Dopers 2005! Chess: Royal Rumble! Doper Chess Fest!!!

[FinnAgain]

Okay, so I've seen a few threads dedicated to individual chess matches, and I've seen a great many posts around various fora where people talk about their chess skills.

So, I figured, for fun and bragging rights, we should set up a single elimination tournament. I'm not great at chess myself, and I estimate that I'd be knocked out somewhere around the beginning, but I think it'd be great fun for everybody.

We could pair people off, have them play games on yahoo and email the game history to me so I can post it to this thread, or just post the results directly.

So come on, who's with me?

[ITR champion]

You can count me in.

[Gfactor]

I'm in.

[treis]

Yeah I'll do it.

[FinnAgain]

Excellent!
That makes four people, let's see if we can get more!

[Ephemera]

I've not played in five or more years and was never good to begin with but I'll be up for it.

[Improv Geek]

I'm in.

[RayMan]

I'd love to play. But why a single elimination tournament? Why not have a round robin (if there are few enough players) or a Swiss tournament? That could easily be arranged, with or without USCF or FIDE ratings.

[FinnAgain]

Can you please elaborate on that? I'm not familiar with those terms.

[Gfactor]

Can you please elaborate on that? I'm not familiar with those terms.

This link has good explanations of most of the terms.

http://www.chessctr.org/primer.htm

FIDE (http://www.fide.com/default.asp?curpage=1&x=0.1016352) is the International organization for chess players. USCF and FIDE both issue ratings for chess players.

[FinnAgain]

Hrm, well, we have seven people. This is a pretty piss-poor tournament. Anybody know anybody else they can harass, politely, to get them to join? Anybody have the lib signal set up and ready to go?

[Gfactor]

Hrm, well, we have seven people. This is a pretty piss-poor tournament. Anybody know anybody else they can harass, politely, to get them to join? Anybody have the lib signal set up and ready to go?

I suggest we give it a couple of days. Some people (usually me, for instance) are not around on the weekend.

[Lockz]

I suppose I'll play, haven't played seriously for a while though

[Dragoness]

Could I get penciled in under "to be eliminated first round," please?

[Euthanasiast]

I'm in, depending on how we go about playing the games.

[glee]

I'll play (but I'm on GMT).

Would it be more interesting to play on SDMB threads, so people could watch?

[Euthanasiast]

Yeah, I like that idea. It's simple.

[treis]

I'll play (but I'm on GMT).

Would it be more interesting to play on SDMB threads, so people could watch?

That seems like it would take too long plus I doubt the mods would look kindly on 10 chess games running at one time. Perhaps the two players can schedule a time so that if people want to watch they can.

[BlackKnight]

I'm in, although I'm not particularly good.

Perhaps we can have the games played on Yahoo (or elsewhere) for the first rounds, and only have the final games played on the SDMB? It would be neat to watch a championship match on the board.

I think round-robin or somesuch is probably better than single elimination, but it doesn't really matter.

[Iceland_Blue]

I'm in too....





Hey BlackKnight,are you from F1forums? :D Cos we have a BlackKnight there too!

[Scott Plaid]

What's you gonna do, when Chess-mania runs over you?

[petelin]

I'll join also, if it's not too late.

[Garfield226]

Sure, what the heck.

[FinnAgain]

For everybody worrying about getting their heads handed to them in an early round, eet's no big thang. I'm sure I'm going to get beaten rather early too, it's just about fun.

To others, no, 'registration' for this isn't closed yet. I'd like to see us get at least a couple dozen people before we get going on this, maybe wait a little longer so we can make sure that the optimal number of Dopers join up.

As for round robin vs. single elimination, or what have you, what're people's ideas on this? If more people want one particular format than another, we'll go with it. I've been rather busy this weekend with work for my classes so I haven't researched them, but I'll get on it.

Also, glee and BK, I'm sure we can find a way to work out matches between time zones. As for playing games on this thread, I think that'd take up way too much time. We'd be here till 2007 playing these games out. Maybe we'll have the last match or three played on in this thread, but my hunch is that it'd still be better to play a game in an off-site forum like Yahoo and then post the results to here.

As for how the games will be run, personally I'd go with Yahoo. They have a program that's very easy to use, and free.

[Gfactor]

As for how the games will be run, personally I'd go with Yahoo. They have a program that's very easy to use, and free.

1. I play most of my Internet chess on Yahoo. It is a good place to play because the interface is simple. But the reporting could present a problem. Yahoo uses coordinate notation (just the names of the squares--no identification of the pieces moved). This is probably the most confusing of all notation systems. We are likely to get a lot of questions about the notation when we report results if we use Yahoo. Unless someone knows of a good conversion engine.

2. Probably single elimination. I suspect we will have some drop outs if we expect too much from people.

[FinnAgain]

Ahhhh, a good point. I didn't realize that about yahoo. I've never had a problem understanding their notation though, maybe it's just me? Then again, I never really learned 'proper' notation, so this might just be the one I'm comfy with.

And yeah, I am currently leaning more towards single elimination... playing regardless of victory can be fun, but even I would probably start to get a bit frustrated if I had to play a dozen matches and got my ass kicked in each and every one.

[glee]

There are 3 main ways to run chess tournaments.

1. All-play-all: - takes the longest, but guarantees the clearest final ranking.

2. Knock-out: - you'll need a bye round if the entries are not a power of 2, but it uses the least time. On the other hand, half the players only get one game.

3. Swiss system: - you set a number of rounds and everybody plays that number of games. The first round can be random pairings, but after that you play someone who's doing as well as you are.
Here's an example:

Round 1
(White) (Black)
Arthur 1-0 Bill
Carmen draw Dave
Eric 0-1 Fiona
George draw Harry

So Arthur + Fiona have 1 point; Carmen, Dave, George and Harry have 0.5; Bill and Eric have 0.

Round 2 pairings would be:

(White) (Black)
Fiona v Arthur (colours alternate whenever possible)
Harry v Carmen
Dave v George
Bill v Eric

[Gfactor]

Ahhhh, a good point. I didn't realize that about yahoo. I've never had a problem understanding their notation though, maybe it's just me? Then again, I never really learned 'proper' notation, so this might just be the one I'm comfy with.



I can usually see the first four or five moves in my head with notation that includes the piece names. Much worse with coordinates. But maybe that is just me.

Also, as I said before, if you can come up with a way of converting the results, then the point is moot.

[RayMan]

Chess tournaments are simply not played in a single elimination format. I have never heard of one before, and I have certainly never played in one before.

It would make far more sense to play in a round robin quad system, or, ideally, a modified Swiss pairing system. Depending on how many people play, we could easily have a five round Swiss tournament and wrap it up in less than a week.

I am a USCF tournament director, as well as a tournament player. I have TD'ed in lots of club level and USCF tournaments, including large national events. I could easily throw together pairings for a five round Swiss, and I've got a website to post pairings, results, and notated games.

I hope I'm not stepping on your toes, FinnAgain, I'm just offering my services. I would love to help.

[FinnAgain]

Not a problem at all RayMan, I need to run to class now, but I'll definitely consider all the proposals on the table.

Although, personally, I'd wager that a five round swiss style tourney would take closer to a month than a week, what with people having varying schedules and all... But of course, a month wouldn't be bad for this to play out over... Hrm. I'll get in touch with you either through this thread of via email if I have any eureka moments.

[Really Not All That Bright]

I'm in. Don't care about the format, although I'd rather a round robin so that I can play more than one game...

[glee]

Chess tournaments are simply not played in a single elimination format. I have never heard of one before, and I have certainly never played in one before.



Is there a misunderstanding here?

'FIDE held the second World Championship Knockout tournament in Las Vegas July 30-August 29 at Caesar's Palace.

Invited were 100 of the top players in the world. Accepting invitations were all nine invited Americans - including Gata Kamsky! The other U.S. players were U.S. Champion Nick de Firmian, Joel Benjamin, Dmitry Gurevich, Tal Shaked, Boris Gulko, Alex Yermolinsky, Sergey Kudrin, and Alexander Ivanov. All nine are Grandmasters. Shaked, Gulko, Yermolinsky, and Kamsky played in Round 2, but all were eliminated. USCF coverage continued throughout the event.'

http://www.uschess.org/news/world99/

For years now the FIDE World Championship has been a knockout.

[RayMan]

Is there a misunderstanding here?

glee, you have said in the past that you are a tournament player. How many single elimination tournaments have you played in? I am guessing not very many. That's because there aren't very many of them. I am guessing that the vast majority of tournaments that you have played in have been Swiss, because that's the format for almost every chess tournament ever played. I am a TD, and I have never even heard of a single elimination chess tournament.

The example you cited was the invitation World Championshiop Knockout Tournament. This type of tournament, made up entirely of grandmasters, is hardly representative of chess tournaments in general.

[glee]

glee, you have said in the past that you are a tournament player. How many single elimination tournaments have you played in? I am guessing not very many. That's because there aren't very many of them. I am guessing that the vast majority of tournaments that you have played in have been Swiss, because that's the format for almost every chess tournament ever played. I am a TD, and I have never even heard of a single elimination chess tournament.

