clock
FICGS - Search results for clock
There are 257 results for clock in the forum.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-08 19:59:22)
Hannes
CFC rapid tournaments didn't allow vacation (and start clock was 10 days, not 30). Anyway, you have 2 months to play a single move (if your clock is over 2 months, of course)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-12 09:14:24)
Tournament formulas
Hello to all.
What do you think about the idea to create a SLOW tournament category ? Clocks could be 60 days + 10 days / move or 100 days + 100 days / 10 moves (very slow) ?
Any idea or opinion ?
Hannes Rada (2006-04-16 09:52:16)
time and vacation
>There's objectively no difference >between "vacation" & time for move... >Rules on other servers
There is a difference.
If the player does not have the time on the clock, because he is involved in many tournaments ....
I think we should start a poll about this issue.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-18 00:34:26)
About vacation...
Don't you think it would be more logical to allow 40 (for example) days of vacation per year and not per game ? Vacation would stop the clock for all games of the player. Seems to look like "vacation" more than a "reservoir" that doesn't really have to exist ?!
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-18 13:25:56)
Time limit per move
If a player has 60 days and more on his clock, the deadline for one move is 60 days ! This is a provisional (quite good, I think) solution before question of vacation be answered. Many players can't play every day and correspondence chess games usually last several months, often more than 1 year.
It seems server games go much faster than email games, but rules 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves are the same.
Time limit per move in IECG is 30 days. Here, a 60 days limit (a rating period) don't seem too much to me. Players won't feel oppressed (Glen, turn email notification off :)) and I think they won't use it often.
RAPID TOURNAMENTS are an alternative solution.
Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2006-04-19 19:13:56)
Vacation implemented
Dear chessfriends, a major update on FICGS : Vacation has been implemented. You now have 30 days leave per year (for all games !)
Be careful using it, as days can't be took back (or vacation stopped before the end date) by playing a move for example. But you can add days to your vacation simply taking days more. You can play while you're in vacation, the days leave you take are simply added to your clock for all your running games. A message tells your opponent you're in vacation in the viewer page.
Also please note this new rule : Time accumulated is now limited to 100 days ! (taking effect at your next move) The 60 days limit per move is kept for the player's convenience.
Have good games !
Glen D. Shields (2006-04-25 20:39:39)
Hmmm ... yup
Graham - I think you summed it perfectly. I have no objection to conditionals nor do I care how much time folks use. What I find "irritating" (the word used in this thread) are those situations where you move and ten minutes later you're back on the clock again. Overused conditionals contribute to the "irritation," but hardly are the root cause.
Trent Parker (2006-05-29 03:03:51)
Sorting your own games
Hello Thibault!
I know that you are working hard on this site already. But could i suggest that a sort function be implemented so that a player could sort their games according to how much time they have on the clock?
Most of my games are long standard games, however i am playing in one rapid play game which, when sorted by game number are quite a long way down the page. On days where i dont have much time to make moves i would prefer to make moves on my rapid games rather than my long games. This is where that sort function would become handy
Once again thanking you for this great chess server.
Trent Parker
Thibault de Vassal (2006-05-29 13:32:45)
Remaining time
Hello Heinz-Georg !
'My games' is only a short overview of all your running games (as Per suggested), useful when you have a lot of games. Adding clocks would be too much space consuming.
My preferred page is definitely 'My messages'... Using both should be efficient enough.
Amir Bagheri (2006-06-23 12:26:28)
Blinfolded chess ( part II )
Very recently, however, all the honors of Europe, in this department of indoor games, have been run away with by two young Americans, Morphy and Paulsen. Paul Morphy, a native of New Orleans, seemed to be born with chess in his blood; he played almost from childhood; and at thirteen years of age he proved a formidable antagonist to Herr Lowenthal, a noted Hungarian. In 1857, when just twenty years of age, Morphy encountered Paulsen, a native of Iowa, only a little older than himself, at a chess congress in New Orleans (Editor: It was New York!). All the gray-beards struck their flag to Paulsen, and then he struck to Morphy. Of Morphy's subsequent achievements in regular play, which stamp him as perhaps the first living chess-player (we say this with fear and trembling; however, for the knights of the game are a sensitive race), we will not speak here, for our purpose is only to notice the blindfold performances. At the chess congress above mentioned, he finely played a blindfold game with a leading German player. Early in 1858, he struck the New Orleanists with amazement by playing six games simultaneously, without seeing any other the boards; winning five of them, and exhibiting beautiful play throughout. He then came to Europe, not only to "lick the Britishers," but "all creation;" and it must be admitted that he made great progress towards that achievement. At a meeting of the Chess Association at Birmingham, in August 1858, he played eight games simultaneously, without sight of the boards. His opponents were Lord Lyttelton, and seven other persons, mostly presidents or secretaries of provincial chess clubs. Against such players, and under such tremendous conditions, he won no less than six games out of the eight, drawing a seventh, and losing the eighth. In the following month, he went over and astonished the Parisians in a similar way; he contended blindfold against eight practised players at once, at the Cafe de la Regence, a famous resort of chess-players; and out of these did not lose even one; he was the victor in six, and drew the other two. In the spring of 1859, Morphy contended against eight of the most experienced members of the London Chess Club, including Mr. Mongredien and Mr. Walker, two distinguished players. He won two games, and drew the other six--all the players except himself being wearied out by a very protracted sitting. A few days afterwards, he played with eight members of the St. George's Chess Club, including Lord Cremorne, Lord Arthur Hay, and Captain Kennedy; he won five, and the rest were drawn through want of time to finish them.
Nevertheless, inconceivable as these mental labors are, Morphy yields to Paulsen in blindfold play. There are whispers of twelve or fifteen games having been tried simultaneously by the latter; but the number ten has been most certainly reached, under conditions of the utmost publicity.
On the 7th of October in the present year, at a Divan in the Strand, ten players accepted Mr. Paulsen's challenge to grapple with them all simultaneously, the boards being placed out of his sight. One of the players was M. Sabouroff, secretary to the Russian Embassy in London; the other nine comprised many names well known among chess-players. Ten chess-boards were placed on ten tables in the room. An arm-chair, turned away towards a window, was mounted on a dais. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Paulsen, a quiet, courteous young man, with not a trace of "brag" in him, took his seat in this arm-chair. For twelve mortal hours he never rose, never ate, never smoked, and drank nothing but a little lemonade. What were his mental labors during that time, we shall see. His ten antagonists took their seats at the ten tables; and each table speedily became the centre of a group of spectators, whose comments were not always so silent as in fairness they ought to have been. Paulsen could not see any of the chess-boards. Herr Kling, a noted player and teacher of chess, acted as general manager. He called the boards by numbers--No. 1 to No. 10. Paulsen audibly announced his first move for board No. 1; Kling made that move; the antagonist replied to it; Kling audibly announced the reply; Paulsen considered what should be his second move, and when he had audibly announced his decision, Kling made the proper move on the board. Here No. 1 rested for awhile. No. 2 now made his move, leading to the same course of proceeding as before. Then No. 3 in the same way; then No. 4; and so on to No. 10; after which No. 1 began a new cycle, by playing a second move; and thus they proceeded over and over again.
Now let us see what all this implies and involves. Chess is not one of the most frolicsome of games; indeed, ladies generally declare it to be very dull, seeing that a chess-player is apt to be "grumpy" if spoken to on other matters while playing. The truth is, there is a demand for much mental work in managing a game well; the combinations and subtleties, the attacks and counter-attacks, are so numerous and varied, as to keep the mind pretty fully occupied. Nevertheless, a fine game between two fine players is mere child's play compared with this wonderful achievement of Paulsen. He was obliged to form ten mental pictures; and every picture changed with every move, like the colored bits in a kaleidoscope. Most persons, even though knowing nothing of the game, are aware that it begins with thirty-two pieces of different colors and forms, and that these move about over a board of sixty-four squares. After every change of position in any one of the pieces, Paulsen must have changed his mental picture of the board, the field of battle, and then made that a fixture until the next move was made. This is hard enough in even one game, against an antagonist who has his eyes to help him in planning attacks and defences; but how hard must it be against ten! It is difficult to conceive what is the condition of the mental machinery under such circumstances; and yet, there he sat, the calmest man in the room. When told of his antagonist's doings, one by one, he looked quietly out of window, and rubbed his chin, as a man often does when thinking, and then announced his move--never mistaking No. 1 for No. 7, No. 9 for No. 3--never failing to recover the proper mental picture, and making the proper change in it; never embarrassed; never making an unlawful move, or likely to lose sight (mental sight) of any unlawful move made by his antagonists. Nor did he obtain the least pause for mental rest. Without one minute's interval, as soon as he had announced a move for one board, he was required to attend to the move of another antagonist at another board. Hour after hour did this continue--all the afternoon, all the evening, midnight, until two in the morning. He made two hundred and seventy moves in the twelve hours, twenty-seven per game average; this gave two minutes and a quarter for the consideration of each move. As all his moves were met by corresponding moves on the part of his antagonists, he was called upon to form five hundred and forty complete mental pictures in twelve consecutive hours, each picture representing the exact mode in which all of the sixty-four squares of a chess-board were occupied. Paulsen won two games, lost three, and drew five.
Paul-Iosif Guralivu (2006-06-30 10:50:31)
Forfeit problem
Game 934 (chess)
White clock - 30 days 23:29:09
Black clock - Out of time.
[Event "FICGS__CHESS__RAPID_C__000002"]
[Site "FICGS"]
[Date "2006.05.31"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Guralivu,Paul-Iosif"]
[Black "Alessandrini,Alfredo"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "1293"]
[BlackElo "1400"]
1.e4 *
Should this game be forfeit ?
Should all the games of Mr. Alessandrini be forfeit ?
Pablo Schmid (2006-07-03 18:37:00)
Problème du temps restant.
Bonjour De Vassal, dans ma partie 583 contre Hanly, je peux lire ça: Clock - 35 days 23:12:38 (9 days 20:48:55)
S'agit-il d'un bug? Ai-je 35 jours ou 9 jours restants?
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-03 18:58:48)
Remaining time
Hello Pablo.
There's no problem :)
Last move by your opponent has been played on 2006 may 14, 50 days ago. The rules state that no move shall be played in more than 60 days. Your remaining time for the game is 35 days, so you just have to play one move, and the 9 days limit will disappear, your clock will be only 35 days. If you don't play a single move before 9 more days, the game will be lost on time.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-05 19:14:09)
Leave/Reflection Time
That's right. You take 5 days leave, 5 days are added to your clock... This is quite logical, after the leave period your clock is the same again. The difference with other systems is you can play during your leave.
We discussed about it in another thread :
http://www.ficgs.com/forum_read_144.html
Ryaad Aabid (2006-07-07 16:46:31)
Game 1006
Hi !
FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_D__000005 , in the mentioned game above , White clock was 0 days yesterday , while today turned from 0 days to 5 days !
Best regards.
Ryaad
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-07 17:06:28)
Game 1006
Hello Ryaad.
Your opponent's clock in the other games of the tournament, the logs and the tournament page cached by Google, all confirm the clock is right. Maybe another of your (numerous :)) games.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-08 12:33:21)
Fischer clock - Limitation
Hello Marc.
About the adjudication, that's a problem without a real solution IMO. I think human interventions must be reduced as much as possible (null is clearly best), many players agree with that.
I just written you were right and agreed with your first proposal about the accumulation time rule for rapid games. Now I think it just can't solve the problem and wouldn't be efficient enough... In the few cases (ie. yours) a player may last a game, for any reason (maybe manage his rating), changing the time accumulation limitation wouldn't prevent him to last it almost the same, by spacing out his moves...
No solution yet, but we can discuss it, maybe we can improve this point.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-08 17:37:33)
Vacation (change)
Hello Stefano... That's not possible. (see rules & thread below).
http://www.ficgs.com/forum_read_144.html
Anyway, it won't change anything to your clock as days have be added already (works like a "reservoir"). You can play all month long if you want.
Glen D. Shields (2006-07-08 21:05:41)
Thibault You Have a Golden Opportunity
Thibault - one of the reasons that FICGS has grown so quickly is that you've welcomed input and implented the things the players have asked for. John is right on this issue. I urge you to listen to him. Take this opportunity and make FICGS the chess server that leads the way in establishing logical time rules.
Here are some suggestions for regular tournaments. You and others can build on these:
- 30 days start +2 days added per move
- 100 days maximum accumulated time
- 30 days maximum limit for one move
- 4 weeks (28 days) annual leave
- no time lost or added during leaves
- no moves made during leaves
- all time calculated by a running clock in hours and minutes
My recommendation for rapid tournaments are:
- 14 days start +1 day added per move
- 30 days maximum accumulated time
- 10 days maximum limit for one move
- 2 weeks (14 days) annual leave
- no time added or lost during leaves
- no moves made during leaves
- all time calculated by a running clock in hours and minutes
I recommend you let the server automatically handle time limit oversteps and make no exceptions. The only exception I would offer is if someone is ill or injured and needs to take an extended medical leave (these things happen). Let there be an option for that player to file an approved leave with you.
Thibault love your server and the hard work you put into it. You and others feel free to critique my suggestions. I strongly urge you to use this opportunity to lead the world in logical time rules. You don't have federations or tempermental world champions to appease. You are the boss. Do it RIGHT. Good luck.
Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2006-07-09 00:46:13)
Leave/Reflection Time
Dear chessfriends!
In my dreams a perfect server has the following time rules.
Normal tournaments:
- 30 days with an increment of 30 days/ 10 moves
- 100 days maximum accumulated time
- 30 days maximum limit for one move
- 4 weeks leave per tournament (!) for every year since the start of the tournament
- no time lost or added during leaves
- a move in a tournament during a leave stops the leave in all games of this tournament
- all time calculated by a running clock in hours and minutes
Rapid tournaments
- 30 days start +1 day added per move
- 45 days maximum accumulated time
- 30 days maximum limit for one move
- no leave
- all time calculated by a running clock in hours and minutes
By the way, the world championship should not be a rapid tournament.
But how I said these are my dreams ...
Gino Figlio (2006-07-11 03:59:17)
Leave
Hi Thibault,
Everyone has their own opinion about this. Do what you think it's best. My opinion:
If you want to mimic the ICCF method, don't allow play during leave and change to programming to freeze the clock when a player takes leave, therefore not adding the leave time to the reflection time.
If you want to continue with your original idea of adding the leave to the reflection time, then add only 50% of the time, since the clock stops for the player on leave when the opponent is on move anyway.
You may suggest players to take leave after they make a move, in order to take maximun benefit.
Other ideas related to preventing players from dragging out lost games/positions would be to establish a lower limit for leave time say of 7 days; preventing players from going on/off leave multiple times; to prevent exceeding the reflection time.
Another approach would be to try to regulate more the higher limit of time per move, by allowing players to take 30 days per move only once, 20 days per move 3 times, 10 days per move 9 times..etc. you can change the numbers to fit your desire but you get the idea.
Best,
Gino
Rodrigo Jaroszewski (2006-07-11 22:14:16)
A question
Thibault wrote concerning rapid clock:
"* 14 days + 1 day/move (rapid) : As players don't know exactly when tournaments will start, I think 30 days at start (ie. compared : email tournaments often start before the real date) is a good choice to avoid accidental forfeits during holidays !"
Since your concern is with the first moves, how about using the 14 days + 1 move/day suggestion, but on the first two plies (e.g.: 1.e4 c5) you add a second clock that would give a period of 10 days for White and Black (separately) to know the game is on, before they make their first moves?
It'd go like this:
White has 10 days on this "grace period" + 14 days. Two possibilities:
1) He makes his first move. The time he had remaining on his "grace period" is removed, and he would have the 14 days. He would not get an additional day for it.
2) He does not make the move on the "grace period" and his 14 days clock starts running down. When he does move, one day will be added, as it normally would.
When White moves (if White ever moves), then:
3) Black makes his first move. The remaining of his "grace period" is removed, his 14 days remain, no days are added. Or,
4) Black does not make a move in the "grace period", his 14 days clock begins to run. If he makes a move, he'll gain the day, as he normally would.
In both cases, no more "grace periods" would be added for the rest of the game, and White's clock would start running with 14 days or less, depending if (1) or (2) happened.
I'm not sure if I was clear, neither if it is actually possible to do so. It's just a suggestion. I also hope that the forum does not clutter my message. :)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-12 23:12:46)
Delay before tournament start
Hello Rodrigo.
I think your idea looks like very much the system used in email chess. I just wanted to make it easier to understand. Quite strange to make moves and have no days added to the clock. "Official" and "non-official" start for a tournament is a thing we can avoid. That's the main reason of this time control 30 days + 1 day/move.
Don Groves (2006-07-14 02:59:50)
Time limit per move
I feel there should be a firm limit (I would like to see 10 days) and a penalty for exceeding it:
(1) Subtract one day from offending player's clock for each day over the limit.
(2) If limit is exceeded more than double, game is forfeited.
If player cannot abide by these time constraints, they should take leave (or perhaps play in fewer games ;-)
Also, I agree with the idea of no moves at all during leave. Leave is leave from FICGS, not just from one game or tournament.
Regards to all,
Don
Thibault de Vassal (2006-07-15 17:51:39)
Big chess
Hello Heinz-Georg.
I'll play my next moves soon... That's right, no time enough and many chess & Go games to play. But I keep a look at my clock ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-01 12:43:00)
Vacation : Time frozen !
Hello to all.
A major update : Clocks are now frozen during vacation. It's no more possible to play during this time. Please note you cannot cancel your vacation ! (but you can add days of leave)
This change should make harder vacation time (30 days per year) to use, and reduce the effect on the time controls.
Graham Wyborn (2006-08-02 23:14:20)
Be patient!
Your opponent is not breaking any rules! I have an opponent who has not moved for about 6 weeks. Now with less than 24 hours left on his clock, he goes on holiday! Our opponents can use the time how they like. In the UK you can be arrested for wasting police time, but you cannot be arrested on any chess site for wasting opponents time! If you leave this site, which I hope you will not do, you will come across the same problem on other chess sites.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-03 20:35:24)
Vacation : Update
Hello to all.
You may observe irregular clocks according to the new vacation rules during a while (some players may still have more time than "possible"), this is not a bug but a consequence of the change on 2006 august 1st) for players who took days leave, particularly in july.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-24 01:56:40)
rapid tourneys
Hello Jay.
No, 1 day / move is the increment added to the clock after each move ! But your clock is 30 days at start, so you have time ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-08-28 13:25:31)
bug: en-passant captures
Hello Jay.
