First Annual Fischer Random Chess Cup!!

[Jonas Grumby]

Hi, it's me again. How has everyone been? Anyone even notice I was gone? I missed all of you greatly.

So I'm back for a cameo visit because I thought it would be fun to host a round robin Fischer Random Chess tournament. You can find rules for FRC here (http://www.chessvariants.org/diffsetup.dir/fischer.html), but the basic idea is that the back-rank pieces start with a random alignment instead of the usual setup. The white/black setups mirror each other, i.e. they're symmetrical around the ranks of the board*. Castling is a little funky, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward.

I found a site that hosts this for free, but first I wanted to make sure enough folks were interested. Send me a PM if you're interested; if we reach critical mass I'll provide more details about how this will work.

I hope we can do this!

Jonas

*there's also a version with a different diagonal symmetry called Symmetric Fischer Random Chess, but let's try this one first.

[Klaymen]

Sign me up.

[ramanujan]

I am interested too.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

I'll play.

[Darth Tater]

I'm in -- But I'll actually be playing as Darth Tater from now on.

[Jonas Grumby]

I'm in -- But I'll actually be playing as Darth Tater from now on.

And you would be who...?

[Travis]

ever since I heard about this, I've been interested. I'm in (although I apologize in advance for the almost guaranteed prompting I will need to stay current in this)

[Darth Tater]

And you would be who...?

TAFKA ZeroVektor.

(The Actuary Formerly Known As ZeroVektor)

Oh, and do I really need to send you a PM?

[Hagbard Celine]

I'll try it!

[Paul Brand]

Include me as well.

[thtevie]

I'll play. Let me know when and where.

Also, some of those other variants look interesting. Maybe later someone for a friendly in one of those types?

[Ultimate Anyone?]

I'll give this a go as well

[Aaron Brachowitz]

I think "wraparound" or "cylindrical" chess sounds pretty cool, too.

[Klaymen]

Fritz8 is also willing to participate. But he'll understand if you decline. :)

[Jonas Grumby]

No need to PM. And let me see...the guy who plays the French Defense (though not in FRC!) is now Darth Tater. Anonymouse is now Charlie Brown. Any other radical changes I should know about?

I think we have enough players that we can be sure something's going to happen, so tonight or tomorrow I'll tell you where/how to register. RSF and I had to play around a little with the site to figure out how it works (we actually have a game going), but it's actually pretty well set up.

More to come...

[TiderInsider]

I'm game.

[Jonas Grumby]

All right, so first steps in setting up...

This is easiest if you follow instructions once you get to the website. The site is www.schemingmind.com. It's a site where membership hath privileges, but the unmembered can still play, though it's limited to 8 games at a time.

1. Go to the website, click Home/Register.
2. Enter the info. I wouldn't click "welcome game" unless you want to be paired up randomly in a standard chess game.
3. Go to your email, make a note of the goofy-sounding password. Click through the email back to scheming mind.
THE IMPORTANT STUFF
Here are the steps that will ease your transition.
4. Go to My Details/Personal Preferences. Set your notification preferences the way you'd like them, but note in particular the ability to use conditional moves. Seems like you'd want to check that. Save the preferences.
5. Go to My Details/Challenge Preferences. Reset to 8 challenges. Make sure you check the box that you want to be challenged for Fischer Random; you might as well check the other variant box too, because i have the feeling we'll be trying some other stuff out too. Save your preferences.
6. Go to Players/Search Player Database. Search for each of the other people who've signed up here; I'll put/update a comprehensive list at the end of this post [once your register please post or PM your ID]. When you identify them and locate their player profiles, at the bottom of the first block where it says "Add" to buddy list...do that.

Now you can challenge players through your buddy list; you can also track games through MyGames. While it's a lot of work to set up, the unlimited variant options are amazing. Members can also host mini-tournaments; I'll be looking into that later.

Jonas

Buddy List
Jonas Grumby
RedSoxFan
thtevie
Travis
ramanujan
Hagbard Celine
AaronB
Darth Tater
Mel-o-Rama
Paul Brand
TiderInsider
UltimateAnyone

[thtevie]

I'm in as 'thtevie'.

[ramanujan]

I am 'ramanujan' on the website.

[Travis]

'Travis'

[Hagbard Celine]

Hagbard Celine

[Darth Tater]

'Darth Tater'

[Hagbard Celine]

That seems like a pretty cool site...thanks for posting it!

[Aaron Brachowitz]

AaronB

[Aaron Brachowitz]

I challenged five of yall.

How do you know when it's your move without actually visiting each game? I didn't sign up for the email notification.

[Klaymen]

Sorry, I'm going to back out. I don't want to overdose on chess.

[Paul Brand]

I challenged everyone above.

Aaron, I accidentally challenged you in a standard game. Is there anyway you can decline the challenge? I can't seem to find a way to withdraw it.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

Yeah, I declined it.

[Mel-o-rama]

I signed up as Mel-o-rama. Prepare to go down randomly!

