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Game result (chess) B. Ozen, 2269 N. Wilson, 2121 1/2-1/2 See game 152323 |
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Here are 24 results for Lu Ke in the games.
Game_29795 Game_29794 Game_29793 Game_29792 Game_29791 Game_22805 Game_22804 Game_22803 Game_22802 Game_22801 Game_22703 Game_22702 Game_22701 Game_22700 Game_22699 Game_22698 Game_22697 Game_22696 Game_17875 Game_17874 Game_17873 Game_17872 Game_17871 Game_17870
Here are 6 results for Lu Hong in the games.
Game_93292 Game_93291 Game_93289 Game_93286 Game_93282 Game_93277
There are at least 100 results for Lu in the forum.
George Jempty (2026-06-06 20:57:59)
Next thematic tournament
we all have suggested great options there are 3 people (including me) in the 1.e4 e6 2.Qe2 tourney right now, let's fill that section up and ask Thib to change the opening line.
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!
George Jempty (2026-05-28 12:45:46)
Cheating / Forfeiting
See, this is the sort of response that has led to my disillusionment with this site. These players, Pech, Pechova, Mach, etc. SHOULD BE BANNED. I have hated playing against them this several months.
George Jempty (2026-05-28 12:36:54)
Berlin Defense
I used to play the Deferred Schliemann. I used to steer for a line in which the analog without 3...a6 had been played as Black by Lasker, a line involving ...Bd6. I tried it in a US Correspondence championship qualifying round in the 90s but didn't play accurately at all in the opening after that, this was a no-engines tournament (well it was the 90s anyway). But the game score made it's way into chessbase, and a Norwegian IM drew GM Sax with the line in 2005. So I was influencing theory way before the centaur/correspondence era ;) Also, in any case, I've been drawn to ...f5 lines for quite a while, I used to play the Latvian when I was a teenager, but now I've settled on the Modern Steinitz, with it's possibility for the Siesta, but I think overall is more sound than other lines involving ...f5, but still with plenty of winning chances; e.g. the Noah's Ark trap. As Black I play for a win, as White I try not to lose LOL
Alan Ludgate (2026-04-01 05:26:40)
Post-tickets FICGS
Thanks for this post. Here are my ideas.
The problem for the 2400+ rated players is:-
most have left or stopped playing (not sure why) - so those who want to play have to reduce their activity or (probably) lose rating points. This is leading to a downward spiral.
To get more games played, how about:-
1. Award rating points as prizes.
And/or 2. Allow players to buy rating points, say 30 per year, provided they play at least say 10 games that year.
And/or 3. Players who play no games in a year to lose say 30 rating points. Players who play say 10 or more games in a year to get 30 rating points reward.
Adjust the numbers after a trial period.
Thibault de Vassal (2026-03-13 23:17:02)
Post-tickets FICGS
The long answer:
FICGS story is a quite simple & classic one, the reasons why it's declining are quite obvious, and unfortunately the solutions aren't. A bit of story:
1. Luckily, FICGS.com was created when there were a demand, just after IECG stopped... It grew very quickly, and I was in a rush to code it (FICGS was the very first dynamic website I ran from A to Z), there were ideas from everywhere. FICGS.com was the shortest domain name available, but not a so good one. Quite hard to remember, hard to tell, not clear for search engines (unlike chess.com which is a perfect one). Maybe it was a mistake to choose it, I can't tell. Either it meant "Free Internet Chess Games Server" or "Free Internet Correspondence Games Server", so I added another game, Go (Weiqi), to FICGS, which is a quite heavy decision: After that, FICGS is not only a chess server anymore.
2. A few years after, there are several thousands players (a few hundreds active). The number of new players slowly decreases month after month but a few sponsors come. Obviously, the way I coded FICGS made it more and more difficult to fully update from a PHP version to another one, or to change it in deep. Even now, I'm not sure to regret it though cause I couldn't have done it differently, so it is what it is. At this time, chess.com was less interesting than FICGS (my taste), but success is already here thanks to a perfect marketing formula: best domain name & pay for options. On the contrary, I chose to keep FICGS completely free.
3. Chess engines explode, correspondence chess continues its evolution (human's thinking decreases in moves decision), finally I add another game that is in a hype: poker texas holdem. New sponsors come, I still play correspondence chess myself but now I play another game even more: Google. FICGS also extends this way and it works in some ways. At its peak, FICGS is about the 32,000th most visited website worldwide. But the number of players continues to decrease, Android & phones started to change the landscape already. Chess.com released its app and added probably its best feature: a quick Stockfish analysis with evaluation & explanation for each move (which is excellent for blitz games but quite a non-sense for a correspondence chess website).
4. The number of players suddenly declines very quickly, I react by creating FICGS apps for Android, a dozen apps... On some apps, you can play against the machine, virtual opponents, chess 960, blindfold & so on. But the way to maintain it is not easy at all for many reasons, but the main one is that Google (Playstore) constantly change technical things & rules. After a few years, I even have to completely remake it, losing what was acquired. And some apps still fail to re-appear at Playstore, that's why I just made the APK files available to direct download. But these applications confirm something clear: blitz is more fun and attracts much more players. Changing rating ranges for correspondence chess tournaments or championships formats won't be a solution for this.
5. FICGS is now 20 years old! Internet completely changed over the years but it survived longer than Messenger, Skype & many other great services. If you look at many websites, new versions of their modern interfaces are often worst (bugs or options) than previous ones. FICGS was never perfect, maybe even clear, but at least it remained coherent. Now Google (just like all major services) is mainly governed by AI, sponsors left - that does not change anything, FICGS will continue to run. I created other websites, but none so far successfully helped in a way or another to solve the problem we encounter here: how to increase the number of correspondence chess, Go or poker players again? If FICGS becomes a pure correspondence chess site again with a brand new interface, I'm quite sure that wouldn't change anything or almost. I might be wrong of course, but according to me, this is a deep problem, connected to society evolutions, computers, phones, our attention, time, even health & so on... In my personal case, I wish to play correspondence chess again, but still cannot find the time to do it. Finally I have no idea what internet will look like within 5 years, but FICGS will be there. Maybe an AI will find a solution soon ^^ Meanwhile, I received many ideas to improve FICGS and I have to thank you very much for this. Few ideas were released for reasons I explained here (but new ones are always wecome), I hope you'll better understand it by reading this.
