Finally - Hivechess Season 21 is starting this Friday!

Dear chess fans!

S21 has arrived! Just 3d to go!
About the outcome of the previous season 20 you can read here.

About Season 21

After the break and the fun tournament Season 21 will start this Friday, the 26^th Sep. 2025, 19h GMT at the usual time! It will go over 12 rounds and is grouped in 4 skill groups.

IMPORTANT: If I don´t know the Hive user name belonging to your lichess name, you can play but your result won´t be counted! So make sure that you proactively let me know your Lichess name in the comments here (or vice versa your Hive name in the Lichess chat).

The percentage of post rewards feeding the prize pool is again 60%. @chesspricepool will be used to accrue the prizes for S21 and it is preloaded already with whopping 753 Hive thanks to the upvotes of the Lichess Liga Team Battle posts, beneficiaries from @sammy00 and others, the fun tournament and still the generous donation from @yabapmatt! I am aiming for topping 1500 Hive in S21 - an all-time-high in terms of prizes!

Since we got recently some new very strong players into the team, we will have this time 4 skill tiers! As usual they are based on the average rating (Blitz) over the whole season (which means players can change tiers if their rating changes): <1500, 1500 - 1799, 1800-2099 and 2100+.

We therefore have 4 separate tournaments with 4 winners of these rating tiers:
Tournament 1: 0-1499,
Tournament 2: 1500-1799,
Tournament 3: 1800-2099 and the Elite
Tournament 4: 2100 and above

Players who try to manipulate their rating to join a more "easy" tier (called "sandbagging") will be disqualified. Same with attempts to cheat. By the way: One Hive name - one Lichess account. You cannot change your Lichess name during the season!

The size of the prize pool of each of the 4 tournaments will again depend on how many players will qualify for prizes in those groups. The more competitive, the higher the Top 3-prizes! But all players, even those new to chess, have a chance to earn a prize, if you join the tournaments consistently! In this season again you need to play 6 out of 12 rounds to earn a prize, to incentivize regular players over occasional ones.

I encourage any tournament or streaming report to set @chesspricepool as 5 or 10% beneficiary to further beef up the season rewards (and get more upvotes)!
Also reblogging of the reminder and result posts is welcomed, or any advertisement for the tournament! Sponsorships are highly appreciated!

Round 1

Time Mode: 4+0 (4 minutes per game, no increment), 9 rounds Swiss tournament

Tournament Link: https://lichess.org/swiss/V3smvtgk

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 Chess960 (Fischer Random, "Freestyle" chess).
• 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 5 games must have been played.
• If 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 12 rounds are summed up. Each of the 4 rating-tiered tournament winners will get "x" Hive (at least 80), the runner-up "y" and the third "z" Hive (depending on the no. of players in each group). The rest of the prize pool is divided among all other players according to the number of tournament points achieved (60%) and the number of rounds played (40%). In order to qualify for a prize you have to participate in at least six of the 12 rounds!
• 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!

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:
@aakrist @abelarte @abimbola753 @acidtiger @africanchess @agreste @aiuna @amit.pangeni @ajumaa @alberto0607 @alexmag1988 @almightymelon @ambarvegas @anadello @andzhi @anli @anomadsoul @apy @arsenal49 @artistparthoroy @artsbreezy01 @astrolabio @awesomeintrigue @b0s @behiver @beyondhorizonmm @bitsignal @bostonadventures @brijwhiz @burnoutawesome @camiloferrua @castm2 @cerati @chessbrotherspro @chessdev17 @chesthetica @cositav @cryptogee @cryptoniusraptor @cryptoph0823 @ctrpch @dadapizza @dakods @dalods @darruiz @detectblock @dhilan04 @diegofitness92 @digitalis @djbravo @doctorfate @dovycola @draco2 @duskobgd @ebingo @eenriquerivas @elcholitosanto @eliaschess333 @elprofe62 @emeka4 @emerald09551 @elcholitosanto @engilhramn @eniolw @ernestopg @evgsk @fcastro177 @fiona777 @flaws @franciscomarval @franu @fredaig @gabotask @geo52rey @giacomone @gingerbyna @good-karma @grafo07 @grigorijj @hierro21 @hildemaro @hirohurl @iamchessguy @iammanythings1 @ibizaki @idksamad78699 @iobates @ironshield @ismeris @jaki01 @jay12y @jesusmgl1995 @jesustiano @jkms @johannfrare @juanmi96 @justfavour @justola1 @katerinaramm @kaungsett8388 @kintokris @konquest @kreur @levitant @lighteye @llag @lucianosky @maciejficek @madchess64 @maestroask @marcusantoniu26 @mario89 @masterswatch @maverieux000 @mdasein @meedo @memess @mendelito @meno @mrsarri @mstafford @mundharmonika @mundocuriosidad @mypathtofire @nftland1989 @nikoszzz @oadissin @odic3o1 @officialrosh1 @og-gamershub @olujay @omonomo @onthewayout @pamboy27 @parung76 @perpz @petreius @philipp87 @phoennix09 @pokerarema @pokermaria @poseout87 @pravesh0 @precab @psicologopoeta @purapapita @queenofthesqrs @rafaelaquino @ram9612 @ramonchis @razzor @reiseamateur @renerondon @rexplanet @rheda @rodrook @ropavejero @rosmarly @roswelborges @sahi1 @salaks.chess @salomijale @samostically @sanjamkapoors @sawko @schamangerbert @seki1 @soluce07 @southgamer @spacetoon @spartano @stranger27 @stuffings @suisver @syndmitrij @tangibleay @the01crow @techstyle @tenny-trigah @thedoc07 @therealflaws @timix648 @timofey @tobijob @toluwayme @tomasguitar @tony1294 @tungphong @uliseshb @uniforced @vaipraonde @vasigo @victorbch2 @vjap55 @volkiceper @walner @web-gnar @wegflexor @xoflox @yazp @yinjuolu @yf95 @yonnathang @zacherybinx @ziabutt3836 @zlater

(just let me know if you don´t want to get the mentions)