That's right, I obviously lost my brain somewhere :/
I can't deal with this problem today, but it will probably be fixed wednesday (clocks will be corrected). Sorry about that..
David Da Silva (2006-09-04 16:30:13)
Clock running while on holliday
Hello,
I may have missed something but in one of my games, maybe more but this one I'm sure because I had few days left, my clock runned enventhought the hollidays I declared. When I came back, I had 6 hours to play 9 moves wich I couldn't do(damn sleep ;))...
Is this a bug or a rule subtility ?
Thanks for the answer and congrats for this great site !
David
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-04 16:42:15)
Re: Clock running while on holidays
Hello David.
There shouldn't be other problems since the clock display bug at the beginning of august... I send you an email to check this.
Best regards. Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-05 01:15:57)
Time control 40 days + 40 d. / 10 moves
Hello Ulrich.
The time control 40 days + 40 days / 10 moves only means you have 40 days more to your clock after you play move 10, move 20 and so on... You may loose the game on time if you don't play the first 10 moves in 40 days, but it doesn't mean that you "always" have to play 10 moves in 40 days during the whole game...
Is it understandable ? :)
Best regards. Thibault
Gino Figlio (2006-09-11 13:45:43)
OTB idea
Why not for a 1-game match, use the OTB tie-breaking idea of black winning with the draw but starting with less time on the clock, 20% less in a fast time control match?
Halil Kiren (2006-09-27 19:24:38)
My vacation (BUG)
I am currently using my vacation time..so I can't make any move..But the thing is my clock is still working and I'm losing my games ..I want the administrators to find a solution to this.I have lost a game because of this so far and I'm about to lose one more...i lost game 2036 ..and.. game 2006.. my clock = 1 day 02:12:02..what will i do??
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-27 20:17:26)
Vacation & time limit per move
Hello Halil.
Unfortunately, this is not a bug :/
Here is the message you may have read just before you confirmed your days leave :
"Make sure you have no pending moves for more than 30 days before taking days leave, as the time per move clock is still running during vacation." (time per move clock is the one between brackets)
Rules 11.4 : "Any move in any game shall be played in a maximum period of 60 days, otherwise the game will be adjudicated on time."
You did not play any move in game 2036 for more than 60 days. Actually, you did not play any move for about 40 days when you took your ~20 days leave. The aim of this rule is to avoid too long delays for a single move. Usually, 30 days is enough...
Anyway, I send you an email about this problem.
Best wishes. Thibault
Graham Wyborn (2006-09-29 14:06:02)
Clock - Out of time
Does my opponent still have to resign. This is my first win with "Out of Time"
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-29 14:09:34)
Chess & psychology...
Game 5 :
The start of the game had been delayed, now Topalov is sitting at the board and Kramnik's clock is running while Vladimir Kramnik is waiting in the rest room for his toilet to open. A press conference by Georgios Makropoulos is about to start.
The game couldn't start unless the toilet is opened...
:-)
Thibault de Vassal (2006-09-29 14:12:14)
Clock - Out of time
Hi Graham.
You just have to wait a few hours, the game will be adjudicated automatically.
Best regards. Thibault
Wayne Lowrance (2006-10-04 18:48:59)
Delay/Slow down games
Thibault, I see no reason to slow down play, I would be dead set against any such change.
The current format is sufficient. I am playing in six tournaments,just signed up for a seventh, which I expect will open up soon. I have had no trouble keeping up and my site clock is in no danger.
That is the way I feel.
Wayne
Halil Kiren (2006-10-26 01:51:49)
I cant move
i cant move for 4 days..:((
whats that..and my clocks going to be over.. i have 13 hour in a game..and i have a lot of games like this..
..this error is being for 2. time
is there any one have a problem like me?? or only me?
Thibault de Vassal (2006-10-31 10:09:47)
Benny : Lost on time ?
Hello Thomas, thanks for the report :)
I guess Benjamin Aldag will return soon, 10 days may have been a little short to start (holidays or so..). If he comes back, would you (& Craig) be ok to restart the game with 1 day at his clock ? Would be better for both, I guess :)
All the best.
Ryaad Aabid (2006-11-16 01:42:44)
Something to be changed
FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_C__000005 Game 741
The clock of my opponent was almost 0:0
He came and has done his move #22 until the move #31 , then he hid after his clock drank 40 days!
What type players is there?
I think something should be changed.
Another opponent (Game 1265) has appeared after his clock became almost 3 days!
Either I am an unlucky player, or there is somerule should be changed.
Because of this I will leave, but never leave those 2 games for the rubbish of the chess:Adrian and Balogh.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-16 01:56:57)
Something to be changed
Hmmm... Dinesh has his fans :) ... (just a joke)
This has been discussed before : Server chess has clear time rules, some players may "play" with the slow time controls, sometimes for a good reason, sometimes not... It can't be totally prevented (or feel free make suggestions).
Looking at your clocks, that all reached 100 days, I suggest you to play rapid tournaments. This problem won't happen often this way !
Best regards.
Ryaad Aabid (2006-11-16 09:28:27)
Suggestion
All openings became known nowadays.
If the opponents ends the openinig step, the clock will automatically be changed from 30 or 40 days to 7 or 10 days.
If the player has no time enough to visit the website during 7 or 10 days, he/she should take vacation, otherwise to leave! instead of bothering his/her opponents.
Thank you Thibault,
Ryaad
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-19 15:35:57)
Where else do/did you play corr. chess ?
:)))
Hello Marc.
That's funny you ask me... Hard to find correspondence chess info about me & indeed I did not play at AJEC & ICCF yet. That's not a secret, many of you already know that I made several movies, some (last one was a kind of parody of Stanley Kubrick's "A clockwork orange") under my name, others - english speaking ones - under my "real" director's name that I used on most chess servers & in another correspondence chess organization, where I achieved about the same rating. (damn, I may be disqualified for the WC final :))
Of course I tried a lot of correspondence chess places before, but none was interesting or challenging enough to me, that's why FICGS and its tournament & WCH rules.
Thibault de Vassal (2006-11-21 19:44:09)
Vacation cancel : Not possible...
Hello Sebastian.
To cancel vacation is not possible, sorry. Because time is frozen during vacation, time virtually added to your clock may differ according to who played last move (you or your opponent), so it's quite difficult to take it back. Sorry about that :/
Dinesh De Silva (2006-11-22 05:54:24)
Re:
How much clock time per game per player???
Barry Bell (2006-11-23 02:49:56)
Re:
Hi
The site works on 7 days to make a move, the clocks are reset after each move. To answer the next question: The site is a free turn based online chess system (a place to play chess free) and it also hosts an association to support webmasters that believe and or support what A4C stands for regarding online chess. As for google, as I mention to ThibaulT, we have no interest in google at this time, we are in the first phase of development and when the third phase is finshed we plan to take full advantage of these options when we are ready. Thanks
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-01 11:19:43)
Deep Fritz, Rybka & future
The Chess Challenge 2006 in Bonn between classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik and chess engine Deep Fritz 10 confirms (who ignored ?) the best chess programs can rivalize with the world champion in a match, but it first shows us these calculating monsters still have weaknesses.
Question is : What are the real improvements in Fritz 10 compared to Fritz 9 (engine speaking only) ?
Here is what I think about chess engines nowadays (Fritz 10, Shredder, 10, Junior 10, Hiarcs 10 and particularly Rybka 2.2) :
The way of think to play correspondence chess is (or should be) mostly human one combined with a chess engine algorithm. We follow the tree of moves like a program with our selective algorithm (much better than chess engines), applying our judgement of the position when necessary only. The point is we evaluate moves and we almost never evaluate a position twice.
Chess engines are very good analysis tools but are surprisingly not designed to be very good chess players. I think a major improvement in chess engines should be recognition of 'sufficient moves' : ie. it is no worth to always find the best move at a particular point of the tree, this reflection time could be used later... It depends on the evaluation of the position, on the clocks... Iterative model is quite basic (in a game at least !).
Another point is recognition of traps. This is the start of psychology in chess engines, and basics of the art of war. It first depends on who your opponent is, and on the clocks too. Finally, at the end of the tree, chess engines evaluate positions, but how many evaluate moves ? .. Speculative moves were a step, but it first shew chess engines were not able yet to see what move is worth to be analysed really deeper, consequently creating a 'human' weakness, particularly against some other chess engines.
I don't know how Rybka works, but as far as I read about this one that calculates much less positions (about 10 times) than Fritz, I wouldn't be surprised that Vasik Rajlich had implemented a better approach of human way of think, which is undoubtly the future of chess engines.
A good 'centaur' in ie. Playchess rapid tournaments is first a good choice between Chessbase engines according to the position and clocks. Fritz qualities probably apply best in standard games, where clocks are really designed for him. Among Chessbase engines, Hiarcs is probably the best Blitz player and could be the best correspondence chess player (even if it isn't the best CC tool for humans). Rybka is probably a kind of centaur itself (sorry, herself ;)), knowing when to use (in the tree !) brute force and more selective approachs - not to be compared to Hydra or Deep Blue which, on contrary, use most brute force.
My conclusion is chess engines have much to learn from humans yet, we'll see a Rybka 5 and Fritz 13, with much better results against other chess engines, but their results shouldn't increase a lot against the best humans in future. Finally, it will never be a good correspondence chess player :)
My two cents.
If I find time, I'll continue to implement my own chess engine..... but it's a lot of work :/
Lionel Vidal (2006-12-09 14:34:04)
scrabble+?!
I am not sure this scrabble+ would be a better game than the current face to face competitive version. (the rules imply a game of skill; but also of risk management because of the clock and the correctness you may loose, but willingly give up, in a form of bluff very like poker).
The point is, why would one change a game where players can beat computers if one has enough skill (because computers are still bad at valuating the level of openess of a scrabble position), for a game where a searchable tree is (in theory) enough to play the very best moves?
The game then becomes IMO quite void of fun in correspondence play, because the player skill adds nothing to the computer evaluation. Note the difference in chess, where most correspondence players are convinced they do add and choose something worth improving the play. (although I have just give up the idea to buy an engine... gnuchess is enough for me as a sparring partner, and correspondence analysis, I let it to my shaky brain... for shaky analysis :-), but more fun!... And thank you Thibault, you convinced me to play correspondence chess again :-))
The deepness of the game is another wonder: in the current game I have to ponder many possibilities, an probalistic equipartition (sorry for the bad translation) (and good players always keep the count of the remaining letters)... it seems much more complex, though less analytical, than just wandering along a calculation tree?!
Marius Zubac (2006-12-16 02:51:34)
Vacation clock frozen, with 1 exception
Hello Thibault. Before I requested my vacation I have captured all the situation of my running games including the number of days. The clock is frozen for all games except my game 2932 from FICGS_CHESS_CLASS_SM_000002 against Mr. de Silva. Initially it was 51 days. Today I looked again and is 49. Maybe there is a bug somewhere. Please look into it. Thank you.
Best whishes for the Holliday season,
Marius
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-16 03:09:51)
Vacation clock frozen, no exception !
Hello Marius.
There is no bug ! ... Your clock is : White clock - 54 days 17:50:44 (49 days 13:26:08)
So clock displayed in ie. My games is your 'time per move' clock !
Rules 11.4 : Please note the time limit per move clock still runs during vacation. Take your days carefully, as it's not possible to take back or displace your leave dates. However you can add days leave.
This rule avoids someone to take more than 60 days for only one move...
Best wishes for your holidays :)
Lennart Oberg (2006-12-16 11:35:56)
Change, please!!!!!
I´m new here, playing my first tour. and 2 guys make a few moves and then let the clocks run.
Solution, every move within ( 3, 7, 10 days ) or you forfeit. That´s life in live chess!
Regards,
Lennart Oberg
Thibault de Vassal (2006-12-29 14:48:31)
To be continued
It has been discussed already, my conclusion was vacation had to be hard to use enough, in order to reduce influence on time controls, ie. a player shouldn't be able to take days to think more time when having difficulties in some games and cancel his 'holidays' after finding a solution... So it has to be discussed. Anyway, I'll add a message specifying vacation can't be canceled when taking days leave.
Reminder :
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#playing
11. 4. Time rules
Any move in any game shall be played in a maximum period of 60 days, otherwise the game will be adjudicated on time. Time accumulated in a game can't exceed 100 days. Please don't call referee since you see your opponent's clock 'Out of time', you just have to wait a few hours a robot automatically adjuges the game.
Please be aware that it's possible sometimes your internet provider or a point between the server and you may block the connection between the server and you. Even it's a rare thing, it's strongly recommended to always have several days left at your clock. No result will be reconsidered or time added due to such a technical problem. No time will be added due to any problem during a period less than 1 day long.
It is possible to take a maximum of 30 days leave per year, called vacation. During this time, clocks are frozen and it is no more possible to play, in order to reduce the effects on time controls.
Please note the time limit per move clock still runs during vacation. Take your days carefully, as it's not possible to take back or displace your leave dates. However you can add days leave.
Nigel Davies (2007-01-20 07:42:54)
Correspondence Chess
Hi Thibault,
I picked up your message and I would agree in terms that an OTB player should not try to play 'perfectly'. The point of my article was that correspondence chess can help cure OTB players of becoming 'too practical' at the expense of good moves. A lot of OTB players will develop defective (but dangerous) methods to score heavily against weaker players but get cut to ribbons when they use the same methods against a stronger player. This is particularly noticeable on the ICC, where some players will just try to win on the clock regardless of the objective strength of their moves, and most of the time it works. But their 'chess habits' suffer mightily as a result.
Best wishes,
Nigel
Charlie Neil (2007-03-17 21:18:40)
FIDE time controls
OTB 1 hour plus 10 seconds a move. The Fischer time clock manufacturers will be happy with that.....and it makes my old turnier clock obsolete! I checked out the site and read about the candidate matches in June. Boris Spassky is on the appeals committee. I wonder how he will deal with the ridiculous acussations that no doubt will arise.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-03-18 02:00:14)
FIDE time controls
I agree, actually this is "1h ko" with no loss on time... (less stress and more Fischer clocks, indeed)
That's a pity, I very like 2 hours / 40 moves. Maybe it's useless in some open tournaments, but in others the quality of the games will be affected undoubtly. I hope it will attract more new chess players, I suppose it is the main goal...
Marc Lacrosse (2007-03-28 15:16:58)
Droppers kill the fun !
... And this tournament (M 007)is now finished with two additional aborted games through dropping out...
I congratulate the well-deserved winner of the tournament (Karsten Fyhn)
I am sure he must be a little frustrated like I am : both his final game and mine were very interesting ones for which we both got the full point through dropping-out of our opponents ...
This is not funny at all !
I hate analysing a game for months and seeing it aborted because my opponent withdraws without resigning and lets his clock runs for months without a single word of explanation
I suppose i cannot ask for banning such impolite persons ...
But one thing is clear for me : I don't wish to enroll any more in tournaments with droppers.
So for what regards myself either Thibault creates a new kind of tournaments into which former droppers are not allowed to suscribe or I stop playing here
A very disappointed player ...
Marc Lacrosse (2007-03-30 07:29:57)
why isn't it correspondence ?
"This is no more correspondence chess IMO"
Why so ?
I prefer few games where moves come quickly : I can keep them all in mind and I analyse them almost everyday
That's already the way I actually play : see the state of my clock at the end of my games :-)
At the opposite for what regards myself I feel terribly uncomfortable if I have more than 10-12 games running simultaneously and slowly: when I get a move it's like being in a new game because I cannot remind my former analyses (well they are written down but this is not the same)
Charlie Neil (2007-03-30 21:13:10)
Time Controls
I think Marc has a point about a cummulative time limit in some time controls. in the class tournaments you could amass a huge ammount of time, if you were a fast player, and then use the clock and play really slowly and upset the rythym of your opponent. I like both time controls available, in Class and Rapid events, but if there is a demand for 5days +1day with a maximum of 20 days should we give it a try. as for drop-outs and silent withdrawals.....that's all in the game. (At least I get 1 point!) I am still dubious about double round robin tournaments but maybe you could try them in the Rapid events first. 5 player double pairings say every second tournament, and back to 7 player single pairing in the other......just a suggestion.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-04-07 05:00:31)
Live games (demo)
Hello to all.
I need two chess players who would accept to play a demo game using the "blitz" time control : 2 hours + 2 hours / 40 moves.
The game would start today, 2007 April 7 at 16:00 (server clock), thanks to respond to this post if you're interested. Thus everyone will see the last server improvements that will appear with money games.. (that should start next week, a new delay :/)
Among the new features :
- Real time clocks
- Auto refresh for all & auto redirecting for the players
- Pop up windows to warn the players "it's your turn"
- Links for live games in comments on each page.
Thanks for your help !
Nicola Lupinacci (2007-04-27 01:25:32)
Elo question...
I have a question...
I have now 1410 Elo points and at next elo refresh (1st May) I probably raise at 1576 Elo points.
Now there is a problem: I arrive at 1576 becouse I have won 5 game where after 15-20 moves my opponent's clock silently finish without any other moves and in 3 or 4 of this games my opponent was in a really good position.
The question is:
Is possible do not to calculate elo variation of this particular games?
I think it is a good idea to make an option that when I win a game by time, I can choose if this game will be calculate or not calculate in my elo variation...
I suggest this becouse I gain elo points from losing games and it is not fun :(
Sorry for my bad english... :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-05-01 04:15:25)
Chinese thoughts championship :)
Always looking for new funny quotes, Don just told me this nice one : "Man with more than one clock never know what time it is" :>
Do you have your own chinese thoughts ? .. or do you know websites like this one :
http://www.chine-informations.com/mods/dossiers/index.php?lg=en&action=fiche&id=253
Don Groves (2007-05-01 04:44:44)
Small correction...
Thibault -- It should read "more than one clock." More than "a" clock would usually be interpreted differently. [corrected, thx]
Ilmars Cirulis (2007-05-13 12:44:12)
Finally!
Hi, Thibault!
Congratulations! ;)
I am interested in money thematic games. :)
I can play in evenings at 6 on clock (server time).
- Traxler counterattack with white (Nxf7 and Bxf7)
- Evans gambit with black
- Latvian gambit with white (I like Svedenborg very much :) )
I offer 30 EUR money stakes. If I win I get some money. If not, then money goes to my opponent.
Can I transfer 30 EUR to FICGS account in moneybookers.com?
Ilmars Cirulis (2007-05-13 18:36:17)
Thematic money games
I transfered money to FICGS account. Now I must wait only.
I can play every day at 18 o'clock. But not two days in row. :)
If I am in FICGS at that time it means that I want to play.
