A lot of people were on the road, or otherwise had difficulties completing games this week. So this will be a “catch-up” week, and also it saves me the time of posting a cross-table, etc.

Already more than halfway through! I’m missing a handful of scores, so let me know and I’ll update (OR, I missed some that were already revealed.)

Rushing; some of your comments need responding to. Like explaining why the Wilson Gambit is relevant.

Once I get the rest of the results, I’ll do the crosstable. Has drunknknite become “The Bye” of the Alex Chiu division? He hasn’t updated his blog in a while and I hadn’t heard that he played either of the first two games.

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.

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.

(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!

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.)

The schedules look like this if you want to plan ahead:

Week 6 will be the championship between the two division leaders!

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.)

The pairings will be announced on June 1, so that it’s after the Memorial Day weekend and gives the people at Squirrel Chess a chance to get back from traveling.

For the uninitiated, this an online chess tournament where chess bloggers show off their epeen. Or not; the amount of trash talk has been sorely deficient. We play one 15/30 game a week, and you get a chance to win your way to a $5 McDonald’s gift card. (Or lose your way to it, that works too.) So grab yourself an FICS account, let me know your handle, and you’re in.

(More info here.)

Yes, there will be a second one. Consider this a place to sign-up. If you didn’t participate last time, let me know your FICS handle as well.

Depending on how many people participate, the format may change. Last time was a round-robin, but there weren’t that many people involved. If participation warrants, there may be a couple sections based on strength. Perhaps even West and East circuits, if there are enough interested Eastern hemisphere residents (or Western hemisphere residents running on East time). But we’ll see about that.

EDIT: Expected start date week of May 18 June 1.

Quick FAQ for those few of you who have no clue what’s going on:

What’s this about?

The Tournament of Lepers is an on-line chess tournament played via FICS, primarily involving those in the chess blogging world. It’s very casual, with one game a week and a time control of 15/30. It’s more an excuse to “meet” your fellow chess bloggers.

How do I enter?

Leave a comment here, e-mail, or on the forum.

Are there any requirements?

You must have an FICS handle (it’s free; visit freechess.org to sign up).

Also, there are no set times for the games–the participants are responsible for setting up a convenient time each week. Most players are from the US, so keep that in mind if you’re not living in the Western hemisphere.

I’m flexible about games being played late as long as I’m kept in the loop.

How much dough does the winner get?

Nothing promised. Allen does offer a $5 McDonald’s gift card for anyone with either an unblemished or completely blemished record. I’ll come up with some sort of prize for the winner. Last winner, drunknknite, received a USCF gift certificate and a chance to cameo in a movie with the Mascot. (He didn’t seem to enthusiastic about the movie, though, probably because it will never get done.)