[Hagbard Celine]

How do you know when it's your move without actually visiting each game? I didn't sign up for the email notification.

I haven't found a way yet. You have to go into each game to find out, which can be a pain...

[Paul Brand]

Go to My Games/Current Games, and you will know it's your move if your name (under the White/Black column heading) is highlighted in light blue.

[Hagbard Celine]

Ah, thanks! A simple solution!

[Aaron Brachowitz]

I really like this site. It has a "Download PGN" feature that allows you to load your completed games into Chessmaster, etc. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of our regular site, IMO. We should consider moving our tournaments here.

[thtevie]

Darth, I accidentally invited to a standard. We can play if you want, but I'd rather reserve the time for the Fisher style, which is the second invite.

[Darth Tater]

Darth, I accidentally invited to a standard. We can play if you want, but I'd rather reserve the time for the Fisher style, which is the second invite.

I will not be playing the refular game...I jsut deleted the e-mail.

I will accept the Fischer Random game.

[Paul Brand]

I must say I appreciate that conditional move feature. I just made 4 moves (as black) against AaronB using one conditional line. I only wish you could do more than one conditional line.

[Hagbard Celine]

Paul, I think I screwed up your conditional move thing. I thought if I made my move, it would automatically make your conditional move. Apparently, I had to click the move itself from your conditional line...

I don't know.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

You have to click the "Accept conditional move" circle and hit submit.

[Paul Brand]

Can you guys view the conditional line? Or do you only that there is a conditional line?

[Aaron Brachowitz]

Yes, it showed your conditional moves in gray beneath the already-made moves.

[Paul Brand]

Interesting. I'll try to keep that in mind for the future. It would be nice if the moves were hidden.

[Jonas Grumby]

Hey, everyone hold on before challenging! You can only play 8 games at a time...if I assign games you don't want to run out of space.

[Paul Brand]

Paul, I think I screwed up your conditional move thing. I thought if I made my move, it would automatically make your conditional move. Apparently, I had to click the move itself from your conditional line...

I don't know.

Not to worry. I really didn't intend on making those moves anyway. I just wanted to test the legality of castling. It looks like you could break a record for the longest move for a king!

[Paul Brand]

Hey, everyone hold on before challenging! You can only play 8 games at a time...if I assign games you don't want to run out of space.

I might need a new username. I'm already involved in 7 games. Shouldn't be a problem.

[Hagbard Celine]

Interesting. I'll try to keep that in mind for the future. It would be nice if the moves were hidden.

I scanned some of the threads in their forum and this was a topic of conversation. People generally wished that the conditional move wouldn't appear until your opponent made his move to trigger it.

[thtevie]

Hey, everyone hold on before challenging! You can only play 8 games at a time...if I assign games you don't want to run out of space.

Any objection to us just telling you what games we've already challenged, and accepted, and you simply say those are the first part of the cup, and assign more when those games are over?

[RedSoxFan]

If this is a free-for-all I'm willing to take on a couple more challengers. You'll have to PM me first since I only accept challenges from people on my Buddy List.

By the way, would it be interesting to have a series of games that all use the same starting position? It would be interesting to see how different players play the opening from the same position. Can we even do that on that site?

[ramanujan]

Tider-Insider,

I challanged you in a standard game by mistake. Please decline it and challange me in FRC.

I have challanged everyone except RSF. RSF, if you are interested, you can challange me.

[Jonas Grumby]

*******************ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!************ **********

Apparently nobody's actually bothering to read my posts, so I'm going to change the format to suit your short attention spans, general fecklessness and mood for anarchy.

NEW FORMAT: Between now and 5PM EST February 28th, play as many games as you can against as many opponents as you can muster. The only rules are
1. Don't post your results until the 28th
2. Play only one game at a time with a given opponent
3. When you finish a game with an opponent, your next opponent can't be that same player

On the 28th, post
1. your # wins/draws/losses (list opponents parenthetically for verification)
2. and post your favorite game. RSF and I will judge them and award a Best Game Award.

Let the chaos begin!

[Ultimate Anyone?]

I'm in now: UltimateAnyone

[Ultimate Anyone?]

I've got 7 games started - I can take one more, if someone's got room....

[Hagbard Celine]

It seems like most people haven't made themselves available to challenge? Is that true, or am I being a moron. When I load my buddy list, only Travis has the little circles next to his name that you can click and challenge.

For instance, Mel-o-rama doesn't have circles. When I click his name, the "Challenge" command is greyed out.

I have room for a few more games...

[Jonas Grumby]

That either means they're booked up for the moment, or they forgot to toggle the challenge switch.

[Jonas Grumby]

Just to be fair, and in reference to #2, if everyone else is booked you may play an opposite-colored game with a current opponent.

[Ultimate Anyone?]

Hagbard - if you want to hit me with a 2nd game, feel free.

[RedSoxFan]

So, why can't we post any results until Feb. 28? :)

By the way, I added everyone to my buddy list so you should be able to challenge me.

The annual charge is $20 for membership to the site, right? I wonder if we could organize a group discount.

