A large Chess Tournament is underway - Meridian 59 players organized a ladder-style chess tournament in celebration of a recent update to the Chess Board item in-game. The Tournament prizes were largely donated by players, with a couple unique DM contributions added in after the event was underway.

The update - a change to the viewing perspective of the board when used by its player - was personally done by creator-developer 'Zaphod', which was also the last thing added to the M59 by him when it was first released commercially back in 1995!

The entries filled up quickly, with 16 players competing for 'Chess Champion', with some on standby. Players and the Chess Master, 'Essun', go over the games, which are summarized and reviewed daily in the Meridian 59 discord and on the chess website, 'lichess', as show in a link below.

Players are able to watch the chess games in-game even if they're not one of the competing players - any amount of spectators can view the board and see the matches in real-time! The games have been happening in a newer hangout for shady characters - the candle-lit Abandoned Tavern across the street from the most popular bar in the land, Familiars.

Due to the popularity of the event, another like it is expected to happen again in the future.

Thank you to 'Essun' for organizing the event, 'Zaphod' for the real-time updates to improve the Chess Board, and to all Meridian 59 players for their patronage and support.

Log in to Meridian and join the discord to get in on the conversation for the Chess Tournament and other upcoming events! We hope to see you in-game!

Have fun playing and may you suddenly feel a little tougher ~

A summation of the rules, prizes and a collection of currently posted game analysis' are below!


The following was originally posted by 'Essun' in the Meridian 59 Discord:

Rules:

Open chess tournament in celebration of recent update

- all players of all skill levels are welcome

- rounds to be played throughout the week when players are available

- only 1 entry per player

Knockout-style tournament:

- one game per round, die roll determines color choice

- no external assistance (i.e. chess analysis engines) allowed

- no stalling once the game begins

- no timer, but taking longer than 10 min to make a move will result in a loss

- no game is to exceed 50 moves, if no winner by move 50, the game is a draw

- no draws by agreement, all games will end either with a winner or forced draw

- in the event of a draw, players will play a 5-minute blitz game to determine the winner

- in the event of further draws, more blitz games will be played with -1 minute to the timer per game

Final Round will be 3 games played in front of an audience, time & location TBD

- 0.5 points per draw

- 1 point per win

- same rules outlined above apply if drawn after 3 games

Here's the updated prize pool for the Chess Tournament, now featuring the kind donations of Oujia, Beumac, and Mayhem.

:::PRIZES:::

1st Place:

:gift~1: A special gift.

:lightningbolt: A Profile Engraving,

♟️ An engraved & colored chess board,

:Prism: Your choice: a red 3-sided prism OR a unique chocolate colored 5-sided prism

:shilling: 300,000 shillings

=================

2nd Place:

:mace2: Engraved Black Colored Hammer w/ 2 effects:

Heavy and blunt, this hammer is a powerful weapon, capable of shattering flesh and bone. It is the favored weapon of the mining folk of Jasper. The craftsmanship of this hammer is admirable, obviously the result of hundreds of hours of work by expert hands. The words 'Crafted in Darkness' are delicately engraved on the edge. A swirling green 'GMT' is stamped into the pommel.

This hammer is in flawless condition.

:daemonmask: Daemon Skeleton Mask

:Prism: the prism the winner didn't choose

:shilling: 100,000 shillings

=================

3rd Place:

:skullmask: Skull Mask

:NecklaceofJala: Jala Necklace

:shilling: 25,000 shillings

=================

4th place:

:Rose: Rose

:shilling: 25,000 shillings

=================

5th-16th place:

:MaskAnt: :MaskMummy: :MaskShrunken: :masktroll: :MaskRoXeo: a random mask or toy!



Game Analysis:


Round 1, Match 1:
Rend vs Hektic
https://lichess.org/T6nAzfxp

"First match of the chess tournament happened tonight between @A guy named Phil (White) & @Hektic (Red). Hektic won the roll and bravely chose to play as red, giving Rend first move advantage as white.

It was a very close game between two evenly matched opponents and it seemed like either could win at any given moment, both were sweating! But in the end, Hektic prevailed as white resigned just as the game was entering its end game."


Round 1, Match 3:
Psilotripitaka vs Grok!
https://lichess.org/eNp5MITc

Game #3 between Psilotripitaka (White) & Grok! (Red) was probably the best game yet. They were very evenly matched and the game was incredibly close until near the very end when Psilo pulled slightly ahead. Very well played by both players.

Out of the opening and through much of the middle game, Grok had the upper hand, but one small misstep caused the table to turn.

Round 1, Match 4:
Ouija vs. Judge Dredd
https://lichess.org/Mo2E8G1R


Here's video of the 4th match of Round 1 Ouija vs. Judge Dredd. Lots of games happening tonight, so there's probably going to be a flood of these...

Round 2, Match 1:
IceWing vs Psilotripitaka
https://lichess.org/IDdy7VOd

Next, we had our first match of Round 2 between IceWing (White) and Psilotripitaka (Red) which was a game with a wildly swinging pendulum featuring our second checkmate of the tournament. Winning this game advanced IceWing to become our first semi-finalist. Congratulations!


Round 1, Match 5:
Old Boy vs Black Panther
https://lichess.org/5SSNyHk8

Then we returned to Round 1 and had match 5: Old Boy (White) vs Black Panther (Red) which was fairly one sided in white's favor, but BP has never been one to back down from a fight. Still was a very exciting match!

Round 1, Match 6:
Lonesome Traveller vs Grunk


Last game of the night was game 6 of Round 1 between Lonesome Traveller (White) and Grunk (Red) and this was another fairly one-sided but exciting one. Lonesome was less experienced by his own admission but still put up a good fight and found creative ways to get out of many of the corners he was backed into.


Round 1, Match 7:
Alzoneth vs Haven
https://lichess.org/XGoXiXFF

This afternoon, the 7th match of Round 1 between Alzoneth (White) and Haven (Red) took place and it was a very creative and fun one! Both players admitted to being inexperienced at chess and I'm glad the roster worked out that they got to play together because it was a great game and it seemed like both learned a lot from each other. Both made mistakes, but covered for them with creative tactics.

They both only made 3 moves between them the engine considers blunders and had very high accuracy ratings.