The example you cited was the invitation World Championshiop Knockout Tournament. This type of tournament, made up entirely of grandmasters, is hardly representative of chess tournaments in general.

Firstly I think it's great that you have offered to help run the event. That's important and useful. :cool:

I was just trying to point out a slip in your post. I thought a US TD would have heard of the Las Vegas event!
But since you ask, I have indeed played in only a few KO events. The vast majority have been Swiss, or at international level, all-play-all.

[Arwin]

If you need to fill another seat, count me in.

[FinnAgain]

What say ye all to four swiss style round, one a week, and then a 'championship' round the fifth week between those who're ranked highest?

(If anybody would like to help me organize this, please feel free to get in touch with me. I'm rather tech-ignorant, and I can't quite seem to make my email visible. So I give permission for any Admin to give out my email addy if someone refrences this post and asks to communicate with me about the tourney)

[Scarface Z]

Mind if I join in if you've got the space?

[Elvez]

If the schedule and all the organizational stuff can be done via email, I'd love to play. I just don't check this board often enough to keep up if it's organized on here...

[FinnAgain]

Of course there's still room for people, I wouldn't mind having 100 people play.

And, yes, we can work scheduling via email. I can do this all myself, but I'm also very busy with my grad work right now, anybody who wants to help me coordinate things would be greatly appreciated.

[Euthanasiast]

Before you can begin setting anything up, you have to know how many you have playing. Also, you have to decide if you want to just throw people together in matches without considering experience or rank (if applicable), or if you want to try and appropriately match players based on experience and rank (if applicable).

The former really is messy and, well, unfair--not to put too fine a point on it. The latter requires time to set up and honesty from the players in order to go off without someone getting destroyed in the first match because of poor pairing.

Rankings and chess tournament systems such as the Swiss system are the norm for these specific reasons.

It's up to you.

Euth

[FinnAgain]

Well, I suppose that I'll give this thread about another week to collect participants, and then email everybody to try to set things up.

I'll read up on Swiss tournaments, and try to think up some semi-objective system whereby we could rate players, or have them self-rate.

I think that, perhaps, monday that seventh of march would be a very good day to start sending out emails and making pairings.

What say ye all?

[Gfactor]

Well, I suppose that I'll give this thread about another week to collect participants, and then email everybody to try to set things up.

I'll read up on Swiss tournaments, and try to think up some semi-objective system whereby we could rate players, or have them self-rate.

I think that, perhaps, monday that seventh of march would be a very good day to start sending out emails and making pairings.

What say ye all?

Fine by me.

[Gfactor]

Example of Yahoo format;

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. g1-f3 d7-d6
3. d2-d4 f7-f6
4. f1-c4 g8-h6
5. h2-h3 c7-c6
6. b1-c3 d8-a5
7. c1-d2 d6-d5
8. c4-b3 c8-e6
9. d4xe5 b8-d7
10. e5xf6 d7xf6
11. e4xd5 c6xd5
12. d1-e2 a5-d8
13. c3-b5 f6-e4
14. o-o-o a8-c8
15. d2-f4 f8-d6
16. b5xd6+ e4xd6
17. f4xd6 d8xd6
18. f3-d4 e8-e7
19. h1-e1 h8-f8
20. d4xe6

[FinnAgain]

Example of Yahoo format;

Hrm... other than a snippet of dialogue from Bladerunner, I've never seen chess notation in any other manner.

How do you suggest we handle reporting here? I do think it would be neat to see game histories when we run each of the four (five?) rounds. Maybe someone wants to work with me and we can collect the game histories each week and then annotate them ourselves?

[Gfactor]

Hrm... other than a snippet of dialogue from Bladerunner, I've never seen chess notation in any other manner.

How do you suggest we handle reporting here? I do think it would be neat to see game histories when we run each of the four (five?) rounds. Maybe someone wants to work with me and we can collect the game histories each week and then annotate them ourselves?

The threads that glee is doing right now have more typical notation.

Here is an example (randomly selected) of modern chess notation.

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_ht_attack/031115_h_t_attack_pins.html

I'm not sure that I have a suggestion about reporting, and I don't really care if we do the Yahoo thing. I probably don't have time to annotate the games, and I have to say that my limited chess insight would render any annotations that I did worthless. But I know there are many Dopers who are good at such things.

[Khampelf]

OK, I'm in. To fight valiantly and lose is my forte..

My only mental reservation is the recollection that the last time I tried to use Yahoo chess, my system choked on the java aplets the site uses.

Most of my internet chess I played at Microsoft's Zone dot com, but it makes you download a buttload of their software.

This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Thanks to FinnAgain for the idea

[Lathe of Heaven]

I'd like in, please.

To my worthy opponents: prepare to WIN!

[FinnAgain]

Lizard King: my pleasure.
Lathe You're in, perpare for some fun.

(Anybody have a link to The Onion's article on the kung fu style that's guaranteed to lose?)

[Elvez]

I've never really played any real-time online chess. My experience has been with itsyourturn.com (which is email correspondence chess), where the games progress more slowly, but it's easier to play people in different time zones and with different schedules.
Just another option.

[FinnAgain]

Well, I'm sure that we can allow people to play over any service they'd like. I think we'd set a time limit of one week for completion of games, but other than that it'd be up to the participants.

Thank you for an alternate suggestion though.

[GIGObuster]

Count me in too!

I have not played in tournaments in a long time, but 5 years ago I was rated 1600.

[Ellis Dee]

I'll play. My hotmail account has been erratic lately, so if you send out a mass email, maybe put a copy in this thread?

[glee]

Well, I suppose that I'll give this thread about another week to collect participants, and then email everybody to try to set things up.

I'll read up on Swiss tournaments, and try to think up some semi-objective system whereby we could rate players, or have them self-rate.

I think that, perhaps, monday that seventh of march would be a very good day to start sending out emails and making pairings.

What say ye all?

A Swiss tournament is basically aimed at producing a winner. Below that, final placings are not as reliable because your opponents may vary in strength.

The number of rounds you need depends on the number of players. For 16- 32 entrants, 5 rounds is the minimum.

Club players will have a rating. The ELO system applies worldwide (with national conversions where necessary). Less experienced players won't have a rating, but it would be normal to just put them in as with identical ratings of say 0, then within that group at random.
A typical first round draw would pair top half v bottom half, varying colours alternately (to make future pairings easier).
For example:

White Black
Arthur (2000) v Basil (0)
Catherine (0) v Derek (1800)
Ernest (1600) v Fiona (0)
George (0) v Harry (1550)
Ian (0) v Jackie (0)
Karl (0) v Lee (0)

[SpaceDog]

Regarding the yahoo format, a friend of mine pointed me to this link (http://www33.brinkster.com/ahmbay/blackeagle.asp?p=download) claims to have a Yahoo->PNG converter but I haven't been able to make it accept any input so far, maybe it only accepts complete games and I don't have one to hand.

Worth a shot if people want to go the yahoo route.

SD

[FinnAgain]

I have not played in tournaments in a long time, but 5 years ago I was rated 1600.

I don't understand, do you mean a Yahoo rating of 1600?

Ellis Dee: Welcome to the tourney, of course I'll post here as well as mass mail.

glee Would you be able to help me set up pairings in each round? You seem to understand much better than I do, and I don't want to screw things up.

SpaceDog: Excellent. Would you please post to us if you get it to work?

[GIGObuster]

I don't understand, do you mean a Yahoo rating of 1600?

USCF rating, Elo system.

[glee]

glee Would you be able to help me set up pairings in each round? You seem to understand much better than I do, and I don't want to screw things up.



I can certainly do the pairings (I have organised quite a few tournaments).
I was hoping to play, but hereby offer to direct instead!

The information needed from each player to do the draw is simple:

Have you a current or former ELO rating?
If you have a national rating (issued by your chess federation), I can convert it.
Don't worry if you have no rating!

All players will play in every round, using the Swiss system.

[treis]

Its been a week so I think all (or at least nearly all) of the people that wanted to sign up have. Shall we get this thing going?

[SiouxChief]

Its been a week so I think all (or at least nearly all) of the people that wanted to sign up have. Shall we get this thing going?

I know of one more person who might be interested. We'll know for sure by tomorrow around lunchtime...

[FinnAgain]

Glee: Can't you help organize as well as play? It seems a shame for you not to participate.

And I think, since people keep trickling in one or two a day, that we'll wait until next week to close the tourney. I'd rather wait a bit too long than exclude someone who wanted to play.

If lots of people disagree, of course, we'll run it asap.

[glee]

Glee: Can't you help organize as well as play? It seems a shame for you not to participate.

And I think, since people keep trickling in one or two a day, that we'll wait until next week to close the tourney. I'd rather wait a bit too long than exclude someone who wanted to play.

If lots of people disagree, of course, we'll run it asap.

It's a potentially awkward position. If I am in the race for 1st place, make the draw and another leader objects...

It's your thread and your idea. If you would like me to run it as an experienced and independent arbiter, I'm happy. Just say so, and I'll start*.

