the semifinals are taking place! So, @maestroask, @emic and @fcastro177 DO NOT PARTICIPATE in the arena tournament, but read on further down! The quarterfinalists who could not make it into the semifinals, @rosmarly, @lucianosky, @lighteye and @stranger27, can take part in the arena tournament (but won´t get points there because their rank in S14 is already decided).

As a reminder, in the remaining rounds 8 & 9 it will be identified who will be a fixed quarter finalist of the next season!

The current standings after round 7 you can find here!

Mode: 4+2 (4 minutes per game, 2 sec. increment), 60 min. arena tournament

Tournament Link: https://lichess.org/tournament/q9VTTNzd

The price pool contains already 464 Hive plus 502 LEO!

Semifinals

They will be conducted again at the same time as the arena tournament.

Each match is counted as best of 5 Blitz games, the time format is 5+2. A win is a point, a draw is ½ points. White starts the games by challenging the opponent.

So as soon as a player has 3 points, he/she is considered the winner and the match is over.
If after 5 games the score is 2½ : 2½, then the match is continued with 2+1 bullet games until a players scores 2 (=best of 3 games). If again the score is 1½ : 1½, the bullet games are continued and the next won game decides.
After each game the colors are reversed. The player with the less rating starts the first game with the White pieces. Consequently, in case of bullet games are done, the stronger player starts with the White pieces.

The pairings are	(first player has White in the first game)
@emic (emichessmaster)	@maestroask (Odnoobraz_bcm)
@stayoutoftherz	@fcastro177 (FCastro17)

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 (see above in the table) 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 accepts the challenge, the game starts.

The winner reports the match result in the comments of this post or in the arena tournament chat. In case a player doesn´t show up within 10 minutes (and doesn´t contact his opponent e.g. to suggest a rescheduling by max. 24 hours), he forfeits the match.

Rules

• Players of all skill levels are welcome, from newbies to experts, you just need a free Lichess-account and join our team in Lichess here!

• Every Friday is one round.

• Registration fee (for the season, not for each round) was 1 Hive (or HBD), to be sent to @badge-646464, 32 players have registered. At this point it is too late to register (only 2 rounds left).

• Time mode is varying (5+0, 3+2, 2+1,...).

• 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. 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.

• After 6 rounds, the top 8 ranked players will enter a knockout stage to fight for the champion title, all others continue to play in 3 remaining rounds. The worst result in terms of points among the 6 (top 8) or 9 (rest) rounds will be deleted. The winner of the general section (= 9^th ranked) qualifies for the playoff of the next season!

• PAYOUT: The tournament points of the 6/9 rounds are summed up. 70% of all Hivechess-related post rewards go to the price pool (PP). The tournament winner will get 50 Hive as bonus, the prices for the other players who have entered the knockout stage will be calculated at the end of the season. The rest of the PP is divided among all players equally (40%) and according to the number of tournament points achieved (60%). Participation in 4 rounds is required in order to qualify for the prices.

• There will be a special price of 5 Hive plus 50 LEO for the highest performance in relation to the own rating (counted by averaging the rating after the first and the last round).

• There will be a special price of 5 Hive plus 50 LEO for the best tournament report of the season (can be a post, streaming of a round, podcast, whatever)!

• If I don´t know your Hive username, you won´t be considered for prices, so please let me know your Hive name in the comments! Group or badge accounts can participate but are not qualified for prices! Only individuals can get prices.

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 tomorrow and good luck to all!

Potentially of interest to:
@aakrist @abimbola753 @agreste @ajumaa @alberto0607 @alexmag1988 @almightymelon @alpha @ambarvegas @anadello @andzhi @anli @anomadsoul @apy @arsenal49 @artistparthoroy @astrolabio @b0s @bechibenner @behiver @beyondhorizonmm @bitsignal @burnoutawesome @camiloferrua @cerati @chessbrotherspro @chesthetica @clixmoney @cryptogee @cryptoniusraptor @cryptoph0823 @darruiz @diegofitness92 @digitalis @ebingo @eliaschess333 @elprofe62 @emeka4 @eniolw @eenriquerivas @evgsk @fairy-of-comfort @fcastro177 @fiona777 @flaws @foxconnmars @franciscomarval @franu @gabotask @giacomone @gingerbyna @grafo07 @heimindanger @herz-ass @hierro21 @hirohurl @hivetrader @iamchessguy @iammanythings1 @ibizaki @iceblue @iobates @ironshield @jaki01 @jesusmgl1995 @jkms @johannfrare @josesmoke @juanmi96 @justfavour @kaungsett8388 @kintokris @kreur @levitant @lighteye @lofone @lucianosky @maciejficek @maestroask @marcusantoniu26 @mario89 @masterswatch @maverieux000 @meedo @mrsarri @mstafford @mypathtofire @nftland1989 @nikoszzz @officialrosh1 @orlanzavala @oshiokhenhoya @pamboy27 @parung76 @perpz @petreius @philipp87 @pokerarema @pravesh0 @primersion @ptmaker @rafaelaquino @renerondon @rexplanet @rheda @rodrook @ropavejero @rosmarly @salomijale @samostically @sanjamkapoors @sawko @schamangerbert @schnitte @soluce07 @solymi @spacetoon @steamloled @steemychicken1 @stranger27 @syndmitrij @the01crow @thedoc07 @therealflaws @timofey @tin.aung.soe @tony1294 @tungphong @uliseshb @vaipraonde @vasigo @victorbch2 @vjap55 @volkiceper @walner @wegflexor @xoflox @yazp @zacherybinx
(just let me know if you don´t want to get the mentions)

In round 4 of the Tata Steel 2023 Masters Anish Giri beat Magnus Carlsen in a very impressive way (check out the game here)! After 4 rounds Anish is now leading the tournament (together with Abdusattorov) with 3 out of 4!