[RedSoxFan]

2. and post your favorite game. RSF and I will judge them and award a Best Game Award.


Make sure to post the starting position too. Unless there is a way to review the games on the Scheming Mind webiste.

[Jonas Grumby]

So, why can't we post any results until Feb. 28? :)


One of the reasons I wanted a round robin to begin with was that I don't have a lot of time to monitor this, and that allowed me to control the number of games.

Now that we've gone to a scramble format, it's easier for me if you post all your results at once rather than my accumulating them.

[TiderInsider]

I've got 4 games going right now...that's all I can handle. (Not sure I can handle 4....)

[Mel-o-rama]

I'm having a problem. I challenged Darth to a regular game of chess by mistake, but now I can't seem to get rid of that game. Has anyone figured out how to rememdy this?

[thtevie]

I'm having a problem. I challenged Darth to a regular game of chess by mistake, but now I can't seem to get rid of that game. Has anyone figured out how to rememdy this?

Happened to me, too. I think Darth has to decline the request for a game. Or, there's a timeout if not enough moves have been made.

[Darth Tater]

Happened to me, too. I think Darth has to decline the request for a game. Or, there's a timeout if not enough moves have been made.

Ah, Thtevie moved and I declined his challenge and the game was gone!

Also with Mel-o-rama!

So, I can take on two more opponents in this silliness if you want to send the invites!

[Paul Brand]

Just a note that I won't be accepting any more challenges for the time being. Between the Chess Cup, Season VIII, and FR, I've got too many games going right now.

[Jonas Grumby]

I have to say, the rating feature makes it tempting to move all our games here. The question is, could we live with the 8-game limit, or would people want to join?

[Aaron Brachowitz]

I have to say, the rating feature makes it tempting to move all our games here. The question is, could we live with the 8-game limit, or would people want to join?I agree. The analysis feature is great, too, plus you can download game logs to a .pgn file. Also you can make pissy comments to your opponent during a match. I'm not wild about joining, since ICC is already in my pocket for $30/year, but maybe we could create multiple IDs for our different tournaments (which would of course mean multiple ratings :sad: ).

[Hagbard Celine]

I have to say, the rating feature makes it tempting to move all our games here. The question is, could we live with the 8-game limit, or would people want to join?

I think the 8-game limit would be adequate for the Seasons (and possibly Fischer Random). We'd probably have to continue playing the Cups on the Chess Server. This wouldn't be so bad because the Cup games are supposed to be more relaxed anyway.

There usually aren't more than 5 players in any group of the Seasons. That's 4 games, leaving 4 open spots for Fischer-Random/Other variations.

[Jonas Grumby]

So where's everyone stand at this point? I've got five wins and a draw, with four games outstanding. I think everyone should finish their existing games ASAP and report back...

[Travis]

Unfortunately, with work and school, I've been extremely busy and very sleep deprived. I find that when I have a moment to play the games I have going, I'm making some serious bonehead moves, as my opponents can attest to. Sorry for the hold up.

[Hagbard Celine]

I have 1 win, 6 losses :oops:

In my 5 remaining, I have what I hope to be winning positions in 2 of them.

[Jonas Grumby]

I'm not eligible to win, but I thought I'd post this game anyway...I was pretty pleased with my 21st move.

Can this be cut and paste back into schemingmind to look at the game...?

[Event "Fischer Random Chess: Challenge from Jonas Grumby"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2005.02.16"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Jonas Grumby"]
[Black "Darth Tater"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Variant "fischerandom"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bbrnnqkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBRNNQKR w KQkq - 0 1"]
[WhiteCountry "USA"]
[BlackCountry "USA"]

1. b3 Nf6 2. c4 Ne6 3. d4 b6 4. Nd3 d6 5. d5 Nc5 6. N1b2 c6 7. Nxc5 dxc5 8. e4
cxd5 9. exd5 Bf4 10. Re1 Qd8 11. Nd3 Bh6 12. Qe2 Rc7 13. Ne5 O-O 14. Nf3 g6 15.
h4 Bg7 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Rxh5 Bxa1 18. Rh2 Bf6 19. Qe3 Bg7 20. Ng5 h6 21. Ne6
{
JONAS GRUMBY: Ah, what the heck...
}
21... fxe6
{
Well, I didn't take the time to look through all the details, but I think you might have something...And heck, I can't let you win all my pieces! I'd rather you just took my king!
}
22. Qxe6+ Rf7 23. Bxg6 Qf8
{
DARTH TATER: Ugh...look like you might get to take my king!
}
24. Re3 Bf6 25. Rg3
{
JONAS GRUMBY: It almost looks like a move in a real game. we'll see if something actually comes of it.
}
25... Bg7 26. Rxh6 Bxh6
{
Ya, it looks like a "real game" position -- one where black is overdue for resignation -- gg.
}
27. Bxf7+
1-0

[RedSoxFan]

I'm not eligible to win,

wait.. judges can't win? :-x :)

[RedSoxFan]

moron.