Have good games & take care!
Stanislas Gounant (2026-02-27 22:12:08)
Next thematic tournament
I amused myself by looking at the most frequently played lines at the top level, stopping at the first six moves. Then I used Stockfish to evaluate the resulting positions. I was surprised to find that Stockfish rated a Benoni line +0.91 at 40 half-moves deep. I suppose there must be a lot of theory surrounding this line, but with a rating of +0.91, there's certainly enough to work with. Here's the line in question (sorry for the Google translation):
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6
Garvin Gray (2026-02-22 07:45:14)
Is rating just a number on this site?
There are two types of tickets.
The first kind is when you win a lower class/rapid event and that qualifies you to enter the next higher rated event, but you have to wait until five players above the rating cut off have already entered.
This system was introduced to get tournaments started as each tournament would sit for months waiting for seven players who had ratings above the rating cut off to enter.
And then Thibault has extended the system to pay to enter, where you need to be 50 points lower than the rating cut off.
As has been said previously, one of the biggest issues is not either of these concepts, it is the difference in the rating bands for entering a tournament.
When a tournament is 2200 to 2600, no one who is rated 2500 is going to enter that event when 4 players who are rated between 2200 and 2300 have already entered.
I have already proposed a solution to this, but once again Thibault will not embrace change and we are stuck with what we have.
And I am going to say this directly. Those who are playing on here are growing increasing frustrated and how it is being run.
From TER, to rating bands, to tickets and many other issues, nothing changes.
And I think quite a few of us are reaching the point of walking away. I certainly am.
There is no point continuing on when the site owner will not change anything anymore. The only option left is to leave.
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 (2025-12-10 02:03:16)
An indication for draw offers
Sorry, deja vu again.
ICCF already handles this topic.
A player can only offer one draw every ten moves in a game, unless their opponent offers a draw in return.
I have suggested this to Thibault previously and whilst he was receptive, it was not implemented.
This solution would stop repetitive draw offers, either intentional or accidental (and accidental can happen with no equal sign applied to a draw offer in the notation) and also everyone would know when they last offered a draw in each game.
Bahadir Ozen (2025-11-19 08:46:16)
Clarification of Rating Groups
Mr. Ulises Pineda,
Of course, you're valuable. The time you spend, your actions, and your interaction enrich both me, the players, and the site. Thank you for your efforts.
It's clear that each site has its own infrastructure and process. Yes, we play on a different site, and there can be conditional moves there. But FICGS's games also go to the Corr Database, and they're respected. We can say it's a proven platform.
You're right about the ticket issue being annoying. In that case, the paying player has a slightly greater advantage.
I agree with you in the long run, but the person who keeps the site "usable" also puts in the effort. Perhaps a different update on this rule will be forthcoming.
Ulises Pineda (2025-11-19 06:45:16)
Clarification of Rating Groups
I'm contributing with my moves and participation in the platform, I also don't ask for money to the site owner to see my moves or to start new games, because it goes both ways, without players like me participating, the site would die, if someone gets a very sour taste in their mouth that they stop participating, it's the beginning of the end.
The players are needed, is the site needed? We're already playing a game in another place, Ozen, I see you making conditional moves over there that you can't send here, so what's the advantage of playing over here instead of playing over there?
At the end of the day, I come here because of the players I can face here, that only play at FICGS, so it's the only way. If they happen to leave because of some circumstances, then the site becomes pointless.
FICGS is its players.
FICGS needs the players more than the players need FICGS.
Gratitude goes both ways, I don't feel appreciated because the site's owner hasn't even replied here, because I'm just another useless player and if I left someone else would come to replace me, perhaps someone that buys tickets.
If I'm not valuable, if my games and move contributions are meaningless perhaps I should stop creating new games around here, there's other places that are completely free, have more features, and don't let players pay to get in higher rated tiers.
Ulises Pineda (2025-11-10 17:06:10)
a 2300-player tried the Budapest
Because the optimal defenses by black are so boring! And they don't offer any counter-play, specially against lower-rated opponents that could easily draw as white with those. In uncommon variations they have to think, and that's the only chance they slip.
There's also the aspect of overconfidence, chess engines have gotten so strong one thinks they can defend anything. That was a mistake I made last time I played a Benoni and lost, I thought I played the strongest defense, who knows if my opponent could also have defeated someone else in the same line, but it was a problem of evaluation, not depth, the engine was showing 1.0 scores for positions that were lost, and they were so complicated I couldn't keep up. Near the end my opponent wasn't even playing the moves I predicted and cut the game like a knife through butter.
But I'll always rather lose a game like that than playing the same boring defense that draws against anything but it's a snore fest, apparently I could just play moves from 300 million nodes blindly and draw anyway.
So I continue to play dubious lines and appreciate opponents that deviate from the norm to spice things up, I could easily be over 2300 at the cost of boring games, but I'll be getting there soon anyway and finally find out how people on that tier play against me, since I've never been able to join tournaments of that caliber.
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-27 18:42:49)
DNS failure last week
Ofir, XFCC is not possible, sorry about that.
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-27 18:41:02)
Russian flag replaced
I don't intend to remake the whole debate here or anywhere else... I have other things to do. But in brief, IMO:
1. The situation was complex before oct.8
2. Hamas (terrorist org) started it.
3. More than 75% (!) of Gaza buildings were destroyed.
4. How many people killed, how many terrorists?
5. What are the limits of acceptability?
It seems possible to commit war crimes and/or a genocide after being attacked, right?
There can be absolutely no link between estimating that Israel commits a genocide and proving antisemitism, right?
There are other wars in the world, that's right (of different natures).
I'm not in a hurry to take any action... it will take time yet.
George Jempty (2025-10-26 12:49:30)
DNS failure last week
How does that solve the DNS problem?
Ofir Alencar (2025-10-26 08:12:58)
DNS failure last week
Is it possible to use the xfcc protocol in FICGS?
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-24 12:22:24)
DNS failure last week
Ahaha :) Thank you very much Yeturu... I could have sent an email to everyone sooner, but I always hoped to solve the problem quickly... I was wrong, obviously.