*First things first:

- confirm entrants
- get grading information
- set start time
- set rules of engagement for each game
- announce number of rounds
- answer queries

[SpaceDog]

SpaceDog: Excellent. Would you please post to us if you get it to work?

OK, try this (http://www.geocities.com/pgnchess2004/) one instead as there's no download.

Again I don't have a full Yahoo game to try and just pasting in 1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. g1-f3 d7-d6
3. d2-d4 f7-f6
4. f1-c4 g8-h6
5. h2-h3 c7-c6 doesn't work.

Digging around it's because it's expecting whatever the Yahoo header information is, which means it's looking for 15 distinct terms before the game starts, so adding something that fits this pattern encourages it to work, i.e. using 1 2 3 4
White: <WhitePlayer>
Black: <BlackPlayer>
9 10
Jan 02 - - 2005

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. g1-f3 d7-d6
3. d2-d4 f7-f6
4. f1-c4 g8-h6
5. h2-h3 c7-c6 produces [Event "Yahoo! Chess Game"]
[Site "Yahoo! Chess"]
[Date "01-02-2005"]
[Round ""]
[White "<WhitePlayer>"]
[Black "<BlackPlayer>"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 f6
4. Bc4 Nh6
5. h3 c6 1-0 if you mark the result as 1-0.

The cool thing is that you can then hit the View Game button and get a little interactive viewer for those that want to play along at home.

SD

[Gfactor]

That's pretty cool.

[Gfactor]

Doesn't work in Firefox, but runs like a dream in Explorer.

[Ellis Dee]

It's a potentially awkward position. If I am in the race for 1st place, make the draw and another leader objects...I remember you from other threads on chess; you should definitely participate. I'd recommend that were such a situation to occur, we have an alternate person make the draw. You will no doubt immediately recognize when there is a potential conflict, and can thus ask the alternate to do it. Preferably, somebody that will agree to do it now that will not likely go very far. I don't really want to do it, but if nobody else steps forward, you can look to me in a pinch.

As for my info, I've never been ranked in any way by any body, IRL or online. I learned as a young'un how to play, and occasionally go on yearlong jags where I'll play several times per week against friends and family.

Without fail, I get significantly better within a few weeks, then better still after a couple months, but in the beginning I'm usually pretty bad. I haven't played in a couple years. I don't know what that's worth, but that's all the info I can give you for ranking purposes.

[Lockz]

I used to have a rating about ten years ago when I was a kid. No longer though; count me in as a 0.

[Gfactor]

Have you a current or former ELO rating?
If you have a national rating (issued by your chess federation), I can convert it.
Don't worry if you have no rating!
.

No rating here. On Yahoo, I hover around 1200, but I usually play while distracted.

[Scarface Z]

I have no rating as well. Though I typically wander the 1400-1450 range in internet chess.

[Dubious Sacrifice]

Can I play?

Avg. Yahoo rating = ~1500.

Note: I'm a long time lurker, first time poster.

[FinnAgain]

Glee you have my trust. If you need to, email me at AgentFinn@gmail.com and we can hash some things out.

Dubious, yes, you can play.

Spacedog, thank you.

[FinnAgain]

Just going to bump this once for the weekend, hopefully we'll find a few new players. If not, I'll have compiled a list, emailed people, paired them up (hopefully with Glee's help), and we'll be able to get going on monday.

Hope everybody's having a great weekend!

[Khampelf]

I made myself a new Yahoo account, and verified I could get into Yahoo games and play chess. I won my test game, so I now have a Yahoo ranking of 1215.

I guess my machine no longer has a problem with aplets.

[FinnAgain]

Just wanted to let everybody know that I haven't forgotten about this, just been very busy and I've been using my free time to post to a few other threads. I'll try to get an email out tonight or tomorrow at the latest. My apologies.

[RayMan]

Please forgive me, but I cannot think of a polite way to ask this question: are we gonna play chess or not?

[FinnAgain]

Yes, we are going to. I've been ridiculously busy with school and just got to Vermont for spring break. I have a lot of free time tomorrow (saturday) so I'll get stuff emailed out then. If you'd like to help me run this, you're certainly welcome to pitch in.

Very sorry to everybody for not being able to hop on this sooner, but it'll get done.

[FinnAgain]

Damnit, I almost had a list compiled for email and then it got eaten. It'll just take me some time to complie another list. If anybody else would like to step up and help, you'd have my appreciation. If not, I'll have it done some time today. Expect an email.

Sorry again, I'm a poor tired overworked grad student. I beg your forgiveness :)

[FinnAgain]

Ok, for SDMB-non-email-Dopers who're playing:
GIGOBuster is maasuus@yahoo.com
Ellis Dee is jdan37@hotmail.com
glee is gdlee@btopenworld.com
Lockz is joehache@gmail.com
Elvez is ellis@nrsweb.com
ITRchamption is noone5445@yahoo.com
Gfactor is gfactor999@gmail.com
treis is treistetter@hotmail.com
Aesiron is aesiron@gmail.com
ronincyberpunk is pjarrett@gmail.com
RayMan is r-fuller2@neiu.edu
Dragoness is dragonessj@gmail.com
Euthanasiast is unenlightened_one@yahoo.com
BlackKnight is stopthelies@hotmail.com
petelin is scott.vanderau@e3co.com
Garfield226 is Garfield226@gmail.com
Really Not All That Bright is dutchboy208@yahoo.com
Arwin is arwin@niwra.nl
Scarface Z is zgurzym@allegheny.edu
The Sonoran Lizard King is dheimbuck@hotmail.com
Iceland_Blue is iceland_blue@hotmail.com
Lathe of Heaven is ana.ng@tmbg.org
FinnAgain is AgentFinn@gmail.com

Spacedog, no email listed
Dubious Sacrifice, no email listed

Opening round: (Not many people gave rankings, so some folks are just playing whoever they were near in the thread)

Glee vs Rayman
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice
Spacedog vs Lockz
GIGObuster vs GFactor
ITRchampion vs Aesiron
Ellis Dee vs Dragoness
Eutnanansiast vs Treis
Black Knight vs Iceland Blue
Petelin vs Garfield
Really Not all that bright vs Arwin
Ronincyberpunk vs Elvez
Sonoran Lizard King vs Lathe of Heaven

As we've got an odd number of players, I'll sit out. If someone's opponent doesn't show up to play, however, I'll take their spot.

We'll work on getting this round done within a week, if it goes longer then it'll go longer. If anybody needs help or to coordinate anything, feel free to contact me. Otherwise, get in touch with your partner either in this thread or in email, and let the games begin!


(Sorry again for being so busy:()

[FinnAgain]

Oh, Treis, I'm getting the message from Gmail that

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

treistetter@hotmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 10): 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable

Is there another email you can be reached at?

[FinnAgain]

Oh and, sorry for not bolding your names everybody. I'll try to do better in the future.
Now I need some sleep. A good day/night to you all.

[Euthanasiast]

Am I to assume that the person listed in the first column is white?

[treis]

Finn you can reach me at treis017@yahoo.com

[FinnAgain]

Euthanasiast: Truth be told, I've never organized a chess tourney before, so I hadn't thought of that. I'd figured that people could sort it out for themselves first round, but I guess you're right.

The first person listed in each matchup is white

Treis did you get all the info, or would you like me to email you on this round? (I'll update your info in my records for next round)

[Dubious Sacrifice]

Finn: dubious_sacrifice@yahoo.com

[FinnAgain]

Noted: You will be on future email mass mailings.

You might want to email Scarface Z at zgurzym@allegheny.edu to set things up.

Best of luck!

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

I'd like to play if it's not too late (this is the first time I've seen this thread and I check in to the board at least 3 times a day!).

I'd like to offer another vote for playing on "It's You Turn". The way they work would be perfect for Dopers who are on different schedules. Also other people could check in to monitor other games more easily.

Essentially, ItsYourTurn.com is to Yahoo Chess the as the SDMB is to (for example) Yahoo Chat. So I think it fits us Dopers quite nicely.

I hope that there is some way to determine people's skill level to set up the 1st round pairings. I can think of two ways:

1. Have people honestly tell what there ELO is or estimate what it would be if they had one (for instance, I don't have a ranking--eith in USCF or on something like Yahoo but I could still estimate that I am somewhere between 900 - 1100 (I'm not very good)). Problem is, some folks would have no idea how to estimate their ELO ranking. So.......

2. Some of the bigger chess brains could choose a few different midgame chess problems and then people could privately tell what they think the correct answers are. Then, some of the better players here could quickly "grade" these and determine an approximate skill level. Of course, people could choose to cheat and run the problems through a chess computer, but that would only mean they'd have to play at the highest level and get blown out quickly in the tournament.

That brings up another problem: what about people using computers to help them during the tournament games? I suppose we'll just have to be on the honor system.

Count me in, please!

