Sam has closed his piano and gone to bed ... now we can talk about the real stuff of life ... love, liberty and games such as Janus, Capablanca Random, Embassy Chess & the odd mention of other 10x8 variants is welcome too
For posting: - invitations to games (you can also use the New Game menu or for particular games: Janus; Capablanca Random; or Embassy) - information about upcoming tournaments - disussion of games (please limit this to completed games or discussion on how a game has arrived at a certain position ... speculation on who has an advantage or the benefits of potential moves is not permitted while that particular game is in progress) - links to interesting related sites (non-promotional)
I was wondering if the 2003 Championship should be made an online event this year? Traditionally the national is played over the board in Philadelphia. Also, the entrance fee from previous years has been $50, with 50% of all collected fees going to the winner, 25% to the second place finisher, 10% going for the brillancy prize of best game, and the rest to the federation.
Certainly the online format makes the competition open to more people, which is better for the game...but I also feel that the turn-based nature of this site allows games to drag out a bit, and playing a full group's worth of games simultaneously is not my ideal way of playing a tournament...if it could be set up so that the games are played live, at a time mutually agreed by the opponents, with time limits, and so that there's only one game at a time to concentrate on, I would so go for online.
Perhaps there could be a deadline for each game...the first game must be completed by a certain date at a certain time, and if not, neither player receives points. That could keep the pace of the competetition moving along.
By the way, what are the dates for the tournament, and where in Philadelphia is it usually held?
I agree with Mattewhall on this...an online tournament would just drag itself out! I miss OTB games, but I realize many of you are not from the Philadelphia area. I think the Championship would be played at the Adam's Mark Hotel on City Line Ave. but I think that would have to be determined by availability. Maybe in the future there can be regional tournaments with all the winners going to one location to play for the chanpionship....or some format like that.
I agree with Matthewhall.It would be fine to play a tournement online but in realtime with a shorter timecontrol.On the great chessservers (ICC,Fics,Chessnet,USCL,Chessbase) some chessvariants are played but nowhere variants on bigger boards,nowhere Gothic or Januschess.If Gothic Chess in the USA is so big as Ed told me and so many people are playing this variant it is sure not difficult to initiate Gothic Chess at least on one server.But surely you can organize a championship as email tournement.This is an other category of chess and I think brainking is an ideal platform therefor.Perhaps we can suggest fencer to implement some shorter timecontrols like 1 hour and 30 minutes/move?
To the theme of Live-chess look to my note in the section of chess.