Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

[Sam]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Kevchenkeau wrote: unfortunately there is one more game that could be some time yet, though at least it is only two days per move.

Why did white go Qh4 on move 10 there? It just looked to me like s/he was hanging his/her Queen...

[Kevin S]

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Haha, in my cursory glance at that board and number of moves I hadn't actually clocked that there is a queen missing!

[Sam]

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I'm really struggling to see it. I mean they're a better player than me (almost by default), so I assume I've just missed something, but what is it I've missed?

Or was it really just a massive, howling blunder?

[Etienne]

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Just a blunder.

[Sam]

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I played 1.e4 to start against Bored, and then programmed a few conditional moves to speed the opening along a little... and he's met it with 1. ...a5. It's certainly got an element of surprise to it Bored, I'll give you that.

[Kevin S]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Oooh, that's the other side. Against me, Bored tried advancing his h pawn as far as it would go. (Ah, he was white in that game though.) It left a gap which allowed me to promote a pawn on move 15.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

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Bored did that against me (advancing the h pawn all the way down the board without moving anything else).

I think he's invented the "Raheem Sterling" opening.

[Bored Of Education]

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Ah bollocks, I would have got away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids.

[irony towers]

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Mouton D wrote: Created, and invited everybody except for ironytowers, who has disabled this feature. Let me know if you want to partake, and have not received an invitation.

It was disabled to filter out the random invitations I was getting from elsewhere, but I've now dis-disabled it and would be up for trying one of the team things if a critical mass gathers.

OTF5 may not fall right for me as I'll be away and deviceless for a week during the summer.

[Kevin S]

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Bordeaux Education wrote: Ah bollocks, I would have got away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids.

What was the plan?

[Kevin S]

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Sam wrote: (This is the game, in case anyone's curious. The move in question being my 32.Qf5, which I now realise should have been 32.Qe8.)

Oh shite. Afraid that's game over now Sam. 37 ... Rxf5 is coming. You can choose to attack that rook with either your pawn or king but there's really no way you're going to prevent promotion of the d pawn now.

Just to make matters worse, I don't see how he could have avoided mate if you had played 32. Qe8. Even moving his rook doesn't help buy his king a safe square, because your queen would be attacking it.

[Kevin S]

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In better news though, Sam, I think you have qualified for round 2 of beginners under 1200. At least, on my screen you are listed third in your group.

[Sam]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Yeah, I thought I'd try to head off his pawn for a bit, but once he got his rook behind it and made clear he wasn't going to move it I resigned. The advice I mentioned earlier about playing on until mated is one I try to take (I got a draw out of it against a far better player in a 960 game last week after he moved his Queen to the wrong square and stalemated me), but that really was just going to get dragged out tediously.

I am baffled to discover I've qualified in the under 1200 tournament. I thought it was only three per group who went through, and if there are no tie breaks, what's separating me from the chap below me (we're both on 6 points)?

[Levin]

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It's because there are no tie breaks. As you're both on the same number of points you're equal third and then both qualify.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

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I may have asked this before, but does anyone else on here find their "Live Chess" ranking is a staggering amount lower than their "Online Chess" ranking? I mean, sure, I think too slowly to be much good at the speedy version and I put a lot of careful thought into choosing moves in the slow "Online" version, especially in tournaments, perhaps having the luxury of a bit more free time than other players to spend on that, but even so, I wouldn't have thought the rankings gap would be as big as it is.

[Sam]

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I'm shite at all versions, so not much difference for me - but yes, the faster the time control, the lower my rating. I'm 553 for Blitz, 758 for Bullet and 869 for Daily. Bizarrely I'm 1115 for Rapid, from 7 matches which I can't remember playing (would that be the 15+10 time control?).

I accidentally joined in a 960 tournament a couple of weeks ago and, thinking carefully about the concepts I'd been reading about in my proper chess books, did respectfully (albeit still got eliminated) and have a 960 rating of 1091 - a lot higher than my Daily rating. I think it probably reflects the fact I'm getting better overall, albeit slowly.

Le Vin wrote: It's because there are no tie breaks. As you're both on the same number of points you're equal third and then both qualify.

Ah, brilliant!

[Wouter D]

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My ratings thrive on not being able to consult a standard opening book. So 960 works, but bullet and blitz as well. I guess my favorite style of play would be the three-minute for the full game. Invest an hour in a tournament and it's done. Awesome.

[Kevin S]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

I'm more like EEG, except I still sometimes rush a move in 'online chess' and make a blunder. With live chess it's even worse...

So are there, say, six of us who fancy giving 'team vote chess' a go? Irony towers sounded keen and I'll happily have a crack at it.

[Sam]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

I'll go for it, if only because I might learn something from seeing what moves better players than me consider in various positions.

[Wouter D]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Yeah, let's do this.

[Kevin S]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

I think you have to set it up, though I might be misreading things. Also have a nasty inkling it only lets us all play together against a different team, perhaps. In which case we'd need to set up two groups (then I think we could opt in for 'either' team).

[Wouter D]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Kevchenkeau wrote: I think you have to set it up, though I might be misreading things. Also have a nasty inkling it only lets us all play together against a different team, perhaps. In which case we'd need to set up two groups (then I think we could opt in for 'either' team).

Oy. This site could do with some more user-friendliness every once in a while.

[Sam]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Agreed (assuming we're talking about chess.com there, not OTF/WSC). I've found each new version to be a small improvement, by and large, but as very much a learner it's infuriating that the newer versions have done away with the 'key squares' button on the Lessons pages. There are some lessons in which they're indispensable (eg. 'how do you get the knight from where it is to the square highlighted if you click Key Squares, in two moves?).

[Sam]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Oh, and I was delighted to record my first win in the under 1100 tournament this evening, but was somewhat confused as to why my opponent resigned. I certainly had better placed pieces but I didn't think his position was lost, by any means. He offered me a draw after my move 11, too, which seemed a bit odd.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments

Well, his knight is dead, so after taking account of that you are effectively queen + knight for rook up, and he has no opportunity to do anything much about that in the near future. He has a clearly lost position unless you make some huge howler, so by resigning he's giving you credit for being unlikely to do that.

Well either that, or, taking his moniker at face value, he's too busy being pestered by hot young women wanting to have their turn in the passenger seat of his Lamborghini. [Edit: I suspect that in reality, he has a Lamborghini like I have the mathematical talent of Evariste Galois, Euler and Gauss.]