About the DNS config (ns.ficgs.com, dns.ficgs.com), I just can't remember what I exactly did maybe 15 years ago, but the fact is that it suddenly stopped to work, and I don't know why. So I had to change it.
Yeturu Aahlad (2025-10-22 18:54:42)
DNS failure last week
Thibault, I was fearing the worst. Although I'm an atheist, I was praying for your safety. To help me avoid future trips to the temple, may I ask for a favor? Please keep a mailing list you can use even if your service provider is unavailable. Now, if I see 3 days of outage and receive no email notification,I will return to the temple.
Bahadir Ozen (2025-10-22 10:43:40)
DNS failure last week
Hello Thibault,
Thank you for your efforts. Let's hope this problem doesn't happen again. We love FICGS and have a great time. Thank you, and I wish you success.
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-22 02:39:31)
DNS failure last week
<3 thank you Nelson!
Nelson Bernal Varela (2025-10-21 18:30:36)
DNS failure last week
Ficgs.com is back and with it chess with algoritms and poker without influencers. I really missed it. In this digital wasteland where everything is selfies and stupidity, a corner returns to think, bluff and lose with dignity. May it never leave again.
Thibault de Vassal (2025-10-21 17:27:39)
DNS failure last week
Hello everyone...
Finally FICGS is back!
Noone should have lost any game on time, I added about 7 days to all players expected to move, and 2 days to their opponents (time for new DNS to spread all over the internet)
I still have no idea why previous DNS ns.ficgs.com didn't work anymore, but well, I had to change it after having solved another (bigger) issue with the server provider.
Sorry all for the inconvenience...
George Jempty (2025-10-07 17:15:16)
Next thematic tournament
Yeah probably too tame for correspondence, interestingly I do intend to play 4.f3 for the most part, but I came up with the 4.Bf4 idea when investgating the Leningrad variation. After 4.Bg5 c5 now 5.d5?! which had been the standard is considered sub-optimal by the engine which prefers 5.e3, and after 5...h6, I concluded that White didn't have to play 6.Bxf6 or 6.Bh4, which is when I started investigating 4.Bf4. I actually may start playing this in FIDE tournaments where I will probably be much lower rated, exactly to get into such a tame line
Ulises Pineda (2025-04-24 16:20:25)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
I'm going to find a winning line against it, and then I'm going to find a win against your next step, and then I'm going to find another one against the next one, so skipping steps are a way to save time.
Remember I never made a move in our games until I had found the line, I only played it out, I'm still surprised you haven't dedicated the time to find it as if you were your own opponent, unless I'm the only person in the world that knows how to find such lines.
By using Stockfish 17.1 @ 20 million of nodes you would get it retired by me already, I don't understand why you'd want me to retire 10 million or 15 million first, because this has never been about the number of nodes, this is about telling me how you're going to pick your moves so I can find a line that would make your method make a game losing blunder.
Remember you sent me a message thinking 10 million nodes would play just fine right before I made a move that would make it blunder, what I don't know is why didn't you see the move before I played it, or from the distance, and that it surprised you, have people really forgotten how to analyze games? If you build a big tree of moves and replies to them, it's going to contain a line that beats Stockfish at fixed nodes, it'll take me about 24 hours to find the one against Stockfish 17.1 @ 10 million nodes, and about 48 hours to find one against Stockfish 17.1 @ 20 million nodes, the difference is we'll save the amount of games we have to face each other.
Ulises Pineda (2025-03-29 18:12:32)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
A more interesting question is how to defeat YOU. I figure it'd require playing into a position where the 15 million node strategy blunders but where Stockfish 17 at high depth does not notice it so you play the losing move instead of taking over the game.
Of course such a discussion would be against your interests and against mine in a future conflict, but I'm looking forward to it.
Scott Ligon (2025-03-29 15:42:08)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
I played one last game using the 10 million node strategy against Pineda. The game ended in a draw, but I had to deviate from the 10 million node strategy at the end to avoid losing. I thought the finish was interesting.
https://ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=147951
The key position came after black's 56th move, and up to that point with black I am just following the 10 million node strategy. These are the moves:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. O-O Bg7 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. d3 a5 7. h3 b6 8. a3 Nf6 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Nc3 Ne8 11. e5 Nc7 12. Qe4 Ne6 13. Re1 Qd7 14. Qh4 f6 15. Be3 h6 16. Qg3 g5 17. h4 Qd8 18. Bd2 b5 19. b3 Kh7 20. Rac1 Kg8 21. Rcd1 Ra7 22. Rb1 Ra8 23. Rbc1 Ra7 24. Rcd1 Rb7 25. Bc1 Ra7 26. a4 b4 27. Ne2 Qe8 28. Bb2 Qf7 29. Nd2 Qh5 30. hxg5 fxg5 31. Qe3 Rd7 32. Nc4 Rdd8 33. Ng3 Qg6 34. Nxa5 h5 35. Qe4 Qe8 36. Ne2 h4 37. Rf1 Nf4 38. f3 Be6 39. Nxf4 Rxf4 40. Qe2 g4 41. Bc1 gxf3 42. Rxf3 Rg4 43. Rdf1 Rg6 44. Nc4 Bg4 45. Be3 Rd5 46. a5 Bxf3 47. Rxf3 Bxe5 48. Nb6 Rd8 49. a6 Re6 50. a7 Bc7 51. a8=Q Rxa8 52. Nxa8 Qxa8 53. Rf1 Qe8 54. Qf3 Bd6 55. Bg5 Kg7 56. Bxh4 Be5
I ran a width 6 / depth 55 search with Stockfish 17 on the position after black's 56th move, and the top 5 moves for white along with their eval scores were:
57. Re1
+ (0.39)
57. Qf5
+ (0.37)
57. Qg4+
+ (0.32)
57. Bg3
+ (0.25)
57. Qh3
+ (0.01)
Based on that, you might think white should only consider the top 4 moves. But if we look at this from the point of view of exploiting the 10 million node strategy, here are the evaluations of those top 5 moves after the 10 million node strategy response:
57. Re1 Bd4+
+ (0.52)
57. Qf5 Bd4+
+ (0.54)
57. Qg4+ Qg6
+ (0.42)
57. Bg3 Bc3
+ (0.27)
57. Qh3 Rg6
+ (1.65)
So presumably using that logic, my opponent played Qh3 where the 10 million node strategy would require me to respond with Rg6, which loses the game. Qh3 doesn't stand out at all unless you're trying to exploit the 10 million node strategy. The actual game ended with 57. Qh3 Bd4+ and we agreed to a draw.
