EvC Chess Tournament

yeah, it's supposed to be her challenging you (but there's a reason she won't, and I don't feel like getting kicked in the balls for saying it by her).thanks to my screw up when starting the tourney, I don't know who you all play next. however, truthlover has a tourney tree set up that answers that question.I do know she's still interested in the tourney, and neither of us expected it to take so long for the comp to be fixed (we both thought it would be a short deal, but customer service has other ideas apparently . . .).you all shouldn't hold things up too long, I would think (esp. when compared to jon's molasses like speed of moving).

Here's some info.On Nye: Kuresu, you are the final say on this, it seems, but my vote would be to give bluegenes the 1st round win and let Nye take her bye for the 2nd round, then play Tusko for the 3rd round in the loser's bracket. Can we do that, or do you want bluegenes/Nye to really replay the 1st game, despite Nye's unwillingness to do the challenge?On games to play, there are still 2nd round games going on, including mine, so I don't think we should start 3rd round games.zawi-anglagard are playing hereI'm playing riverrat hereNemesis Juggernaut and Tudwell are supposed to be playing, but they're not. NJ's gone for 3 months, so I'm for knocking him out and sending Tudwell on to play the loser of Zawi/anglagard in the 3rd round. Is that the right thing to do?If I do those things, we're waiting for 2 games to finish in the 2nd round, listed above. The 3rd round will look like this:

P.S.It is true that if we can get the Nye bluegenes game back to where it was, it wouldn't really hold things up. The zawi/anglagard game is not close to done, and even if I play correctly and don't blow my huge advantage, it may take a while to get pawns & kings moved to end my game with riverrat. There's no reason Nye-bluegenes couldn't get finished.My suggestion would be for them to put in conditional moves to get their game back where they were, so they don't have to wait for each other to log on and see moves that are simply to be repeated.Actually, my strongest suggestion is that we give bluegenes the win and move them on to the 3rd round, but again, that's not my call. Life is life and things happen. In most tournaments, they'd not wait around for repeats like that. It's not impossible if it's worth it to someone to get to a library or to someone else's house to finish a tournament game that's ongoing, and to expect the rest of the tournament to go on hold for one person's computer problem is not a normal thing to do.In an over the board tournament, if I got sick and had to go home, I'd get losses in my games. It wouldn't affect my rating, but it would allow my opponents to go on in the tournament. That just seems normal to me, not harsh.

i've already told tudwell to move on. NJ's out for this tourney, so that's right.as to the situation with nye, i'm talking with her about it. will update this post shortly.the rest looks good.ABE:
nye really wants to replay her game against bluegenes. I don't see a reason why not, if they play very quickly (which they should--the game was roughly halfway over, i think, and they're just repeating moves recorded by gameknot--no reason to lollygag about.) in fact, if it's okay with bluegenes (it is with nye), I'm going to put a severe time limit on the game. It has to be finished no later than saturday, 12:00pm (eastern time). if it's not, the person whose move it is loses the match.in otherwords, that game had best be started today.that cool with you, bluegenes?Edited by kuresu, : No reason given.

Tusko, I sent you a new challenge just before I read this post. If you like, cancel it and send me one back with a 7 day move limit. I don't mind the extra time at all.My play is all over the map. In some games--and in some parts of some games--I play as well as I ever did years ago, which was at USCF Expert level. In others, I make conspicuous blunders and throw away pieces.Consistency seems to be the hobgoblin I'm hunting.P.S. I've canceled the challenge and sent one with a 7-day move limit.

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Since I'm assuming we're playing this chess tournament because we think chess is fun, here are some comments I have on chess recently.I don't have a lot of time for chess, so gameknot is great. I keep three or four games going, and once or twice a day I check to see if it's my move in any of the games. It rarely takes more than a minute or two to take care of those. Fits in my schedule great.The problem I'm finding is that taking any longer than a minute or two is painful. I have a game here where I would really liked to have calculated whether I have the resources between my Q, 2 B's, and one mobile R to go after his king side. I'd like to know in advance at least a good idea of what the results would be. So around move 12, I really started thinking it through. Ouch! It was like lifting weights after years of inactivity. It hurt, it was tiring, and it was not pleasant.In the end, I doubt I have the resources, especially since I'll have to cut off my d3 bishop with p to e4 in order to block his B and get my R to h3 or g3. But I figured getting my pieces coordinate and lined up on the K side would be the best places for them, anyway.I've found my most pleasant results come from a compromise. I think enough to play at a level that makes me feel good about the games I play, but not enough to make the whole process painfully unpleasant. In the end, I won't be playing at the best I could, but I will be exercising my brain, enjoying my games, and feeling satisfied with the challenge.That's long enough for this post. I want to post one more chess story, maybe inspiring others to do so as well.