I believe on this board it's spelled moran.

[ramanujan]

I have five wins, one loss and five games unfinished.

[Ultimate Anyone?]

Just for update purposes:

I've still got 7 games going - I've lost 4 already, and I don't see myself ahead in any of my current games.

[TiderInsider]

Just for update purposes:

I've still got 7 games going - I've lost 4 already, and I don't see myself ahead in any of my current games.

Have you been paying attention to our game...you're up a pawn and a rook.

[Darth Tater]

I'm resigning all my games...I've got to many to keep up with.

[Ultimate Anyone?]

Have you been paying attention to our game...you're up a pawn and a rook.
My bad, TiderInsider - I was thinking that I if I was up, it was because there was a big trade game about to begin, and one that I was going to lose. (btw, you've got my knight, so I'm up only a pawn + (rook-knight) ).

[Hagbard Celine]

You got right back into our game...using most "counting" methods I'm up 1 pawn.

Stupid bishop! :swear:

[Mel-o-rama]

I'm playing a total of 5 games. I've won 2 already, I feel about even in 1, and I have a slight edge in the other 2.

[Paul Brand]

I've got 9 games total. I've finished 6 games with a 4-2 record, and I would say I have the advantage in my other 3 games.

[thtevie]

I lost (mostly resigned) games to the following people:

Paul Brand (pos 935)
Hagbard Celine (pos 865)
Mel-O-Rama (pos 59)
Ramanujan (pos 619)
AaronB (pos 468)
Darth Tater (pos 463)

0/6 - yes, that's right, 0/6.

One game still open with Travis, even on material, though he hasn't moved in like a week or more.

In other news, I am playing a couple of games of "upside down" chess and one of "Alice 1". I'll take up to 5 other challenges for now, to get the feel of some of the other variants, though I'll probably make at most 2 moves per day.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

Wins:) (6):

Ultimate Anyone (twice)
Hagbard Celine
thtevie
Travis
Mel-o-rama

Losses:mad: (6):

Darth Tater
Hagbard Celine
ramanujan
Jonas Grumby
Paul Brand
Red Sox Fan

Draws:roll: (1):

Jonas Grumby


I'm done.

[Hagbard Celine]

Wins:

thtevie 3.1.2005
AaronB 2.26.2005
Ultimate Anyone? 3.10.2005
(I also technically won against darth tater on 3.1.2005 due to

I'm resigning all my games...I've got to many to keep up with.

but it was an even game at that point and darth is so much better than me that I don't think I should claim it as an official win...more like an aborted game)

Losses:

ramanujan 2.28.2005
Darth Tater 2.24.2005
Jo Grum 2.23.2005
AaronB 2.23.2005
ramanujan 2.21.2005
redsoxfan 2.20.2005
paul brand 2.17.2005

Remaining games:

Travis: I'm up 2 pawns and it looks like I'm about to get 1 more
Ultimate Anyone?: He has a bishop, a knight, and 3 pawns. I have a rook and 6 pawns.

[Darth Tater]

You can claim the win......I did resign several of my games, but hung on in two just for the experience of playing.

[RedSoxFan]

Aaron Brachowitz went down in flames.

[Jonas Grumby]

Ratings are up for a few people on the website.

I have 6 wins, a draw, and 2 losses (the latter both to RSF). I also have a game with Travis that I will win, but he's moving extremely slowly.

[Mel-o-rama]

I am now up to 2 wins, 1 loss, and I'm playing 1 game I think I may win, and 1 game I think I may lose.

[ramanujan]

I am now up to 2 wins, 1 loss, and I'm playing 1 game I think I may win, and 1 game I think I may lose.

Wondering which one of these is against me. Although you are exchange + 1 pawn up, I am in no mood to give up soon.

[Paul Brand]

My record is now 6-2 with one game against Travis outstanding. I do have a definite advantage in that game.

Wins:
Aaron B
Hagbard Celine
Darth Tater
Ultimate NE1
thtevie
Mel-o-rama

Losses:
Jonas Grumby
Romanujan

[Mel-o-rama]

Wondering which one of these is against me. Although you are exchange + 1 pawn up, I am in no mood to give up soon.

I think I may eventually come out on top, but you keep playing the right moves. We'll see what goes down.

[Hagbard Celine]

I updated my original post to include a win over Ultimate Anyone. Now I only have one more game against Travis, but as others have noted, it's dragging.

And my rating stinks! If you click on "Top Rated Fischer Random Players," it actually shows every rated player on the site. I'm 3rd worst! :O

Jo Grum's in the top 10!

[Jonas Grumby]

Jo Grum's in the top 10!

:lol: Now my only decision is to retire quickly a la Bobby or try to go for longevity like Garry!

[Ultimate Anyone?]

I updated my original post to include a win over Ultimate Anyone. Now I only have one more game against Travis, but as others have noted, it's dragging.