[FinnAgain]

Hey I love me, shouldn't be a problem I don't think... I'd like to wait 24 hours to make sure though. Right now I'm serving as an 'alternate', and as long as nobody else defaults I'll be able to play against you. I think we're going to be using the honor system and letting people play out their games over whatever server they'd like. And at least this go-round, not many people had ideas of where they were ranked. Rather than wait another week or two, I figured it'd be best to just slice people up into first round pairings. I just don't have the time during this semseter to fully organize this along the lines of your second suggestion.

[FinnAgain]

Just had a final thought right after I posted: If anybody needs an alternate you'll be first on the list and I'll be second. I'm (kinda) organizing this so I'll not be quite so picky about getting playing time.

[GIGObuster]

Notes sended to FinnAgain and Gfactor

We G-men :) are getting in contact now, How do you set up a board in ItsYourTurn.com I Love Me, Vol. I ?

[FinnAgain]

[Mr. Burns] Egggggggsalad [/burns]

It's all coming together.

If everybody could please either email to let me know when you talk to you opponent, or post in this thread, it'd make things easier. If anybody has a "No show" partner, get in touch with me or this thread asap please.

This shouldn't be necessary on the second round, I don't think... but until we determine if everybody is in for the game, we should double check.

Have fun everybody!

[Ellis Dee]

Don't feel bad, Finn, I haven't been online in any capacity since Tuesday. I checked my hotmail to see a bunch of chess-related emails and checked the thread with baited breath to see if I'd been ousted due to being offline. As it turns out, I'm pretty much in the same time situation you are. hehheh. No worries.

Uh, E5.

What?

But seriously, I created an ItsYourTurn.com account, emailed Dragoness all pertinent info, and await her first move. Because I can't create a new game without knowing her account name beforehand, which I don't, I suggested that she create the game and make the first move, since she has my name. I trust this doesn't bother anyone? (Being listed first, I would be white, but I really don't care either way.)

Dragoness, in case you don't get my email, my ItsYourTurn ID is Ellis_Dee. The underscore is important, as my moniker is apparently pretty popular over there. There are at least two Ellis Dee's already registered. The bastards.

[RayMan]

(Being listed first, I would be white, but I really don't care either way.)
In Swiss tournaments, the number of times you play white and black does matter. Whoever is doing the pairings needs to take into account what color you play every round.

[FinnAgain]

Can you elaborate Rayman? How should I take that into account when working pairings, I thought I was only to be concerned with overall pattern of wins/losses?

[Ellis Dee]

Can you elaborate Rayman? How should I take that into account when working pairings, I thought I was only to be concerned with overall pattern of wins/losses?WAG: All participants should play both colors equally. Isn't going first a quantifiable advantage? Thus nobody should play white every game.

[RayMan]

In a five round Swiss, obviously, no one will play the same amount of games as white as they do black. But pairings should be made to try and alternate colors (when possible), and ideally, players will play three games as one color, and two as the other.

I think I've come across in this thread as being a little uptight about the setup of a chess tournament. It is something I take seriously; it is my job. If we all agree that we are here to play for fun and nothing else, then I will shut the fuck up and play chess. If we want to actually try and run a chess tournament, then someone knowledgeable about chess tournaments should be doing the pairings.

[FinnAgain]

Personally Rayman I would like to do both. So please clear up any ignorance on my part, and at least help me to make informed decisions, if you'd be so kind. Your idea here sounds like a good one.

Let's have everybody report the colors people played along with the results of the games please.

Now, as to your suggestion that since we're trying to run a tournament, someone knowledgable should do the pairings... are you offering to take the responsibility for that in this tourney? I'll do my best if you want to advise, but if it's important to you that pairings be set up by the book, maybe you can help with that detail?

[Lockz]

Did Spacedog give an email address yet?

[Dubious Sacrifice]

Thanks

Question: What is the time controls?

[FinnAgain]

Did Spacedog give an email address yet?

Sorry, he has not. Maybe you could contact the admins and ask to have an email forwarded? If you're not able to get in touch with him/her in a couple days email me/post to this thread and we'll set you up against one of the alternates.

As for time constraints, let's try to shoot for one week, and if we need more time for the first round then we'll take more time.

[Dubious Sacrifice]

As for time constraints, let's try to shoot for one week, and if we need more time for the first round then we'll take more time.

No, I mean time controls for the game itself. G/20, 5/5, etc.

I much prefer Fischer time controls, with seconds added per move, but I'm open to almost anything.

[Khampelf]

Good thing we're in MPSIMS.

For the Next two hours, I'll be on Yahoo Chess, as S_Lizard_King in a room called, charmingly , "Weasle Way" at Table 28, waiting for Lathe of Heaven. I've protected the table, but I'm sure a clever Doper could guess a password I'd recognize. I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow, from 7-10 MST

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Notes sended to FinnAgain and Gfactor

We G-men :) are getting in contact now, How do you set up a board in ItsYourTurn.com I Love Me, Vol. I ?Well, I haven't played there for a while and when I did, it was mostly backgammon (we should have a backgammon tourament sometime!).

If you go to their website you'll see they make it really simple. You and your opponent would have to register, and then you just start a game and the two of you can check in--totally independent of one another--whenever it is convenient. I think it's a great way of playing games between busy people who don't have the same schedules. Also, it is very easy for someone else to check in on your game. They can do this whenever--they don't have to know EXACTLY when you are playing and watch the game right then.

Anywayyyyyy-- so I'm a little confused.... am I playing FinnAgain? Somebody else? Or no one at all???????

My email is vansloot@hotmail.com. Pease put a descriptive subject on any email you send. If the subject line reads "N-1arj y00r m/\n-h00d (lets play chess)" then I might just delete it.

PS--I don't think we should sweat that this is taking a little while to start. AFAIK, this is first chess tournament of any size on the SDMB. Once the kinks are worked out of this one it'll be easy to have ones in the future (and hopefully backgammon too!)

[SpaceDog]

Gah, sorry everyone.

I hadn't really meant to enter myself into the tournament, I was just swinging by with some helpful links.

I'm not really sure I'd be able to keep up with playing at the moment so I'd suggest that maybe we have I Love Me, Vol. I take my slot vs Lockz and I'll sneak off and lurk in the shadows.

Hopefully that sorts stuff out. I've enable e-mail in my profile in any case, hopefully next time I'll have some more spare time and I'll join in.

[FinnAgain]

Is anybody having a problem getting in touch with a partner?



Anywayyyyyy-- so I'm a little confused.... am I playing FinnAgain? Somebody else? Or no one at all???????

Looks like you're playing Lockz. I'd recommend y'all get in touch via email.


PS--I don't think we should sweat that this is taking a little while to start. AFAIK, this is first chess tournament of any size on the SDMB. Once the kinks are worked out of this one it'll be easy to have ones in the future (and hopefully backgammon too!)

Sounds good, I've never run an online tournament so it's a bit harder to orchestrate. I'm sure sucessive years will be easier. And yeah, backgammon would be a fun 'un.

[Greenback]

I just saw this. Am I too late?

I am interested but it's okay if I sit this one out, I'd eit early anyway.


:grumbles "stupid work getting in the way of a chess thread"::

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

FinnAgain--

You'll need someone to replace Iceland Blue, too. He has been banned.

[Euthanasiast]

Ladies and gentlemen, gather round! Witness one of the most heated games in chess history. This one clearly rates up there with Fischer/Spasky 1972! I played white in this game and I had my opponent by the short and curlies almost from the beginning. I was looking ahead to multiple forks, pins, and skewers. My plan was extensively mapped out. My objectives and sacrifices decided. My opponent was in for humiliation unlike any he had encountered before. I sat, poised to strike early and often. This was going to be a bad day for black.

Then, at the most pivotal point in the game, I made my move:

1.e4

After that, it was pretty much over. Black pretty much used me for a freakin' trampoline from then on...

The only thing I can say that I am proud of in this match was that at one time I could see 31 moves ahead!!!

;Title: Yahoo! Chess Game
;White: Euthanasiast
;Black: treis017
;Date: Tue Mar 15 22:03:54 GMT 2005

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. b1-c3 c7-c5
3. g1-f3 b8-c6
4. f1-c4 g8-f6
5. d2-d3 d7-d6
6. c4-b5 c8-d7
7. o-o c6-b4
8. b5xd7+ d8xd7
9. c1-e3 d6-d5
10. d1-e2 d5-d4
11. f3xe5 d7-e6
12. e3-f4 d4xc3
13. b2xc3 b4xa2
14. d3-d4 a2xc3
15. e2-d3 c5xd4
16. d3xd4 c3-b5
17. d4-a4 a7-a6
18. a1-d1 f8-d6
19. c2-c4 o-o
20. c4xb5 d6xe5
21. f4-e3 f6xe4
22. a4xe4 e5xh2+
23. g1xh2 e6xe4
24. d1-d4 e4-e5+
25. g2-g3 e5xb5
26. h2-g2 a8-d8
27. d4-g4 g8-h8
28. g4-g5 b5-c6+
29. f2-f3 b7-b5
30. e3-d4 d8xd4
31. White resigns

Which, if you're counting, pretty much means that I knew I was going to resign in this game 31 moves before I actually had to do it.

