Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Yeah, you can challenge me too EEG.
Yeah, you can challenge me too EEG.
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Cheers Etienne, challenge sent.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Great. Am at work now, so probably won't be able to play before this evening, but should be making regular moves after that.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
You could also sign up for Levin's Breakaway Superleague, chaps, which will start once four more players have joined...Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Also I'm rather pleased with the pawn push that won this game for me. Not least with the fact that as soon as my opponent played g3 I knew I'd got them.
Chess.com won't let me analyse it for some reason (it says the game's not over yet), so I imported it into Lichess, and its engine tells me there was a better checkmate sequence than the one I elected. Given checkmate was unavoidable in both cases, what makes Lichess' suggestion better than mine?Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
That has a max rating of 1250, Sam, which rules me out for the time being, though I might well qualify in a month or two, as my current rating flatters me hugely.
You could also sign up for Levin's Breakaway Superleague, chaps, which will start once four more players have joined...Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Show-off.
(I'm up to 1063 now, after another win just now.)Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
I'm going to hark back to the game recognised as the biggest upset of OTF V, which was my win over Border123, and that bizarre dark squared bishop attack I did. Reason being that I did exactly the same thing in my final game of the first group stage of Blunderful Life, and once again it allowed me to get at the king quickly. Weird. Perhaps it only works the once on each opponent, and I just so happen to have played 4. Bxb8 in my OTF 5 match against Rogin...Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
The Netherlands national champion for 2016 is 17 years old.
One of the comments under the article explains how his ticket to the national championship came about.
To answer some questions: Eligible to play are the top three finishers of the previous championship, the three next ones by Elo (based on the Jan 2016 list when Van Foreest had "only" 2541), the best Dutch player in the Open Dutch championship (if he has Elo 2500+) and one wildcard or qualifier - this time and last year there was a qualifying event for the four players next in line by rating.
What (all) happened: Giri obviously could have played (defending champion, otherwise by Elo) but declined, Van Kampen also declined. Sokolov, Smeets and Spoelman are considered inactive (not enough rated games over a certain period). Tiviakov withdrew - or rather, had agreed to play orally but didn't sign the player's contract - before the qualifying event held 9 and 10 July. "Shortly before the start (of the main event)" seems a bit misleading - but other sources are a bit unclear, this info is from Paul Rump. Van Foreest, who would have otherwise gotten a spot in the qualifying event, thereby could play the main event. The qualifier included (Jan 2016 ratings) Nijboer (2541), eventual winner Ernst (2540), Klein (2517) and Burg (2501).
So Van Foreest was pretty lucky - that six players couldn't or didn't want to play, and that his January Elo 2541 was for some reason (number of games?) "superior" to Nijboer's 2541 ... . Nothing scandalous or wrong about the procedure, rules are clearly defined.
Last year I also talked to Rump and remember saying "Jorden Van Foreest might need a wildcard, or has to wait a few more years". Now it's already quite another story: as Dutch champion, he would also be on the national team - but the deadline for the Olympiad lineup is in the past.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
That's lovely, but the final one-two knock-out owes a lot to Border123's blunder at 14....Nxh7. Or did you have some brilliant plan in response to his possible 14.....Kxh7 which I'm being too dim to spot?I'm going to hark back to the game recognised as the biggest upset of OTF V, which was my win over Border123,Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Nope. Wing and a prayer. He destroyed me in game one, so I just decided to gamble.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Well, of the 3 one-off "online" matches I've started since returning from holiday, I'm currently down against both Etienne and Kev and have had a very narrow escape from defeat by Sam, totally on the ropes for a long spell, so I think I'm going to find OTF6 tough going. Still, it looks as if I'll have a month or more to prepare for OTF6 at the current pace of the remaining Rogin and Bored matches in OTF5.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Is it not possible to set up OTF6 until OTF5 finishes?Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
People who aren't paid members can't play in more than one tournament simultaneously.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Good question - maybe Wouter knows? Depends who's trying to set it up as TD I suppose, and what that person's site membership level is I assume. I have the minimum premium level, not sure what powers that gives me.
Edit: crossed with Etienne's post. I see, so the problem is not setting it up, it's having enough people able to join.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Aha. Oh well, guess we'll have to wait it out.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Erk. Just logged in to find a "10" next to my moves icon. So the official Chess.com tournament started today, didn't it. I now have 15 games on the go...Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
19 for me.Kevchenko wrote: Erk. Just logged in to find a "10" next to my moves icon. So the official Chess.com tournament started today, didn't it. I now have 15 games on the go...Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Levin was up to 21, so we just took a draw on our single match which had collapsed to rooks and pawns.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
You won't get off the hook so easily in our game, Kev!Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Etienne and I are currently playing a match in which we've each made 10 moves without a single capture (pawn or piece). Possibly some kind of OTF record?
https://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=144907868
It started (me as white) d4 c5, which my edition of the Oxford Companion to Chess calls the "Benoni Defence" but, according to the Wikipedia page on the "Benoni Defense", which gives that name to a different sequence, is now called "Old Benoni". It's notorious for cramped games I think, as ours currently is. (Unless white is stupid enough to capture the gambit pawn on move 2, which I did in a recent match, can't remember whether that was against an OTFer or in a high speed "Live" game).Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Well I've just opened it up a bit I think. I reckon c5 works better as a response in Live chess.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
Yes, I can see that might be the case. Unsettle the opponent with something unfamiliar.
Anyway, for the record, the first capture (which was of a pawn) was on white's move 14. I've suddenly got a statto-like curiosity about what the average no. of moves to first capture is.
I'll soon be eligible for a sub-1250 tournament I reckon, if I keep playing like I am at the moment. Looks as if I'm heading for 2 out of 2 defeats to each of you and Kev, though perhaps our 2nd game could still go either way as of now.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
It did escalate quite quickly after that first capture.Comment
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Roll up, roll up for the OTF chess tournaments
ha ha, yes, well played, I knew I was losing but I hadn't realised quite how badly. I haven't bothered ordering an analysis to see which my worst blunders were, but I suspect I was doomed after my 10. Qg3, which needed reversing next move and so cost me 2 tempos in the development phase.Comment
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