Dear chess fans,
earlier today round 3 of S21 was played as a 5+0 Chess960 / Fischerrandom / Freestyle chess arena. For the rules please refer to the announcement post. 21 players were present (but only because I had changed the rules on a short notice: Minimum number of games to be played in order to get counted is now 4 instead of 5). Welcome to Hivechess, @africanchess (othims)!
@samostically is also in Chess960 a beast on 100% bersek! Apart from one loss against @southgamer he won all his games! Runner-up was @jaki01, ex aequo in points with @southgamer. Only fourth was multiwinner IM @maestroask. Congratulations to All!
Result table of round 3:
Link to the tournament: https://lichess.org/tournament/xd1iRKM7
Season 21: 26 Sep to 12 Dec 2025 / Ranking after 3 rounds:
Tournament 1 (0-1499)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Country | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @salomijale | summisineon1 | IND | 1350 | 3 | 23 | 1800 |
| 2(+1) | @lailawrites | Ohieku | 1197 | 2 | 17 | 1582 | |
| 3(-1) | @fiona777 | fiona777 | UKR | 1485 | 2 | 13 | 1545 |
| 4 | @dadapizza | knighthammer7 | 997 | 1 | 5 | 1153 | |
| 5 | @ezemhugo | MixzyRagnal | 1495 | 2 | 5 | 1483 | |
| 6 | @vasigo | vasigo | SRB | 1305 | 2 | 3 | 1311 |
Tournament 2 (1500-1799)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Country | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @giuatt07 | guisep73 | ITA | 1685 | 3 | 45 | 1845 |
| 2(+1) | @justola1 | just-ola | NGA | 1755 | 3 | 37 | 1590 |
| 3(-1) | @lighteye | lighteye | SRB | 1670 | 3 | 29 | 1776 |
| 4(+2) | @sammy00 | migmag | BIH | 1507 | 3 | 26 | 1445 |
| 5(+1) | @stranger27 | stranger27 | UKR | 1715 | 2 | 25 | 1998 |
| 6(-2) | @rodrook | RDcast | USA | 1517 | 3 | 25 | 1575 |
| 7 | @spartano | humbertoortega | 1528 | 2 | 12 | 1655 | |
| 8 | @darruiz | darruiz | VEN | 1510 | 1 | 7 | 1641 |
| 9 | @odic3o1 | odic3o | NGA | 1730 | 1 | 6 | 1508 |
Tournament 3 (1800-2099)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Country | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1(+1) | @stayoutoftherz | stayoutoftherz | AUT | 2018 | 3 | 47 | 1879 |
| 2(-1) | @justfavour | justfavour | NGA | 1849 | 3 | 42 | 1921 |
| 3(+3) | @southgamer | SouthGamer | 2081 | 2 | 32 | 1798 | |
| 4(+1) | @rosmarly | rosmarly | VEN | 2000 | 2 | 24 | 1849 |
| 5(-2) | @dhilan04 | tortyllan | 2018 | 1 | 22 | 2026 | |
| 6(-2) | @maverieux000 | Keylix | 2066 | 1 | 19 | 2154 |
Tournament 4 (2100+)
| Rank | Hive name | Lichess name | Country | Rating | Rounds played | Points | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @jaki01 | jaki01 | GER | 2325 | 3 | 60 | 2234 |
| 2 | @maestroask | Odnoobraz_bcm | RUS | 2472 | 3 | 54 | 2428 |
| 3 | @samostically | ZGM_Samostically | NGA | 2191 | 2 | 49 | 1980 |
| 4 | @tangibleay | Tangible_ay | NGA | 2235 | 1 | 26 | 2225 |
| 5 | @lucianosky | Pavarotty | NGA | 2337 | 2 | 24 | 2303 |
| 6(new) | @africanchess | othims | NGA | 1 | 12 |
In tournament 2 @justola1 improved again and is now runner-up behind @giuatt07. In tournament 3 I was able to switch places with @justfavour. And in the elite tournament @samostically is running up the ranks and is now already on the third place.
See you all next week - and keep practicing!
In the last 3 days there was a 12-game rapid & blitz match between 2 chess legends: Gary Kasparow and Vishi Anand. They played Chess960 as well, venue was the Saint Louis Chess Club in St. Louis, United States.
At the end Garry Kasparov was the winner. Anand made some serious blunders, also in one game in better position he completely forgot the time and was flagged.
The series "Clutch Chess" will be continued end of October with a double round-robin (but I think it will be "normal" prapid chess, not chess960) with these 4 players: Magnus, Fabi, Hikaru and Gukesh:
https://www.chess.com/events/2025-saint-louis-clutch-chess-champions-showdown#schedule