I went through 87 moves without a hitch!!! No 'capacity full'.
Thanks, Fencer.

At Gameknot.com, where only chess is played, there are 12400 players, of which I estimate 10% are members. This 10% appears to apply at IYT also.

As a postscript to the previous message, if Pawns were restricted to 3 months registration, I would make them feel as welcome as possible, play many games with them, make it as hard as possible for them to be leave the site!!

Fencer - please would you consider this request.

Brainking.com seems to have reached a paying membership plateau of around 250 paying members. All of us payers need more members so that we may be sure that your excellent site will continue forever! I beieve that will happen so long as you get a decnt income from your site.

Therefore, you need to turn many more Pawns into Knights and Rooks.

Would you consider deleting Pawns after 3 months registration, with all their games and statistics. Even if they sign back on under a new name, they will have lost any ratings, etc. This loss may well be important to them and cause them to take out a paying membership.

I do hope that other paying members will support this request.

It looks good; thank you.

There is 'Andyhop' too; 'Dream' is definitely finished and 'Gimli' plays very little and keeps timing out.

So, if we 'act' on the site within 5 minutes of its going down, do we get put back automatically? Thus, all the 'browsers' get logged off.

When the site goes down (a Gateway problem) and I need to sign on again, how come there are already 65 players there ahead of me???

"Every little helps" said the old lady, as she piddled into the ocean.

Chatty - I am clueless!! I never clicked the box right to the top!!
Have now turned it off. Another small step for mankind.

Fencer - several of us have turned off the Refresh Button (or in my case, as I don't know how to turn it off, set it to 60 mins) in efforts to reduce the site activity.
Are there other things we do that take up a lot of capacity which perhaps we could cut down on?

I know who they remind me of, surfers lying on their boards off Fistral Bay, Newquay, waiting for the next big wave. And then they stay on it for 5 seconds!!

It's just occurred to me; perhaps the guys 'browsing' are waiting for a game to turn up!! Wow! How much capacity do they take, just waiting, like basking sharks.

MM - perhaps the 120 guys weren't doing too much (a lot of them appear just to browse the Main Page!!). We are at 115 now and it's creaking.

Fencer; is the Site activity increasing, decreasing or staying much the same? Also, are there times of the day when it is much less used?

Danoschek, agree with all you say, except perhaps Russia!! They had vast wealth in the early part of last century and squandered it. they also had the best chess players in the world, until Bobby came along.

Harley - you write 'I chooose to pay and get the extras'. But just now, the site goes down because too many players are on-line. That is an extra I do not want. Not being able to get onto Brainking whenever I want is a major problem, which puts all the extras into 2nd place.
That is why I think that Brainpawns should have limited access, especially when the site is reaching full capacity.

It is astonishing how messages get misread!!
Pawns who are here, looking around to see what is what are most welcome. Those Pawns who decide to pay a subscription are even more welcome.
BUT those Pawns who stay on here forever, without paying - not too sure we want them.

Dmitri, I totally agree with you. The concept of Pawns, I thought, was to give them a 3 month look-see at the Site, not to keep them here forever.
Once that 3 month period is over, then they should get LESS.
I cannot understand why paying members should pay more for extra servers to keep Pawns happy!!??

Harley - I suggested apid members taking precedence when the site got to fullcapacity and Fencer reasonably said that it was too late then; the site was already down. So what I am asking for here is that long-standing Pawns get 'retired' at 90% capacity, to make room for the paying guys. Look at Jason's message below.

Fencer; may I suggest, though, that, when the site is approaching full capacity, Brain Pawns with over 3 months on the site, are 'retired' from that session. At least, paying members get to have uninterrupted access.

I, too, am fed up with not being able to get on (or, worse, being closed off). There must be a way of enabling paid-up members to have priority; otherwise, this site risks losing all its paid-up members entirely.

How many players cause the websit to go over 100%? (or is it due to something else?).

The guy who writes 'I always play on until the end'!

Rose, I know; I always take my umbrella with me, when the temperature is in the 90s. And leave of the thermal vest when the skiing temp goes below zero! How do I de-jinx these mach4 moves?

Is it just me - or has the speed of this site improved today???

Dmitri, what feature would attract non-members so much that they would have to pay the cash? I would have thought that entering only one tourney at a time would have done the trick - but not so! Any ideas?

dream, it is weird; I am having no problems at all, using basic modem sign-on. I assume you have no problems with other websites?

Fencer, site is desperately slow this morning, 07.43 UK time.

I too find the site very slow and I cannot get into 'My Profile'.

Harley, then delete away, with abandon! Good hunting and have fun.

Does that mean that Harley can transfer away messages onto the General Chat DB (or perhaps into a Rubbish Bin GB)?

At the end of a game, it is customary to write 'good game' or even 'gg'.
If your opponent has played on in a hopelessly lost position, is it reasonable to say 'lousy game'?

Is it just me or is this great site slowing up a bit? I'm having to kickstart with the Refresh button quite a lot.

The game is 31756; but I now can see the notes, in a blue rectangle below where you submit your move. How, now, do we edit these notes?

When I write a note (particularly for Dark Chess), it disappears the next time I make a move. Is there a way of keeping these notes?

Yes, I see now, looking at my Profile. I was clicking on the 'show all finished games' on the Main Page. Thank you, fencer.

also, while you're fixing own profiles, may we have a nice summary of Completed Games, like we see when looking at other players' profiles, please?

It's great to get on without hassle. Well done, fencer. Now you can concentrate on winning your games!!

Could your problems have anything to do with Atomic Chess? It seems to seize up.

Good luck in fixing it; all speed. If you have time, please may we have a daily update?

I think you are correct, Mike UK. If there is no man on the bar, the count appears to be correct.

Well, what I do is count the number of dice pips, needed to bear off a stone. So black has three stones on 3; therefore, a count of 9. Every stone on the bar I count as 25; and that's basically it. Would welcome other BG players to comment.

Fencer, please would you tell us how you calculate remaining squares. For example, in game 24026 (tonyh v MadMonkey), after move 14 pass, I reckon that Black's total = 105. Your total is 130.

I want to use Notes in my Dark Chess games, to keep a record of my opponents' pieces. But the notes seem to disappear on my next move. How do they work?

Ah, yes. There are two points here. First, I reckon no-one MUST reply to an invite. But yes, when declining, it would be courteous to give a reason.

Not too sure about this invite thing. Think about a telephone ringing. Must one answer it? Is it rude not to answer it? similarly with e-mails. It's seems odd that a guy doesn't deal with invites - but surely that is his/her business.

I too thought that bearing off was to the right.

Great tourney; thank you. How often are you planning to run these? Like weekly!!??

I was similarly afflicted; where do we addicts go when our fix is withdrawn?