What was one now becomes two
Ever wonder why Classical games could be as fast as 8+0 and as slow as 180+180? So did we! And now we're changing it. We're splitting Classical in two by adding a new, faster, category called Rapid.
Battle for the unique Shield of glory
There are a number of trite proverbs related to asking and getting what you want in life, for example "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," "ask and you shall receive," and "the crying baby gets the milk." Well, it wasn't that long ago that a new post popped up in the Lichess Feedback Forum (the developers and staff do browse the forums!) squeaking about a new type of tournament - shield tournaments. A shield tournament is one in which a unique profile trophy is up for grabs, and the winner keeps that trophy until they fail to defend it next month in the next tournament of that same time control or variant.
As an example, let's say I get incredibly lucky and win the SuperBlitz Shield Tournament in December. I get a freshly polished SuperBlitz shield trophy in my profile until it's abruptly stolen by Thibault in January's SuperBlitz Shield Tournament. I lose said trophy and he keeps it until it's stolen by in February, and so on.
A titled tournament with a prize pool of $1000!
We are excited to announce a pro prize tournament, limited to FIDE titled and NM players. The tournament will feature stiff competition and a $1000 prize pool. We will also host a warmup event directly before, hyperbullet with a $100 pool, open to all.
Announcing the next edition of the legendary 24-hour chess marathon!
Oh yeah! The largest blitz chess tournament on earth is starting soon!
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So many summer improvements, we needed two blog posts!
As we promised a week ago, here is the second blog post detailing more of the many improvements we made to Lichess over the summer.
Lichess has gone through some changes over the summer...
A lot has happened since our last update in April. For instance, Portugal won the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest, “Oslo” won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play and African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina won the 2017 World Food Prize.
At Lichess, we have been very busy building a better chess experience for our users. So much so, that we needed to split this summary of what we have done since April into two parts. The second update will be posted in about a week’s time. Enough chit-chat, let’s take a look at some of the improvements we have made.
Kasparov comes alive on day 5!
Chess champions are kaleidoscopes of miraculous talents. To ascend to the highest level in chess you need photographic memory, emotional grit, consistent calculation, and the ability to weigh the pros and cons of different moves and positions in your mind.
The most central of these talents is consistent calculation. Playing without it would be like playing any physical sport blind. I would argue that talent does play a role in calculation - some players will be naturally better at it than others. However, ultimately calculating is a muscle that needs to be built up and maintained through constant practice. If you stop practicing, the muscle shrinks just like any other.
Does he still have the magic?
Welcome to the lichess coverage of the 2017 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. Nowadays there is a channel for everything: golf, cooking, news, infomercials, comedy, music - so why not Kasparov? There is obviously much more going on in this tournament than just Kasparov, but I decided to focus on one subject rather than covering everything with a cursory touch. If you’re looking for a more traditional tournament report, there are plenty of places to find one. So with that, let’s turn on...The Kasparov Channel
The decisive day in St. Louis
Entering the final day of Sinquefield Cup Levon Aronian, Vishwanathan Anand, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were all tied for 1st with Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin a half point behind. The 3 leaders would all be nervously watching each other’s games trying to figure out how well they needed to score to keep up and the 2 trailers would need to win to have any chance of catching them. The tiebreaker system was complicated: A 2 way tie would be decided by a playoff the next day, while if 3 or more players were tied the winner would be the player with the most wins in this tournament.
All 3 leaders draw to set up a dramatic final round
It was a tense day at the Sinquefield Cup where all three leaders drew, setting up a final round where half the field have a chance to finish in first.