And my rating stinks! If you click on "Top Rated Fischer Random Players," it actually shows every rated player on the site. I'm 3rd worst! :O

Jo Grum's in the top 10!
I don't think it lists everyone... here's my stats:

FRC Rating 1165 (209)

... which would put me below you. So you're only the 4th worst! :)

[ramanujan]

I think I may eventually come out on top, but you keep playing the right moves. We'll see what goes down.

Yes, you are clearly in an advantagous situation at present but my position too has some promise. In any case, this has been a fun game apart from my initial mistake.

[Mel-o-rama]

Yes, you are clearly in an advantagous situation at present but my position too has some promise. In any case, this has been a fun game apart from my initial mistake.

I still worried about your position. It seems I could easily make a mistake. Must ... be ... careful.

[RedSoxFan]

I don't think it lists everyone... here's my stats:

FRC Rating 1165 (209)

... which would put me below you. So you're only the 4th worst! :)

I'm not on the top list - how many games played do you need to be on that? I've finished 5.

Also - looking at my profile, my rating is 1662, even though I'm 5-0. So does that mean that we all get started at 1500, and there is no provisional rating period?

[Mel-o-rama]

My epic battle with ramanujan continues. Though I have the advantage in points, he's got a pretty good fight going on. This will definitely be the game I'm posting.

Up to now, I've had two wins and two losses.

Wins:
thtevie
Darth Tater (he hung a rook)

Losses:
Paul Brand
AaronB

[ramanujan]

My epic battle with ramanujan continues. Though I have the advantage in points, he's got a pretty good fight going on. This will definitely be the game I'm posting.

I slacked during last few moves. My position is now slipping away from me. You played this quite well. You deserve to win, which I think you will. Till now my only loss has been to Jonas but I expect to lose both my remaining games- this one and against RSF.

It will be sad to see my #12 rank, rating 1782 go down. I am posting it here just for the record....that I was there once. :-)

[Mel-o-rama]

It will be sad to see my #12 rank, rating 1782 go down. I am posting it here just for the record....that I was there once. :-)

Cool! That'll help my rating! But I still feel the game's not over yet. I feel like I have more breathing room though.

[ramanujan]

Cool! That'll help my rating! But I still feel the game's not over yet. I feel like I have more breathing room though.

The game is still going interesting, though I feel more optimistic now. OTOH, you have more incentive to win now because if you noticed I am upto 8th rank now. :-)

[Mel-o-rama]

Yeah. I don't know if I know my chances. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the chance to let you have so many passed pawns. I thought I could handle them, but the game's not over yet!

[ramanujan]

Yeah. I don't know if I know my chances. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the chance to let you have so many passed pawns. I thought I could handle them, but the game's not over yet!

Not over by any means! I meant that I am more optimistic now than when I was a couple of exchanges down. I did not say that I am in a winning position, only my chances are better. You still have the advantage.

[Jonas Grumby]

Red Sox Fan, what's your record at this point? I'm thinking you won highest winning % but that ramunajan might have most games (depending on what happened with Travis).

[RedSoxFan]

I'm undefeated at the moment, however, I think it's unlikely that I will beat ramanujan in my only outstanding game.

[Jonas Grumby]

I'm undefeated at the moment, however, I think it's unlikely that I will beat ramanujan in my only outstanding game.

How many games is that...?

[RedSoxFan]

How many games is that...?
5

[ramanujan]

In comparison to RSF, I have finished 10 games out of which I have won 8. My losses have been against our own Jonas and Saxon (who is top ranked on FRC chess on scheming mind and invited me for a couple of games - Beat me comrehensively in one and about to finish me off in the second one).

My remaining games are against RSF and Mel-o-rama. Tough fight is going in both the games and anyone could win.

[Mel-o-rama]

I'm still thinking in our game, ramanujan. I see that you can force me to lose an exchange to even things up. (D'oh!) Then I think you can force a draw. But surely there must be a way I can beat you!

[ramanujan]

I'm still thinking in our game, ramanujan. I see that you can force me to lose an exchange to even things up. (D'oh!) Then I think you can force a draw. But surely there must be a way I can beat you!

If I take the exchange, we will not be even - you will have a couple of extra pawns. Instead I am thinking that I will get a little more greedy and try to take your rook without giving away a piece! Now that is the way I can beat you (if I am able to do it, that is) and I am going for it.

[Mel-o-rama]

D'oh! You may be right! I'm looking at something pretty ugly. But I'm not giving up yet. (I can't wait to analyze this game on the computer.)

[ramanujan]

D'oh! You may be right! I'm looking at something pretty ugly. But I'm not giving up yet. (I can't wait to analyze this game on the computer.)

The game is definitely not over yet and you still have your chances. You should not resign at this point. I would be interested in the analysis that you do on the computer.

[Mel-o-rama]

The cup games have been taking a lot of my energy, but I've finally moved. Let's see what you've got!

[ramanujan]

The cup games have been taking a lot of my energy, but I've finally moved. Let's see what you've got!

Thanks for moving!! Between your last move and this move, I played a game on scheming mind from start to finish! However, I think you played the only move you had to stay in the game. But I still have a plan.....