Ulises Pineda (2025-03-20 00:31:48)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?
Hello, I was a Rybka Forum moderator for several years, as Uly/Vytron, and the person with most games at their Correspondence Chess section.
I've been amassing a great deal of chess analysis since 2007 in Bookup files (later named Chess Openings Wizard files) so I have all the analysis that was posted on the forum.
It was able to hold up for years, until Sotckfish NNUE appeared, that was the software that obsoleted the analysis, as so many moves were misevaluated (it said white had a big advantage when it was the opposite, and vice versa) and Stockfish NNUE was providing, at low depth, moves that were refuting entire variations and trees.
It was at that point I realized I had more than a decade of useless analysis, and it's not just the Fried Liver, it happened in all of chess. In all the positions I analyzed for my games.
Which means any recovered analysis from rybkaforum would be garbage, since I do have it but had to start new trees from scratch because nothing worthwhile could be recovered from the old ones, and it was more trouble than it was worth, Stockfish NNUE would produce variations that from scratch would be more useful to generate than wasting time refuting the old lines.
At the end of the day, getting unpublished was a fortune because people will not waste time looking at those obsolete lines.
Ulises Pineda (2025-02-16 20:29:13)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
In our game I tried to apply some psychology, reach a position that is lost for black where the engine gives a low evaluation so you don't take over the defense of the position until it's too late, too bad I was incapable of making the move I intended to play.
I'd like to request that if we ever play again and I am white and you are black, that we repeat the same game and you turn on the 10 million nodes script after I play the correct move, and we see what would have happened, while I ignore the winning line found against the script.
That's the only chance I have for all the hours of analysis I spent in our game to not go to waste.
Scott Ligon (2025-02-16 09:39:42)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
I wouldn't draw that conclusion, but when I was looking at the 15 million node strategy as compared with 10 million nodes, I was happy to see that black switched from 2... Nc6 to 2... d6 in the Sicilian. Only because the 10 million node strategy lost in that line, so I wanted it to try something different. I would also have been happy with a switch from the Sicilian to 1 e4 e5.
It doesn't always stay with 2... d6 at higher node values either. At 19 million it goes to 2... e6 and at 20 million it's back to 2... Nc6.
Scott Ligon (2025-01-07 18:55:30)
Stockfish unbeatable at modest settings?
I am running an experiment where each move will be selected by Stockfish 17 in a deterministic configuration, so it will be possible to predict my response to any given move with certainty. I believe Stockfish 17 at these settings is so strong that it will be difficult if not impossible to exploit this strategy. However, if I reach a position where it looks like this strategy is going to lose, I reserve the right to deviate. If this happens, I will message my opponent to let them know that I am no longer following this system.
I'm using a python script to interact with Stockfish, but you should be able to get the same results running Stockfish 17 from the command line. I am currently running the search with the parameter nodes = 10 million (previously I tried nodes = 5 million but I found a way for white to win against Stockfish at that setting). From the command line:
go nodes 10000000
In order for Stockfish to be deterministic, it needs to be running on just 1 thread and from the command line that's the default. If for some reason Threads has a different value on your machine:
setoption name Threads value 1
I'm using the default size for the hash table, but if you run the search a second time without clearing the hash, you will get a different search result. So either close and restart Stockfish between searches or else clear the hash table:
setoption name Clear Hash
Lastly you need to be able to input the position before running the search. It is important that you enter the position via FEN string rather than by inputting the moves, because you might get different search results otherwise. Use only the first four fields of the FEN string, like this to get black's response after 1 e4:
position fen rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq -
From that position if you run Stockfish with nodes = 10 million, the last two lines of text output should say:
info depth 32 seldepth 46 multipv 1 score cp -26 lowerbound nodes 10000376 nps 462252 hashfull 999 tbhits 0 time 21634 pv c7c5
bestmove c7c5 ponder g1f3
I think only the values of "nps" and "time" will vary, everything else should be identical between runs / machines. So in this case Stockfish 17 recommends the Sicilian Defense and gives an evaluation of +0.26. (cp -26 is the evaluation in centipawns from the perspective of the side to move, but usually evals are given from white's POV).
A. T. S. Broekhuizen (2024-09-10 14:05:28)
Group winners first stage of Ficgs WCH
For group 1 t/m 5 it is already clear as crystal who's going to win and for the last groups as well, but those are shared group wins. Sadly many players prolong their game. And for group 6 and 7 I can understand, since the rules are such that in case of a tie the group win goes to the highest TER and after that to the highest rating holder.
But wouldn't it be best to just start a second round ASAP with two groups of five players? Or will it really come down to TER's and most recent ratings?
I included an oversight of the group winners:
Group 1
Kireev, Sergey
Group 2
Hallqvist, Niklas
Group 3
Knittel, Martin
Group 4
Swiatek, Janusz
Group 5
LaDuke, Matt
Group 6
Gounant, Stanislas
Pech, Stepan
Group 7
DeBonis, Patrick
Broekhuizen, A. T. S.
Ward, David
Thibault de Vassal (2024-07-14 03:15:45)
poker reflection time
We must consider all points here: If games are shorter, ratings will be less accurate. I understand the point, but there is no easy solution.
Thibault de Vassal (2024-07-06 15:53:42)
Poker Rating
You were unlucky in this one, but you played better. Just a statistical happening.
Ilmars Cirulis (2024-03-27 17:33:03)
Big Chess in NebiyuAlien engine
it came with this: http://hgm.nubati.net/miniShogi.html
<< This package includes NebiyuAlien, wich is configurable for almost any Chess-like game through its alien.ini file. >>
Scott Ligon (2024-01-16 20:31:54)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?
The Fried Liver just seems like a bad choice for black when the main line (5... Na5) equalizes, and if you want something different there's 5... b5 where white gets some advantage with 6. Bf1 but more frequently plays 6. Bxb5 where black is again equal and can expect to be more familiar with the position. I had a look at your lichess study. Are you mainly just taking notes on the computer evaluations of various lines as a general reference, or is this something you actually intend to learn in detail so you can play it?