Kneel before me.

[FinnAgain]

I just saw this. Am I too late?

I am interested but it's okay if I sit this one out, I'd eit early anyway.


:grumbles "stupid work getting in the way of a chess thread"::

Oh, yeah, sorry, just saw this. You can play black knight as iceland blue has been banned.

I'd advise you to email BK, and I'll do the same.

[Ellis Dee]

Is anybody having a problem getting in touch with a partner?I have yet to hear a peep from Dragoness. It's been 3 days since I sent her an email, but conceivably she's been either busy or the email got sucked into a spam filter. (I've been checking mine to no avail.) Then again, I've posted to this thread, and haven't seen her around.

It's your call, Finn. For ease of use, here's my info for this page, so you don't have to look back:

ItsYourTurn.com ID: Ellis_Dee
email: jdan37@hotmail.com

If everybody else is already paired up, do I get a forfeit win? I could probably use the help...

[Greenback]

Oh, yeah, sorry, just saw this. You can play black knight as iceland blue has been banned.

I'd advise you to email BK, and I'll do the same.

Done.

[Gfactor]

The G v. G match may not be completed on time.

1. I managed to get pneumonia this weekend. I'm just now able to get online.
2. I'm leaving town for my brother's wedding tomorrow.
3. Hi Opal!
4. I'm still not sure about the time rules for the matches. What clock settings should we be using? Are we doing these as sort of pseudo-correspondence matches?

I have e-mailed the other G about this stuff and not heard back. I don't doubt that I will, but maybe not before the wedding. Sorry folks, I hope I don't wind up slowing down the tourney.

[Dubious Sacrifice]

Is everyone playing the same time controls? If so, what are they?

[treis]

Euthanasiast and I did not play with any time controls save the 10 minute per move one on Yahoo chess.

[Gfactor]

Euthanasiast and I did not play with any time controls save the 10 minute per move one on Yahoo chess.

That's what I usually use on Yahoo, but can we really compare results if we don't standardize time controls?

[Lockz]

Is anybody having a problem getting in touch with a partner?
Anywayyyyyy-- so I'm a little confused.... am I playing FinnAgain? Somebody else? Or no one at all???????

Looks like you're playing Lockz. I'd recommend y'all get in touch via email.

Sigh .... what is it with everyone not wanting to be emailed? I Love Me, Vol. I, can you please give me an email as your email address is hidden?

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Sigh .... what is it with everyone not wanting to be emailed? I Love Me, Vol. I, can you please give me an email as your email address is hidden?Wow-- I didn't know that was hidden.

Email is: vansloot@hotmail.com

[FinnAgain]

Ellis: I've gotten no response from Dragoness, so let's assume she's out. I get back to Austin texas tomorrow, so sometime over the weekend we can work a match out perhaps? I'm at AgentFinn@gmail.com so I should be easy to get in touch with.

as for time constraints (meta and pragmatic)

I was thinking that we'd play skittles games, but I suppose we can mix it up with yahoo's timing, etc. I don't think this tournament needs to be all that intense, and I'm sure that individual pairings can agree on how they'd like to structure matches. No?

[Ellis Dee]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to commit to a full game in one sitting this weekend, but it's possible. Sunday would be the only day, though I'm not sure when. Late afternoon?

Or we could use ItsYourTurn.com.

[FinnAgain]

Just wanted to let everybody know that the pairings have been somewhat slow due to people's schedules. We'll extend this round as long as we need to.

[glee]

I'm sure it's OK to play any mutually agreed time limit. After all, we have families, jobs and even different time zones to consider.

Here is a result from round 1:

glee 1-0 RayMan

We first tried meeting on yahoo.com, but eventually met up on FICS (www.freechess.org). RayMan was very helpful in guiding me through the steps to set up the game - thanks!

We played 1 hour each:

White Black
glee Rayman
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
4. b4 Bb6
5. a4 a5
6. b5 Nd4
7. c3 Nxf3+
8. Qxf3 Nf6
9. d3 h6
10. Qg3 d6
11. Qxg7 Rf8
12. Bxh6 Qe7
13. Qxf8+ Qxf8
14. Bxf8 Kxf8
15. f3 Ke7
16. g4 Be3
17. Ke2 Bf4
18. Nd2 b6
19. Nf1 Bd7
20. Ne3 Rh8
21. h4 Be6
22. Bxe6 Kxe6
23. Ng2 d5
24. Nxf4+ exf4
25. h5 Nh7
26. Rac1 Ng5
27. c4 d4
28. c5 f6
29. cxb6 cxb6
30. Rc6+ Kf7
31. Rc7+ Ke6
32. Rhc1 Nf7
33. R1c6+ Nd6
34. Rxb6 Rd8
35. Rcc6 Resigns

[Ellis Dee]

Still here. I've been busy on a project, but I can certainly squeeze in a few moves here and there if you want to use ItsYourTurn. (Hint Hint) If you want to schedule a full, hour+ long game in one sitting, Thursday evening would be the earliest time I could do it. I'm cool with however you want to proceed. (Forfeit win? eh? eh?)

[FinnAgain]

How's everybody else's matches going? Anybody having problems? I'll send out an email later tonight to those who've not yet posted finished games.

Oh, and in Finn vs. Ellis, a matchup of mighty warriors, nay, forces of nature, I masterfully forced Ellis to kick my ass. Oh yes, with my black belt in losing fu I simply could not win. I'm just that good. Do not fear me, even a little! (Game results to be posted later)

[Ellis Dee]

(Game results to be posted later)Here they are:

;Title: Yahoo! Chess Game
;White: ellisdee37
;Black: ninjafnord
;Date: Fri Mar 25 03:12:54 GMT 2005

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. g1-f3 b8-c6
3. f1-b5 c6-d4
4. b1-c3 d4xf3+
5. d1xf3 f8-b4
6. o-o b4xc3
7. f3xc3 f7-f6
8. d2-d4 a7-a6
9. b5-c4 e5xd4
10. c3xd4 g8-h6
11. c1xh6 b7-b5
12. h6xg7 b5xc4
13. g7xh8 c8-b7
14. h8xf6 d8-c8
15. d4-e5+ e8-f7
16. e5-e7+ f7-g8
17. e7-g7++

[Ellis Dee]

OK, try this (http://www.geocities.com/pgnchess2004/) one instead as there's no download.

The cool thing is that you can then hit the View Game button and get a little interactive viewer for those that want to play along at home.It lets you view the entire game between me and Finn, but it fails after the first few moves of Euthanasiast and treis's game, which is kind of a downer. (It won't even translate it until you remove the surrender, either.)

But very cool when it works. I appear to be bishop/queen happy.

[Elvez]

Ok, ronincyberpunk and I just finished our game over on itsyourturn.com.
He played white and I played black:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 exd4
4. Nxd4 d6
5. Nc3 Nf6
6. Bb5 Bd7
7. O-O Ne5
8. Bxd7+ Qxd7
9. Nf5 g6
10. Ng3 O-O-O
11. Be3 d5
12. exd5 Nxd5
13. Bd4 Bg7
14. f4 f6
15. fxe5 fxe5
16. Bc5 b6
17. Ba3 Ne3
18. Qxd7+ Rxd7
19. Rf2 Bh6
20. b4 Ng4
21. Re2 Be3+
22. Kf1 Rf8+
23. Ke1 Rdf7
24. Nce4 Rf4
25. b5 R8f7
26. Bd6 Nxh2
27. Bxe5 Rf1+
28. Nxf1 Rxf1#

[GIGObuster]

Just came back from a busy week, I am contacting Gfactor to play later today or tomorrow.

[FinnAgain]

Four out of twelve pairings reported, a fifth in progress... what's happening with the rest of the folks? I was busy (read: tired) last night and didn't get emails out... I'll try to get it done tonight after Battlestar Galactica.

[Gfactor]

[Event "Yahoo! Chess Game"]
[Site "Yahoo! Chess"]
[Date "03-26-2005"]
[Round ""]
[White "GIGObuster"]
[Black "gfactor"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 d5
2. Nc3 Nf6
3. Bg5 Nbd7
4. Qd2 c6
5. e3 e5
6. O-O-O h6
7. Bh4 Bb4
8. a3 Ba5
9. dxe5 Nxe5
10. f4 Ng6
11. Bxf6 Qxf6
12. Nf3 O-O
13. h4 Re8
14. h5 Ne7
15. Ne5 Nf5
16. g4 Ng3
17. Rg1 Ne4
18. Qd4 Nxc3
19. bxc3 Qe7
20. Bd3 Bb6
21. Qa4 Bxe3+
22. Kb2 Bxg1
23. Rxg1 f6
24. Ng6 Qe3
25. Rg2 Qh3
26. Rg1 Bxg4
27. f5 Bxf5
28. Nf4 Qe3
29. Qb4 Qxg1
30. Bxf5 Re1 0-1

[FinnAgain]

Excellent, I know you guys were having some troubles, good thing you were able to complete your game. I will be sending out those emails today... if I don't hear back from people in a few days, we'll just elminiate them and go on to the second round.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Game between I Love Me and Lockz is in progress (14th move).

