Tournament of Lepers, Week 5

Week 4 Results

Week 5 Matchups

Standings

		 dnk Pol Whr Tac cl  l3r Tom LEP RR  gor
1  drunknknite   xxx --- --- --- 1.0 --- --- 1.0 1.0 1.0 4.0
2  Polly         --- xxx 1.0 --- --- 0.0 1.0 1.0 --- --- 3.0
3  Wahrheit      --- 0.0 xxx 1.0 --- --- --- 1.0 1.0 --- 3.0
4  Tacticus      --- --- 0.0 xxx --- 1.0 1.0 --- --- 1.0 3.0
5  chessloser    0.0 --- --- --- xxx 1.0 0.0 --- --- 1.0 2.0
6  l3rucewayne   --- 1.0 --- 0.0 0.0 xxx --- --- 1.0 --- 2.0
7  Tom           --- 0.0 --- 0.0 1.0 --- xxx --- --- --- 1.0
8  Liquid Egg    0.0 0.0 0.0 --- --- --- --- xxx 1.0 --- 1.0
9  Rocky Rook    0.0 --- 0.0 --- --- 0.0 --- 0.0 xxx --- 0.0
10  gorckat      0.0 --- --- 0.0 0.0 --- --- --- --- xxx 0.0

Week 4 was upset week: chessloser Jokered l3rucewayne, and Wahrheit out-tacticked (sp?) Tacticus.

Just to complete the cheesy synonym for “defeat” thing, Polly scrambled Liquid Egg Product and drunknknite drunk Rocky Rook.

Has anyone heard from gorckat? I suspect he has some stuff going on in life that’s preventing him from chessing, noting his blog hasn’t been updated in a few weeks. Wherever he is, I wish him the best.

And, oh joy, I’ll get to play a furious* Tacticus this week. At least I’ll be White. And the tough half of my schedule will be overwith.

Note on the crosstable: I haven’t calculated any systematic tiebreakers, so the placement’s based on head-to-head matchups first, then randomness.

March 10th, 2008 20 comments
Posted by Donnie Filed under Chess, Tournament of Lepers

Round 3 Review and a little computer-fu

Really late on this one. My weak-shelled attempt at playing Polly this week will be covered later.

Take a gander at move 36, with Black to move. If you notice a strong White move that we both missed during the game, give yourself a pat on the back.

Quick Chess Publisher tip: If you want to use quotation marks (”) in the comments, you have to use " instead. It has to do with how browsers parse HTML (and in order for me to write that, I had to use &amp to get the ampersand. A list of HTML character codes can be found here, but I don’t know if it’s exhaustive.)

March 9th, 2008 6 comments
Posted by Donnie Filed under Chess, Computer-fu, Tournament of Lepers

The TSA finds more ways to “earn” more money.

APIS.

These four letters inspire, if not dread, stress among those who are responsible for its transmission.

APIS stands for “Advance Passenger Information System”, for which US carriers must transmit to US Customs information about passengers and crew on international flights. The penalty is $5,000 per passenger with untransmitted or inaccurate information. (If you’re wondering, the required data includes your name, date of birth, gender, passport number and expiration date, country of residence, country of citizenship, country where passport was issued. Additionally, if you’re a foreigner visiting the US, they must also know the address where you’re staying.)

The old requirement was that an APIS manifest needed to be transmitted no later than 15 minutes after flight departure. That’s been changed to 30 minutes before departure. If there are any last-minute changes (and you never know with mechanical issues, weather, crew legality, etc.) this means that the airlines must delay their flights to comply with APIS. Which airports, airlines, and passengers alike can ill-afford.

On top of this, the “sufficiency rate” for APIS transmissions has also been raised from 97% to 100%, a sufficient record being defined as transmitted and without system errors (ie, the information must be accurate). This means there is now zero room for error whatsoever. Looks like the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has finally realized the beings working at airports are cyborgs, not humans.

(As a side note, the sufficiency rates are calculated per flight. Which means for the company I work for, which flies 19- and 30-seaters, the sufficiency rate has essentially been 100% the whole time, so we’re already used to it.)

My co-worker believes that these changes were implemented simply to make it easier for the TSA to levy fines on airlines. I can’t really argue it. These new requirements are literally impossible to comply with and do little or nothing to improve security.

