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Open Invitation To iChess.Net's First Tournament...[FREE PRIZES!]

We, the team at iChess.net, are glad to announce our very first open tournament to be held from 2 pm EST to 3 pm EST on Saturday, August 8, 2018.

It's a U1800 tournament with a time control of 5m + 1s. Comprised of rated games in the Standard variant, the duration of the tournament is 60 minutes.

At the end of the tournament, the first, second and third placeholders will win FREE prizes from our store. (No extra fee at all!)

First Prize: The Nigel Method by GM Nigel Short
Course URL: www.ichess.net/shop/short-way-mastering-tactics-nigel-method/

Second Prize: The London System by IM Eric Rosen
Course URL: www.ichess.net/shop/london-system-eric-rosen/

Third Prize: Practical Chess Endgames For Club Players by IM Valeri Lilov
Course URL: www.ichess.net/shop/practical-chess-endgames-for-club-players-im-valeri-lilov/

Here's the tournament URL (please join now):
lichess.org/tournament/dhJzKWOW

Warriors, let's see what you have got. Sharpen your swords and ready your armour. The fight is about to begin.

If you have any query, contact me at suman@ichess.net.

Thanks.
Make that September 8, not August.

Anyway, I'd like to warn the organizers about a phenomenon that tends to take place in tournaments with limited rating entry: a lot of players rated below 1800 start playing way above their level, and a player with 2100+ performance takes the first prize. I think it will be very bad in this tournament, considering the value of first prize is over $100. Of course, the lichess mods do a great job of detecting and banning sandbaggers and cheaters, but it's incredibly hard to distinguish between a player having a good tournament and some bad days in the past and a player who's been lowering their rating by playing sub-optimal moves intentionally. In the end, it's a very reasonable yet immoral strategy for 1800+ players to do the latter.

I still hope it will be a fun and exciting event for all participants!
Thanks so much for your feedback. Though Lichess has its own way of identifying those sandbaggers and cheaters, we, at iChess, will try to do our bit as well, doing a thorough check ourselves. If we find a discrepancy, we would have to disqualify the player, notwithstanding if he is the winner. We take cheating very seriously.

We hope that everyone will play fair and try to win on their own merits. Any blackhat strategy might be penalized, please do remember this.

We sincerely hope that you make this tournament a success so that we can keep on continuing with our efforts in the future. Thanks.
I highly discourage U1800 tournaments with prizes. The rating limitation vastly encourages sandbagging.
We are taking precautions for that. But gotta give those U1800s a chance, right? If those prizes were only for 2100+ rated players, it would not make much sense.

Guys, one thing. If you feel someone is cheating or has previous records of being a cheater, please let us know at suman@ichess.net with that person's lichess handle.

P. S. The tourney is on September 8, 2018. A slight mistake in the original post.
You can also limit the lifetime best of the players and set a high number of minimum number of rated games. For example, all u1800 can play but to qualify for the prize, the player must have played 500 blitz games and must have never crossed a rating of 2100.
Also.. as a non U1800 player, I request you stop promoting the london system. It is boring. Thx. Hope you all have fun!
finlip, sounds like a good idea.

DrHack, well, we sure don't support one system over another. But our presenters certainly do. :-)
Oh, boy. Advertising a chess tournament, on a 3rd party website (that doesn't do advertising), for "prizes" which are commercial products from the host doing the advertising.

Hrm? What does this sound like? -- We'll pay to host (and advertise) a tournament ... but we won't put-up cash. (Because we have none -- but we've got plenty of product in our digital warehouses. Come one, come all, check out our website, if you're stuggling below a certain rating, our product can help you, along with late-nite infomercials and products from other websites with other GM's and titled players giving away the information that'll help you... for free, so come buy something not free -- because it'll make you better than me.)

Are the prizes truly "free" -- or do you have to go through the whole "store" process, provide your information (maybe even a credit card) before entering a code to claim your prize? (The details not shared beforehand, up-front, in the oh-so-wonderful promotional materials.)

Have fun, y'all. (See above, I just did, and I didn't have to pay a dime.)

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