[RedSoxFan]

My very exciting game vs. ramanujan has finally reached a conclusion: a draw. Here it is:

[Event "Fischer Random Chess: Challenge from ramanujan"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2005.02.19"]
[Round "-"]
[White "ramanujan"]
[Black "RedSoxFan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Variant "fischerandom"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rkbbrnqn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKBBRNQN w KQkq - 0 1"]
[WhiteCountry "IND"]
[BlackCountry "USA"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 f5 4. f3 fxe4 5. fxe4 h6 6. Be2 Nh7 7. Bd2 Bg5 8. O-O-O
Bxd2+ 9. Nxd2 Nf6 10. h3 g5 11. Bb5 Rf8 12. Qe3 Bd7 13. Qb3 O-O-O 14. Nc4 Bxb5
15. Qxb5 Nd7 16. Ng3 Ng6 17. Nf5 Rf6 18. g3 Qh7 19. Re3 Ne7 20. Ra3 Kb8 21. Na5
Nb6 22. g4 Nxf5 23. gxf5 h5 24. Nc6+ bxc6 25. dxc6 d5 26. exd5 Qxf5 27. Rad3
Qf4+ 28. Kb1 Qa4 29. Qc5 Rfd6 30. b3 Qa6 31. a4 e4 32. Rd4 e3 33. c4 Qc8 34. a5
Qf5+ 35. Kc1 e2 36. Re1 Qf2 37. Kd2 Re8 38. axb6 axb6 39. Re4 Qf7 40. Rxe8+ Qxe8
41. Qa3 Qe4 42. Rxe2 Qf4+ 43. Kc2 Qf5+ 44. Kb2 Qc8 45. Rf2 g4 46. hxg4 hxg4 47.
b4 Rg6 48. b5 Rg8 49. Kc3 Rh8 50. Kb2 Rg8 51. Qe7 Re8 52. Qa3 Rg8
1/2-1/2

[ramanujan]

My very exciting game vs. ramanujan has finally reached a conclusion: a draw.

A very exciting game indeed! Although I was a little disappointed in the end at not winning. I played the last move too fast and didn't realize that you could claim a draw. I missed simple d6 on move 49 and 51. If you took the pawn, Rf7 or d7 if you played anything else, would have won me the game.

On the other hand, you held the upper hand in the earlier part of the game and it was only after 39. Re4 that I had any chance of saving the game.

[Mel-o-rama]

Can you believe that after all that time and all the great moves I made, that I finally ended up losing against Rumanujan?? I finally resigned our game. It was a fun game, though. In the next week or so, I'll analyze the game and I'll post that here in pgn format, so stay tuned. Good game, and thanks for not giving up when you were down, rumanu-dude. (Though my rating would have been better if you had given up!)

[ramanujan]

Can you believe that after all that time and all the great moves I made, that I finally ended up losing against Rumanujan?? I finally resigned our game. It was a fun game, though. In the next week or so, I'll analyze the game and I'll post that here in pgn format, so stay tuned. Good game, and thanks for not giving up when you were down, rumanu-dude. (Though my rating would have been better if you had given up!)

Thanks for a wonderful game of chess, Mel-o-rama. You played very well and I just got lucky in having a set of connected passers that you could not do much about. Looking forward to you analysis.

[Mel-o-rama]

Okay, here is the long awaited analysis of the game between me and rumanujan - in PGN format.

Here is the analysis in a nutshell. Even though I won rumanujan's rook at the very beginning, there was a way he could have saved both rooks - even after Bxg7! When I won the second rook, the game was definitely in my hands. But when I had the chance to diffuse the connected pawns (not yet passed at the time) at move 42 below, I did not use that chance, and those pawns were my downfall. Then Sigma shows us having an equal position until move 57 below when I just gave up a pawn, then I had no hope.

Also, I'm not entirely certain that our position was really equal between 42 & 57. I still think rumanujan had a slight edge. Additionally, Sigma is unable to do Fischer-castling, so I had to take two extra moves to force the castling.

[Event "Fischer Random Chess: Challenge from ramanujan"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2005.02.16"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Mel-o-rama"]
[Black "rumanujan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "nbqnbrkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBQNBRKR w KQkq - 0 1"]