I live in a house with two other families. That means we have 15 children and six adults in our house. (I live in a Christian community.)I'm the best chess player in the house. One of the other men plays chess a bit, too, but his 13-year-old has rapidly advanced in skill and beats him regularly. My 13-year-old is at about the same level, and usually I can beat either of them without much effort.Last week, I saw a book on amazon.com called How to Beat Your Dad at Chess, and I ordered it for the two boys. That night, my son challenged me to a game of chess, and I pulled a couple of tricks in the game and ended up something like a rook ahead. However, in my overconfidence, as I was busy stacking up my pieces on the queenside, he found a 3-move checkmate that I had overlooked.When he jumped up and shouted, "I won," the ladies were in the kitchen cooking something or other (cookies, I think), and my wife looked over and said, "What?" He said, "I beat dad." My wife had a stunned look on her face, even though it's not the first time he's beaten me (though it may only be the 2nd), and she wandered to the table. Soon, there were about a dozen people gathered around as he showed them the moves he made to get the win.There was an atmosphere of awe, like it was some extremely prestigious, virtually impossible accomplishment to beat me in chess. Children and adults would glance over from the explanations going on at the table to look at me, then back at the board to marvel. It was almost surreal, and I laughed every time someone looked at me.You probably had to be there to appreciate it, but it was a fun experience, and it was funny that it happened the day I ordered How to Beat Your Dad at Chess. I gave it to the two boys a couple days later when it arrived, and they were thrilled. They've been excitedly memorizing the checkmate patterns in the book, so maybe that scene will be repeated more in the future.

I guess I will play Tsuko or w/e. Doesn't matter to me. I just do not have time this weekend to retrace my steps with Eratic. So.... Yeah sorry about the delay my PC was totally fried! Thanks! tell him to send me a game request

Tusko, I sent you a challenge several days ago...Do they expire?

Ok, Nye's not replaying her game, and my game with riverrat is done.Here's current 3rd round alignments, but they're not done, because zawi is still playing anglagard:Winner's bracket
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1. Kuresu vs. the winner of zawi & anglagard2. truthlover/shammahbn vs. bluegenesLoser's bracket
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1. Phat gets a bye2. Omni vs. riverrat/antslake3. Tudwell vs. loser of zawi & anglagard4. Nye vs. Tusko

I lost due to a super blunder in round 27, or somewhere ther abouts.
Guess riVeRraT ain't cheatin...Very good game, and I enjoyed it thourghly, one of the best games I ever had.Been playing Omnivoruos on the side for fun too, excellent games with him also.Also, anyone interested in getting whipped by a computer, try The Computer Chess World Champion - Shredder Chess
I beat it on easy, but get my ass whipped on hard.

Zawi timed out, hope everything is alright.

Well, I'm sorry to hear about zawi. I hope everything's alright, too.I guess we can move on to the next round. Checking on white/black...Winner's bracket
----------------Kuresu/k_himagachi (white)
anglagard (black)bluegenes/eratic (white)
truthlover/shammahbn (black)Loser's bracket
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Phat (bye)Omnivorous (white)
riVeRrat/antslake (black)Tudwell (white)
Zawinul/zawievc (black)Tusko (white)
Nyeusigrube (black)You can issue your challenges. Bluegenes, I'll be traveling the next few days, so it may take me 2 or 3 days to accept your challenge. In fact, I better get to bed, because I have to get up in 3 1/2 hours. I may have internet at the campground tomorrow night, but after that, I'll probably have to do internet cafes for the next couple weeks.Sorry for the bye, Phat. It had to happen to someone. Tudwell, I hope zawi shows.Good luck, everyone. Round 3 is happening. It's a semifinal for the winner's bracket.

Hi there - apologies, I've been out of town because my partner and her family having a traumatic time that came to a head yesterday. I went to offer a bit of support... but it was resolved in a really positive way (sorry if I'm talking in riddles!) and I'm back and happy today!It strikes me as a bit strange that gameknot don't email you when you are challenged and instead you have to check their site... but other than that its one of the best internet play chess sites that I've seen.Let the games commence!ABE:I tried to offer you a game in return but it wont let me start a game.. I'm sure it did before. grrr... challenge me again and I'll be there! You may have to send me a reminder through evc though, because gameknot aren't letting me know when I've been challengedEdited by Tusko, : some exciting extra information.

I'm okay, thanks for the concern . I should apologise to Anglagard I didn't have the motivation to play chess last week. This week will be a different story I promise.