Does anyone want to play it?
Don Groves (2007-05-22 06:40:38)
Dragging out lost game
Just playing devil's advocate here:
If a forced mate can be demonstrated, should this be sufficient for a win? On the other hand, should the losing player have the right to play on in hopes of an error by his opponent? It seems one of these questions should be answered with a "yes." That said, what is the rationale for the one month rule? It seems logical that either (a) the game ends immediately upon demonstration of a forced mate, or (b) the game ends normally, most likely when the loser's clock drops or he finally resigns.
Wayne Lowrance (2007-07-12 18:24:02)
game 8029
Responded in international chat, but it is rather cumberson.
My thoughts. White still has 10 days on his clock, so I would think he has the right to slow play it here.
In addition white has winning chances, that should be considered.
Lastly if you do adjudicate it Thibault I guess you would award a draw.
If white is holding up progress it would seem to me the fault is not his but in the selection of match time controls. White has every right to expect to use all of his clock, do you not agree Thibault. :)
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2007-07-11 14:24:13)
A clockwork orange
Olivier Simon is "Alex" in this other 'A clockwork orange' :) .. "Orange mécanique" is the french title translation, but not the real title. This is not exactly a parody of the Stanley Kubrick's one.
A french (good) chess player is also named Olivier Simon... well tried but I'm not Olivier Simon... did you see a trailer for that (my 2nd) movie ? :)
Jason Repa (2007-07-15 15:35:45)
Rybka vs. Human
Well Mr. Utesch, you clearly know nothing at all about Mr. Fischer. His IQ was evaluated at 180, so there is no debate about his intelligence. This has been well documented You seem to be confusing intelligence with social grace or being a good politician.
Also, in addition to his well-known chess accomplishments, Fischer is a published author of several very popular books and inventor of chess variant FischerRandom (or chess 960 if you prefer), as well as an innovative clock. What have you accomplished in comparison?
Nick Burrows (2007-07-15 19:04:34)
Fisher
Oh abrasive Dr Repa,
Your proof of Fishers intelligence were the accomplishments of winning some games and designing a chess clock.
It is my opinion that liberating a sub-continent from imperial rule is a much greater accomplishment.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-07-16 13:54:06)
Dead Man's Attack
Finally, it didn't work... After more than 40 days with less than 9 hours (then 4 hours) at his clock, Dinesh easily reached the time control at move 40 !
Do you ever sleep, Dinesh ? :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-08-10 19:12:21)
Clock ?
I didn't look at the position, but it is also possible that Black lost on time...
Marc Lacrosse (2007-08-13 11:53:27)
(Unfair) partial withdrawal
A few weeks ago IM Andrey Vovk had a discussion in the forum with Thibault regarding the fact that he did not wish to play in the new WCH although he had formerly enrolled on the waiting list.
As Thibault confirmed that he had to play in tournament FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_M_01__000003, IM Vovk announced that he would forfeit all his games in this tournament.
That's what he seemed to do for more or less 30 days as he let his clock run and so lost five games on time.
Then he seemed to change his mind and began to play in his three remaining games where his flag had not yet fallen.
Although I admit that anybody may decide to play or to resign whenever he wishes, this seems a bit problematic in a qualification tournament : five players got a full point whereas three have to fight one more opponent (and presumably a very strong one)...
For what regards myself I am very happy to play a game against IM Volk but I feel that three of us have not the same chances anymore as the five other ones for qualification ...
I think this situation calls for establishing new rules for qualification tournaments : if a player clearly forfeits a given number of games, then all his games in this tournament should be withdrawn.
Your opinion ?
Marc
Garvin Gray (2007-09-01 07:14:59)
Site unable to load, timing out
Just 'finished' a blitz silver game with Ilmars Cirulis.
Had four minutes remaining on my clock and five moves to make to the time control, when ficgs would not load on my browser and kept timing out.
I am not happy about this situation because this has resulted in costing me e-points (money) through no fault of my own.
It is not my fault that the site kept timing out.
I am not sure what remedy there is for this situation, but I really dont feel like I should be out of pocket financially through a site fault and not my own fault.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-01 10:22:22)
Logs
Hello Garvin.
I didn't notice any server activity problem, so I'll wait & check the next moves logs. If it appears it's a server problem, we can continue the game with the clocks before it happened (if you both agree) or cancel the result. To be continued, quite annoying anyway :/
Jason Repa (2007-09-06 20:56:31)
Philip Roe
You're joking here right? I made a benign and topical post trying to explain things for some people. I attacked or provoked NOBODY. You started in on me with this "for you happy centaur" remark that was completely uncalled for and unsolicited.
I can't seem to win with the forum here. Even when I make an innocent post I get insulted and harassed. Then when I defend myself the Admin sides against me like clockwork, lol.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-15 12:59:08)
IECG WC 2006 final
As the IECG WC 2006 final just started, this is a good time to end the game. Quite surprising but finally, after 2 or 3 discussions about it, noone solved it and found me (some really looked for though) ;)
Clues were : Playing this year in a world championship final, birthdate (1973-04-13), first FICGS rating (2407, IECG rating), movies (a few players at IECG and FICGS knew about it, the trailer of 'A Clockwork Orange' where the other name is mentioned...
Here is the message I sent to my opponents :
"Dear chessfriends,
That's a real pleasure and honor to play my first IECG WC final with you all. Dinesh, Carlos, Farit, Massimiliano and John, nice to play again :)
I'm 34, single, living in the center of France... I play correspondence chess since 2002, IECG is the place I started with.
I made a few strange movies and videos a few years ago (soon available on the internet) :)
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/psi_divx411_vost_720x360.avi
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/A_clockwork_orange_2005__teaser.avi
http://www.ficgs.com/psi/download/Aphex_Twin_-_Inkeys_video_clip.avi
I wanted to play correspondence chess under my director's name but I'm now more known in our small CC world as Thibault de Vassal... I'm the webmaster of FICGS - http://www.ficgs.com , another Correspondence Chess Server, where I knew some of you :) .. Sorry about the confusion. I don't know how IECG rules will apply, I hope I can play this tournament anyway.
Best of luck to all !
David Gordh."
TS: Gordon Evans
+---------------------------------+---+----+----+---+---+----+----+------+-----+
|IECG WC-2006-F-00001 1 1 1 1 1 1 | | |
|WC 2006 Tournament # 00001 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 | Tot | Plc |
+---------------------------------+---+----+----+---+---+----+----+------|-----|
| 18149 Robson, Nigel ENG 2646 | # | 0,0 | |
| 16702 Sirota, Anatoli AUS 2553 | # | 0,0 | |
| 19142 Pappier, Carlos ARG 2518 | # | 0,0 | |
| 18096 Chovanec, Milan SVK 2508 | # | 0,0 | |
| 15446 Makovsky, Petr CZE 2500 | # | 0,0 | |
| 11273 Blanco, Cesar GUA 2451 | # | 0,0 | |
| 13336 Gordh, David FRA 2443 | # | 0,0 | |
| 17738 De Silva, Dines SRI 2425 | # | 0,0 | |
| 10969 Rocca, Horacio ARG 2422 | # | 0,0 | |
| 17342 Perez, Brigilia PHI 2410 | # | 0,0 | |
| 16273 Fiala, Jaroslav CZE 2406 | # | 0,0 | |
| 13552 Claridge, John WLS 2403 | # | 0,0 | |
| 21524 Balabaev, Farit KAZ 2398 | # | 0,0 | |
| 15174 Massimini Gerbi ITA 2363 | # | 0,0 | |
| 18311 Bendig, Frank GER 2341 | # | 0,0 | |
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------+------+-----+
Rating Average = 2452 Category = 9 Start date: 12.09.2007
I didn't know that I would create FICGS when I registered at IECG and I prefered to use my director's name. I hope you don't mind. Sorry to Igor Khokhlov, Harry Ingersol and Farit Balabaev (I played them under both names).
Best wishes, Thibault
Hannes Rada (2007-09-15 20:01:39)
Surprise, Surprise
Thibault or David :-)
As far as I remember: several years ago I received a challenge for a 2 game match at the chessfriend server from a movie director where he mentioned some of these video-links.
(I had to decline the match offer, because I had too much games at the same time)
I really liked the dull ambience of the clips. I am also a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and I consider his Clockwork Orange a masterpiece.
The trailer of the PSI - Movie looks really good and interesting.
What kind of movies are these ?
Public Domain movies :-)
Or commercial movies produced to earn big money :-)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-15 20:52:34)
Surprise, Surprise
Hi Hannes, that's right I remember :)
Commercial movies, surely not ;) .. PSI may be compared to Lynch's "Lost Highway" by the aesthetic & atmosphere, a very strange movie. A Clockwork Orange is a kind of ultra-violent parody, more about cinema, reality-show and Cannes festival than Kubrick's movie. Very funny IMO, but maybe too much provocative, so a few problems with it :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-16 12:25:33)
Film Director
I switched my name because PSI was an english speaking movie and personal "enough". But finally I made A Clockwork Orange (french speaking) under my real name. Now both coexist and have their own cinema - Schizophrenia ? :) .. Also it was probably another way to free imagination and catharsis.
Don Groves (2007-09-20 07:58:42)
New interface!
Excellent changes, Thibault! Much smoother now. One request I have: please show the remaining clock next to each game on the page after we submit a move. This will help greatly in deciding which game to visit next.
--
Don
Don Groves (2007-09-20 08:47:33)
Please don't min my poor eyesight!
I just noticed the clock is there already, in smaller print Which I missed seeing :-(
Thibault de Vassal (2007-09-20 12:21:28)
One more thing...
Hi Don, I'll add an explanation about this below the form... As said Josef, you just have to click once more on the board to reload the page.
About the clock in My games, should I understand that you never used this page before, after one year playing at FICGS ? :)
Don Groves (2007-09-21 04:31:25)
One more thing...
Thibault escrit:
"About the clock in My games, should I understand that you never used this page before, after one year playing at FICGS ? :)" I've always used the "My messages" page instead ;-)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-07 18:36:20)
increment : 40 days / 10 moves
Hi Wayne, time control is 40 days + 40 days per 10 moves, meaning 40 days will be added to your clock after move 10, move 20, move 30 and so on... You just have to play your next (tenth) move to gain 40 days more ;)
Don Groves (2007-10-21 04:25:53)
Go freestyle tournament
Another consideration is which time zones the players are in. Standard tournaments around here are two hours per game (1 hour on each player's clock plus five, 30 second extra periods.)
Even being all in the same time zone, it's still difficult to play four games per day.
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-24 18:43:25)
FICGS server change
FICGS should be unavailable on 2007 october 28, maybe 29 also because of a server change.
Of course, all running clocks will be corrected !
1 or 2 days of vacation for everyone :)
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-29 23:22:49)
FICGS new server is running !
Welcome on the new server !!
Finally, 22 hours (only) were necessary to install FICGS on the new server... Running clocks have been corrected (22 hours) with a 22 hours bonus.
Thanks for your patience :)
Best wishes, Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2007-10-30 01:11:13)
Clocks correction
An additional day (24 hours) has been added to all (running or not running) clocks, it should be enough for all internet providers to update DNS (Domain Name Server).
Thibault de Vassal (2007-11-23 01:07:30)
IECG server
I'm sure that Ortwin makes his possible and clocks will most likely be corrected.. We should consider this time as free vacation :)
Andrew Stephenson (2008-01-07 07:37:49)
holidays and forfeit
Yes wolfgang he will forfeit although he still has time left he is on holday until Feb 1 and the clock will still run. I never understoofd the logic of running the clock and allowing holidays. This rule is misguided and unecessary I wish Thibault would get rid of it. I think victor does not realise he will forfeit and this will lead to a set of stupid losses I do not see how that helps good chess to be played nor do I see allowing clocks to be stopped would prolong the games to an unnacceptable length. Clearly a very unsatisfactory situation.
Michael Aigner (2008-01-07 14:03:08)
Possible to stop the clock?
I do not know if Viktor did not know his clock will keep running during his vacation - but if so and this would be the reason he is ging to loose his games,i would prefer to stop his clock and keep him playing the tournament.
Nobody has anything to win when he is loosing on time because he did not know this (slightly unlogical) rule - but to loose a chance to play a very strong player and an interesting tournament.
Would this be possible - OK with all other players of the tournament - OK with Thibbault - OK with Viktor ????
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-07 14:54:59)
Possible to stop the clock
Ok, definitely I have to update this feature right now, but the 60 days limit per move should remain IMO, so it won't be possible to take too many days of vacation according to the clocks (or the player will be warnt that he'll lose some games)...
Well, if all players in the tournament agree to stop Viktor's clock, I'll arrange that.
Peter Schuster (2008-01-07 17:05:55)
Stop the clock
My opinion is, that we stop his clock and continue the game after his vacation. I hope that all players agree with this.
Hannes Rada (2008-01-07 20:04:20)
Stop the clock
I agree.
It does not make sense to get a win without playing. Because we are here to play chess .... :-)
However I saw that the game with H. Ingersol is already over ...
So I would stop the clock, if every participant in this group agrees.
But we need a more simple solution concerning the reflection time.
I would propose:
After 10 days without playing a single move: 1st warning, after 20 days: 2nd warning, afer 30 days: the game is automatically lost for that player.
Warnings should be sent to both involved players be email.
During 30 or 40 days holiday during a year the refelection time will be stopped.
That's how it worked at chessfriend.com and this is in my opinion the best and simplest solution.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-07 23:07:41)
Vacation : Update
An update is to be installed : It won't be possible anymore to take too many days of vacation provoking the loss of any game without being warned of this.
I agree that vacation could be implemented in a more simple way, but no move should take more than 60 days and it could be possible with a 30 days limit per move and the clock per move frozen during vacation. Anyway, we'll see how it works...
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-09 05:06:16)
The games will continue !
All players in the tournament agreed to stop Viktor's clock so that the games can continue... Thanks to all for the fair play and sorry about that problem, I hope it won't happen anymore after the update.
Best wishes.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-01-16 04:36:01)
FICGS unavailable -> time added
FICGS server was offline / unreachable (provider problem) during 7 hours. I added 7 hours to all clocks in running games.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Patrick Richardson (2008-03-29 14:27:52)
Vacation days
I would tend to agree. If one has to worry about ones clock, whether one would lose a game(s) after the vacation. Then in my opinion that would not constitute a vacation. A vacation should be just that.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-03-29 18:35:09)
time per move / vacation
Hello Andrew. This issue has been fixed a few months ago, all clocks are verified, if you try to take 11 days vacation in this case, a warning message in red appears... also the My games summary shows the time left for each move taking account of the time per move rule, so it should be ok... But I'll add a note in the vacation page about this.
Marc Lacrosse (2008-04-28 23:12:00)
Is it a joke ?
" In correspondence chess i let my computer think 0-1 min "
In correspondence chess I never let my computer(s) think less than several hours on one move.
I also analyse on my own with computer use for at least 30-60 minutes per move.
I also prepare openings for at least one hour per day _everyday_ even when I have no game at all running in the opening phase.
I built one of my computers specially for chess, an overclocked quad with efficient watercooling.
I will go for an eight-processors one in the very next months.
My main weakness is that I like playing unorthodox openings
So it's a bit difficult to go higher than 2400 elo here ...
So if you let your computer go 0-1 min per move we probably do not play the same game ...
But I cannot imagine your pleasure when playing a move that has been decided by a "0-1 minute" engine analysis.
Marc
Benjamin Block (2008-05-03 21:14:21)
How fast is you´re computer?
I also prepare openings for at least one hour per day _everyday_ even when I have no game at all running in the opening phase.
I built one of my computers specially for chess, an overclocked quad with efficient watercooling.
I will go for an eight-processors one in the very next months.
How many GHz do you have?
Normajean Yates (2008-07-04 16:02:52)
basic question re vacation
the faq says on vacation that :
<<Vacation : 1. During [vacation], your clocks are frozen and it is no more possible to play, in order to reduce the effects on time controls.
2. Please note that the time limit per move clock still runs during vacation [...] you can add days leave during this period.>>
Can someone make it clearer what point 2 means?
Thibault?
Benjamin Block (2008-08-18 08:52:18)
Try to translate!
I think it is something like that?
Hello Xavier and first congratulations on your victory in the match which t'opposait the MI (ICCF) Gino Figlio [Peru] in the final candidates. You should avoid at all costs void in all parties, finally brought blacks t'ont chance, how do you explain this result?
X
avier: Hello, thank you for the congratulations. It is true that in case of zero for all parties, the regulation states Figlio winner in the event of a tie with victory (s) and defeat (s) I won the match. So I had to take risks in attacking and it is with blacks that I did it because I thought Gino, in these parts, expected without taking risks to ensure the void.
-- Can you tell us about how you approached this match against Gino and his conduct as different phases of the game?
X: It's pretty simple, in this match I was not at all favorite because with more than 200 ELO points FICGS to my disadvantage, and Gino titled Master International, with more than 2480 ELO ICCF point, I thought I n ' not resist going on 8 simultaneous games as a part everything is possible but on 8 parts ... it was for me a great challenge! In the course of the game I played diversity in my beginnings with white 4 parts 4 different strokes: 1.e4 1.d4 1.c4 1.Cf3. Gino did the same: 1.e4 1.d4 1.Cf3 1.Cc3. What made me doubt also because 1.Cc3 surprised me, I thought he had planned an early tonitruand and this is where I said that I should take risks with blacks. As the different phases of the game I assured the zero positions balanced for me concacrer deal has two parts, one with blanks and one with the black for at least make a difference in part to ensure victory. And ultimately it 3 victories me back, which seemed impossible given the quality of the game Gino played on this site to reach the final of the championship candidates.
-- You have made during a championship course without fault, no losses to report, you also posters statistics stratospheric to 78% against an average elo to about 2200, what's your secret?
X: My secret? I have no secret. If I had a secret I do not dévoilerais if I do win more! I think I got a little lucky because he is required by little I am not qualified to stage 3 (round-robin final) because there were 3 players equally and I had l 'advantage classifying the departure of this tournament as indicated by the regulation. As for my statistics, it is also thanks to the errors of my opponents who allowed me to win parts in balance.
-- What do you think the system mid-ko, semi-all-round championship FICGS and its new départages in matches in 8 parties? What changes would it be?