[Ellis Dee]

For anybody using Its Your Turn.com to get their game going, is there any reason why you have to finish the game on that service?

Couldn't you -- in theory, at least -- create a yahoo game and simply recreate the first 14 moves you've already made?

In that way, ItsYourTurn can help get a match started, and help speed things along by making it so that a yahoo "remainder game" would be much less time consuming than a full game from the beginning, making it possibly easier to coordinate.

Just a thought.

[Arwin]

I was on holiday and proposed to do the game over email, as I had a Blackberry handheld with me, but haven't received a replay on that request yet. I'm back now and have resent a request to play, but obviously now using any means preferred, as I'm back in the land of cable. ;)

[Gfactor]

Just a little bump to say, "what's going on with this?"

[FinnAgain]

Waiting on the results of I Love Me, Vol. I's game. Will keep folk updated as best as I'm able.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Waiting on the results of I Love Me, Vol. I's game. Will keep folk updated as best as I'm able.Is our game the last game to finish?

I daresay that we will be done pretty soon; perhaps today.

[FinnAgain]

~hangs head in shame~
Truth be told, I'm not totally sure.
I had a hell of a week last week and I wasn't on top of this as I should be, my apologies.

I still haven't tallied up all the pairs and sent out another email, but I really will get that done tonight. (promise)
After that, we'll give people about 24 hours to respond and if they don't, on with round two!

[Khampelf]

Lathe of Heaven and I are also playing a game on Itsyourturn.com

We must have wildly dissimilar schedules. We get in a move per weekday.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

I Love Me Vol. I and Lockz are finished with our game. Somehow I (I Love Me) managed to win a game of chess. I can hardly wait to be obliterated in the next round. Here is the notation of our strange game:

1. e4 e5
2. b3 b5
3. Bxb5 c6
4. Bd3 Nf6
5. Bb2 d6
6. c4 c5
7. Qc2 Nc6
8. a3 Qb6
9. Nf3 Bg4
10. Be2 g6
11. Nc3 h5
12. Nd5 Nxd5
13. exd5 Bxf3
14. Bxf3 Nd4
15. Bxd4 exd4
16. Qe4+ Be7
17. Rb1 f5
18. Qe6 Rh6
19. Qg8+ Bf8
20. O-O O-O-O
21. Qe6+ Kb7
22. b4 Qa6
23. bxc5+ Kc7
24. cxd6+ Rxd6
25. Qf7+ Rd7
26. Qxf8 Rh7
27. c5 Rd8
28. d6+ Kc8
29. Rb8+ Kxb8
30. Qxd8+Qc8
31. Rb1+ Rb7
32. Rxb7+resigns

[FinnAgain]

We've not yet heard back from many of our pairings:

ITRchampion vs Aesiron
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice
Black Knight vs Greenback
Petelin vs Garfield
Really Not all that bright vs Arwin

Arwin's been in touch with me and evidently his opponent isn't checking email... maybe folks will be able to see this thread if they do a vanity search?

I'm also sending out emails to these pairings, maybe it'll get through one way or another. If not, Arwin, I'll drop out and you can have my spot.

If people are having time problems and can't meet up please let me know. We can extend the first round, but if I don't hear from you we might just have to move on and assume that you've quit.

[FinnAgain]

Petelin and Garfield have checked in, their match is being played by email, but they're still in the tourney.

That leaves

ITRchampion vs Aesiron
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice
Black Knight vs Greenback
Really Not all that bright vs Arwin

I'll post more as I learn more.

[FinnAgain]

Updates: Lockz may not be staying with this tourney, so Arwin may take his spot, details to follow in the next few days.

Patelin and Garfield are currently on move three, so I'm seeing if there isn't any way they can hurry it up.

Haven't heard back from :
ITRchampion vs Aesiron
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice
Black Knight vs Greenback

If I still haven't by the time we work out the rest of those responding, we'll just figure that they're forgotten about the tournament and go on with fewer pairings.

[FinnAgain]

Updated update:
the P Vs. G match should hopefully be wrapped up via yahoo or similar service in the next few days. If the missing pairs still haven't checked in, I'll set up round two. Stay tuned to this thread and/or your email for updates.

[Ellis Dee]

Any updates?

[FinnAgain]

Not as of now but I'll send out an email in the next day or so, things should be wrapping up.

[FinnAgain]

Info on the Blackknight / Greenback match: Things going slowly due to scheduling conflicts, I've asked them if there isn't a way to wrap it up.

I will email Patelin and Garfield to check on them.

No word from the other two pairings, but at this point we're approaching two months for a single round. With five rounds total, I think that two months is pretty much the upper limit for this shindig, as I don't want to spend more than a year on this tournament. So, I'll be in touch with folks and if necessary we'll cut some pairings.

[Ellis Dee]

Is it possible to start the second round before the first round is over?

[FinnAgain]

Maybe. I'm really sorry about the snags with this thing, I didn't realize it'd be so complicated. I'll get in touch with people, everybody needs to speed things up like, pronto.

[Greenback]

We're down to the wire now.

[Gfactor]

Maybe. I'm really sorry about the snags with this thing, I didn't realize it'd be so complicated. I'll get in touch with people, everybody needs to speed things up like, pronto.

I had considered trying something like this a while back, but abandoned the idea because I was afraid it might go like this. But this isn't so bad. Maybe next time we should do a giant consultation match. Split into two teams, and run parallel threads for discussion of strategy and tactics.

[FinnAgain]

I had considered trying something like this a while back, but abandoned the idea because I was afraid it might go like this. But this isn't so bad. Maybe next time we should do a giant consultation match. Split into two teams, and run parallel threads for discussion of strategy and tactics.

Yeah yeah, you with the wisdom and the intuition and the good ideas. Bah! ~spits~

(good point though, this aint so bad, just a bit annoying and I've got to get some work on it done ;) )

[Khampelf]

We have a result in the Lathe of Heaven vs The Sonoran Lizard King match.

1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Qf6
3. Nf3 Bc5
4. d4 exd4
5. e5 Qc6
6. O-O d5
7. Qd3 a6
8. Bg5 h6
9. Bh4 g5
10. Bg3 dxc4
11. Qxc4 Be6
12. Qd3 Nd7
13. Re1 O-O-O
14. Na3 g4
15. Nxd4 Qb6
16. b3 Bxd4
17. c3 Bc5
18. Re4 Nxe5
19. Rxe5 Rxd3
20. Nc4 Bxc4
21. Re8+ Kd7
22. bxc4 Kxe8
23. Be5 Nf6
24. a4 Qb3
25. Bxf6 Rd1+ 0-1

LoH was White, SLK black.

Hard fought, interesting game. I bow to my opponent for her superior game skills.
Then do my little victory dance :D

[Khampelf]

In case I wasn't sufficiently confusing, I did win. LoH's skills were superior to the majority of the people I've been playing. If she wasn't distracted, I may not have squeeked this one out.

[Arwin]

Is it possible to start the second round before the first round is over?

Actually it should be pretty easy for people to play the second round - you know if you made it, so we could play. You could do that anyway and then see if FinnAgain accepts the results as valid for the next round. That way we could easily get on with this. ;)

So, if anyone wants a match I'm up for it. Email in profile ...

[Ellis Dee]

Actually it should be pretty easy for people to play the second round - you know if you made it, so we could play. You could do that anyway and then see if FinnAgain accepts the results as valid for the next round. That way we could easily get on with this. ;) Remember that everybody technically "made it", in that everyone will play 5 games. The idea is that you play against somebody with the same record (or as close as possible) in each round. So two people who won their first games play each other, two that lost play each other, and so on.

I'm not sure how they're planning on determining which winners and losers play each other, as I'm not sure if there is a way to gauge how "much" each player won/lost by. Perhaps number of moves in the game is a possibility. (Winning in fewer moves ranks you higher, losing in fewer moves ranks you lower.) I doubt that's the formula we'll be using, but if it is, we can't start round 2 until the first round is over.

[Lathe of Heaven]

In case I wasn't sufficiently confusing, I did win. LoH's skills were superior to the majority of the people I've been playing. If she wasn't distracted, I may not have squeeked this one out.


Bol. Lox. If my ass had been kicked any harder, it would have needed surgical removal. Pheer SLK and his mad chess skillz! :)

[FinnAgain]

Alright, I'm sending out emails this weekend. We'll start round two on monday, I'm sorry for the delays but I've been busy with school like a crazy person. I'll let people know, and if they can't finish their games we'll just have to move on, this is simply too long. I'm not a hardass, but I see no real other option here. Hang tight people.

[FinnAgain]

Sent out that email just now. We will be playing round two on monday. I'm sorry everybody, I have a rather busy schedule and I thought this'd run smoother than it has. I'll put my nose to the grindstone and kick some more ass though. Future rounds will have a definite time limit and I'll be hardcore in its enforcement. My apologies, don't run away!

[Khampelf]

Would you, Could you post the matchups for round two?

And the results from the first round?