Scott Ligon (2024-01-12 22:51:02)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?
For the 6 lines I posted, those eval depths are, in order:
46, 47, 45, 46, 45, 43.
For the line with the highest eval of +0.80, the win percentage for white is given as 27.4%, so further analysis might be warranted but that's where I left it. My understanding is that Stockfish 16 changed the semantics of the numeric evaluations. An eval of +1.0 used to mean white had a one pawn advantage (in some very abstract sense), but now +1.0 is supposed to correlate with a 50% probability that white has an objectively winning position.
Scott Ligon (2024-01-11 23:22:00)
Fried Liver analysis on rybkaforum.net?
I checked the Fried Liver with Stockfish 16, just far enough to convince myself that black can probably hold the draw. I'll post five key lines along with the eval at the end of each line, including the FEN encoding of the position being evaluated. I went through white's options and I see no way for white to improve on these lines, although 6 d4 instead of Nxf7 should also be checked. Anyway here are the line evaluations.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. O-O c6 10. d4 Qf6 11. Qd1 Ke7 12. Re1 h6 13. Rxe5+ Kd8 14. Ne4 Qg6 15. a3 Bf5 16. Ng3 Bxc2 17. Qf3 Nd3 18. Rf5 Bd6 19. Bxd3 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 Kc7 21. Bd2 Rhf8 22. Rd1 b6 23. Bc1 Qe6
r4r2/p1k3p1/1ppbq2p/3n1R2/3P4/P2Q2N1/1P3PPP/2BR2K1 w - -
+ (0.79)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. O-O c6 10. d4 Qf6 11. Qd1 Ke7 12. Re1 h6 13. Rxe5+ Kd8 14. Ne4 Qg6 15. a3 Bf5 16. Ng3 Bxc2 17. Qf3 Nd3 18. Rf5 Bd6 19. Bxd3 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 Kc7 21. Bd2 Rhf8 22. Rd1 b6 23. Qb1 Rfe8
r3r3/p1k3p1/1ppb2qp/3n1R2/3P4/P5N1/1P1B1PPP/1Q1R2K1 w - -
+ (0.80)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. O-O c6 10. d4 Qf6 11. Qd1 Ke7 12. Re1 h6 13. Rxe5+ Kd8 14. Ne4 Qg6 15. a3 Bf5 16. Ng3 Bxc2 17. Qf3 Nd3 18. Rf5 Bd6 19. Bxd3 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 Kc7 21. Bd2 Rhf8 22. Qf3 Rae8
4rr2/ppk3p1/2pb2qp/3n1R2/3P4/P4QN1/1P1B1PPP/R5K1 w - -
+ (0.70)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. O-O c6 10. d4 Qf6 11. Qd1 Ke7 12. Re1 h6 13. Ne4 Qg6 14. a3 Bf5 15. Ng3 Bxc2 16. Qf3 Nd3 17. Re2 Ke8
r3kb1r/pp4p1/2p3qp/3np3/2BP4/P2n1QN1/1Pb1RPPP/R1B3K1 w - -
+ (0.63)
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Qf3+ Ke6 8. Nc3 Nb4 9. O-O c6 10. d4 Qf6 11. Qe2 Ke7
r1b2b1r/pp2k1pp/2p2q2/3np3/1nBP4/2N5/PPP1QPPP/R1B2RK1 w - -
+ (0.44)
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-25 22:00:10)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Thibault de Vassal:
"Juri, you probably spread fake news:..."
"In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here... Thanks in advance."
I have NOT shared that video here, on the Forum, neither a link to it. And I have NOT mentioned that video here, on the Forum.
You are a sick slanderer, Mr. Thibault de Vassal.
Don't worry, I will not play a single chess game on the platform FICGS anymore. I decided so already half a year ago.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-25 21:54:54)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Herbert Kruse:
"now the russian trolls are here too, its sad"
I do not know, perhaps Herbert Kruse kept in mind, for example, the following section from my Public Appeal:
"Suppose it is permissible to obstruct Russian sports persons to get Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine. In that case, it must also be permissible to obstruct Israeli sports persons to get Israel to stop its war crimes and to punish the perpetrators."
Or, perhaps the following one:
"However, the civil war in Ukraine, which started in 2014, had killed around 20,000 civilians by 2022. But, by November 2023, the Russian invasion that began in 2022 had already killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers."
You are a moral and intellectual bastard, Mr. Herbert Kruse.
And what if someone says here, on the Forum of the chess platform:
"Now the paedophiles, sodomites and corpse-eaters are here too, its sad."
How would you publicly prove here, on the Forum, that you are not a paedophile, sodomite and corpse-eater?
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-23 23:19:53)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Now, a question has been raised about banning Israel from the Olympic Games:
"Should Israel’s Flag Be Raised at the Paris Olympics?" <be> How the IOC is penalizing Russia provides insight into how it could treat Israel at the 2024 Games.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-russia-paris-olympics/
My position has not been changed because I have not received any reasonable arguments against my views.
I am of the opinion that:
1. Russia was banned from the Paris 2024 Olympics using demagogical arguments. The real reason for the ban was, of course, that in 2022, Russia started a war against Ukraine and annexed some Ukrainian territories starting in 2014.
2. The International Olympic Committee should publicly accept that it was a mistake to politicize sports and it should annul the sanctions imposed on Russia.
3. If the International Olympic Committee does not lift the sanctions imposed on Russia, it should impose the same sanctions on Israel because Israel is very explicitly committing genocide in the Gaza Sector since 07 October 2023.
Thibault de Vassal (2023-11-20 19:39:27)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Juri, you probably spread fake news:
___________________________
Social media users recently circulated video footage they claimed shows an Israeli helicopter killing Israelis at an Oct. 7 concert in Israel.
Stew Peters, a far-right radio host and the filmmaker behind the anti-COVID-19 vaccine films "Died Suddenly" and "Watch the Water," shared the 14-second video clip on X, formerly Twitter.