X: Very good question! The system mid-ko for me is a little too fast since a coup by day is overtime analyses to operate a complicated position, which is difficult when several parties in progress. Especially when you work. It is perhaps also through this pace that my opponents lack of time, made some uncertainty regarding postions or exploited my mistakes. But the pace has an advantage over the cadences ICCF which is 5 days a coup is that the parties had to 5 times less time! The départage new games to 8 parts is excellent, forcing the favorite to ensure all matches to nil win this duel and otherwise obtain an additional victory against the challenger is a very well thought out. The amendment that I could make is perhaps time management which is fast for a game system per server. Perhaps increase the clock starting 15 days, starting with 45 against 30 days at this time. And also the possibility of taking a vacation only on the tournament underway to manage other parts of the site. For example, take 7 days vacation on a chess tournament championship and be able to play a tournament Big Chess, Go or another chess tournament during the holidays. Being able to choose a start date of holidays in advance would also be appreciated.
-- Why t'être invested in correspondence chess? T'apportent there are other rewards compared to traditional chess and blitz?
X: I prefer chess match over time. For the classical chess is often play the weekend at a specific time and often on the move to make a tournament. The advantage for me, correspondence chess is that I can connect at any time to play my shots, which allows me, for example, making family meals on weekends and late at night to play a coup, which is not possible chess classics.
-- You knew not to succumb to the temptation and you only play a very reasonable number of parties on the site throughout the championship, do you think nevertheless that the correspondence chess are addictive and at what point? Did they affect your everyday life?
X: Yes! Limiting my number of games in progress is essential for me to try to have parts of quality rather than quantity. Have a lot of parts simultaneously is still something very difficult to manage! This is perhaps the key to my victory against Figlio, I watched its games in progress, it had nearly 90 on the site of the ICCF, it has been felt on his time devoted to analysis our parties on FICGS 8. On the everyday life impacts are family because it is true that I spend more time to analyze the parts and less time with my family, which is quite difficult for me. But when the results are there I do not regret!
-- What do you think about the current position of engines for analysis (Rybka, Shredder, Fritz and others) in correspondence chess? What are the qualities you complementary core player by correspondence, now centaur with the machine for legs?
X: The engines of analyses in chess matches are used by 95% of players ... Now we must adapt and learn to use these machines to calculate. Car simply play the best shot of Rybka 3, Fritz 12 or Hiarcs 12 mentally without thinking leads to zero if the opponent does the same or possibly lose if the opponent gives himself the trouble to consider using them as well. Knowing that when you're in the middle part of these programs give you often 4 to 5 strokes assessed similarly, and that is that we must choose the right time when it is not even necessarily cited by the analysis engine ...
-- You get the Big Chess now on the site, curiosity or interest? What do you think of this strange version of chess?
X: For curiosity and fun and I think Rybka 3 is not yet the Big Chess! This version is almost unprecedented I did not know this form of chess before therefore the one who invented this game was very well done! About I'm the one who asks you a question on the Big chess ... Is there possibility of castle with this game if so, how? (Editor's note: No, it is impossible to castle the Big Chess)
-- And finally the question that everyone arises, especially Francis and Wolfgang disputing that the second final candidates, think you can defend your title next year? :)
X: of course! I will defend the title! I would like if possible to know the timing and pace of the match. And I wish Francis and Wolfgang a beautiful final! I must honor in this competition which is well organized!
-- The match should be able to start during the first week of January 2009, the pace will again 30 days and 1 additional day by coup. Thank you for your answers, and even congratulations for this excellent performance!
X: Thank you! And see you! Bonne continuation to all and good parties!
Andrew Stephenson (2008-08-19 17:17:59)
Adjudications
Hi Benjamin I am not sure what you mean by help people without asking.
The rules refer to adjudications as follows:
"11. 5. Adjudications
In some cases, the game continues but the result is obvious."
At the end of 11.5 is states: "There are no time limit for games else but the clocks, but it may be announced that certain multi-stages tournaments will have one. At the end of this time limit, a referee committee will adjudicate games."
Obviously it was bit worrying without warning to have an announcement saying hey seems like a draw I am going to adjudicate. A draw would mean that I would not win the tournament - a win means I win the tournament so its an important game.
But as I am certain the game is won and can demonstrate this I am not concerned - I have no idea what Janos thinks. I dont think this is the best way to handle this but this is where we are - I am just glad it happened after Janos played 63...Kxf4 which was the losing move. We are only about 12 moves away from 6 man table base wins in almost all cases. Please post any anlysis about the position you would like as Thibault has asked for comment
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-02 11:50:49)
Game 16370, towards a new rule ?
What do you think about this case :
http://www.ficgs.com/game_16370.html
Last move : Qe4+ 2008 September 30 19:57:40
White clock - 94 days 18:34:55 (58 days 08:20:25)
Black clock - 0 day 01:19:54
[Event "FICGS__CHESS__CLASS_A__000032"]
[Site "FICGS"]
[Date "2007.11.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Koch,Christian"]
[Black "Stephenson,Andrew"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2140"]
[BlackElo "2104"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.h3 Be7 9.Qf3 O-O 10.O-O-O b5 11.g4 b4 12.Nd5 Nxd5 13.exd5 Bc8 14.Kb1 Nd7 15.Qe2 Bb7 16.f4 Qc7 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.Qf2 Bd8 19.Bg2 a5 20.Nd4 a4 21.Rhe1 a3 22.b3 Ra5 23.Nf5 g6 24.Nh6+ Kg7 25.Qf4 Bxd5 26.Bxd5 Rxd5 27.Qxb4 Qc6 28.Rxd5 Qxd5 29.Qf4 f6 30.Bc1 Qc5 31.Rd1 Ba5 32.Qe4 Rc8 33.c4 Bb4 34.h4 Qc6 35.Rd5 Re8 36.Qf4 Bc5 37.Bd2 Qb7 38.Bc3 Bb4 39.g5 f5 40.Qd2 Bxc3 41.Qxc3 Kf8 42.Kc1 Qb6 43.c5 Qc6 44.Rxd6 Qh1+ 45.Kc2 Qe4+ 46.Kc1 Qh1+ 47.Kc2 Qe4+ 48.*
So here player Black has good chances to lose the game on time, even if the best thing player White can do is to draw the game. In my opinion, "in general" player Black should play his next move, unless an analysis prove that the game is a forced draw - according to the rules, http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#adjudications - and eventually the result will be corrected after the game, but I'd like to know what other players think about this situation in general...
Thanks for helping to build strong rules.
Andrew Stephenson (2008-10-05 20:04:28)
Slight amendment
Thibault thinking about your point that "as it is possible to win elo points this way (loss on time in equal or winning position) in round-robin tournaments, it should be possible in 8 games matches too" I suggest the follwoing "Rating changes will occur, in 2 player matches, for losses on time (whatever the reason) within the following constraints: the game(s) is at least 10 moves, only 1 time loss game will be rated unless there is a game where the winner is clearly better in which case a maximum of 2 games may be rated"
My idea is that if someone forefeits all their games on move 11 in a match there should be 1 game rated (as in a tournament) so there is a price to pay but not too distorting. If in the 8 games say 5 are level and 3 (or 2 or 1) are clearly advantageous then 2 games could be rated. Alternatively just give 1 rated game as a max irrespective of advantage or not (ie just the first loss) provided it at least 10 moves. I am thinking of 2 situations a 6-0 result over 10 moves dead equal positions there should be some rating penalty (like tournaments) On the other hand soemone could let the clock run out in 6 games just before being mated in each game to avoid heavy rating penalty they should take a 2 game hit.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-23 22:35:49)
Server changes (october 23, 2008)
Hello everyone,
FICGS will have a new (much faster) server tomorrow !
It won't be possible to connect to the old server during a few hours, then it will depend to your access provider to update more or less quickly the domain names server, it generally takes from a few hours to one week.
As a consequence, I'll add 7 days to all clocks tomorrow (friday, at most saturday).
See you soon on the new FICGS server ! ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2008-10-30 12:32:47)
:)
Hi Garvin, yes this is a small "display" bug that will disappear by itself, not a clock problem.
To Don, Normajean and Rodolfo: don't worry I already thought about that (well, about FICGS at least) :-)
Don Groves (2008-10-30 20:15:01)
Quicker chess
I would like see some way of making players play more regularly. Some players join a tournament and then play only a very few moves until their clock turns red. Others take sometimes a week or more between moves until the are forced to speed it up or lose on time.
I have a couple of these games going now and it is frustrating to wait so long. If a player does not have the time to make moves regularly, they shouldn't enter so many tournaments at the same time. </rant>
Don Groves (2008-10-30 22:26:08)
To Marc
I like the idea of not allowing one's clock to become greater than the stated length of the game! That should be applied to all games, regardless of length. Right now I have some games with 75 days on my clock. If I decided to quit one of those games, my opponent would have to wait 75 days to get the win!
Normajean Yates (2008-10-31 03:17:50)
replies to thibault's question..
1. No, computers cannot yet. Not even near. Afaik not even 'strongly conjectured to be a white win' or 'strongly conjectured draw' (3x3 chess has been strongly solved - it is not really a game because there is no suitable starting position - but there are complete tablebases for every legal placement of chess pieces on a 3x3 board. I posted the links in a forum thread a few months ago...)
2. Why this variant is special -
if you think about it, 5x5 chess is the smallest notrivial *natural* contraction of 8x8 chess.
Plus - or that is why - it was thought of many decades ago - as far as I remember, when Martin Gardner mentioned it about 25 years ago in his column 'mathematical games' in the USA-based science magazine 'Scientific American', he was merely mentioning it, he hadn't invented it...
I am waiting for one bigchess opponent to time out before going on 15-day chess-leave -- [she (Nicola) would have timed out on 27 Oct but it got extended because of the 7-day addition to clocks owing to server change] --- then I plan to find out the current state of 5x5 - whether some university etc. is researching it, etc. If there are results that indicate forced draw (or win) then I agree that there is not much point in doing it here...
Normajean Yates (2008-11-03 05:43:35)
vacation bug?
I have gone on vacation, but in Game 21702 it is opponent's move - and opponent's clock is still moving!:
Normajean Yates ... is in vacation until 2008 November 7
White clock - 98 days 01:11:33
Black clock - 94 days 15:34:05 (59 days 23:22:32)
and now:
Normajean Yates ... is in vacation until 2008 November 7
White clock - 98 days 01:11:33
Black clock - 94 days 15:32:46 (59 days 23:21:13)
So opponent's clock has decreased from 94 days 15:34:05 to 94 days 15:32:46 !
Normajean Yates (2008-11-03 07:15:32)
It is *really* a bug. Not a feature.
[see my previous post in this topic] Suppose opponent and I both have only 10 day left, it is opponent's move -- and I go on 11 days vacation. Now what is happening is that opponent's clock is running! [example - see my previous i.e. starting post for this topic] but as the game is *frozen* opponent cannot move! So opponent will lose on time!
So, it IS a bug [unless opponent can now move if I am on vacation. But then, this rule change has not been mentioned in the help, faq etc. --
from 'terms and conditions - 11.4 (time rules)':
"Vacation : It is possible to take a maximum of 30 days leave per year, called vacation. During this time, your clocks are frozen and it is no more possible to play, in order to reduce the effects on time controls.
"
Volker Koslowski (2008-11-03 11:05:33)
Bug?
I don't think that there is a vacation bug. It ist still possible for your opponent to make his next move (if it is his turn) even if you are in vacation.
As far as I can see Rule 11.4 does not say that you and your opponent could not make any move when you are in vacation. It only says that all your clocks in all of your running games will be frozen and it is not possible for you to play further until your vacation is over. In order it is not possible for you to cancle your vacation, or take only a vacation in one special tournament you play.
Maybe Thibault could say more about this...
Thibault de Vassal (2008-11-03 13:08:12)
Volker said it all
Well, actually the game is not frozen (indeed it would be a bug in this case), only your clocks in all your games, so everything's ok !?
Don Groves (2008-11-05 08:02:06)
8 x 8 chess variant
There is another way to foil the computers and re-energize chess: A screen is placed between the two sides of the chess board and each player places their pieces on the board in accordance with two rules: (1) one pawn on each file; (2) no piece past its own third rank. Then the screen is removed and the game begins with White's first move.
Opening books become useless (requiring the computer to begin using its clock from the first move) and the usual endgames will rarely occur (although endgame databases are obviously still useful).
Knowing your opponent's tendencies becomes even more valuable than in the normal game.
Thibault de Vassal (2008-12-07 01:27:59)
.. looks like not
Hi Wolfgang, it looks like Marius had about 1 day left at his clock, so he resigned. I asked for a confirmation.
Don Groves (2008-12-15 01:57:22)
A suggestion
Bonjour, Thibault
There are many players here who like to play several moves per week and there are others who sometimes play less than one move per week until forced to move faster by their clock. There are even a few who don't move at all (or rarely) until their clock is red.
Would it be too much work to make another tournament classification? The time control would be 7 days plus 7 days more for each 3 moves, up to a maximum of 7 days. In other words, each player must make a minimum of 3 moves per week.
Those players who can't, or won't, move that often can play in the standard tournaments. Those of us who like to move more often can play in the faster tournaments. Everyone is happy ;-)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-01-11 14:11:17)
Time controls & increments
Hello Tom, the 40 days is your total time for the game, the increment (here 40 days / 10 moves) is added to your total time every X (here 10) moves. Consequently you have a clock for the game (limited to 100 days) and a clock for each move (limited to 60 days). Does it help ?
Don Groves (2009-02-04 02:10:20)
Normajean's point
This is sorta what I was getting at above -- that hardware advances (other than faster clocking) only help if the chess software is written to make good use of them. Otherwise, as Normajean points out, the software may actually perform worse.
Hannes Rada (2009-02-24 22:27:38)
Server's clock
is incorrect.
Here it is 22:15 and at FICS 22:25 :-)
Can this be adjusted ?
Don Groves (2009-02-25 02:14:55)
Clock correction
It is easy to fix, Hannes, simply move your clock forward by ten minutes ;-)
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-25 14:51:08)
Corrected
The server's clock has just been corrected, it shouldn't cause any bug (I hope :))
Hannes Rada (2009-02-25 19:44:59)
Clock corrected
Thank you Thibault !
Thibault de Vassal (2009-02-28 03:35:14)
Svante Carl wins FICGS Go WCH (again)
Congratulations to Svante Carl von Erichsen who keeps the FICGS Go champion title by beating Ke Lu 5d on an impressive 5-0 score, also reaching a rating of 2653 !
A rematch just started between our two top Go players, as Ke Lu convincingly won the 3rd FICGS Go WCH preliminary tournament by 7/7
You can follow the games here :
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=tournament&tournament=FICGS__GO__WORLD_CHAMPIONSHIP__000003
Svante Carl kindly accepted to answer a few questions on his match :
FICGS - Hello Svante Carl, first of all congratulations for your win in the FICGS
correspondence Go championship final. Your opponent was Ke Lu 5 dan, you
won 4 games out of 5 already (the last game is not finished yet), how do
you explain such a result?
Svante Carl -
Hello! Thank you very much! It is certainly astonishing for me that I
was able to hold my own in these games. I believe that the main factor
that helped me in getting on even terms with such a strong player was
that I could spend much more time analyzing each move than in a
face-to-face or online direct playing situation.
FICGS - Did you have a particular preparation or plan before to start the games?
Svante Carl - The only things I planned beforehand was to really give my best, and to
make the games as distinct as possible.
FICGS - The site will now try to attract more correspondence Go players from Asia
(with a few chinese, japanese or korean words on the home page already),
what do you think about the games format played at FICGS
(30 days + 1 day / move, chinese rules komi 7.5 points) and the championship rules?
Svante Carl - I like the format. I am also interested in the rules of Go as well as
the rules that surround Go, like tournament rules and time settings.
My current conviction is that the "real, pure" Go rules are area rules
with superko, and territory rules should be seen as a shortcut which
should give the same result. I have come to think that the "Taiwan
rule", i.e. White gets a point of compensation if Black got the last
play (before the first pass), is a sensible part of the rules. FICGS
has taken a very easy route by declaring the rule set and leaving
negotiation of the result to the players. While in the end, it is only
important who won, I think that showing a result as e.g. "White+3",
"Black+Resign" adds a lot of flavour.
As a time system, I think that bonus time (a.k.a. Fischer time), like on
FICGS, is a very general and sensible approach to timing a game like Go.
I think that many "real-world" tournaments and internet servers will
switch to that in the future, for all, blitz, speed, normal, slow, and
correspondence games.
The championship format is quite nice. I like the title
holder/challenger way of tournament series. The only thing I would like
to see is some sort of nigiri to determine the colours in the odd game.
Attracting players from Asia is really a worthwhile goal. I look
forward to playing players from all over the world.
FICGS - Does correspondence Go bring you something more than real time Go?
What is more addictive according to you?
Svante Carl - Since I think that analyzing is a forte of mine, I might be a bit
stronger at correspondence Go than at "real time" Go. I don't think
that one is more addictive than the other.
FICGS - Do you often play real time Go online? What servers do you prefer?
Svante Carl - I usually play on KGS, but not too much, perhaps one or two games per
week on average, often in "bursts". KGS is quite nice, but not perfect.
Sometimes I play at CyberOro, but there is much less communication; I
like to watch pro games there.
FICGS - Do you use softwares that assist you in your games (FICGS rules allow
this)? What do you think about computer Go in general nowadays?
Svante Carl - I only use a board or a simple SGF file viewer for analyzing. There are
no playing programs that could help me. The programs have advanced
quite much recently, but I think that it will still be a long time
before they can beat me in an even game. Currently, most tests of these
programs are against professional players with high handicaps, and I
think that this is a good situation for the bots, since they get
exponentially weaker the further the game is from the end -- high
handicap practically eliminates the opening, their weakest spot. I
would like to see more tests against amateur players at the bots' own level.
FICGS - Do you play other games (board games, video games...), what is your
favourite one?
Svante Carl - Go is certainly my absolute favourite. I also know chess, although I am
really weak at that. I also like "german board games", there are some
really nice pearls there. In video games, well, there are also some
pearls, but they get drowned by a mass of ... not so good games..., I
don't waste time looking at that scene any more. I also played some
online poker, but it wasn't able to keep me interested.
FICGS - Will you defend your title again against Ke Lu who also won
the 3rd wch tournament?
Svante Carl - Of course, I am looking forward to that!
FICGS - Could you give us your impressions on the games, how it
went from the beginning to the end, do you think that
time pressure were a non-negligible factor in the result
(the clocks of Ke Lu were quickly near 1 or 2 days left)?
Svante Carl - I was a bit surprised that he let his time drop to such a low level
right at the beginning, perhaps he was not familiar yet with the vacancy
feature at FICGS. I can't see his reasons for this, or how much time he
actually could spend on his games. I was ahead in each game when it
timed out, though.