[FinnAgain]

Would you, Could you post the matchups for round two?
And the results from the first round?

Yes indeed. I'll be posting and emailing a bit later tonight. I've had a really bad cold this weekend, and I'm just starting to do a tiny bit better. At least I'm not feeling like death anymore. But, yes, I'll have pairings for round two up before the end of the night.

[Khampelf]

Yes indeed. I'll be posting and emailing a bit later tonight. I've had a really bad cold this weekend, and I'm just starting to do a tiny bit better. At least I'm not feeling like death anymore. But, yes, I'll have pairings for round two up before the end of the night.

Gesundheit. Good luck with the Cold. Lots of fluids, you know. After I posted, I worked up a summary of the first round, myself.

From our final matchups:

Glee vs Rayman - Glee wins
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice - No report
I Love Me, Vol I vs Lockz - I Love me, Vol I wins
GIGObuster vs GFactor - GFactor wins
ITRchampion vs Aesiron - No report
Ellis Dee vs Dragoness - Ellis Dee wins
Eutnanansiast vs Treis - Treis wins
Black Knight vs Greenback - No report
Petelin vs Garfield - ?? last report had them on move 3 by email.
Really Not all that bright vs Arwin -- No report
Ronincyberpunk vs Elvez - Elvez wins
The Sonoran Lizard King vs Lathe of Heaven - SLK wins

So, Glee, I Love Me,Vol I, GFactor, Ellis Dee, Treis, Elvez, and The Sonoran Lizard King, would move on in an Elimination match.

All respect to our FIDE advisors, this sounds like the most simple solution.

[FinnAgain]

You're my new hero. (Although there are a few errors in that, you've at least given me a template to work from, thank you.)

I need to just go over a few records and spreadsheets I made up for this so I can plan it out, and a few people are going to have to get cut from the next round, but ah well. I have the stuff done before I go to bed tonight (probably about two a.m.)

[FinnAgain]

First of all I really want to apologize for not running this tournament all that tightly. I'm going to set some deadlines, see if we can't give this a bit of structure. And I'm sorry for anybody who has to be left behind, but we've really waited too long now. I hope that some of you feel like doing this again next year (I promise I"ll organize it better next time). Or maybe standing in as alternates in case other people drop out... get in touch with me if you want to try to set something up.

(Also some apologies if I spelled your name wrong and for not bolding 'em, these damn posts take a long time to write! ;) )

So, without further delay:
Results of Round One!


Glee vs Rayman - Glee wins
Scarface vs Dubious Sacrifice – Pair forfeits.
I Love Me, Vol I vs Lockz - I Love me, Vol I wins
GIGObuster vs GFactor - GFactor wins
ITRchampion vs Aesiron - Pair forfeits.
Ellis Dee vs FinnAgain - Ellis Dee wins
Euthanansiast vs Treis - Treis wins
Black Knight vs Greenback – Pair forfeits.
Petelin vs Garfield - Patelin forfeits, Garfield advances.
Really Not all that bright vs Arwin – Really not all that bright forfeits, Arwin advances.
Ronincyberpunk vs Elvez - Elvez wins
The Sonoran Lizard King vs Lathe of Heaven - The Sonoran Lizard King wins


Having two people who didn't have a win/loss record kinda complicated things, so we have one pairing of a player who won the first round with one who lost. I hope there's a way to iron it out, but worst comes to worst we'll have a bit of crossover between the two groups and I'll know a bit better what to expect from hosting an online tournament. Again, thanks for your patience and understanding as I learn the ropes here.

Round Two Pairings white/black
Arwin Vs. Garfield. (Since both started as black and neither had an opponent who finished the round, flip a coin or decide who'll play what color.
GFactor vs. Glee
Rayman vs. GIGOBuster
FinnAgain vs. Ronincyberpunk
Treis Vs. Ellis Dee
Elves Vs. The Sonoran Lizard King
Locz Vs. I Love me Vol I
Euthanist Vs. Lathe of Heaven


Round two begins today, April 25th. Round two ends May 25th. If you have scheduling conflicts which would not permit a game to be finished in a month, please contact me ASAP so I can try to switch pairings.

P.S. I'm also thinking of setting up a table in yahoo for pickup games. If anybody wants to volunteer to 'host' a game or two, or just have a warm body there sometimes, that might be neat.

P.P.S. I'll be sending the email out in a lil' while, I took some cold medicine and my head if feeling all swimmy.

[FinnAgain]

By the way, it occurs to me that SLK or I might've made a mistake in the interpretation of the results... what with the sarcasm, and the different styles of notation, and the raiding, and the pillaging...

So if anybody spots a misread, please lemme know here or via email ASAP.

[Ellis Dee]

GIGOBuster is maasuus@yahoo.com
Ellis Dee is jdan37@hotmail.com
glee is gdlee@btopenworld.com
Lockz is joehache@gmail.com
Elvez is ellis@nrsweb.com
Gfactor is gfactor999@gmail.com
treis is treistetter@hotmail.com
ronincyberpunk is pjarrett@gmail.com
RayMan is r-fuller2@neiu.edu
Dragoness is dragonessj@gmail.com
Euthanasiast is unenlightened_one@yahoo.com
Garfield226 is Garfield226@gmail.com
Arwin is arwin@niwra.nl
The Sonoran Lizard King is dheimbuck@hotmail.com
Lathe of Heaven is ana.ng@tmbg.org
FinnAgain is AgentFinn@gmail.comJust bringing this up to the current page. Not sure if it's complete, but I did trim out the forfeits.

[FinnAgain]

Thanks Ellis good idea. I was thinking of re-posting the emails. The only difference that I'm aware of is that Treis' email is treis017@yahoo.com

Oh, and, I just got an email, evidently I fucked up a pairing. My apologies.

Lockz already played I love me vol I.
Change it to [b]Finn/[b] Vs. I love me vol I
and Lockz vs. Ronincyberpunk.

Very sorry for any confusion!

[Elvez]

Well, I'd guess that my game with The Sonoran Lizard King will be over fairly quickly. I've deftly fallen into what I can only assume is a classic trap. God, I love/hate this game.

[FinnAgain]

It's a trap! (http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/potato/1newgraphics/akbar1.jpg)

[FinnAgain]

Whoa boy. Lockz has decided not to return to the Dope. This would sorta knock him out of the tourney. Let me think over how the heck to deal with this... maybe I'll drop out and have ronincyberpunk and I Love me Vol I play each other?

Stupid stupidheads. ~kicks dirt~

[Gfactor]

Glee has not responded to my e-mails. Glee, are you here?

[Ellis Dee]

Treis hasn't responded to any of my emails, either.

[Khampelf]

Well, I'd guess that my game with The Sonoran Lizard King will be over fairly quickly. I've deftly fallen into what I can only assume is a classic trap. God, I love/hate this game.


My esteemed opponent overestimates my humble skills. The trap has fallen apart, and I merely hope to escape my overbalanced agression with my queen intact.


And, Finn. That is a Way old picture of me...

[FinnAgain]

Treis hasn't responded to any of my emails, either.

Using treis017@yahoo.com ?
Damn... I'll send out another round of emails tonight, have no fear. (grumbles)

[Arwin]

We're playing a double match (why choose between black and white if you can just play two games in paralel?) and it's a bit of a scrapper! Things are somewhat in my favor but I've been having to tred with some care because my opponent, even if his screenname is a cat's, proves himself a bit of a Rottweiler :D (which happens to be the only dog that's ever bitten me) and he's been keeping me on my toes. I've had a fair few number of occasions for a fatal mistake and so far I've just managed to escape them.

For myself, I can only say that so far I'm happy with the knowledge of this game that I've been able to track down and dust off in the recesses of my brain. Thanks, Finn, for making this happen.

[Khampelf]

We have a result in the Elvez vs The Sonoran Lizard King Match.

I was chased into the corner and soundly thrashed. Congrats to Elvez.

[Elvez]

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Bc5
3. Nxe5 Qh4 (ouch)
4. g3 Qxe4+ (ouch)
5. Qe2 Qxh1 (ouch)
6. d3 Nf6
7. Be3 d6
8. Bxc5 O-O
9. f3 Bh3
10. Nd2 Nc6
11. d4 Rae8
12. O-O-O Ng4
13. Bxh3 Ngxe5
14. Rxh1 (ouch) dxc5
15. d5 Nd4
16. Qf2 Re7
17. Nb3 Ndxf3
18. Nxc5 Rd8
19. Bg4 Nd4
20. Qxd4 c6
21. d6 Re6
22. Nxe6 Re8
23. Qxe5 fxe6
24. Bxe6+ Kh8
25. Rf1 h6
26. Rf7 Rg8
27. d7 b5
28. d8=Q Kh7
29. Bf5+ Kh8
30. Qxg7#

[Arwin]

Garfield226 and Arwin have some results. Since we didn't play the previous round, we just played two games, so that we both played both black and white. I'm just posting the Itsyourturn notations right now, will try to convert later.

