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)
Since my name was mentioned as someone who lost on time, I'll just mention that I simply got too busy and didn't manage to login within the time limit. $250 is not enough of an inducement for me drop the other irons I have in the fire, so to speak (and I suspect this to be the case for most members of this site). I apologize if my inaction aroused any suspicion, but it seems rather paranoid to attribute any of this to behind-the-scenes dealing. From a public relations point of view, threatening to withdraw the prize would seem to arouse more suspicion than short draw agreements and mass losses on time. Is $250 too much of a financial burden for the tournament organizer to bear? Perhaps this response is overboard as well; I apologize if anyone perceives it so. However, I honestly can't see why anyone would go to all the trouble to make deals with other players for a mere $250 ($25,000 would be a different story ...) and so I admit to being astounded that such suspicions would even be considered. Of course, it could just be that I'm naive...