"VIDEO PROVES and ISRAEL ADMITS it slaughtered its own people on Oct. 7th," Peters wrote Nov. 9. "This attack was NOT made by goat herders on paragliders. Footage from Israeli helicopter shows the IDF killing many people at October 7 concert in Israel. IDF helicopters fired on civilians fleeing the PsyTrance Music Festival."
Other social media users shared Peters’ post, and it was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) We also found this video clip misrepresented on TikTok.
(...)
GeoConfirmed, a group that works to geolocate video footage, analyzed the Israel Defense Forces’ video, and concluded it was not filmed at the site of the Nova music festival.
We found no evidence to support Peters’ claim that the video clip showed Israeli forces killing people at an Oct. 7 concert in Israel. A group that works to geolocate video footage analyzed the Israel Defense Forces’ video and said it was not filmed at the music festival site.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/nov/17/stew-peters/no-this-video-doesnt-show-israeli-military-killing/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57UQKWdZRco
_________________________
In doubt, such news (probably fake news) have no place here... Thanks in advance.
Now we heard your message (and I did respond to your public appeal), feel free to let chess organizations decide what they have to do, no need to discuss it more here.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-20 02:21:47)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
"Israeli Security Establishment: Hamas Likely Didn’t Have Advance Knowledge of Nova Festival"
Haaretz, 18 November 2023
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-security-establishment-hamas-likely-didnt-have-prior-knowledge-of-nova-festival/0000018b-e2ee-d168-a3ef-f7fe8ca20000
"Hamas had not planned to attack music festival, Israeli report says"
Al Jazeera, 18 November 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/18/hamas-had-not-planned-to-attack-israel-music-festival-israeli-report-says
'“An investigation into the incident revealed an [Israeli military] combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base fired at the terrorists and apparently also hit some of the revelers there,” the Haaretz report cited an unnamed police official as saying.'
The funniest thing is that after Mr Herbert Kruse claimed that I should be in jail for not thinking that the official narrative on the 07 October attack was entirely true and proven - the very next day Israeli newspapers reported that some unspecified number of civilians were killed not by Hamas but by Israeli helicopter.
The sad thing is that the discussion of the 07 October events is absolutely irrelevant to my Public Appeal.
As I have explained above several times.
Suppose that all the 1200 people killed on 07 October were civilians. Suppose that Hamas is a terrorist organisation (I have not checked their background, I heard the name "Hamas" first time in my life on 07 October). Suppose that the 07 attack was a terrorist attack and all the civilians were killed intentionally.
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING can be inferred concerning my Public Appeal.
I have explained already several times that Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip are in no way justified by 07 October events.
It follows from the international conventions, from the entrenched definitions of "war crime", "genocide", etc.
I have also explained, already in my Public Appeal, that there is no need to impose sports sanctions on Hamas, as Hamas has been announced to be a terrorist organisation by the European Union, shortly after the 07 October events.
Moreover, I have explained above, that one cannot expel Hamas from the chess organisations like FIDE or ICCF, because it has never been there.
I do not want to talk to such demagogues as Herbert Kruse and Thibault de Vassal.
Among other things, both have completely ignored my arguments and the actual text of my Public Appeal.
There is an ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Compared to the enormous crimes of Israel, the scale of killing unarmed civilians, the Russian Chess Federation has been sanctioned for small things, while the current racist, fascist Nazi-Israel has remained untouched, with impunity.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-19 01:39:29)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Thibault the Vassal:
"Juri, when you say << For example, I am not sure that Hamas "chose" to kill civilians. >>, I'm not sure if your topic is determinism or something else but obviously you cannot be sure of anything. Did you watch the videos? Anyway, any army killing or kidnapping civilians is a war crime for sure and that's most probably terrorism in this case."
I do not understand what you are talking about?
I cannot be sure about the videos because I know that Israel is a liar.
I cannot be sure that it was Hamas as and organization who (intentionally) killed the civilians. Perhaps some members of Hamas enjoyed killing civilians despite the commands of their chiefs.
I cannot be sure that these were members of Hamas who murdered the civilians. Perhaps Israel knew about the attack and these civilians were killed during the attack by, say, the Israeli secret service. Perhaps Netanyahu wanted it to happen to get an excuse to start the carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip.
I cannot be sure that all the civilians killed were killed by Hamas. It is plausible to guess that some civilians were killed by Israeli forces.
After all, I know that earlier, Israel had intentionally killed its own soldiers and its own civilians.
There are or have been such dubious doctrines in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF):
HANNIBAL DIRECTIVE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive
DAHYIA DOCTRINE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine
I also know that reportedly here have been some witnesses in Israel, Jews, who have claimed in Israel TV and radio, that they saw that Israeli forces killed civilian hostages and random civilians nearby.
Therefore, I am not in a hurry decide, what actually happened on 07 October 2023.
What I reported above was that I regard it as proven beyond reasonable doubt that Hamas killed some unknown number of civilians.
Finally, Thibault the Vassal, I do not accept your attitude, and particularly I completely condemn the attitude of Herbert Kruse.
Are you both some kind of communists or Stalinists?
It is not a crime not to believe such assertions that have not been sufficiently proven.
If you demand that one must blindly believe whatever propaganda the government or the mainstream media produces, then you are a totalitarianist.
I do not want to talk to such people.
However, now, at least, I know how such people are thinking, who defend absolutely illogical and inconsistent policies.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-19 01:13:45)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Me:
"I am not sure that Hamas 'chose' to kill civilians."
Herbert Kruse:
"for that u dont need empathy, u need to be in prison!"
My answer:
Please arrest this man with the name "Herbert Kruse". He is obviously a fascist.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-19 00:58:48)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
ARGUMENTS CONCERNING THE RUSSIA/UKRAINE WAR
None of the commentators explained why it was necessary and reasonable to politicise sports and to impose sanctions on Russia and Belarus. No one answered my corresponding arguments from my Public Appeal. No one explained why the sanctions were imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, while no sanctions were imposed on the US for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
HERBERT KRUSE PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING "ARGUMENT":
"like Ukraine Israel had its "Butcha" at the music festival, so who attacked?
and there were constant rockets on Israel from Gaza, should they just allow it?
and the hostiges should just given up?
if my state can not defend me, maybe u can help?!"