I think that game 2 was quite even from the start. The skirmish in the
lower left resulted in me capturing a little group, but he got a nice
framework on the lower side. My prospects of reducing this were a bit
hampered by the fact that my right side group was not completely
settled. I found a way to sacrifice some stones to settle my group
while fixing the framework's extent and keeping sente to secure my top
side, at which time, the game was still almost even, but I think that I
was a few points ahead then. Later, I could seal the top side with some
extra points through some rather blunt forcing moves.
In game 3, my opponent made an approach with White 24 that is usually
regarded as bad in this situation, because the pincer Black 25 works out
very well in conjunction with the stone on the left side. He tried to
settle with White 26, but I refused to make things so easy, even though
the result from the usual joseki would not have been bad. He resisted
Black 27, but I think that White 28 is an overplay. The resulting fight
left me with nice profit in that corner and sente, while he made some
centre thickness. I then tried to carefully neutralize this thickness,
but I may have played some slack moves in the course. Later, I was able
to keep a little moyo in the lower right centre, and then I poked into
his right-side territory where he had left a serious weakness earlier.
Game 1 started out with an interesting fight in the upper right. After
White 42, both the three captured black and the two almost captured
white stones retain some serious aji, which I came back to fix on my
side a few moves later. When I could set up a splitting attack with
Black 77, he was able to connect his two weak groups, but in bad shape.
I continued to keep this dragon separated from the top, planning to
invade the top side afterwards. However, with White 110, instead of
connecting by playing B6, he saved some centre stones, and I proceeded
to separate and kill the dragon. He may have overlooked that my upper
left side group was still able to live after 110 and 111.
In game 4, after White 22, Black's stones on the left side have a
strange relation. The three stones in the corner are a bit far from
C10, but putting another move here is way too slow. He tried to remedy
this situation with the following moves. After Black 27, there are
weaknesses left in both sides' shape. When I entered with White 32, I
thought that his weakness at F13 would let me settle easily, but he
attacked very hard. After White 60, there are some weaknesses in my
shape, but he also has a weakish group in the centre. Playing at K10
with White 76 before taking the two stones with H2 felt very important
to me. At move 94, I couldn't find a good move to complete my moyo at
the top, but I thought that I had found a good point to invade. This
was much harder than I thought, since after Black 95, the 3-3 point
fails to live. With 96 and 98, I thought that I would get a ko, but he
played a line that I had excluded earlier on account of too many cuts in
Black's outside shape. However, with Black 107, he made things very
difficult for me, since cutting at P16 doesn't work out too well -- my
inside group doesn't have enough liberties. I cut at Q14 instead with
the hope to at least get some outside forcing opportunities that might
have been able to keep me in the game. I think that Black 115 should
have been at R12, because after White 116, R12 and N16 have become miai.
Black 117 just doesn't work at all. I really got lucky in the end here.
These impressions are naturally one-sided, and I would be really
interested what stronger players might say about these games.
FICGS - Thank you very much and have good games !
Svante Carl - Thank you!
Philip Roe (2009-03-06 14:06:34)
Thanks for the check, not for the clock
Thibault,
The notification check on the My Games
title is a typically thoughtful touch. Thank you.
However, the clock just adds clutter unless you have a use for it. Can this enhancement be made an optional preference?
Also, since I am not interested in accepting challenges, is there a way
to prevent challenges from being issued?
Don Groves (2009-03-07 00:50:45)
Agreed...
... on both counts, Philip.
The Challenges at the top of the page are more annoying than the clock for those of us who are not interested in challenges since they take up space that could be better used by displaying games. Making both of them optional would be a welcome change.
Another solution might be to put the Challenge section also at the bottom of the page.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-03-07 01:51:18)
Clock / Challenges
Well, the "My games" timer feature may exist without showing the clock also... About the challenges I'll add the option soon (it should have been done months ago, lack of time).
Normajean Yates (2009-04-18 23:17:19)
Don+Rodolfo, what about verbal *moves* ?
By the same logic, what is wrong with my saying 'my next move will be Ne4' and helpfully putting a link in the message to a diagram of the resulting position?
after all, you get clock time for free, because you are thinking on my time!
Would you consider *that* binding? If so, would it be 'binding' for you to do the right thing i.e. request Thib to add time to my clock and subtract it from yours? [if Thib. doesnt, at least you tried..)] ;)
Extending the logic - start a game here but make moves informally by email, AFTER the game is over then for ficgs's record we repeat those moves on the ficgs board [which is still at starting pos.] --- how much of that is 'binding'?
Normajean Yates (2009-06-09 08:09:58)
re Garvin Gray' suggestion - abusable..
Cancelling vacation is abusable - player pretends to on 20-day vacation; actually returns suddenly next day - when finds opponent busiest and so on, .. to upset opp's schedule and focus. So, if cancelling-vacation is introduced, I think there should be conditions/consequences. [e.g. if you take 7 days vac. and cancel after 3 days; then 7-3=4 days are added to opp's clock - incl. the 60-day nextmove clock.]
Daniel Parmet (2009-06-10 15:58:21)
vacation cancel
why not allow cancelling vacation period if you say take '4' days or just allow cancelling vacation max of one day early. There is many times where I go out of town for 5 days and it ends up being 4. I rather let my clock run and move on the 5th day then lock myself out for 5days completely. Letting us cancel vacation one day early would nice.
Klearchos Loukopoulos (2009-07-24 18:01:32)
vacations question
Hi all,
I just took a vacation but when I see my games I can still see the clock ticking and removing time available. Is that normal?
Cheers,
Klearchos
Charlie Neil (2009-08-22 11:23:40)
Vacation Time on Ficgs
I am confused about what is the point of booking vacation time, as the "game clock" will keep running. Can someone explain to me please.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-08-22 15:08:37)
Vacation Time & 60 days limit per move
Hi Charlie, it is explained when you take some days of vacation :
Rules 11.4 : "Any move in any game shall be played in a maximum period of 60 days, otherwise the game will be adjudicated on time."
Note : The time per move clock is still running during vacation.
Anyway, it's not really convenient to remember so I'll add it in the Help section.
Svante Carl von Erichsen (2009-08-28 09:44:30)
Thanks
Thank you very much.
I must admit, though, that I am a bit disappointed that all these games were decided by the clock. Game 1, I am definitely behind, Game 2, I think that I have a winning position, Game 3 is very close and would have been decided by endgame (there are some very large points open), Game 4, I am back in the game after installing a group in his moyo, but I believe he is still slightly ahead, Game 5, I think that he has to defend the group at the bottom now, so I can reduce the left side, then switch to the top right corner; I am still relatively thin at the top (compared to the rest of the board), so I think the game would have had to be decided in a fight there.
So, all in all, I think that these were really interesting games, and it is a pity that they were finished too early. Lu Ke is a very strong player, and I am really lucky to have a positive score against him. I just hope that my next opponent pays a bit more attention to the clock.
Thibault de Vassal (2009-08-28 13:37:50)
Zeitnot & Go Wch #4
The clock is an important part of the game, even at this correspondence time control. Thanks for your comments, obviously the match was much more intense than the score let it appear. Congrats to Ke Lu for giving you such difficulties :) .. One more reason to read these games with attention.
By the way, the 4th Go Wch preliminary tournament seems to be discussed between the very dangerous & surprising Huayong Yang (with 6/6 until now), Simon Billouet and Thomas Connor !
Wayne Lowrance (2009-09-07 23:52:52)
A Big Mouth on Rybka Forum
Howdy Thibault & all.
There is a poster on the Rybka forum who has sort of a big mouth. He claims that Rybka IA feature is not best for CC games, claims it is too time consuming and at any rate he blubbers and brags that those who use IA are not able to defeat him. I am using my own language here in a jist of the conversation of his.
He further says that he never spends more that a matter of hours cogitating his move using a 3 tear "long game" approach to working his moves. Timers such at 60' 40 moves @ 1st tier etc (don't remember his 2nd tier timer. In any case he claims he can get to depth 40 in mid game situations using a "long game" three tier mode. and finds moves that are superior to IA running a day or more (he doesn't seem to understand that most CC players use IA in a special Centaur way and the Program is a tool.
He gives little respect for 2500 CC rated Centaur players using the feature IA. He beats such players all of the time, he say's with his Rybka usage with his very modest hardware against 2500 players using IA. I am skeptical. I asked where he plays CC (out of courosity) and he will not tell where. a Poster in response to his post believe he plays CC where computers are not allowed, I have no idea in this regard. I told him that I play at FICGS where computers are welcome and a 2500 rating on this server is very high. There are many well known players held in high regard playing at FICGS that would "clean his clock" with him playing as he say's he does.
So what is my point. I am wondering if I can invite this guy to join FICGS and that his lofty rating can be accepted. I shall invite him to Join our SM #11 tourney.
Wayne
Lazaro Munoz (2009-10-26 11:15:01)
Crazyhouse
You would need some special rules to prevent long boring clock time out waits, such as when one side is mated on the move. He will sit out and wait for the events on the other game. Typically what happens is that it will be mate on the move in the reverse direction. So either have adjudicated a win for the side with more time on their running clock or force them to move at least every 10 days say.
By the way if you try crazy house, you might want to also introduce shogi where pieces become the property of the opponent and can be dropped in. You won't need special char set since you can use the chess set with mods such as inverting them like the rook for the lance, golds can be queen, silvers inverted queens, etc and promoted pieces, the piece with a circle surrounding it.
Lazaro Munoz (2009-11-07 01:56:13)
Advanced games (blitz) : improvements
For blitz can you not define the start of the as move two (when to start the clocks too) so that you are assured that both players are present. If not continued after move 0.5 you can throw it after a period of time and go back to move 0 where both players need to start again. Or take the forfeit if the player does not return before the beginning of the next round.
--laz
Wayne Lowrance (2009-12-11 21:08:34)
clock implementation
Hello Thibault. In my tournament SM11 my clock increment may not have been added after first 10 moves in all my games. If you have a time stamp would you please examine it. My remaining days left does not suggest that 40 moves have been added at end of the 10 move slot in my games. Knowing my operating habits it sure sound wrong.
Understand this please, unless you can verify with time stamp or whatever I do not want any adjustments. I will play as the remaining time in each game remains.
Wayne
Thibault de Vassal (2009-12-11 21:32:06)
40 days increment
Hi Wayne, I see no problem with the clocks, I can see in the logs that 40 days have been added after move 10, you can see it in our game at least where you have more than 40 days remaining. About the other games, your opponents played fast, that may be a reason, by the way you also take several days per move in our 8 games match. Too many running games may be another reason (I know that :))
Time flies away, definitely !
Wayne Lowrance (2009-12-11 21:56:40)
clock implementation
Okey dokey Thibault, case closed. I must pay more attention to timers. I confess to not paying much attention. In hindsite it just did not look right. :)
Wayne
Nigel Colter (2010-02-09 11:42:18)
Clock not running
Hi Thibault
I have noticed that the clock is not running in games 37213 and 37316.
Please advise.
Regards
Nigel
Thibault de Vassal (2010-02-09 15:46:15)
Clock not running
Hi Nigel, I just made the test (loaded the page two consecutive times).. The clocks work fine !
Nigel Colter (2010-02-09 19:27:42)
Clock not running
Hi Thibault
They are now working for me also!
This must have been a temporary glitch for my computer/internet connection.
Regards
Nigel
Garvin Gray (2010-02-24 11:21:51)
Ficgs clock setting
Hello Thibault,
The ficgs clock seems to be 'out' by ten minutes ie it is always ten minutes in front. If it is 10 past the hour by my clock, the ficgs clock will say it is 20 past. This happens regardless of what time of day it is.
Has anyone else noticed this?
Thibault de Vassal (2010-02-24 21:08:18)
Ficgs clock setting
Hi Garvin, yes this is the same thing every 6 months or so... I've just fixed it, thanks ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2010-04-03 21:33:36)
Weird technical problem
Hi Michel, yes we were a few ones (Mauro, you & I) to play with fire with less than 5 seconds (sometimes 1 second only) on the clock... the real problem is that everything can happen anytime with internet, by the way I lost my last game on time with William because my connection was broken after only 2 moves :( .. And Mauro was playing with a GSM because of his internet provider also.
So I have no clear answer on what happened to your move if you had remaining time, but it is sure that the server received it too late. The email only says that you "tried" to move to h7 (actually this is a way to verify that you didn't resign accidentaly) but as the email does not say that you resigned, it means that you lost on time.
Sorry about this and thanks for your fair play!
Don Groves (2010-04-22 07:14:46)
Speeding up Poker games
Does a Poker player get an extra day on the clock for every move like in Chess or Go? If so, that could be a big reason why the games are so long.
One move in Poker is insignificant compared to one move in other games. Maybe a player's clock should only increase one for each hand completed.
Heinz-Georg Lehnhoff (2010-05-02 17:19:25)
Speeding up Poker games
There will be a problem for those players who can only move once a day. If they live on the "wrong" side of the world and / or they only can move between 5 and 6 o'clock of our time, 10d+12h will not work. If you only offer this time control they will not be able to play.
Don Groves (2010-05-09 05:01:36)
How many games at once?
Vacations take care of life getting too busy to play. The other stuff is a matter of opinion. Ours are different.
I have no problem with taking 10 days for a juicy decision, but some here take several days for almost every move! That becomes too much.
Another thing that happens is that when a new tournament begins, one player may let his clock go red before he starts to move in a game. Then he will play one move per day to avoid losing on time, but the other player must wait for several weeks before the game begins. Is this fair?
Thibault de Vassal (2010-05-09 14:48:45)
How many games at once?
Well, what are we talking about exactly? :) .. Do not worry Daniel, there will be no change change for chess or Go as I'm still convinced that the current rules are the best balanced ones for the most (and not too stressing), but there is probably something to do with the time control for poker... (see the "Speeding up Poker games" discussion)
The only thing we shouldn't change is this time limit per move of 60 days (of course if we have more than 60 days on the clock). When I see other online games on Facebook on whatever that force their users to connect every 8 hours or so, I'm just terrified.
Philip Roe (2010-05-12 01:07:56)
A suggestion
Don, Somone who is not as nice as you might move against players who are not present, so as to put extra time on their clock.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-07-06 17:55:40)
Speeding up Poker games
(thinking... thinking...)
okay I agree that the accumulated 100 days limit is not relevant for poker games, I just changed it to 60 days for poker holdem! That's a lot yet but thus players will always see their clock running (as 60 is also the time per move limit) which may have a psychological effect... Let's see how this work as a first step.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-08-13 10:50:25)
Replacement in Class GM 2 & rapid SM 6
One player did not play a single move yet, with a few days only at his clock, same in rapid SM 6...
Jimmy Huggins (2010-10-22 10:25:55)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
Hi to all the FICGS players! In the last few days there has been in the works a strong tournament on the Rybka Forum. I know that most of you play a lot of games not only here but on others sites. I have been looking into the interest of having a type of World Chess Corr Blitz Championship. With the time controls being 2 to 3 days per move. There will be a time out or some kind of extra time system in place to get you a chance to AN critical positions. As of now there are discussions on the Rybka Forum for a Tournament Format that would be comfort to most of the players who play. I have been talking to the person who does the web design there and would are working out a new sub forum to keep this tournament organized and working a clock system so everyone can keep track of there time. I'm also having a prize fund organized to the top 10 finishers. Not so much for give money to the players, but as more a means to keep all the players interested and not have any problems with aborted games. This tournament will have 3 TD's to help with any problems that may come up. We are planing on having the tournament just after the new year. I have the interested of Wayne Lowrance and Ruben Comes has said he will play. If any are interested in playing in a World Chess Corr. Blitz Championship or if you have any questions or comments. Let know on here or your can leave a message on the rybka forum my user name is "thehug"
Jimmy Huggins (2010-10-23 04:04:54)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
Thanks for your interest Sebi. This is being talked about now. I will send you a link. this will be the post for the discussion about time contorl
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=19220
As we speak Dadi Jonsson the person who works on the forum. Is working on the details for a clock system. Not only that but we are going to make it a sub forum by itself so people can find there games easier. Let me know your opinion on here as we are working out all the details so it will be comfortable to all. I will being submitting the 1st proposal shortly. Thanks for your interested!
Jimmy
Jimmy Huggins (2010-10-25 08:28:18)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
Thanks Thibault, My hope is to finish the details within the next 2 weeks. No not a round-robin, because that would simply be to much and to long. So I have gone with Vytron idea of a type of Elimination/Knockout tournament that is currently being discuss. As you are good about getting tournaments formed if you can read the current discussion and give some feedback on here or the rybka forum I would be grateful! It is in the corr chess section on the rybka forum.
Here are some of the key points and some interesting ideas that are being thrown around.
As I know most of the FICGS players play a lot of games so I have made a system that you play a 2 game match per round (One white and One Black). This would usually be a bad idea because of CC high draw rates. But we are thinking of using a unique draw odds system. Thought to many this may sounds a little strange its actually a great idea to inspire fighting chess for both sides. The idea was given by FICGS player Gino Figlio
"The scoring system idea- to draw with white (0.4), draw with black (0.6), win with white (1.0), win with black (1.1), loss with white (-0.1), loss with black (0.0)"
Another thing we are working on is the pairing system. As of now the only idea is to use a swiss pairing system after the first round.
Time Control- Since this is going to be called a "World Blitz Correspondence Chess Championship" The time controls are going to be a little faster than normal corr chess. It will be 48hr per move. But there will be a bluff time in here to help AN critical positions. This is also being debated. Right now we are looking at something between 1 weeks to 2 weeks(168 hours to 336 hours).
I had announce on the Rybka Forum in the last couple of days that a prize fund was being offer. I haven't had all my sources comeback to me yet. But as of know the fund is $1500 USD. It could be more, but I'll make official amount known before the tournament will start. I would say the winners share will be between 500 to 750. It all depends on what info I get back. I'm going to try and make all the prizes reasonable. And try and make it for the top 8 or 10 players. Also the winner will be announced the "World Blitz Correspondence Chess Champion"
I will be trying to finalize the details of the tournament in a quick fashion so I can figure out if the players interested would want to play or not. The tournament will begin just after the new year. It will be flexiable so get all the players in and know who they are playing.
The final details are that we are working hard to make the Rybka Forum really to play this kind of tournament. There is a new sub forum that will be made to help with out the traffic that would be going on with all the games. There is almost plans on getting a clock system work out. As at these time controls that would be critical.
Thanks in advance for any feedback form Thibault de Vassal and any other FICGS player!
