I’m exhausted, so won’t post a crosstable of results (not like it’s a big deal until week 2). Chessaholic and I won, Polly and Blunderprone drew, while the other games will be played later or I have not received the results.
| Week 2 Pairings | |
| White | Black |
| Drunknknite | Chessaholic |
| Polly | Tom |
| Sciurus | Blunderprone |
| Ivan | The Bye |
| Donnie | Wang |
| Wahrheit | Takchess |
Since Takchess already revealed the result of our match, might as well post it. My first use of chessflash.com!
It’s late, so the analysis might suck.
Apologies for the slight tardiness of this. I’ve been traveling today, and now am up later than optimal trying to finish this. (Your most recent comments have been noted; will respond later.)
Quick version
This week’s pairings are below. Time control is 15/30. Mostly common-sense rules review is here. (One of them is “Don’t cheat.”)
And if you save the PGN, you can easily post the games using chessflash.com.
| Week 1 Pairings | |
| White | Black |
| Sciurus | Chessaholic |
| Blunderprone | Polly |
| Tom | Drunknknite |
| Takchess | Donnie |
| Wang | Ivan |
| Wahrheit | Bye |
(Takchess: I should be able to do any day after 7pm EDT, or anytime on the weekend. Just let me know.)
Details
Unfortunately, I got some pushback from the US government, so Kim Jong Il is now ineligible to play. Shaq and Space Ghost mysteriously dropped out.
Participants…take note of your number!
| # | “Common” Name | Blog | FICS handle |
| 1 | Drunknknite | drunknknite | Kevingafni |
| 2 | Ivan | Getting to 2000 | Ivanw |
| 3 | Polly | Castling Queen Side | PPWchess |
| 4 | Donnie | Liquid Egg Product | LiquidEggProduct |
| 5 | Sciurus | Squirrel Chess | sciurus |
| 6 | Wahrheit | Robert Pearson’s Chess Blog | RLP |
| 7 | Blunderprone | Blunder Prone…The troubled Knight | TheBlunderprone |
| 8 | Takchess | Takchess Chess Improvement | takchessguy |
| 9 | Tom | The Everyday Christian | Rhuiden |
| 10 | Wang | Patzer’s Corner | Wangos |
| 11 | chessaholic | Chessaholic | chezzznut |
The order was based on FICS standard rating, if there was one with a reasonably large history. If not, I used other ratings found via your websites (ie, Ivan, Sciurus, Takchess, Wang, and chessaholic). So this certainly not an exact indicator of playing strength!
There are two divisions, each being a round-robin. The winner of each division will play for the championship!
Unfortunately, no matter the format, some people would have had to take byes. Sorry, Alex Chiu divisioners! (If you want to recruit a 12th, I’ve no prob with the late entry, though.)
| Dr. Gene Ray Division | Alex Chiu Division |
| drunknknite | Ivan |
| Polly | LEP |
| Sciurus | Wahrheit |
| Blunderprone | Takchess |
| Rhuiden | Wang |
| chessaholic | The Bye |
The schedules look like this if you want to plan ahead:
| Round | Dr. Gene Ray Division Schedule | ||
| 1 | 5:11 | 7:3 | 9:1 |
| 2 | 1:11 | 3:9 | 5:7 |
| 3 | 3:11 | 5:1 | 7:9 |
| 4 | 11:9 | 1:7 | 3:5 |
| 5 | 11:7 | 9:5 | 1:3 |
| Round | Alex Chiu Division Schedule | ||
| 1 | 6:12 | 8:4 | 10:2 |
| 2 | 2:12 | 4:10 | 6:8 |
| 3 | 4:12 | 6:2 | 8:10 |
| 4 | 12:10 | 2:8 | 4:6 |
| 5 | 12:8 | 10:6 | 2:4 |
Week 6 will be the championship between the two division leaders!
I was looking through Donnie’s copies of Chess Life, and they were pretty boring. That’s probably because the publishers were suppressing all the juicy stuff. So maybe I’m going to publish a chess magazine of my own, if it doesn’t take too much work.
First, thanking the “sponsors”
Allen, for offering a $5 McDonald’s gift card to anyone who finishes with either perfect or 0 score.
Tacticus has offered to post games from the tournament using his software in development (it’s actually rather impressive) chessflash.com. We’ll be able to upload PGN files–there’s more stuff on his page about it.
Tournament Format
The first tournament was a 9-week marathon. As a few people mentioned (and I agree), it was simply too long. This time, I want to cap it to six weeks at most.
A few ideas were to do two smaller round robins, a Swiss, or just truncate a full round robin schedule. I kinda like the first, but it may not work well with an odd number of players since people will be playing different numbers of games. Your thoughts are welcome.
Er, last time I said pairing would be out June 1. Sorry. It’ll be June 8.
I already regret doing this poster (click for big size). It’s late; I hope everyone’s name is spelled right. If you want in, let me know before Sunday. (More info here.)
Today, we interviewed two prospects for employment. One of them was a transvestite.
This will give you an adequate sense of how this week has started.
Visiting Liquid Egg Product can be a vital part of boosting your productivity at work. (Not that you aren’t doing this already, of course.) Taking a break from work to surf the ‘net actually boosts your ability to work because you get revitalized. Check out what this professor at some university said:
Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of London’s Goldsmiths University, who helped with the research, said: “Tea breaks and fag breaks have long been the most common types of break within office culture but the report shows that ebreaks are fast becoming the most popular choice of break for British workers.
“The report proves that a 10 minute ebreak a day can have significant benefits but, despite this, many bosses are banning them in the fear that they distract employees.
By the way, this article’s from Britain, so when it says “fag break” it means cigarettes. Either that, or they’re doing something else in the British workplace I wouldn’t be particularly eager to be a part of.
Anyway, the next time your boss asks you “Why the *#@% are you visiting that website with that egg again, Smithson?!?!”, just respond, “Sir/Madam, I’m just trying to boost my productivity for the good of the company! That egg is called the Mascot and you’ll find him very inspirational!” (Note: In that example conversation, you should substitute your own name for Smithson if your name’s not Smithson.)
And while you’re at it, tell him to buy a Mascot T-shirt to support my 2008 presidential bid. Obama is starting to pass me in campaign funds.
Source: The Press Association: Web breaks ‘boost productivity’
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