{ What is the best opening move? Sigma suggests d4 with score=+0.13. } 1. d3 {
And what is black's best response? Sigma suggests Ne6 to even the game. } d5
2. Bc3 c5?? { Ne6 would have been better. This further protects g7 and keeps
the Q off of g5. Score=+2.10(score is always absolute - positive means white's
winning.) } 3. Bxg7! Qg4 { Believe it or not, black had a way to save both
rooks with Bf4!; QxBf4 Ne6! However, black will still lose a pawn.
Score=+2.34 } 4. Bxf8 Kxf8 5. Qh6+ Qg7 { Kg8 was slightly better. } 6. Qxg7+
Kxg7 7. c4 d4 8. e3 Rg8 9. exd4 cxd4 10. Nb3 { After an explosive beginning,
white has made a series of bland moves. Score has dropped to +1.97. } Ne6 11.
f3 Bf4 { Sigma suggests Bd6 was stronger, since Nf4 would still be available.
Score=+2.20. } 12. Re1 Kh8 { In the real game, I moved O-O, but Sigma can't
handle this non-standard castling. The next three moves serve as a manual
castling. After which, the moves will be two moves off. } 13. Kf2 Ng5 14. Rhf1
Ne6 15. Kg1 { Now the manual castling is done. The score is now: +2.37. } b6 {
Nac7 would have been stronger. Score=+2.70. } 16. g3 { I remember looking at
RxNe6, followed by Nxd4 - losing one point to free up both my knights. Maybe I
should have done it. Score=+2.28. } Bc6 { As long as black doesn't play Nac7,
white can always play RxNe6. } 17. Kh1 Bd6 18. a3 Rg6 { Even still, RxNe6 would
have been a good move. But what does white do? } 19. Kg2 { Not the worst move,
but not the best. Score=+2.06. } Nac7 { The RxNe6 threat is now completely
gone. } 20. Nd2 f5 21. c5?! { My knights needed breathing room. But was it
worth giving up a pawn? Score = +1.56. } Nxc5 22. Nc4 Bb5 23. Nf2? { I can't
believe I missed b4! } Nd5 24. Kh1 { Best move - to avoid a possible Ne3 fork.
Score = +1.44. } Bc7 25. b4 Nd7 26. Nd1 Rh6 27. Kg1 Rg6 28. Kf2 { Ba2 would
have been stronger here. Score=+1.09. } e5! 29. Rg1 { Ba2 still stronger.
Score=+0.87. } Re6 { Stronger would have been Bc6 followed by b5. Score=+1.27.
} 30. Ba2 N7f6 31. Ncb2 Bc6 32. Re2 Re8 33. Rge1 { Black wants to play e4 so
badly! } f4? { Oops. Sigma suggests a6 was the best move. Score=+2.06. } 34.
Rc2? { gxf3 first would have distracted the N at d5: ...Nxf4; Rc2 etc.
Score=+1.56. } Bd7 35. g4 Bd6 { h6 would have been better to avoid: } 36. g5
Ne3! { Noble effort. } 37. Rc1 Nh5?? { Oops! Should have gone with Ng8.
Score=+3.50. By all standards, white should have won the game! } 38. Bf7! Ng7
39. Bxe8 Nxe8 40. Nc4 Bb8 41. Ncxe3 { Sigma doesn't show this as a bad move,
but seeing what comes next, it could have hurt me in the long run. What I
should have done was Nd2, followed by Ne4 and then NxNe3. Then rumanujan's
e-pawn would have been held back. Score=+3.17. } fxe3+ 42. Ke2? { I should
have played Nxe3. That would have diffused the pawn situation immediately, and
winning the game would have been simple. Score=+2.48 } Ng7 43. Nb2? { Again,
Nxe3 would have still won the game. Score=+2.06. } Ne6 44. Rg1 Nf4+ { Black is
making all the right moves. Score=+1.31. } 45. Ke1 Kg7 { A little bit stronger
was Bd6 with an attack on white's a&b pawns. Score=+1.83. } 46. Rg3 Bf5 47.
Rg4? { A little bit of patience would have helped here. Score=+1.22. } Bxg4!
48. fxg4 e4! { A good move - sacrifice a pawn to have two connected passed
pawns - my future downfall. Score=+0.91. } 49. dxe4 d3 50. Kd1 Be5! { These
are all good moves, but white is still winning. Score=+0.83. } 51. Nc4 Bd4 52.
Nd6 { Sigma suggested Nxe3 to kill one of the passed pawns, but stopping the
d-pawn looks almost impossible. Even possibly, both black's d-pawn and white's
g-pawn could queen, leading to a complicated end. Still, Sigma liked Nd6.
Score=+1.00. } e2+? { A little too early. Kg6 seems stronger. Score=+1.74. }
53. Kd2 Bf2 54. Nf5+ Kg6! { Score=+0.96. } 55. Ne3 { Sigma seems to think h4
leads to a draw: h4 Ng2; Kxd3 e1=Q; RxQe1 BxRe1; Ke2 Bc3; Kf2 etc. Then white
would have 3 pawns for black's bishop, but I bet that black would win further
down the road. After Ne3, Score=+0.23. } Kxg5! { Goodbye pawns! } 56. e5 {
Best move possible. "Stop me if you can." } Kg6 57. h4?? { An obvious blunder.
Now I am sure to lose the game. Moving b5 or a4 or Rb1 or Ra1 or Rh1 were all
much better choices. Score=-0.40. (First time this goes negative!) } Bxh4 58.
Nf5 Bf2 { Score=-1.06. } 59. Rc6+? { This just doesn't work! Sigma prefers
Nd6, but white still loses. Score=-2.82. } Kg5 60. Rc1 Kxg4 61. Ne3+ {
Score=-3.56. White is going down! } Bxe3+ { Here, something strange happened.
Rumanujan offered a series of conditionals starting with KxBe3 e1=Q+; Rxe1
Ng2+; Kd2 NxRe1; KxNe1 Kf5 and black's outside passed pawn wins the game. I
answered with this series of conditionals: KxBe3 e1=Q+; Rxe1 Ng2+; Kxd3
allowing NxRe1+. Then I thought my e-pawn would queen. Now the Sigma
analysis. If the game had gone according to my conditionals, my pawn would not
escape. The N catches it at e8 (if not sooner) and I would lose. OTOH, if the game had gone
KxBe3 e1=Q+, I would have won the game with this line: RxQe1 Ng2+; Kd2 NxRe1;
e6 and nothing can stop the pawn! But because of my conditionals, rumanujan
changed his mind. Lesson learned: NEVER use conditionals. It gives away too
much info! } 62. Kxe3 Kf5! { This move is better than e1=Q+. Now the e-pawn is
dead, and I've got nothing left to survive. Score=-3.18. } 63. Kd2 Kxe5 64.Rg1 h5
{Here I finally resign. I cannot stop both the h-pawn and the e-pawn.} 0-1

