Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

[Sam]

Hmm. If there's really something in the idea that playing on a smaller screen makes for less accurate play, that might explain why I feel like I've plateaued since first getting over the bump of learning to play. I've played almost exclusively on my phone (or, late at night, my tablet) since about the middle of 2018.

[Etienne]

I reckon it's a combination of smaller screen and that a mobile generally tends to be used more casually than a laptop or desktop. Which I'm sure translates into more often making a move when you haven't thought it through.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Interesting theory, sounds highly plausible to me.

Meanwhile the VT/Matt pairing is the first one in the tourney where black has won both matches, as a counter-example to the trend which fatbear mentioned.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

That may have more to do with Matt's last statement than any tactical awareness on my/black's part

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

My match against ad hoc just ended - LOL at my own Homer Simpson d'oh! moment. I could tell before my last move that I was totally screwed whatever move I made frankly (and I almost resigned but thought I'd play on a bit anyway), but I totally failed to spot that my actual choice of move gave ad hoc mate in one. I find that "ooh, I've just been checkmated, didn't spot that was on!" moments happen to me rather more often than they should.

[fatbear]

The curse of the black pieces !

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Hmm, I've just been gifted a point by VT resigning when he was ahead in our match. I'd made a duff move skewering his queen and king with my bishop, only spotting just after I'd made that move that it was rubbish because the pawn defending my bishop was pinned by VT's rook against my own queen, and with his queen gone, I would no longer have a pin on one of his pawns attacking my other bishop. So I was due to be down on the exchange - winning VT's queen and a rook for my own queen and two bishops. The site's analysis has him 1.57 points ahead at the end.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I thought I was way behind on points, and was surprised to see the analysis showing me to be holding my own.

[Bored Of Education]

As usual the advice is never ever ever make a move - even if it appears routine - when you are drunk.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Crikey, just spotted that Levin has taken a half point from ad hoc, but lost a match to Bored (by resignation).

Just been crunching the tie-break numbers in different scenarios. As of now, either ad hoc or fatbear can still end up OTF25 champ: the current tie-break point totals may change significantly.

[Levin]

After making a real mess of my game against Bored I dived at the offer of half a point without any thought at all. I was trying to be too cute against Bored and he made me pay.

[Etienne]

Frankly I'd have backed Levin to win from that position with a B & N for a Q (plus the chance of capturing the Q side rook) but well spotted by Bored. I need VT to avoid defeat against Levin to keep third.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Actually, I overstated the level of uncertainty around the OTF 25 title. With all matches now finished except for 10 matches involving Bored, the tie-break rules mean the only scenario which has ad hoc overtaking fatbear requires Bored to win his unfinished match against Wouter (as well as losing his unfinished matches against ad hoc and Matt and both his matches against VT). All other combinations (including any where Bored fails to beat Wouter) have fatbear seizing the laurels on his debut.

[Wouter D]

It's been decided.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Nice checkmate there Wouter!

And congratulations to fatbear on his triumphant OTF chess debut!

[The_Purple_Cow]

Yes congratulations fatbear a worthy champion.

[ad hoc]

Indeed.

[fatbear]

Thanks all, I can't say I understand how the tie-break works but I'll take your word for it ! Personally I think the title should be shared with ad hoc rather than have this tie-break system ( assuming he wins his game against Bored ).

I've been, err... fortunate to have been at home during OTF25 so have had plenty of time to analyse the games and have been much more sucessful than I ever could have expected having not played seriously for 30 years. However, I've also been thoroughly outplayed by ad hoc and matt with the black pieces despite tons of analysis !

Unfortunately ( ? ), I expect to start working again in a couple of weeks time so I fully expect my results to deteriorate in OTF26, as will the speed of my play ! I think the only way is down but I look forward to the next competiton !

[Etienne]

Tie break is basically you get all the points of someone you beat. So you have picked up 22 tie break points for beating Levin twice (as he won 11 points in the tournament), while ad hoc has picked up 16.5 from a win and a draw against Levin. So the tie breaker favours results against people who have performed stronger in the tournament. And those you dropped points against (matt and VT) performed marginally worse overall than those ad hoc dropped points against (Levin and Wouter).

So, congratulations.

[fatbear]

Thanks Etienne. To put in footballing terms it is better to beat Manchester United and lose to Wolves, rather than the other way around !

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

To put in footballing terms it is better to beat Manchester United and lose to Wolves, rather than the other way around !

Unless you've emerged from your Tardis to find that the young people are wearing shoes with huge platform heels, yes.

[ad hoc]

Just received an email from chess.com announcing I've been kicked off the site (as far as I can tell from a rather terse email, because they think I've been cheating). Anyway, if the table in the latest tournament has suddenly changed, that will be why.

[DCI Harry Batt]

How does one cheat on a chess site?

[ad hoc]

I imagine it wouldn't be hard to use a computer engine to do your thinking for you

[matt j]

That's quite strange. My first question would be: Are you really kicked off - or is that some bogus email?

Have you had a sudden jump in rankings where your play has been immaculate? Did you log-in from a different IP address than typical for your log-ins? Did somebody else use that IP address to log-in as well?

(Years and years ago (nearly 20), I got booted from gameknot because they determined I had a pattern of logging into a computer that a classmate of mine was also using to log-in from. We played each other occasionally with no issues, but the first time he logged into his account from the school library, we both got booted.)