Liches Hourly Tournaments

hi all, i wanted to ask all of you about these tournaments....

do you play them regularly or sometimes?

i am tempted to enter them but don't know ins and outs of them,who can play them, how do i approach such a challenge etc.

Thanks for your input.

@Benjamin87 said in #1:
> hi all, i wanted to ask all of you about these tournaments....
>
> do you play them regularly or sometimes?
>
> i am tempted to enter them but don't know ins and outs of them,who can play them, how do i approach such a challenge etc.
>
> Thanks for your input.

I sometimes play hourly tournaments, and always play lichess marathons :)
Those help me get motivated in chess

@Acrobat31 what is a lichess marathon?

IS it organized or do you play for hours and call it so?

@Benjamin87 said in #3:
> @Acrobat31 what is a lichess marathon?
>
> IS it organized or do you play for hours and call it so?

lichess.org/tournament/spring24
(Spring marathon that was done just yesterday)

It is a 24hour tournament with LOTS of players, organized every season (so 4 times in one year)

+Marathon top500 players get unique trophies too! (Like in my profile

@Acrobat31 said in #4:
> lichess.org/tournament/spring24
> (Spring marathon that was done just yesterday)
>
> It is a 24hour tournament with LOTS of players, organized every season (so 4 times in one year)
>
> +Marathon top500 players get unique trophies too! (Like in my profile
I failed miserably ;(

@Benjamin87 said in #1:
> hi all, i wanted to ask all of you about these tournaments....
>
> do you play them regularly or sometimes?

I played a few of them recently, including the marathon yesterday already mentioned. But I think they are not really for me.

> i am tempted to enter them but don't know ins and outs of them,who can play them, how do i approach such a challenge etc.

The vast majority of tournaments are open to everyone, the only condition is that you have played a number rated games at their time control class before, so that your rating is somewhat reliable. As you may have noticed, there are two types of tournaments: Arena and Swiss.

Arena tournaments have no fixed number of rounds and can be joined and temporarily left at any time. Whenever you join and after finishing a game you usually get a new opponent within a couple of seconds. They are usually played without increment or with just one second increment, so at least some of your games are likely to be decided in a time scramble. Also the scoring rules encourage fast play, and most experienced players will do just that, so if you stick to your 5+3 time schedule in a 5+0 tournament you can expect to fall behind on the clock and eventually lose on time if you fail to deliver checkmate or at least take all of your opponent's pieces before that happens.

If this is not for you, there are Swiss tournaments where you can play at a more relaxed speed, I have seen tournaments with 5+3 or 7+2 time controls. Swiss tournaments work very much like their OTB counterparts, they have a fixed number of rounds and you will have to wait until the last game of the round is finished before starting your next game. Also if an opponent turns AWOL after the pairings have been made, you may not get to play at all in some round.

In casual games you get by default only opponents with a similar rating as yours, but in tournaments you can expect to play against people who are much stronger or much weaker than you. The more games you win, the stronger the opposition becomes.

just try it out! There is no big investment here (unless you think losing some rating is unacceptable).

I suggest trying a non-swiss hourly (arena tournament) in your favorite time format.
You need to have played enough games and meet the rating criteria which are listed on the tournament page.

Click [join]

After a few seconds you will be paired. Play your game. After it ends you can review your game if you like.
When you are ready to play a new game

Click [back to tournament]

to get a new opponent.

If you want to take a break then just click on

[pause]

When the tournament ends you will hear some music and see the tournament results appear. The winners are shown (1st, 2nd, 3rd place) and the ranking of all the players.

if you win a game you get a point.
if you lose, then 0 points
if you tie, then 1/2 point.

In some tournaments you can click on the two swords symbol to double your points if you win (but you get only half as much time). This is called bezerking.

Tournament points decide the winner of the tournament, all your tournament points from all tournaments you ever played are also displayed on your lichess page.

Have fun!

@Benjamin87 said in #1:
> hi all, i wanted to ask all of you about these tournaments....
>
> do you play them regularly or sometimes?

I play such tournaments like everyday
>
> i am tempted to enter them but don't know ins and outs of them,who can play them, how do i approach such a challenge etc.
>
> Thanks for your input.

it depends on your goals and your level. if you don't have 2000 rating, focus on the quality of each game, you will have less game to play over the entire tournament, but more things to analyze. if your goal is to win the tournament, then that's a different story...

First important thing, there is Berserk. you can press a button that cuts your time in half, but gives you one more point if you win. the advantage is that you can finish games faster and get extra points. The danger is if you choose poorly when to do it, cuz you'll end up losing one after another. So, Berserk players who are 200-300 elo lower than you for sure. or Berserk back if you're fast enough to keep up.

then, keep an eye on the remaining time, and be opportunistic: flagging at will, no mercy, avoiding draws, making traps.... and the closer you get to the end of the tournament, the more chance you have of Berserk back your opponents.

mentally, be strong but be humble, don't be afraid to lose and be competitive.

the advantage of hourly is a short format, so you don't need to work on endurance unlike Shields and marathon.

Greeting