Garfield226 vs Arwin

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6
3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bb4
5. a3 Ba5 6. d5 Bxc3+
7. bxc3 Na5 8. Nxe5 Qe7
9. Qd4 c5 10. Qa4 Qxe5
11. Qxa5 Nxe4 12. Be2 Nxc3
13. O-O Nxe2+ 14. Kh1 Qxa1
15. Qd2 Nxc1 16. Qe3+ Kd8
17. d6 Qf6 18. Qxc5 Ne2
19. f3 Qc3 20. Qg5+ Qf6
21. Qd2 h5 22. Re1 Re8
23. Qa5+ b6 24. Qxh5 g6
25. Qh7 Ng3+ 26. hxg3 Rh8
27. Qxh8+ Qxh8+ 28. Kg1 Qd4+
29. Kh2 Qxd6 30. f4 Bb7
31. Kh3 Kc7 32. Kg4 f5+
33. Kg5 Rh8 34. g4 Bxg2
35. Re3 Bh3 36. Rxh3 Qe7+
37. Kxg6 Rxh3 38. gxf5 Rg3+
39. Kh6 Qh4#

Arwin vs Garfield

1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 e6
3. e4 Nc6 4. e5 Bb4
5. Be3 Nge7 6. a3 Ba5
7. b4 Nf5 8. bxa5 Nxa5
9. Nh3 Nc4 10. Bxc4 Nxe3
11. fxe3 dxc4 12. O-O O-O
13. Qe2 b5 14. Nxb5 Ba6
15. Nc3 Rc8 16. Rf4 c5
17. Raf1 Qe7 18. d5 exd5
19. Nxd5 Qxe5 20. e4 Rc6
21. Rf5 Qd4+ 22. Qf2 h6
23. Ne7+ Kh7 24. Nxc6 Qxe4
25. Rxf7 Rxf7 26. Qxf7 Qxc6
27. Nf4 c3 28. Nh5 Kh8
29. Qxg7#

[Arwin]

Links to the games for easy review:

http://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?action?stage=1&game=15300023846003

http://www.itsyourturn.com/iyt.dll?action?stage=1&game=15300023846002

[Gfactor]

Briefly e-mailed back and forth with Glee, now he is missing again.

[Ellis Dee]

Briefly e-mailed back and forth with Glee, now he is missing again.Spooky. Exact same situation with treis.

Regardless, I'm confident we can get the game played. We still have a week or two, right?

[FinnAgain]

Sorry for the delay, I've been nuts with finals and such. I'll be paying much more regular attention to this thread now, my apologies.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Hey Finn. Aren't we supposed to play a game sometime? I tried to email you but you have it blocked so I'm posting here.

[FinnAgain]

Yes, we are. My apologies, but school the last few weeks has been in-fucking-sane.

We've got almost two weeks, so hopefully time won't be a huge factor. I have an account on itsyourturn, and the user name is (of course) FinnAgain. Can you maybe email me with instructions of how to set up a game? Or maybe set one up and send me a link or something? Might be a problem with you starting a game since I'm supposed to be white, but I dunno...

Anyways, I'm free for the next couple weeks until summer school starts, so I'm pretty much in the clear I think. Tonight I'm somewhat busy, as it's the first weekend night after finals.

If you're going to be busy over the next few weeks, it would probably be faster to run through a whole game on yahoo. But we should be able to finish over itsyourturn, after all I'm no grandmaster. Ve shall zee.

Oh, and, sorry, I thought I had my email in this thread. (and didn't realize that I have it blocked) It's AgentFinn@gmail.com

[glee]

Briefly e-mailed back and forth with Glee, now he is missing again.

Just to reassure y'all - I had a school trip followed by a plumbing upgrade.

[glee]

Here is our Round 2 result:

Gfactor 0 -1 Glee

Gfactor kindly hosted the game on Yahoo (all move in 60 minutes). Once I get the e-mail of the moves, I'll post it for your edification. :)

[FinnAgain]

Where'd ya go I love me? I emailed you at the address I have for you, but no response. Meebe you're just busy and haven't gotten a chance to respond? Feel free to contact me via this thread or in email and we'll see what we can't work out.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

been busy. received e-mail. will contact further. play by 'its your turn' if possible.

[FinnAgain]

Damnit, running this thing is turning out to be much harder than I'd thought. Divergent schedules have kept me and I love me Vol I from running our match.

I am going to extend the deadline by a little bit so that we can get our shit done, and I'll send out emails to everybody else. If this is really a problem for anybody I'll certainly abide by the rules and [b]I love me and myself will be cut from the tourney. [/blatant abuse of power]

[Ellis Dee]

treis and I have been unable to hook up as well.

[FinnAgain]

Ah. This long distance online tourney thing has turned out to be much harder than I'd originaly thought. Alright... we'll extend this by, say, two weeks? I'll send out emails later tonight, and everybody who hasn't met up can do their best to get this wrapped up ASAP.

[FinnAgain]

Minor problems, but we should be wrapping up this round soon. Ellis has been attempting to get in touch with Tries for some time now with no luck. If this situation isn't resolved as soon as possible, I will drop out of the tourney and Ellis will play I love me vol I. I'm sorry this whole thing has gone rather rockily, I guess I didn't anticipate just how hard this'd be and all the difficulties we'd face. Suffice it to say, however, as long as y'all want to play I will be here to make sure we still have a tourney. Sorry for the troubles, thanks for your patience.

[glee]

Is this still going?

[GIGObuster]

Is this still going?
Well, I thought I was out and now I noticed I was put back in, I have to say I never got contacted by Rayman

[FinnAgain]

Fuck, what a mess. Okay, we'll allow for some more extra time for Gigo/rayman, and yes, we're still going. I love me vol I and Ellis should be starting up a game. Yeeeikes.

[Arwin]

Fuck, what a mess. Okay, we'll allow for some more extra time for Gigo/rayman, and yes, we're still going. I love me vol I and Ellis should be starting up a game. Yeeeikes.

...

Let's just say that I've become a paying member of itsyourturn.com by now :D

[Khampelf]

Fuck, what a mess. Okay, we'll allow for some more extra time for Gigo/rayman, and yes, we're still going. I love me vol I and Ellis should be starting up a game. Yeeeikes.

I did a search to check on this thread, I'm glad it's still alive. Elvez and I have been playing back and forth, off tourney. Did everyone get their games going.?

[Ellis Dee]

I did a search to check on this thread, I'm glad it's still alive. Elvez and I have been playing back and forth, off tourney. Did everyone get their games going.?Huh? I thought it died.

I'm game for getting a game going with I Love Me on Sunday or shortly thereafter, if he's game.

[Arwin]

I did a search to check on this thread, I'm glad it's still alive. Elvez and I have been playing back and forth, off tourney. Did everyone get their games going.?

The thread exists, yeah, but it's very dead. I've played some 60 games of chess on itsyourturn.com since I finished my first doperchess tournament game for the current round ...

Anyone who wants to challenge me on itsyourturn.com, my username there is the same.

Actually, we could just all play each other on our own, and post the results in this thread. Then anyone can simply keep the score on which smdb has the most wins (ever, or just in the last month, or year, or whatever) against other smdb members, and go with it from there. That would be more suitable for this board, I think?

[Khampelf]

I think you may have something there, Arwin.

Finn Again, What do you think of a new system, where we post results, and the official score keeper just keeps track of win/loss percentages? The system's simplicity has exploitable flaws, people could play only those they thought they could beat, to keep their percentage high. Of course the Top gun would attract more challengers, and lots of refusals would become suspicious. I'm just typing as I think out loud, but the Flexibility of the proposed looser system is attractive.

[Gangster Octopus]

Is it too late to join in the festivities?

[What Exit?]

Could someone new join in?
If so could someone repost the rules and online locations?
Are the games timed?
I used to play in HS, I was the weakest player on HS champs in '84.
By weak, I mean weak!!. 1st board went on to be a master. I peaked at 1500 and dropped back off to a 1250.

[Arwin]

I think you may have something there, Arwin.

Finn Again, What do you think of a new system, where we post results, and the official score keeper just keeps track of win/loss percentages? The system's simplicity has exploitable flaws, people could play only those they thought they could beat, to keep their percentage high. Of course the Top gun would attract more challengers, and lots of refusals would become suspicious. I'm just typing as I think out loud, but the Flexibility of the proposed looser system is attractive.

It's all honor anyway, because I could be using whatever chess computer/program to play my games for me. So I don't think that's too big a problem. You could think up different ways to calculate standings that tell you someone's challenge rating, being challenged rating, and so on.

[Khampelf]

JrFranchi and Gangsta Octopus, you'll have to put that question to FinnAgain, He's our chess master and score keeper. We're in the middle of the second round of an 'everyone plays everyone' tournament, but there is talk of loosening up the structure. Most games seem to get played at Itsyourturn.com, but that's not a rule. Some got played realtime, when folks across the world could hook up, but most are being played by correspondance, which is why each round takes us a couple of months. (not complaining). Look up S_Lizard_King on It's your turn if you're looking for a game, eh?

[Arwin]

Engaged el King in battle ... :D