[ramanujan]

Awesome analysis, Mel-o-rama.

I never thought I would win the game after my initial blunder. (Still can't believe Bf4 would have saved the exchange, this is a brilliant move) Later I was putting up a fight, but I blundered away another exchange. After that it was some good moves from my side and some bad moves from your side which enabled me to win. After this analysis, doesn't it seem that both of us made so many mistakes and only that I was lucky enough to have made the "correct" mistakes.

I think the key for me in the whole game was to never give you enough space and suffocate you until you gave me back some material, which you did.

The conditionals incident was funny. Your conditionals would have won me the game while my conditionals would have resulted in your win. And neither of us accepted!

The only place I am not convinced with the analysis is 28. Ba2. It is not apparant why this is better. What if I move 29. f4, you need to save pawn at g3 and black threatens ne3, if NxN then fe...the pawns are connected and white's position is still passive.

Thanks again for the analysis.

[Mel-o-rama]

I agree with your assessment. It was a fun game. Now I'll go kick myself some more!

[Abstract Actuary]

Any chance we'll do another one of these? How about this site? Did people end up liking it and sticking with it? It is or isn't free?

[Mel-o-rama]

Scheming Mind is free - but I think it limits the number of games you can play at a time until you pay a yearly fee (of $25 - I think). I'm still playing games on Scheming Mind.

[Abstract Actuary]

Scheming Mind is free - but I think it limits the number of games you can play at a time until you pay a yearly fee (of $25 - I think). I'm still playing games on Scheming Mind.

. . . so you're saying there's a chance . . .

[Mel-o-rama]

Hey, we could start one up. I could host it and keep stats. What format should we use?

Double elimination (note that the Blob Chess Double Elimination Tournament started 6 mths ago and is still going)?
OR Everyone plays everyone once (like our regular tournaments, only we'd have one big section)?
OR challenge-driven like this chess cup?

I'm game. Count me in.

[Abstract Actuary]

Hey, we could start one up. I could host it and keep stats. What format should we use?

Double elimination (note that the Blob Chess Double Elimination Tournament started 6 mths ago and is still going)?
OR Everyone plays everyone once (like our regular tournaments, only we'd have one big section)?
OR challenge-driven like this chess cup?

I'm game. Count me in.

I'm game for whatever. All I've participated in so far is the seasons, so I don't know how well the other things work or don't work. I'm just interested in playing more chess. Does the standard chess tournament structure (swiss) not work well for these online things? Maybe like a double swiss event, where you play two games at once then get paired in two more games based on record, etc. I guess the reason that these systems don't work, is that some people finish their games pretty fast and others take a very long time to finish them and you end up having a small subset of the games holding up the whole tournament.

[Mel-o-rama]

I'm game for whatever. All I've participated in so far is the seasons, so I don't know how well the other things work or don't work. I'm just interested in playing more chess. Does the standard chess tournament structure (swiss) not work well for these online things? Maybe like a double swiss event, where you play two games at once then get paired in two more games based on record, etc. I guess the reason that these systems don't work, is that some people finish their games pretty fast and others take a very long time to finish them and you end up having a small subset of the games holding up the whole tournament.

Yeah, the uneven game playing time kind of gets in the way. In my Blob-Chess Tournament, I tried to assign two games at a time, but that backfired. The quick players finished both games quickly, but then they still had to wait a long time for all the other players to finish before we could see how to pair them up in the next round.

Another thing is that the newest official Season just started, so there may not be very many people willing to play a lot of games right now. Our best bet may be to have another chess cup, and have an extended join period - so those who want to play now can play now, and those who want to wait a couple of weeks can wait. And everyone can play the number of games their willing to play.

I can start up an unofficial new Chess Cup (similar to #1) after lunch.

[Car'a'carn]

I am almost done with my season games and would like to play some more games.