Jimmy
Garvin Gray (2010-10-29 14:54:31)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
Each tournament is slightly different and if a faster time control is used, then players will adjust. Just like playing rapid time controls in otb chess.
It is advertised as a blitz tournament, so of course the time controls will be shorter than the normal type of corro time control. All I have been trying to do is point out issues relating to players competing from different parts of the world.
I am certainly one of those who would be seriously affected by using the 40 move time control you have suggested previously.
I live in Brisbane Australia, so most of my opponents will be at least 4 to 8 hours at least behind me, so it is very common for me to receive moves in the middle of the night, or have a whole batch of moves awaiting me when I wake up.
This can mean that I already start with losing about 8 hours on the clock before I even get to look at a position.
I accept this in the time controls on here because that is just how it is and I am not that disadvantaged as it works the other way where I reply and my opponents are asleep/at work.
But under the 40 move time control posted, I would be severely affected and my only 'crime' would be living in Australia.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-10-30 17:19:19)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
To all players involved in the Freestyle tournament, important : Tomorrow it will be 1pm. 1 hour before !!!
So do not miss the start of Round 4 at 1 pm. while taking account that France (like most countries) goes to winter clock...
Garvin Gray (2010-10-31 02:46:18)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
Damn, that means play starts here at 10pm tonight.
Jai Prakash Singh (2010-10-31 06:41:56)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
Usually, winter clock means one hour after but it is being declared one hour before, how come? Like Indian clock is 9 hrs 30 minutes ahead of New York time in summer and 10 hrs 30 minutes in Winter.
Don Groves (2010-10-31 06:53:58)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
In the US and Canada Winter time starts at 02:00 Nov. 7th, the first Sunday in November.
Robert Mueller (2010-10-31 09:24:12)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
Clocks are set back one hour. So the worst thing that can happen is, that people show up early.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-10-31 11:09:48)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
Damn, I had 50% chances and what I said was pure confusion... I probably meant "Tomorrow it will be 1pm. 1 hour after" (if it means something)... Anyway, server time is the only one to trust.
Don Groves (2010-10-31 22:51:32)
Freestyle round 4, careful winter clock!
An easy way to remember which way the clocks go is: 'Spring ahead; Fall back."
It makes sense in English anyway ;-)
Thibault de Vassal (2010-11-02 10:33:17)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
14 days + 2 days / move is much longer than 30 days + 1 day / move. Maybe 20 days + 1 day / move, or 10 days + 1 day / move could be ok... 1 day increment is the strict min. 10 days initial clock is min as well IMO. So a game could last ~180 days at most = 6 months anyway !
Honestly, maybe you should give up the idea that everyone (eg. me) should be able to play, if you think that most players interested are ready to play a really fast corr. time control, maybe you should do it this way but IMO an increment less than 12 hours may lead to many losses on time.
Jimmy Huggins (2010-11-06 07:30:29)
Strong Tournament at Rybka Forum
You make a good point about Christmas and even sometimes people do things on the New Year. I have to probably go with the January 14th idea. If only because I would like to give Dadi as much time as he needs to get the clock system to work. By I will leave a line on the Forum and see what people say. As for the give a week to get play to reply. I had already decide on that. I will be so much easily to do it that way. As to have to repair 2 or 3 times.
Thibault de Vassal (2010-12-18 20:23:28)
Server change (19th, december 2010)
Dear chessfriends, there will be a server change (we'll have a quadcore, so pages will load much faster!) on monday 19th, december.
You may not be able to connect before tuesday 20th, 21th in some cases, depending on DNS servers, so 2 days will be added to all clocks. Thanks for your patience :)
Don Groves (2011-04-04 05:55:42)
Conditional moves
I agree Thib, particularly when a game is played in widely separated time zones. The conditional move could give one player several hours advantage on an opponent's clock while they sleep.
Daniel Parmet (2011-04-04 07:33:36)
Conditional moves
if I may play devil's advocate... I believe it is precisely BECAUSE conditional moves are more fair that is why players want them. Now when a person is low on time or trying to extend the game into the next rating period they purposefully wait until the BEST hour in which to make a move to clip the most time off their opponent's clock. If conditional moves were in place, a person could sleep knowing that their forced response is already in the system for their sneaky opponent that just wants to flag them.
Timothy Cookson (2011-11-02 14:42:47)
Vacation Question
"-Timothy
A question for you Thibault, I have just started a 5 day vacation but my clocks are still going down.
--Garvin
Tim, questions like yours should be asked in the forum we can give more complete answers there.
--- Thibault
time per move clock is still running during vacation so that no move exceed 60 days..."
And what if I lose on time during a 5 day vacation?
Jimmy Huggins (2011-11-28 10:38:22)
WBCCC 2 sign up and WBCCC 1 review
After an exciting WBCCC 1, Own Champion ppipper (José Sanz) wins with a finally score of 7.5 out 10. FICGS top players were in a tied for 2nd with Timothy Cookson, Sebastian Boehme, and Ruben Comes. Credit also has to go to David Evans who had ppipper as White in the last game. And went all out to beat him. In the end Jose pulled out the win with black. For those interested I highly recommend you read this article. About the champion talked about his tournament games.
http://www.chesscafe.com/chessok/chessok.htm
Now I wanted to go a head and open up the sign up for the 2nd edition of WBCCC and tell everyone about the improvements and add ons.
The first major improvement on WBCCC is that it will have a simple to use conditional move system. With our easy downloadable client we use. There is also going to be a 2nd tournament for those who prefer a little more time than own standard tournament of 30days per side. In the 2nd tournament that is going to be called Rybka Forum Grand Prix. Is going to be 30day for the first 40 moves and 30 days Sudden Death after that. So basically you get 30 more days for 40 moves on your clock. Now here is a few more things to know about the tournament. After each move, if you request it. You can have your move noticed to you by email. This is good for the busy person who doesn't check the game forums all the time. The other thing added to the tournament is that there will be a file on hand for everyone to check to see what sites everyone plays on it a head of time. This is good for guys who like to prepare for there opponent. As for other fun things offered. I finalize with chesspublishing.com that they will help for own best game per round and the winners will get there games analyzed by the top players there and will publish them on the forum. Which I can expand to here and the other forums I promote at. For some were scared of the time control, but in truth we only had 2 games time out, but this was because they left there games. Which was a disappointment, but 2 games over a whole tournament was very good! If you maybe interested, but are unsure about the time. I recommend talking to me and when can have a test game to see if you can handle it. Most know with in a week or 2 if they can do it or not. Thanks for the support of Thib and everyone that played this year and anyone that will try this next year!
Jimmy
Peter W. Anderson (2011-12-15 17:16:25)
Holiday
It seems to be within the rules for people to take lots of small holidays in quick succession. At the end of the year, this can be used as extra time on the clock - work out all your replies whilst you are on vacation, wait for your holiday to finish, play your moves, and put yourself on holiday for another day or two.... and just keep doing this over and over again and your clock will go up rather than down!
I would like to suggest a rule change for the Rapid games: every time you put yourself on vacation you lose a day on your clock for all your games. It does not completely solve the problem but it helps.
It has the downside of people who really are about to go on must make sure that they have at least a day on each clock. However, in my opinion the benefit outweighs the disadvantage.
Paul Campanella (2012-03-05 03:29:32)
FICGS poker ratings
Thank you for the compliment, Scott!
I consider you to be one of the top players and have great respect for you: as both top poker and as a person. You're also a very worthy adversary and our matches are almost always 3-2 (on either side)! :)
Thank you, Thibault, for recognizing my point that it is possible to climb the ladder quite quickly using the current rating system.
I would like to note that it is also possible to climb the ladder without using any strategy. Throughout all of my poker matches on FICGS, I always finished my games (both the winning games and the losing games). I could have easily waited a long time (like some players obviously do on this site) to finish my losing games, but I refuse to do that out of respect for my opponents.
Although poker is a game that requires a combination of luck and skill, I believe that respect belongs here as well. Out of my overall record of 202 completed games, I have won 120 and lost 80. During each game, I was always honorable. For instance, if it is my turn and I know that I am 4 chips away from losing a match 3-0, I will refuse to delay the game and deny my opponent his victory for the next two months even though I have 60 days left on the clock.
Besides, it is my philosophy that the best thing to do when opponent outplays me is to accept the loss, learn from it, and then try to win in a rematch! :)
Don Groves (2012-04-19 01:38:09)
Slow tournament entries
@ Michael: You got that right! Not only losing interest but also losing track of what your plan was after weeks of waiting for your opponent to move.
I agree with Garvin that our standard time controls are too long. Another problem is that some players have so many games running simultaneously that they can't keep up. I've noticed two different kinds of these players:
(1) Some players will ignore their new games until they've finished older ones. Thus they don't move at all in new games until they are forced to by the clock.
(2) Others will ignore their older games to play the new ones (openings are fun) and return to the older games only when their clock demands it.
In either case, this kind of behavior is what leads to games lasting 6 months to a year in some cases.
Daniel Parmet (2012-04-21 16:48:24)
LSS is the worst Corr server
I previously erroneously had this as a sidebar chat.
I will post the story here.
I had 22 games running on LSS. All of a sudden a game disappeared. I checked and found the administrator had decided to resign for me in a game where I had a cleanly winning position and 43 days on my clock. I contacted the administrator politely to inquire why he had done this. He answered rudely explaining that he did not care about my problem. After his uncalled for rudeness, I explained to him I was no longer interested in playing further games on this "joke of a server" so please remove me from a tournament that was about to start. He responded with pure insults and a memberships suspension but *did not* remove me from that tournament. When the new tournament started, I explained to him again that he was supposed to have removed me. I was only interested in finishing my current games out of respect for my opponents. The administrator then went and forfeited all currently running 19 games and placed a ban on me playing there again until 2013. I told him that was disrespectful not just to me but to my opponents as well. He then deleted my account entirely (which doesn't bother me as I would have asked for this after my 19 games finished). There you have it... Ortwin Paetzold - the bat shit crazy administrator.
George Clement (2012-04-22 19:19:23)
LSS Move Rule
" violating the 30-days-rule. The server automatically stopped the game and awarded the point to the opponent, independent from the position. The server also imposed the two week suspension to start a new tournament. The 30-days-rule was installed at IECG more than 10 years ago and I had included it into LSS right from the beginning."
I like the idea behind this rule on LSS, IMHO it would solve some of the slow entry problems by making players move faster, which is a big part of the entry problem. I think anyone can make a least 1 move in 10 days, using todays hardware/software and communications. What do you think fellow members? I have no problem with players using time off thier clock but why wait 30 days make 10 moves then wait another 30 days?
Scott Nichols (2012-04-22 19:23:45)
LSS Move Rule
Exactly! I was going to say this same thing. Sometimes when a player decides to just quit playing, or whatever the reason, and they have 60-100 days on their clock, it takes THAT LONG to finally resolve the game. A "30-days" rule would be a big step in the right direction IMO. I think Thib has a "60-days" rule if I'm not mistaken though.
Garvin Gray (2012-04-30 19:16:14)
Slow tournament entries
I think it is ridiculous that any player can accumulate 74 days in total on their clock and they can still get another 40 days.
That seems like a completely unnecessary amount of time to have.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-04-30 20:32:31)
Slow tournament entries
I really have no idea if something can be improved there. One thing is sure, the average time for a game is not the same according to the rating... I guess that it would be not reasonable to set a rule for each category so...
About the standard time control, if a player has 74 days on his clock and is to add 40 more days, he'll never have more than 100 days anyway.
Maybe this limit can be changed but once more players are free to choose the rapid time control and as for me I really appreciate not to feel too much time pressure in my games and I know that many share this view.
Let's not forget that the FICGS Chess WCH is (as far as I remember) much faster than e.g. IECG or ICCF Championships...
Don Groves (2012-05-20 00:31:55)
Advanced challenges, time out expiry
This could also be fixed by not starting clocks until both players are online.
David Ward (2012-09-12 17:33:33)
Faster Refresh Time
I get the following report after clicking "No refresh" on the "My games" page, but I continue to get messages that Internet Explorer blocked a popup from www.ficgs.com.
"This page will refresh itself when you have a new move to play, then you'll see a (!) at the beginning of the page title.
If you do not see the clock below, your browser could not support Frames & Javascript or it could be turned off. In this case you will have to refresh the page manually.
This option is currently off.
Possible refresh delays for this session: no refresh, 5 sec, 10 sec, 30 sec. "
Garvin Gray (2012-09-22 08:40:14)
A radical idea?
How this could be done is as follows:
Player A (person sending challenge)specifies what time control they want.
This would do away with the concept of bullet, lightning and blitz as player can choose whatever time control they want.
The three terms are not required as there is no weighting for rating purposes in advanced chess based on the the time control.
Then the challenged player can accept the challenge, or propose a new time control or parameter.
The clocks would only start after the challenge has been offered and agreed to.
This would eliminate time forfeits.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-09-27 23:39:12)
Eros Riccio wins 6th and 7th chess WCH
By beating Alberto Gueci in the final match of the 6th chess championship & Ostap Hladky in the candidates final of the 7th chess championship, Eros Riccio will remain FICGS chess champion for at least 16 months! After this huge performance, Eros accepted to answer a few questions:
----------------------------------
- Hello Eros and congratulations again for winning your 3rd and 4th (respectively 6th and 7th cycles) FICGS chess championships in a row, beating Alerto Gueci in the 12 games match of the final match and Ostap Hladky in the 8 games match of the candidates final so that you meet yourself in the last round that thus will not happen for the 3rd time of the championship (first time was during the first cycle because there was no champion yet). All games of the two matches were drawn, but it does not say much on the intensity of the match as we all know your strategy since your win in your first final match vs. Edward Kotlyanskiy when you explained that your preferred a draw that guarantees the victory than a possible win where a mouse slip is still possible. Obviously your strategy works very well but one can add that you had an impressive number of running games at the rapid time control, so very much pressure... How did you live these last months of correspondence chess and these two matches?
Hi Thib! And thanks once again for the congratulations. These 28 games (let's not forget also the 8 games match against Gino Figlio) probably started in the worst moment for me, just a few months after the very important European Team Championship on ICCF had started. When I told my captain that I was starting another 28 games... he was very disappointed and worried, as he had repeated a lot of times to every player of our team not to start new tournaments and to focus only on this tournament. Also for this reason I had decided not to join the new Italian Championship and other tournaments and to withdraw from the Champions League, but unfortunately I had no control on when to start my FICGS games. So... my priority was for my ICCF games, and fortunately for me all I needed to do in my FICGS Matches to win was to make draws, and that's what I tried to do in most of my games as fast as possible, and to my surprise my opponents accepted to draw many games quite quickly, not trying to fight each game "to death" like I would have done if I would have been them. This of course only created quick boring games, but I didn't see the point in putting energy in trying to win games myself.... I think my opponents should have done that!
- We all know that you and Alberto are good friends from long time, did it influence your match in the 6th WCH in any way according to you?
Well, it's a good think knowing your opponent's habits... you can send your moves as soon as you know he goes to bed :-)
- Ostap Hladky is undoubtly one of the strongest players at FICGS, was this match (7th WCH candidates final) very different from the other one?
Hladky was the strongest player I had ever played on FICGS, he is very unpredictable, he simply plays unexpected moves that engines don't suggest, but if you show them those moves, they slowly realize those are very good moves. I risked to lose more than one game vs him, even as White. Luckily I still managed to draw, and in my opinion he also accepted some draws too quickly.
- With the last evolutions of chess engines, playing better & better chess, would you say that you now spend less time on each game or not at all?
I don't spend less time on my games, I still try to use (almost) all the time on my "clock". Trying to analyze as many variations as possible with the time you are given has little to do with engines improvement, who still are far from being able to always suggesting the best move by simply letting them run for hours on a static position. You need to analyze going "forward" in the position in order to be able to find the best moves.
- By the way, it is said sometimes (again) that correspondence chess will not survive the decade, what do you think? Do you envisage to change for Go or poker like many players? :)
Wins and Losses still happen even at the highest levels at the present time. I think that many years still have to pass before having all draws in high level tournaments. When that happens... and it will probably happen sooner or later as chess in my opinion is a draw with perfect play... then probably new rules will be introduced, maybe the board will be enlarged and even new pieces with new movements might be invented.
- You now are ICCF GM with an impressive 2624 rating, how are going your other correspondence chess competitions? Do you have any goal to reach yet?
All my ICCF tournaments are going good, and very soon I will be Italian Champion once again (just waiting my last opponent to resign a lost position). I still haven't reached the first place in the italian elo rating list though. That would be a goal I would surely have pleasure in reaching, and of course I would like to win the ICCF's World Championship at least once. After that I can retire :-)
- Thank you Eros, also for this great correspondence chess lesson.
Welcome Thib! A pleasure for me.
Garvin Gray (2012-10-07 19:13:36)
WCH Final match
>A lost position may be continued to avoid the first loss.
I had carefully considered this possibility. I will take an example from transfer/bughouse. When one player is about to be mated, they will stop playing that game, allowing their time to run out, in the hope that their partner will be able to mate the opposition before their own time runs out.
If both games in transfer reach a mate in one position, the side with less time on their clock with their turn to move loses as they will run out of time first.
How does this apply to the WCH?
Well, yes a player could stall on a game they think is lost, but then they would also be required to win another game to make up for it.
This could be a bit silly, but better than other options.
At least there is a sufficient reward for trying to win a game, which is the main objective of all this, to try and get the players to try and win as many games as possible.
>Maybe the tiebreak games must be played in faster time controls, and so on, like tiebreaks in OTB chess.
Not realistic on here. The faster the game , the more it becomes like freestyle/advanced chess and less like correspondence. Also, as is shown in otb, some players would prefer to try and win in rapids, so the solution of having rapid games could in fact increase the short draw odds because the players think, I would rather play a few rapid games, rather than a years worth of long correspondence games.
Thibault de Vassal (2012-10-11 13:04:50)
for 2013 poker tourneys
Hello Jay,
Good idea, and anyway if we cannot deduct x hours from a clock (a game could be lost this way), maybe we can divide the amount of time on both clocks by 1.5 or 2 every 10 moves...
Maybe we have an idea there!
Let's dig it... Any opinion?
Thibault de Vassal (2012-12-05 15:16:00)
Server change on dec. 9, 2012
Hello all,
As I just mentioned it in the newsletter, there will be a server change within 7 days, most probably on december 9, 2012.
I'll have to add 7 days to all clocks to avoid losses on time due to a possible slow DNS update by internet providers.