This emotional and psychological manipulation completely ignored all my relevant arguments and explanations.
Now, let us take only the first phrase of this mumbo-jumbo:
"like Ukraine Israel had its 'Butcha' at the music festival, so who attacked?"
My Public Appeal was about chess sanctions. Now, the data are as follows:
2022, February 24:
Russia started its invasion of Ukraine
2022, February 27:
An extraordinary meeting of the FIDE Council was held on the current situation and the urgent measures to be taken after the military action launched by Russia in Ukraine.
https://fide.com/news/1603
Thus, it seems that they waited for the beginning of the Russian invasion and had a plan for how to react, as they responded only a few days later.
Israel had occupied Palestinian territories for 55 years, but the chess federation FIDE had never reacted.
2022, March 16:
Russia and Belarus teams suspended from FIDE competitions.
https://fide.com/news/1638
2022, March 30:
Russian troops leave Bucha (near Kyiv).
2022, April 01:
The corpses in Bucha were discovered.
Now, the first obvious problem with Herbert Kruse's "argument" is that the timeline proves that the chess sanctions on Russia were imposed BEFORE the corpses in Bucha were discovered.
The second problem is that he does not know or pretends not to know the definitions of such terms as "war crime".
The third problem is that, as a matter of fact, we do NOT know WHEN these people were executed, and we do NOT know WHO executed them.
It is so because there were actually TWO massacres in Bucha.
The shelling killed some people, "The Guardian" reported. These people were lying on the streets. The satellite images proved that they were killed before the Russian Army left the town.
However, some people were executed in the cellars. Unfortunately, the satellite images cannot prove the time of the executions in the cellars.
There is one additional problem. Ukraine has not made public the names and personal data of the victims. Therefore, we do not even know what percentage of the victims were Ukrainians and what percentage were Russians.
THIBAULT THE VASSAL PRESENTED THE FOLLOWING SEQUENCE OF ARGUMENTS:
"Ukraine is attacked mainly because Poutine (at least) argues it historically belongs to Russia with no consideration of its recent history & international treaties (and among other reasons because he obviously sees nazis in every people open on what a man/woman/family could look like, meaning many europeans & americans)."
Thibault has no evidence whatsoever for one's claim that Putin "obviously sees nazis in every people open on what a man/woman/family could look like, meaning many europeans & americans)." There is even no evidence to the claim that the Russian administration thinks that the majority of Ukrainians were Nazis. The evidence might be the public speeches of Russian leaders. But I have seen no such speech with such theses. Indeed, Putin has said something else.
I believe that Thibault presents one's prejudices as "obvious facts".
Besides, it has nothing to do with the arguments of my Public Appeal.
"There are few doubts that war crimes have been committed there."
In the Ukraine/Russia war, BOTH sides have committed a lot of war crimes, and it is well documented and proven.
However, the chess sanctions on Russia were not imposed because of the war crimes, as can be seen from the schedule above. The motivation to impose those sanctions was, initially, merely the fact that Russia started a war (not a war crime but a crime against peace).
Moreover, in the Ukraine/Donbas domestic war too, both sides committed war crimes. Ukraine committed crimes against humanity, and there were clear genocidal elements of the behaviour towards the Russian-speaking minority of Ukraine. It is also well-documented and proven. At the beginning of my Public Appeal, I mentioned that Karyakin argued from the premise that Ukrainian ultra-nationalists murdered a lot of Russians in Ukraine.
However, I see that the responses to my Public Appeal have altogether ignored all my arguments, and everyone has preferred to talk about something else.
Thibault de Vassal (2023-11-18 19:42:16)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Juri, when you say << For example, I am not sure that Hamas "chose" to kill civilians. >>, I'm not sure if your topic is determinism or something else but obviously you cannot be sure of anything. Did you watch the videos? Anyway, any army killing or kidnapping civilians is a war crime for sure and that's most probably terrorism in this case.
On Israel response, many experts say different things, so it remains unclear yet to me. (it is important not to listen what one want to hear only)
About your text, you seem to neglict all contextual elements to compare Russia, Thaïland, Congo, North Korea, China or whatever situation in any country... No chess organization reacted much when Peng Shuai (chinese tennis star) disappeared, but tennis world reacted! For Rohingya, Karabakh or about war in Irak or Afghanisatan. How many chess players in these countries? That is not the same. Russia & Ukraine are among the most influential chess nations in the world. Russia is the biggest country, has the most nuclear weapons. That's why it seems pertinent that chess players and organizations take position towards not just peace (undermeaning "do what Russia wants"), but a fair and right peace.
You say : "Concerning your political views about the real intentions of Russia when starting a war against Ukraine, what you present dogmatically and without evidence"
The evidence is in Putin's speeches, "Russia defends its interests", obviously Ukraine (another country for a while) should not be free of his choices, in example to join an alliance to protect itself just like Finland or other countries... Obviously Ukraine is Russia's interest and should not join OTAN. Did ever OTAN attack Russia?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dgy4vYTp_Jo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxS9YIBeJbY
Watching full speeches is even more instructive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akzr0K0CE0M
Putin's rhetoric remains both crude and manipulative, appealing to people's conservative reflexes. And it works on most people who get outraged at the slightest conspiracy theory, it's no coincidence.
Finally, the argument saying that there shouldn't be politics in chess or sports has no foundations other than a subjective point of view.
You say that these bans by FIDE were out of international laws and that the same restrictions should apply to israeli playesrs... well, so just prove it and make appeal I guess. Karjakin probably thought about that already!?
Meanwhile, these discussions are only point of views.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-18 03:57:22)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
to Thibault de Vassal:
"Recently, Hamas chose to attack civilians instead of Israel (this is a war crime, no ambiguity there), Israel now does everything to destroy Hamas, making many victims among civilians. But this may not be war crimes according to definition. Nothing obvious there, we'll see."
The 07 October attack is quite recent, and I would not say that all the circumstances are clear. For example, I am not sure that Hamas "chose" to kill civilians.
The only thing that is sure is that some number of civilians were killed by Hamas. It is sure, because Israel accuses Hamas of killing the civilians, and one of Hamas leaders has publicly admitted, that during that attack, Hamas killed some civilians "accidentally".
