Brian1971: You're just the lastest in a series of people who come with an opinion on a topic that you haven't understood.

Have a read of a post I made to those other people. Competition resources and fairness/unfairness

And in fact I left out two resources from that list that give a clear advantage. For pawns it is free games slots with which to play a fast opponent. Pawns with only 4 or 5 are at a disadvantage. Of course they can resign some games and free up slots if they want to increase their competitiveness.

Another resource, one which has proved decisive, is connection speed. Someone on dialup has absolutely no chance against broadband users and the faster the broadband the better - provided you have sufficient speed in your opponents so that you're not staring at your game sheet most of the time.

there's another resource, lol, that it also "unfair" and that's the availability of BrainKing! Competitors who are in bed (or elsewhere) while Brainking is being down and being fixed will have an advantage over those who are ready and waiting to play clicky-clicky but can't log in.