Thibault de Vassal (2015-08-03 02:34:42)
Improving netiquette rules
Well, after a few days thinking about a complaint, I finally decided to open a topic about this public remark in game 86290 (no need to name the players again here in the forum, by the way best would probably be that they do not intervene in this discussion) :
"my engine has said ckmate in 19,but black player,maybe,prefers passing by 51 days to lose on time"
Context most probably hasn't to be known, rules have to say if it fits netiquette or not (is it insulting or not, is it subjective or not) and of course this is the question.
In other servers, this may lead to a suspension or it may not IMHO, so I'd like to gather opinions on this case, any suggestion to improve FICGS netiquette rules will be appreciated.
In my opinion, we'll have to determine if any PUBLIC remark on the use of the clock is acceptable or not and if not, what measurement to apply.
Thibault de Vassal (2013-03-10 16:34:51)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
Hello all,
It seems that the current vacation system can be used in various ways to recover days at the clock while it is not particularly dedicated to.
We have 45 days of vacation per year, it is now possible to leave 45 times 1 day.
An idea could be to take a minimum of 3 days while there are more than 2 days remaining. Thus one could leave a maximum of 15 times.
Any opinion on this possible change?
Don Groves (2013-03-22 00:49:44)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
What other reason is there for vacation except to stop your clock?
Garvin Gray (2013-03-29 06:50:22)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
I am not sure about the others, but I have mentioned anything about a board position, or a result from it.
That has nothing to do with the subject, in my opinion.
The issue is solely to do with players, who generally, allow their clocks to get very low on time, then use vacation time to avoid timing out.
There is no objection whatsoever to a player using vacation time when they go on vacation, or who needs to take a few days off for whatever reason. That is not the issue.
I only proposed a work around idea to this issue of having no vacation time at all and instead adding more initial time.
I do believe there should be a limit to the number of times a person can be on vacation in a single game.
Garvin Gray (2013-04-06 05:58:17)
FICGS__CHESS__FREESTYLE_CUP__000005
For everyone, so they can work out what time 1pm server time is for them:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20130406T13&p1=195
Robert Knighton (2013-06-06 22:58:06)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
@Thibault: a 2 day minimum is bad because what if I only need 1 day this time? I must lose 2. Maybe I need 1 day only 5 seperate times and I need 40 days straight around christmas/new years.
this scenario my/Garvin's suggestion works (20 blocks split however) and yours leaves me with only 30 days for christmas/new years; just as an example.
I dont think this is complex at all.
You may take vacation up to 20 more times this year.
You have a total of 45 days of vacation you may use.
20/45
No more complex than a chess clock ;)
@Michael: I think the specific complaints were probably sent privately but I can use my imagination to come up with some possibility.
Lets say you're playing a difficult opponent in a close game in some major tournament maybe.
In order to get a time advantage your opponent goes into vacation mode immediately after you make your moves.
While in vacation mode he can still view and analyze the game without running down his clock which effectively gives him 45 extra days of clock time. This can be a significant advantage (more time = more analysis)
People can argue that it works both ways but what if the victim in this story has used his/her vacation for legitimate reasons?
Maybe the person exploiting this technique only plays a few tournaments a year to make sure he has that 45 extra days if he runs into a hard game?
As for how to solve this issue... well that is the topic of the discussion. How to prevent vacation abuse without hurting legitimate vacation needs.
Garvin Gray (2013-06-08 04:30:30)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
I think Robert Knighton has explained one of the issues regarding this issue very well. In that a player can use the vacation time to gain a time advantage, and another player who had to take vacation legitimately ie this would normally involve taking a few days to 14 days with no game analysis.
The legit vacationer gains no advantage from having taken vacation time, except they avoided timing out, which is of benefit to everyone in the long run.
The second reason why the current situation is undesirable is that it encourages players to not get on with their games. They can run their clocks down to almost zero, knowing they can use an unlimited amount of 1 day vacations to save their games. Playing inside the allocated time controls is part of the game.
Vacation time is for a reason and is not there to be abused to allow players to avoid timing out.
Philip Roe (2013-06-11 14:08:13)
Vacation: change for 3 days minimum?
There are players, who I could name, who always run their clocks very low and use vacation a day or two at a time to avoid loss. I have absolutely no idea why they do that. They gain no advantage, and in fact frequently lose on time. In consequence they are greatly underrated. Paired against one of them, you may in fact lose (against a low-rated player) or gain an unsatisfying forfeit. This behavior is legitimate under the current rules but extremely irritating.
It is true that all rules can be abused, but it is not unreasonable to set up rules so that abuse is less likely.
Peter W. Anderson (2013-06-22 18:45:26)
Playing activity top 20 players
At the risk of intertwining two separate threads....
10+1 would be very different from 30+1 if your 10+1 clocks kept running whislt you were on vacation (i.e. effectively no vacation in 10+1). This might appeal to people who like a fairly quick rate of play.
If it were done like that I would most likely play in a few 10+1 tournaments.
Garvin Gray (2013-12-05 01:44:30)
WBCCC 2014 Entries Open
Entries for WBCCC 2014 are now open at www.rybkaforum.net.
For those not aware of our event, quite a few of the players here can speak about their experiences in the event, but as organiser I can say that many of the regular players have gotten a lot out of their participation, have improved their play and a lot has been learnt about freestyle correspondence chess in the three years that this event has been running.
Prize money is offered, but how much is determined by players and others willingness to sponsor.
Feel free to contact me by replying to this message, sending me a pm at rybka forum or private message here. A private message here is the least reliable.
Full tournament rules:
1) Tournament will be single round robin, meaning every person will play each other once.
2) A players seed position will be determined by their order of entry. The earlier you enter, the higher your number. The first person to enter will receive number 1. The seed position determines which number a player is in the round robin.
3) Entries open December 1 2013
4) Entries close January 6 2014
5) Play begins January 13 2014
6) Each round will be paired at the start of the event, with the pairings for the entire year published at the start.
7) Each round will have a maximum of four games, most likely two games (just like 2011, 2012 and 2013). The number of games will always be kept to a bare minimum
8) There will be a maximum of six paired rounds.
9) The minimum time control will be 30 days plus 1 hour per move. If the number of games per round needs to increase from 2 to 3 or 4, the time control will be lengthened. For instance, if we have 21 players, so needing 4 games per round to keep the number of games even and use five rounds, instead of the six rounds in 2013.
9) Pairings for future rounds are subject to change due to withdrawal of players and unforeseen circumstances.
10) If a player withdraws, or their games time out without an explanation that is accepted by the arbiter, all their games will be removed from the event. In effect they are no longer a participant in the event and no effect on the final placings.
11) There will be an official entry form that all players will be required to fill out before their entry will be accepted. This is so in case of emergency the organisers have a method of contact outside of Rybka Forum. It will include also include a person other than yourself to contact. Whilst I understand this might seem unnecessary to some, I do hope that events from 2013 (death of Salvador Signes and our inability to get in contact with the family) do show the need for better communication methods.
12) Xfccplay- Xfccplay is the official software provided for WBCCC 2014. Xfccplay is provided for the free use for participants whilst in the event. A user name and password will be provided once registered. Also download instructions will be provided by private message and these must be followed to install the program. The program is provided by chessok and is not to be passed on to anyone and is provided for the sole use of playing in WBCCC. All moves, draw offers etc in WBCCC 2014 must be played on this software.
13) New entrants will be required to play a couple of test games on xfccplay before entries close so that the arbiter is certain that all players are familiar with the software and its features. The organisers do not want to see players withdrawing after the event has begun because they find that they are unfamiliar with the software and get upset because their clock is running. Entries are open from December 1 to January 6. That is over a month to become familiar with the software. The organisers will not accept entries from players who have not tested the software.
Don Groves (2014-01-24 03:51:05)
Withdrawal from all standard time events
IMHO, the answer to this problem is to not allow any player to enter a new tournament if that player still has more than X ongoing tournaments. The determination of X remains to be resolved. It needs to be low enough to eliminate players from entering a new tournament and then not making any moves until their clock runs low. This is completely unfair to the other players!
Thibault de Vassal (2014-02-15 23:44:49)
Standard time control abusers
Garvin, I know why Mariusz can play this way in general (like a few other ones) and this 'may have' nothing to do with any kind of abuse. Anyway this game seems really close to finish and everyone has the right to play games until the end. One could have chosen rules that say "every game with Rybka +/-5.0 is won" or even more complex rules involving evaluation and clocks, but this is not the case here (fortunately, anyway any rule can be abused). One can't know everyone's personal life.
Timofey Denisov (2014-03-15 18:15:43)
Standard time control abusers
If player not make move after 20 days (vacation days not counting in these 20), then his clock will run 2x times faster until he will make move. After he make move, clock will work as usual.
Timofey Denisov (2014-03-16 11:41:12)
Standard time control abusers
1) not working. Because vacation days just skipping in count, so clock will gain double speed in 21th day (if player took 1-day vacation).
2) Yes... maybe do more? Maybe decline 50-move rule on 6- or even 7- pieces in "normal chess"? (because exist tablebases for these endgames, and players just do moves from database), and next is do adjudgement in 6- pieces positions? Result can be gained from chessok.com, for sample. Or if 7-pieces position you can gain result from latest version Aquarium (licensed, pirated copy can't access to tablebases).
Garvin Gray (2014-04-21 04:18:03)
Standard time control abusers
Hello Michael,
Players starting games 'late' is not unusual. I think we have all done it through a combination of factors.
The issue that has been discussed here does not seem to be something that you are even close to doing, which is in the standard time control, wait until your clock gets down to 5 days, then make 10 moves to make the time control, then wait another 35 days and then make another 10 moves and keep repeating this behaviour.
Michael Sayers (2014-04-21 09:41:12)
Standard time control abusers
Hi Garvin,
Then maybe the solution is reduced maximum time on the clock? "Rapid" could be 10 days +1 day per move, 10 days maximum time available, or there could be no set maximum time, e.g. "rapid" requires a move in 24 hours or forfeit, "standard" requires a move in 72 hours or forfeit. What will happen though is a replacement of some players who always take the maximum time available and those few persons inducing most of the annoyance here (Pareto's principle) - this will be replaced with some players doing a tremendous amount of forfeits.
I'm not sure which is preferred (I don't know which I would prefer to encounter!).
M.
Timofey Denisov (2014-04-22 08:41:34)
Reduction in max days available? (move)
Finalgening position takes many time... maybe after 20 days doubles clock, same as in ICCF. But time forfeit fixes only after 40 days without move, not 30.
Scott Nichols (2015-08-04 18:39:05)
Improving netiquette rules
People who abuse etiquette rules, for example one that bugs me is when a player who is going to lose, just lets his clock run out. This NEEDS to be punished in public or private. Such as a one month suspension for EACH occurance
And IMO suspensions should be handed out here. But do it in stages, like one month, then 3 months and then permanent. It's up to Thib to decide if an infraction has occured.
Scott Nichols (2015-08-05 17:11:02)
Improving netiquette rules
Yes the remark in public was wrong also. There is not much to do if a player lets his clock run out instead of resigning. Just wouldn't play them anymore unless you get paired in a tour.
I've seen games where the player resigns and then finds out later he could have won. But this is common I'm sure.
As for the suspension IMO Thib has the right to do as he sees fit, he is always fair, and even if I disagree sometimes I find out later he was right, :)
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-11 19:53:28)
Server crash (april 2016)
Hi all, welcome back :)
First of all, my apologies for this new server crash, about 4 years after the previous one...
The Raid 1 technology has its advantages, the 2 hard drives are almost-exact copies from each other, but it also has its difficulties [e.g. the "almost" part] and I just had to learn much about it to try to restore the server as I encountered not 1, not 2 but 3 hardware failures at the same time, added to a 4th hardware failure at home on the FICGS development PC, and of course added my "famous" incredibly bad internet connection. Murphy's law ^^ ... So, both hard drives and a SATA cable have been replaced on the server. Finally, the system had to be reinstalled and I had to upgrade it, which caused many difficulties these last few days. At the end, it was not possible to restore the very last FICGS database, so we lost a few minutes or hours of moves (fortunately it happened early in the morning). But nothing essential was lost at the end.
I'm still not 100% sure (if it's ever possible) that everything will work fine with this upgraded version of PHP & MySQL, obviously there are some problems with accents for players names (will be fixed soon) but let's go for a try. I probably made mistakes during the whole process that finally took 20 days but the good thing is that I should be able to better prevent such failures in the future. Thanks again for your patience!
As I said in the login/messages page, an email has been sent to warn everyone. If you tried to register or to change your password during the last two weeks, it was not taken in account so you'll have to do it again. 20 days (it was not possible to move during this time) have been added to all players expected to move, and 7 more days have been added to all clocks (including players not expected to move, to avoid any surprise in case of real vacation or something).
One more thing: It may be not possible to connect through SSL with https:// anymore in the future, I still don't know how to configure it on this system.
Let's play! :)
Best wishes,
Thibault
Thibault de Vassal (2016-05-25 22:04:14)
Issues with emails after server restart
It is possible that a few players did not receive the email about the announcement of the server restart, and maybe cannot receive any email from FICGS anymore after that the server restarted. That's why I added a few days more to clocks.
A possible issue in this case is that FICGS ip was blacklisted by your email provider because of the period when the server was sending emails not authentified. It seems to work fine with Gmail, Yahoo... but it may be the case with Microsoft emails and a few smaller providers.
In this case, please send an email to info (at) ficgs (dot) com , I'll see how to fix this.
Francois Caire (2016-05-27 00:13:25)
Bugs after the server crash
My opponent Sergey Zemlyanov has 6 days on his clock. Didn't everybody get 10 extra days?
George Jempty (2016-09-09 17:56:01)
Player of the Year
The game I am the most proud of the past 12 months is http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=89124 a draw against Ortiz in the first tournament mentioned above. I got a poor position with a poor opening and around move 30 was down around 0.6 to 0.7.
I took all 45 days of my vacation before December 31st and devoted almost all my analysis to this one game, with a new 8-core, 32 GB RAM machine, as well as buying Komodo 9.3 (I'm now up to 10.1). Ortiz did not play so accurately and by move 45 the engine evaluated me as completely even in a few lines but they were complicated and I was much lower on time than my opponent.
However I found a forcing line of about a dozen moves that the engine thought was inferior, but I knew was a dead drawn ending: R+2P vs. R+3P all on the same side of the board, with me also having a sufficiently active rook. So I went for this simpler solution which also let me gain time on the clock as I'd analyzed everything out beforehand. Finally after about a dozen moves in the ending Ortiz offered the draw.
Garvin Gray (2017-10-01 06:36:44)
FICGS chess cup : proposal
Quick observation from beginning of final round. Players are not stuffing around and taking forever with their opening moves.
Knowing they have 16 games to play and a time control of 30 days plus 1 day per move, players seem to be getting through the opening phase quickly, to get as much extra time on their clock in all their games as possible.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-01-16 16:43:40)
Conditional chess moves (again)
Hi all,
Before everything, let's make it clear: Absolute priority (for years actually, but particularly since the launch of the Android apps) right now is to increase the popularity of the server, that slowly went down for more than 5 years. Now it's going better for the first time since, but I'm still working on and have much to do there.
Well, let's say this would be the right thing to do after all (which is another debate, with questions like what if a player does not want his opponent to use this option that by the way he cannot or does not want to use himself because it goes too fast and/or gains time on clock - case that I saw at another server).
Don't misunderstand me: I already used conditional moves at other servers and I liked it too, but I did not find it essential. Also, we all know that all opinions are in nature. And as a reminder, one goal of this server was to offer the simpliest & lightest (HTML or HTML & few javascript) interface.
Kim, one question to think about the work to do in your step 1:
How do you imagine the communication between a Javascript interface & php server? Well, I know how to implement Ajax (which I chose not to use at FICGS), this is not the point here. But it is not enough that moves are verified by javascript - that is a big work if you do it from zero - , it must be validated by the server itself, then confirmed or not to the player, meaning casually one more step. Means more php jobs from the server (which is not a big deal) so new codes that would be compatible between that Javascript UI (that must fit to site's design) & FICGS (that is not obvious if you know the small possible differences in terms of PGN format), a new field in database, the way to handle it after few conditional moves & so on.
Once more, it is feasible, of course. But there are obvious difficulties: it is not possible to add such code without being completely in FICGS codes, that are not object-oriented.
Anyway, if the number of active players grows again, I'm quite sure we'll have a good occasion to discuss it (with some more pressure ^^).
Thibault de Vassal (2018-08-14 20:04:00)
poker reflection time
Another recurrent topic, which is quite logical as some games are very very long... One hand consist in a variable number of "moves", that may cause strange things with clocks, but I agree that the time control should be different, I just did not find a fine one yet. Actually, playing poker by correspondence is a very unusual thing.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-08-21 22:22:42)
poker reflection time
Unfortunately, the choice of "best of three" would have consequences on ratings (less accurate, more variable), as you can guess.
The 1 day / hand option could be confusing and may be dangerous at it would bring strange effects as one could lose a game on time when having 2 or 3 days on clock because of a few moves played at night. This would not affect fast players, but many players are quite slow for various reasons.
Thibault de Vassal (2018-09-07 16:57:06)
Netiquette reinforcement
Hi all,
Following a few problems of provocation and repeated draw offers, I propose to reinforce and specify the netiquette to help players finding the right things to do according to the situation...
http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#general
Particularly this paragraph:
"It is possible to leave public comments for your games and to send private messages to other members. No player may post in forums or send to another member any voluntary message that contains abusive, insulting, provocating, advertising, vulgar, foul, racist, sexist or other discriminatory or politically sensitive content. Also, no player will make draw offers repeatedly, particularly serveral times in a row. Doing so may lead to instantly lose the game, and/or being immediately and permanently banned.
If a player receives such a message, he may use the "report" link and accepts to use the "block" link that appears then (when playing a move) rather than replying to it. Responding to a provocative message is strictly forbidden and may lead to get a limited access to the server during a few weeks, at the moderator's discretion. In this case, please just warn the moderator or webmaster in private.
To maintain a friendly community, any cheating complaint should be addressed to the referee and should not be made publicly in games comments or in the forum, otherwise with the same consequences. Please note that no time will be added to any clock in any case, the game will continue in all cases, in example arguing to wait for the referee's decision will not be accepted. Finally, you agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic, comment or message at any time should they see fit.
Publication of a private message without the authors expressed permission is strictly forbidden."
A big difference (I hope) is in the small add "Doing so may lead to instantly lose the game (...)". Better or worst? Any opinions or ideas?