A somewhat out-of-date pdf here.

March 8th, 2008 3 comments
Posted by Donnie Filed under Weaksauce Losers

Everybody loves me

Dinosaur Mom has given me an official endorsement to be a Vice Presidential candidate to someone. I was a little sad that it wasn’t a full presidential endorsement, but I guess it might be smart to get some more experience first and reduce my chances of being beat up by Chuck Norris.

Anyway, I’m still going to run for president until one of the other candidates asks me to be VP, except if it’s Michael Jingozian. Meanwhile, you can check out mascot08.com to see why I’m better than those other guys, except it’s not finished yet.

Blue Devil Knight is apparently retiring, and I’m still trying to decide whether he’s cool or not. I made a cameo in part 1 of his video review series! Yes, I look smashing in it. But then he thinks Jeremy Silman is cooler than me, so that sucks and I yelled at him for it. At least he likes me a little bit.

Wahrheit is down to 7.3% body fat due to my inspirational presence. And that should tell you something. How much body fat have you lost since you started reading my site?

March 6th, 2008 7 comments
Posted by The Mascot Filed under Mascot for President

LEP is the 2nd to 5th best website in the world

Want proof?

Do an image search in Google for “best website in the world” (without the quotes so it looks more impressive) Or just click here. Depending on Google’s temperment, a picture of me will show up 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th.

Finally, getting the recognition I deserve.

March 5th, 2008 10 comments
Posted by The Mascot Filed under Blog News

Updating the blogroll

Well, it looks like there’s some more chess bloggers hanging around. Per the Boss, I’m not allowed to say these other blogs are boring and/or sucky (whether or not it’s true), so here’s the scoop.

There’s this Aussie who handles the Lousy@Chess site. He’s made the lame excuse that he’s not awake the same time as everyone else so he can’t play in the Tournament of Lepers. He’s trying to give chessloser and Blunderprone a run for their money at the most self-denigrating name.

Then there’s this Brazilian dude “Sir Augusto” who’s been excited about being a Knight Errant “Inside the black & white jungle”. It hasn’t been updated for a while, so he’s probably too busy chopping down the rainforest or whatever it is they do in their spare time in Brazil.

Samurai Pawn has committed seppuku, completely taking down his site. But it’s not like chess bloggers aren’t a dime a dozen. So to replace him, The Knights of Castle Kimbark by some guy named Tom is noted. It’s not like Castle Kimbark is a real place, so I don’t really get it. Maybe it’s like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

March 4th, 2008 11 comments
Posted by The Mascot Filed under Blog News

Tournament of Lepers, Week 4

Week 3 Results

Week 4 Matchups

Standings

                 Tac dnk Pol Whr l3r LEP Tom cl  RR  gor  T
1  Tacticus      xxx --- --- --- 1.0 --- 1.0 --- --- 1.0 3.0
2  drunknknite   --- xxx --- --- --- 1.0 --- 1.0 --- 1.0 3.0
3  Polly         --- --- xxx 1.0 0.0 --- 1.0 --- --- --- 2.0
4  Wahrheit      --- --- 0.0 xxx --- 1.0 --- --- 1.0 --- 2.0
5  l3rucewayne   0.0 --- 1.0 --- xxx --- --- --- 1.0 --- 2.0
6  Liquid Egg    --- 0.0 --- 0.0 --- xxx --- --- 1.0 --- 1.0
7  Tom           0.0 --- 0.0 --- --- --- xxx 1.0 --- --- 1.0
8  chessloser    --- 0.0 --- --- --- --- 0.0 xxx --- 1.0 1.0
9  Rocky Rook    --- --- --- 0.0 0.0 0.0 --- --- xxx --- 0.0
10  gorckat      0.0 0.0 --- --- --- --- --- 0.0 --- xxx 0.0

Can someone play a game worthy of a brilliancy prize instead of “well, he blundered, then I blundered, so I lost”? I’m not sure if we can even have a “greatest upset” prize because almost every time it’s not a surprise who wins and loses.

eg: I went up two Pawns early on Rocky Rook, and thought I’d have an easy win. But he rocked me in the middlegame and came out with the advantage. But then he messed up allowing me to win.

March 3rd, 2008 25 comments
Posted by Donnie Filed under Chess, Tournament of Lepers