Maybe you didn’t know, but on this day half a century ago, on July 11th in 1972, the greatest match for the Chess Champion began in Reykjavik, Iceland – Spassky vs. Fischer!

It was dubbed ‘A Match of the Century’, and it really was much more than game. It was not only Fischer’s fight to win the title, it was also a battle for the professionalization of chess, with the interference of high politics and geopolitics. If there are still people who have slept through the past half century, Fischer won the match 12½ to 8½ and the last game began on August 31st.

Timing of the tournament

With all the weekend days busy, Betman decided to mark the event with a four-round Hive tournament, every Thursday from 21:00 CET. In honor of the winner of that match, Robert James Fischer, it will be a tournament in the so-called Chess960 format, which, to be fair, should be officially called Fischer Random Chess. And the time control will be according to Fischer’s clock – 3 minutes for the game + 2 seconds for each move.

Tournament format and venue

Each round of the tournament will be played according to the Swiss 7-game system, and the conditions will be the same for all four rounds, so you don't have to guess what kind of stress awaits you next week. And your stress will be waiting for you at the following address:

Rules

Oh, how Betman hates rules! Therefore, only the minimum possible rules will be used in this tournament:

1. The tournament is open to all members of the Betman’s Blitz Blunder Barrons club – so you must register as a member of the club. I'm sorry, but it's a Lichess rule that can’t be circumvented.

2. Anyone who wants to be included in the prize distribution must leave a notice of their name on Hive and Lichess in the comments, so that you can be paid after the tournament is over.

3. You have to play at least three games in a round to be considered for ranking.

Rewards

The entire liquid part of the prize (in HBD) is intended for the contestants and will be distributed according to Lighteye’s Scoring & Reward system explained here. But since Betman doesn’t have much Hive support yet, then his most annoying alter-ego will set aside 10 HBD, which will be distributed equally to all Hive tournament participants, as our @schamangerbert is doing.

With the tournament still three days away, there’s plenty of time to reminisce about what history looked like from Robert Fischer’s perspective:

Summary

• Tournament will take place on Lichess.org and will have 4 rounds with 7 games each.

• Date and time: Thursday, July 14th 2022 at 21:00 CET.

• Format and time control: Fischer Random (Chess960) 3+2 Swiss

• The standings will be decided with Lighteye’s Scoring & Reward system explained here.

• All liquid HBD will be distributed to the Hive member contestants according to placement criteria, and further 10 HBD will be distributed equal to all Hive member contestants. Three games minimum.

• Since the greatest name ‘Rabid Rabbit Rapid’ was already taken, you will have to join Betman’s Blitz Blunder Barrons team, and announce their Hive and Lichess names in the comments.

Join and have a nice stress… time!

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Any questions?