Garvin Gray (2018-09-08 02:29:41)
Netiquette reinforcement
I have a couple of revisions to the rules that I would like to see. Some of these do come from otb practices, but they also apply here.
In otb, when a player wants to make a claim to the arbiter, or wants to make a complaint to the arbiter about their opponent (for any reason), they stop the clock and call for the arbiter (or find the arbiter themselves in a large hall).
Then the arbiter will rule on the claim, make any decisions about the game, adjust the times on the clocks if necessary, and then start the clocks again.
So for FICGS, I think there should be a change here. When a player presses call referee, the clocks should be stopped/frozen. Currently, the clocks keep running.
This is wrong. The player has called for the arbiter, but the clocks keep running.
If the arbiter (Thibault in this case) rules that the player had no grounds to call the referee, then he can apply a time penalty and take time off the clocks of the person who stopped the clocks.
Garvin Gray (2018-09-08 04:28:48)
Netiquette reinforcement
If a player clicks on call referee to make a complaint and that stops the clock and you determine that the claim is pointless, or worse, that you believe the player has 'stopped the clocks' to try and gain an advantage, then you are free to determine what penalty is applied from the range of penalties that are available to you:
1) Warning,
2) Increasing the remaining time of the opponent,
3) Reducing the remaining time of the offending player,
4) Increasing the points scored in the game by the opponent to the maximum available for that game,
5) Reducing the points scored in the game by the offending person,
6) Declaring the game to be lost by the offending player (the arbiter shall also decide the opponent’s score),
7) Exclusion from one or more rounds,
8) Expulsion from the competition.
Garvin Gray (2020-02-15 13:57:31)
Game decided by tablebase
This topic is referring to game 119111. Over 24 hours ago, I pressed the call referee button and claimed a draw for a six man tablebase position.
I have also referred to this game in the chat section.
Whilst I have plenty of time on my clock, this whole process and lack of action, which in my opinion should not take much effort, is really making me nervous that nothing is going to be done and I should waste my time playing out the position.
All I want is the position declared drawn as per the rules.
It should not be this difficult.
What would occur if I only had two days or so on my clock? Would I have to use vacation time to prevent my clock reaching zero.
Wilhelm Schuett (2020-06-18 01:11:45)
Game 122565
In Game 122565 i have made several moves but my clock stayed a4 1 day. No day was added after my last moves. In my other games there was added one day after each move.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-02-27 13:47:40)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
This topic to discuss what should be done about ukrainian players clocks... Probably they do have other matter to think than to take vacation on FICGS while their country is under attack.
Garvin told me that ICCF decided to stop their clocks. What do you think?
Juri Eintalu (2021-09-27 16:29:57)
How to Accept a Draw in Chess
I am new on FICGS and I do not understand how to accept a draw offering in chess. I accepted a draw, but after about 12 hours, my clock is still running and the draw is not fixed. I do not want to accept a draw together with making a move, as in the OTB game making a move means rejecting the draw.
Ilmars Cirulis (2022-02-27 13:50:13)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
I support this idea.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-02-27 14:00:58)
FICGS support to Ukraine
I must say I'm not used at all to merge politics &/or war to chess... I'm not sure if FICGS should display a ukrainian flag during these obviously very sad times. But I'll do it if the most think it's a good idea. Personally I do support civil people under bombs, probably in all cases.
Also it is quite tough to understand what happens there from 2014 & Minsk agreements... I discussed about it with russians, ukrainians, read many news & fake news, much complexity. I do not think this is the place to discuss about it though, so let's just decide about a way to support or if we should stop players clocks only.
Brice Boucher (2022-02-27 14:09:41)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
we can actually see on the ICCF home page that all TDs have stopped the clocks of tournaments involving Ukrainian players,
good luck to all.
A. T. S. Broekhuizen (2022-02-27 14:27:01)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
in favour
Stanislas Gounant (2022-02-27 20:32:00)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
i agree
Thibault de Vassal (2022-02-27 22:24:49)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
I identified ukrainian players in activity (one of them is still connecting), trying to contact them before.
Matt LaDuke (2022-02-27 23:24:50)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Agreed
Garvin Gray (2022-02-28 13:06:22)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
I think this issue is one of those higher order issues where the responsibility is on us, or more in particular, the site owner, to protect the interests of the players who country is under attack from war.
I believe the only responsible option is for their clocks to be stopped.
The players should not have to appeal for their clocks to be stopped. Those players may not be aware of this option. And quite frankly, given what is occurring in Ukraine, they should not have to think about, 'oh, I have to contact ficgs to get my clocks stopped'.
Just stop their clocks immediately and then if a Ukrainian player contacts Thibault and says 'I do not live in Ukraine and can continue playing' then their clock can be restarted.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-02-28 21:22:28)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Let's do this.
Ukrainian players in activity are now in vacation for 45 days. Of course they still have 45 days of vacation remaining. Even if the war ends shortly, I think this is the least time to recover from such dramatic events. If war should last, then this special vacation could be renewed.
Consequently this topic is closed.
Daniel Parmet (2022-03-01 18:29:14)
FICGS support to Ukraine
Definitely stop the clocks. ICCF Stopped them to April 29th which I think is absolutely the right move.
Daniel Parmet (2022-03-01 18:29:43)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Yes, stop their clocks. ICCF Stopped the clocks until April 29th. It is the right thing to do.
Daniel Parmet (2022-03-01 18:30:21)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Great decision. Thibault :)
Thibault de Vassal (2022-03-02 19:54:37)
FICGS support to Ukraine
Clocks for ukrainian players in activity have been stopped yesterday (45 days of special "vacation", can be renewed if necessary).
I don't hold any of this against russian players as well. As I said in the other post:
"(...) At tennis, in example, Elina Svitolina (UKR) didn't want to play Anastasia Potapova (RUS) yesterday, but federation of tennis "removed" russian flag for individual players... the match finally happened (Svitolina won 6-2 6-1 by the way). All russians I know do not support this war, so I think it is a good sign of support from them to join this idea, kind of support for peace.
If any russian player is pro-Poutine or supports this war, of course he can talk to me and ask for his flag (not meaning he'll get it)."
Patrick DeBonis (2022-03-07 16:51:21)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
It's only fair. They can't help it if their infrastructure is down, or if they have been called into military service. I would do the same thing in the event of a natural disaster.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-03-07 21:08:28)
HTTPS not available on March 7th
There was a huge issue on FICGS server today, I'm glad to have been able to fix this as it was really tough and unlikely ^^ This is what happens when running an old system with recent modules...
No time was added to clocks as it lasted less than 24 hours (sorry :)), and a few players connect to HTTP (not really secure, particularly if you used the right login field).
I started to work with the most recent Linux system a few weeks ago so I should be ready to migrate FICGS to this new server at some time... There is no urge though, it will be a long and difficult operation.
Herbert Kruse (2022-04-26 19:46:24)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=126437
really?
Thibault de Vassal (2022-04-26 22:50:40)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Yes, I made that stupid mistake to mix the 60 days / move & the 100 days max accumulated time in my mind... as a consequence, even that 2nd period of 45 days vacation more for Alexey did not help. As soon as I saw that result, I added some time to his other games. I'm now working on a script that will solve this very special case for our ukrainian friends (because these dramatic circumstances may last), in other words, I'll have to shift the last move time, possibly again & again.
Of course this result will be canceled within hours, by the way I specified in terms & conditions (soon uploaded) that such human intervention like this may only happen in case of war.
Daniel Parmet (2022-04-26 23:05:14)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
An excellent and swift reply. Thank you Thibault.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-04-27 00:24:31)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Actually I'm so ashamed to have made such a mistake... at least I can fix it :) ... and fortunately, this game was the only one that Alexey lost on time.
Daniel Parmet (2022-04-27 02:15:06)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
True but mistakes happen. The true mark of character in a person is how they respond to the mistake.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-04-27 02:35:00)
Ukrainian players clocks during war
Thank you... and thanks Herbert for having pointed it out (I could have missed it after all).
It's all fixed now (including my poker rating & Alexey's one due to that loss that shouldn't have happened), and I'll have the right tools to do it again around June 10. I'm afraid that will be necessary.
Yeturu Aahlad (2022-08-16 21:32:54)
respectful legacy
Today, an esteemed opponent, Aleksey Payzansky, a Ukrainian player, resigned all his Poker games against me. I've been wanting to start a discussion here on a FICGS policy of respectful legacy for some time now. What follows is a straw-man to start the discussion.
1. It is reasonable to require a minimum degree of prior participation before this policy applies.
2. Under appropriate circumstances, this policy may be applied retroactively.
3. If we know that a participant has died, it will trigger this policy.
4. If a participant announces that they will no longer participate or suspend their participation for an unknown length of time, it will trigger this policy. (Controversial - this is regardless of their reasons for doing so.)
5. If a participant stops participating for a prescribed length of time without any announcement, it will trigger this policy retroactively from the time the participation stopped. (Controversial - the intent is to give the participant the benefit of doubt.)
When the policy applies,
1. All of the participant's pending games (retroactively if applicable) will be adjudged. A player with a clear lead will be declared the winner. Games which are too close will be either declared a tie or removed from the record with no adjustment of ELO. (Controversial - time on the clock will not be a consideration in the adjudication.)
2. Returning participants will be welcomed. They will retain their ELO, and their degree of prior participation will be reset to zero.
I would be happy to see this policy applied retroactively to Aleksey if that is appropriate.
Patrycja Zerowska (2022-10-06 09:54:59)
Threefold repetition
It seems that there is no way to claim a draw by threefold repetition on this site. In the game 136386, where I have Black, the position that occurred after my 50th move, is the same as that after my 58th move, and will be the same after my intended 60th move, namely 60... Bf7. I therefore claim a draw in this game.
Since apparently there is no "automatic arbiter" to process the claim, I called the "referee" on 1 October 2022 (5 days ago), explaining that I made a draw claim as described above (and mentioning my intended move), but I haven't received a reaction yet.
This particular game has been a dead draw at least since move 35. I offered a draw after my 35th move and on my 59th move. Both offers were declined.
1. Why is there no automatic arbiter which processes draw claims? If I am not mistaken, this site exists more than 15 years already, and yet the Laws of Chess are not yet fully implemented.
2. Why can't I stop my clock when I make such a claim? See art. 9.5 of FIDE's Laws of Chess.
3. Why doesn't the arbiter or the referee stop my clock? Without this, a player making a claim can timeout, or, when she is short on time, may be reluctant to make a draw claim.
4. Why doesn't the referee take action? Is there a referee at all?
In the rules section of this site I read: "Also, there is no way to stop the clocks, players cannot claim that they stopped to play after they called the referee for any reason..." This is a violation of the rules of chess; it implies that on this site it is not chess that is being played, but a weird chess variant. Of course I disagree with this corruption of the playing rules, and so should everyone who call themselves chess players!
Your strange rules also state that the referee will "act as soon as possible", but so far, after five days, no referee has shown up. So you are not even acting in agreement to your own rules.
Finally, I find in your rules the following statement: "All games are played until a player resign, accept draw, or lose on time." This is the most ridiculous "rule" I have ever encountered. Not only renders this farcical rule a win by checkmate illegitimate, it is a blatant ignoring of the Laws of Chess, which allow games to be ended by accepted draw claims, or for any other reason at the discretion of an arbiter.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-10-07 02:58:17)
Threefold repetition
Hello Patrycja,
Sorry for the delay, I just saw the email indeed... As Scott says, you have to play the move anyway before to claim a draw (if the site does not recognize it automatically). It seems to me that's how work most chess websites.
1. Why is there no automatic arbiter which processes draw claims? If I am not mistaken, this site exists more than 15 years already, and yet the Laws of Chess are not yet fully implemented.
> The only way to claim a draw after a threefold repetition is to play the move.
2. Why can't I stop my clock when I make such a claim? See art. 9.5 of FIDE's Laws of Chess.
> FICGS offers (mainly) correspondence chess, that is not OTB chess, and some FIDE laws do not apply here.
3. Why doesn't the arbiter or the referee stop my clock? Without this, a player making a claim can timeout, or, when she is short on time, may be reluctant to make a draw claim.
> FICGS is an automatic place, mainly. Games continue even if the referee has to take action later.
4. Why doesn't the referee take action? Is there a referee at all?
> There is one. But he may take some time... the forum & chat are good alternatives to get answers to any question.
Patrycja Zerowska (2022-10-08 00:56:47)
Threefold repetition
Mr. Thbault de Vassal, you say that this case is treated the same way on most chess websites. This is not true. At the ICCF website, which is the standard for correspondence chess, the draw must be claimed (this in agreement with the Laws of Chess):
" ICCF:
9.2.1 The game is drawn, upon a correct claim by a player having the move, when the same position for at least the third time (not necessarily by a repetition of moves):
9.2.1.1 is about to appear, declares to the tournament director (or the server) the intention to make this move, or
9.2.1.2 has just appeared, and the player claiming the draw has the move.
At other websites, the rule is also correctly applied:
chess-mail.com
"8. To check the draw ( threefold repetition ; the fifty-move rule ) : Click on "Send and offer the draw". "
Gameknot:
"To declare the draw in a game due to the threefold repetition rule, please use "Declare draw" link located directly below the game board."
None of these sites violates the correct rule.
The FICGS way of handling this case involves several violations of the rules. First of all, the draw must be claimed. This rule exists for more than 100 years, and the advent of server chess hasn't changed it. Secondly, you require me to make a move, thereby taking back my claim and my intended move. Every beginner is told that it is forbidden to take back a move, a draw claim or a draw offer. Thirdly, you refuse to stop the clocks, allowing a player to lose on time by your inaction. This "inaction" constitutes interference in the course of the game by a third party, which is forbidden. Fourthly, your bot wants to automatically end the game when there is threefold repetition (or 50-move rule). Again this is forbidden by the rules! A bot can only act upon a claim, and never when there is no claim. With all these violations, we are no longer talking about chess, but about an undesirable chess variant.
It would be so easy to add a button under the chess board, where a player can make a draw claim. Why isn't this done?
You or your referee still hasn't taken action, and a whole week has passed since my claim.
I have always - since 1972 - played according to the rules and I refuse to violate the rules here and now. Therefore I won't make a move; it is forbidden.
Stanislas Gounant (2025-05-17 22:45:27)
Changing in Poker game.
I play a poker Game and now when I watch the game, I only see the countdown of the clock I can't the the name of the player and is rating. Is it a good update or a bug
Ulises Pineda (2025-08-05 01:14:13)
Cheating / Forfeiting
I've seen many games recently where the games are lost on time in equal positions, by players that let their clock run until they have 0 days and then play from the increment. But they seem random, so not sure.
Garvin Gray (2026-01-28 17:36:07)
Too many groups for tourneys
Time to wind the clock back quite a few years. What I suggested as a solution to this issue was that the rating bands for the class tourneys and the rapid tourneys should have rating bands of 200 point differences, but they be at a different cut off.
What this meant in practice is.
Class tournaments
2600 +
2599 - 2400
2399 - 2200
2199 - 2000
1999 - 1800
and so forth
And then the rapids would be
2500 +
2499 - 2300
2299 - 2100
2099 - 1900
1899 - 1700
and so forth
I think after quite a bit of discussion, Thibault decided that this idea was either too much effort, or that the rating bands I was proposing was too restrictive.
I think the evidence over the years has proven my conclusions more correct.
Players do not enter the rating band tournaments when there is a 400 point difference. These events only get filled by players who have a ticket from a lower tourney win, or they buy their way in by being less than 50 points in.
But, to beat the drum again. If Thibault is not on board, it does not happen.
And at this point in time, I am more concerned with fixing the 5 player round robin WCH group issue.
Garvin Gray (2026-05-20 05:01:42)
Call referee about game ...
Well. In the two cases mentioned above, it seems that both Herbert and I believe that there was at least a need to reply and a decision to be made.
And in our opinion, the worst decision was to 'go silent'.
If we take a similar situation in otb chess, and I imagine the same would be for go as well.
In an otb chess tournament, a player has an issue in their game, stops the clock and either raises their hand or comes over to the arbiters table to get their attention.
The arbiter would then come to the board and issue a ruling. Yes, sometimes their ruling would be to take no action, but at least the player knows that the arbiter has heard their asking for a ruling and the game proceeds.
In the two cases shown above, it seems that Herbert and I believe that we has occurred is that you have not even bothered to attend to our issue at all.
And that has left us dis-satisfied to the point where we are now having to raise it as a forum topic for everyone else to see.
Thibault de Vassal (2026-05-25 14:21:01)
Call referee about game ...
Rule 11.5 says: "Finally, if players do not agree the result, please let the clock run out of time, a referee will confirm or correct the result later."
So yes, I can set the clocks fairly to fix a situation... It happened in some cases and it will happen again.
Maybe I should add such an example in the rules to reassure.
Ulises Pineda (2026-05-28 09:30:16)
Berlin Defense
OTB I like the Schliemann Defense against the Spanish, after 3...f5 black is completely fine and there's no winning line for white, but there are two other things. First, you can feel it in the air, Ruy Lopez players have spent a great deal of time studying it and they want to prove their superior knowledge aiming for lines where they win if black plays a small inaccuracy, which happens often and that's why they like playing it.
You take that away which is a psychological victory.
Second, they have two options, either they play fast and will most likely abandon the advantage because white needs accurate play to keep her edge, or they will sit to think on the best continuation, but after the position settles down it's equal and you come up with a huge advantage on the clock.
My favorite line is when you have your queen on d4 and they play Nxg6 because they're used to positions where capturing back allows white's queen to capture the rook on h8, only to find out they can't do that because it's protected by the queen! So they have to play Qxg6+ but after covering or moving the king black is already better!
It's as if I saw the Spanish die before my eyes like that, even if my wins are mostly on the clock, it has forced players to avoid playing it against me, because it's easier to go into some g3 and Bb2 stuff and beat me from there than figuring out how to play against 3...f5.
My only lament is its name, it would be so cool if it was the Schliemann Gambit, or Schliemann Counter-Attack or something that gives it justice.
Paul Guralivu (2026-06-06 18:16:18)
Cheating / Forfeiting
@Ulises Pineda: there is not vacation...
"they" take those vacations often, just for 24-48 h...
when they don't take those vacations, they just let the clock go close to ZERO and then take vacations for 24-48 h AND then make the move!
Plus: Mach Jiri is part of the "situation".
and I believe Koudela Arthur is part of the situation also.
guess what: in the WCH... Mach Jiri, Pechova Hana and Koudela Arthur are in the SAME group -- playing each other!
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