This is the complete truth:
1) They are 2 people, a couple, man and his current girlfriend (alan & hana)
2) They are both pretty good players, especially at not gomoku-specialized server like this, at vinagames they are about the better average, with jokings opening analysis and many games played they really made nice progress
3) They are rating addicted, selective when using opponents depending not upon quality but more upon rating, I know what I mean because at vinagames often 1700-1800 are very good players, pretty all gomoku openings have sure wins so if someone wants to hold his high rating this is really tough task and only exceptional players with lots of games played and hard work invested can reach this
4) On lots of servers they used some cheating method with multiple accounts to gain rating, sometimes letting other players playing with some account, and gaining this way rating and "fame" with much less work.
(well the last point used alan alone mostly, because at that times he had different girlfriend, but it was not me :) )

So the things I would expect from them would be:
If using more than 2 accounts, at least not playing one against another and giving free points and not using other people as rating sources for further transfer.
And not logging into other ones account for thansferring purposes, nor letting other people playing the other one (this is mostly about online playing sites).
Everyone should have a fair chance, because if all good players would respond with the same approach, this would lead to disaster.
And if they all entered one tournament, that was pretty unfair and they should really think about it a bit, because they are not bad people in fact and they probably could understand they are not the only people here, so they should try to imagine how they would feel in other people's place.

Hope this was the closing word and we will see only fair play everywhere (yes, I can dream :o) )

Interview with Liquid. Sorry for the delay.
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That really is hilarious. Can someone explain what the so called cheaters gain in return for undertaking this outrageously boring and embarrassing charade? A completely new level of nutcase to me, anthropologists are going to have a field day when they get round to cataloguing these idiots.

First thing ,which is necessary is to have a commandment,that allows people to play only with one account. Without such a commandment there is no cheating!
Perhaps it could be a button at the registration?But then players,who are cheating with several accounts should be excluded from playing.

A suggestion I made a long time ago (and I know some do not like it), but to list in a persons profile the IP address of where they logged on from last. I believe people did not like it since it would give up privacy or something, but heck - if a "hacker" wanted to try to hurt someone, he would have a much better way to get that sort of information then to sign up on a game site to see it. (Maybe make it so only Krights/Rooks can see the IP address)

How will this help: Well I know there are ways around it, but it will help stop some of the cheaters. Other players will also be able to "investigate" other users to try to help find cheaters. Fencer already does a lot, and to try add dealing with cheaters and investigating things himself - this would let others do some work for him!

I have to agree with niicegiirii.
Since Joking, Renjuplayer, Blade and niicegiirll all signed into my tournament at practically the same time I decided to look into their games to see if the claims of cheating were true.
I found the following:
1) They all have played each other making moves within less than a minute after the other.
2) They all really do usually log out within a minute.
3) And the games :)...playing oneself must be boring because some of the games really suck: In their game ending 24.12 with his almost 2700 rating Joking (playing as white) gave a surewin position to Blade VERY early in the game and Blade (with 2600+ rating also) responded by resigning :). Enough said. There are also many other unexplainably stupid moves made in other games played between those 4.
I have removed Renjuplayer, niicegiirll and Blade2004 from my tournament. Joking can play and defend his Number 1 status :). No account established after 24.12 will be allowed in the tournament, if I am not sure of who they are. Playing oneself is quite harmless (although rather funny and pointless) but entering the same tournament with at least 4 userIDs is pretty heavy cheating.

Any closer to completion, Harley? Happy Holidays, btw :·)

     ~ MS

yeah, at least the cheaters became more cautious
some points:
- there are not only 2 accounts, but at least 4, not counting the others 2 suspicious ones.
- you dont work at night, so games what were lately used to transfer, though then the resuls vere bidirectional, perhaps to stabilize both ratings a bit you didnt play from work

At least the accounts dont log in grouped together like before, but fencer perhaps has some logs of login times and even can look up ip addresses so he can identify cheaters easily this way hopefully, hope its not in the same shape like it was with backups :P

I dont have logs, just the latest for illustration:

joking 23. December 2003, 14:53:43 logging out
renjuplayer 23. December 2003, 14:53:22 logging out
blade2004 23. December 2003, 14:52:03 logging out
niicegiirll 23. December 2003, 14:50:20 logging out

niicegiirll 24. December 2003, 13:09:28 viewing on-line players
blade2004 24. December 2003, 13:08:33 logging out
renjuplayer 24. December 2003, 13:08:13 logging out

so at least dont pretend u dont cheat!

:-)very interesting ,so my name is Hana I¨m girlfriend of Joking and I dont see any reason why I cannt play him if Im at work and cannot join kurnik.pl or vinagames.com because of firewall to play him online regards to niicegiirii(why you dont use your own nicks hmm? are you still cry for Alan your 4 years big love ?bye bye

yes, especially in screen chess and corner checkers! :)))

If you want to take 2 months to finish a game
;)

If you go to Ratings page, you will see a list of top rated players of each game type. Playing with some of them is ALMOST like playing against a computer :-D

MattJeffrey, you can't play against a computer here, they're all real live opponents! Either go to 'waiting games' and choose a game & opponent, or put your own game in with 'waiting games' by clicking on 'new game' and following the instructions there.

How can I play a game against the computer?

;þ

Ahh yes, sorry, Steve is right! It does include vacation days! So if you were playing a one day per move game, and it was friday, it would show 3 days remaining - because of Saturday and Sunday being normal vacation days.
Go to 'settings' and 'calendar' and it shows site holidays, like Xmas day etc. You can't time out on these days so it adds it to the time remaining for your opponent :o)

their 3 days and vacation days, 2 weekends and public holidays, look at your own calendar :o) p/h xmas day etc

I'm not sure if I'm missing something here.... I am playing one game that is 3 days per move. After I completed my turn, my game sheet shows 11 days 23 hours before time out. Why so long? Even if it counts my opponents 3 days, and then my three days and 2 days for each of us for a weekend, it doesn't add up.
Also, I see my opponents weekend days listed, both on the game page and their profile page, but cannot find their vacation time listed. Is it only listed if they are presently using it? Thanks again.

Unbeatable, do you mean a tournament just for your team members? If so, see the big boss, they can arrange it.

IMupChucKing - I think the 15 days left are not including vacation days, if you look on your opponents profile it will show you when they have set their vacation for, and I have also seen it on the game board notes (under the board).

When my game page states that there are 15 days left in a game (For example), What does that time include? Ie, Weekends? Holidays? My opponents time to move? Total time before my next turn ends? (This is when it shows my list of opponents turn to move) hanks.
Also, How do I find out an opponents vacation schedule?

how can you arrange games for your fellowship team?

Merry christmas.

lol

lol.

Come and add your birthday to the Birthday Board!! I have just bought a birthday diary that needs filling up with BK birthdays so I will remember to wish you a great birthday/nameday/anniversary etc each year :oD But please write the month in full since a birthday on January 2nd could be wrote 2-1-03 or 1-2-03, depending which country you are in!

Also, please send in questions for BUMBLES interview! I'll be giving you a bit longer to get questions in because its Xmas, but be thinking of what you would like to know about this fine man!

And lastly, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!