Killing civilians may make it a war crime. Intentionally killing civilians may make it an act of terrorism.
After the 07 October attack, Israel has killed awfully many civilians in the Gaza Strip. I totally agree with those experts who say that such a bombing of the sieged territory is not self-defence and it is a war crime - at the very least.
Note that during the 07 October attack, approximately 1200 people were killed, some of them were soldiers, and the others were civilians, many of them unarmed civilians.
Under Israel's bombs, in the Gaza Strip, during one month, more than 10,000 unarmed civilians were killed. Most of them were women and children. And it has not yet ended.
As of now, no one of the participants in the present discussion has said anything at all about the content of my Public Appeal. It seems that no one has even read it, despite I inserted the link into my initial post. I did not try to present the text directly here, on the Forum, as it was perhaps too lengthy for the Forum.
I shall provide the link to my Public Appeal again:
https://medium.com/@eintalu/a-public-appeal-to-chess-organisations-on-the-bombing-of-the-gaza-strip-be56afd3f5ca
Concerning civilian causalities of the Gaza bombing, and the comparison of the Ukraine war and the Israel war, I provided the following information in my Public Appeal:
<International organisations confirm that Israel has managed to kill more children in the Gaza Strip in one month in 2023 than were killed in all the war zones on the planet in the whole of 2022. In fact, significantly more children have been killed by Israeli bombs in one month than in two years of war in Ukraine. See also, e.g.:
“GAZA: 3,195 CHILDREN KILLED IN THREE WEEKS SURPASSES ANNUAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN CONFLICT ZONES SINCE 2019”
Save the Children, 29 October 2023
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-3195-children-killed-three-weeks-surpasses-annual-number-children-killed-conflict-zones# >
Now, while talking about the attacks on civilians, you (as other participants of the discussion) simply ignore my Public Appeal.
Concerning your political views about the real intentions of Russia when starting a war against Ukraine, what you present dogmatically and without evidence - the only sober reply is that dogmatically and without evidence, one could as well assert whatever about the Israeli real intentions concerning the Gaza war.
However, we have direct evidence from the public speeches of Israel's leadership, that the intentions of the Gaza war are genocidal.
I conclude that you are trying to whitewash Israeli large-scale war crimes and crimes against humanity while ignoring the text of my Public Appeal.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-18 03:24:26)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
to Thibault de Vassal:
It is beside the point whether the Russell Tribunal on Palestine was biased or not.
What is essential is that you have said nothing about the facts and statistic presented by that tribunal.
You are talking about the apartheid. But you ignore the context in which I mentioned the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. I was talking about that tribunal because it presented facts, that already in 2014, Israel's actions concerning the Gaza Strip were very close to genocide.
Thus, your remarks concerning the Russell Tribunal on Palestine are beside the point and avoiding the theme.
Moreover, independently of any Russel tribunals, it is evident and clear that there is an apartheid regime in Israel and occupied Palestine territories.
First of all, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are surrounded by a high wall with barbered wire.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-18 03:11:09)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Ilmars Cirulis:
"Both Netanyahu and Hamas should be in prison. :(
Poor civilians on both sides."
I have approximately the same opinion.
However, concerning chess sanctions, we can sanction only Israel.
We cannot impose chess sanctions on Hamas, as Hamas is not a state and it is not represented in the FIDE or ICCF.
We cannot expel Hamas from the ICCF because it has never been there.
My essay was about chess sanctions, not about such things as the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, if to speak on that issue, my view is that both Hamas and Israel should be prosecuted in the ICCF.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-18 03:05:36)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Herbert Kruse:
"I wished you Had more emphaty for the victims"
After all, you are directly insulting and slandering me.
Get lost, Mr Herbert Kruse.
Vadrya Pokshtya (2023-11-17 21:36:46)
Battle of Kings
On average, a game lasts 70-80 moves. This is provided that the players understand what they are doing. Otherwise the game may end quickly.
Since, unlike ordinary chess, the board does not become empty as events develop on the board, but on the contrary, the evolution of chess pieces pushes towards the collapse of the entire system, its finitude is obvious. The spawning process cannot last forever - everything is limited by the 8x8 chessboard.
Thibault de Vassal (2023-11-17 20:54:53)
Battle of Kings
About evaluation of positions, the value of pieces is not obvious as well... that's the good point, but still, in such complex games, calculation becomes even more important. I hope to see Alphazero playing this game one day ;)
Thibault de Vassal (2023-11-17 20:52:46)
Battle of Kings
I understand your point of view. Indeed, it would be very tough to evaluate positions, but I think that pure calculation would be far enough to surpass human abilities there.
I agree that the bot is really weak :) After a second game, I realized that it had no strategy at all... and that the game is even more interesting!
Vadrya Pokshtya (2023-11-17 20:38:28)
Battle of Kings
Thanks, but you are wrong about the engine being able to crush this chess variant ;)
Knowledgeable people, programmers with whom I had the opportunity to talk about this chess variant, argued that not a single engine would be able to adequately evaluate positions in the Battle of Kings due to the colossal combinatorial complexity of the game.
Please note that the server bot plays very, very weakly. The program does not understand the concept of the game and makes a superficial assessment of the position based on material balance.
Playing against a bot is very different from playing against a human.
At the moment you can play by correspondence against other players here https://www.schemingmind.com/default.aspx
or here
https://games.dtco.ru/
Thank you again for your positive feedback!
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-16 23:40:31)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Herbert Kruse:
"you ignore, who is victim and who startet it"
I do not ignore anything, but it is you who ignores everything relevant:
1) You ignore the text of my Public Appeal and the arguments presented there, and I have already said that above.
2) You ignore the definitions of "war crime" and "genocide". Above, I have even inserted some links to international conventions.
3) You ignore my replies. Above, I just explained to you that war crime is a war crime, and genocide is a genocide independently of the previous history. Who started the war or whether the opponent committed some war crimes earlier is irrelevant.
4) You also ignore the history. The Israel/Palestine wars started already in 1948. On 09 April 1948, one radical Zionist group committed a massacre of Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin.
5) You also ignore the documents concerning the current background. In the United Nations documentation, it is stated that the Gaza Strip is a territory occupied by Israel. There are other such territories. The UN documentation uses the phrase "Israel and occupied Palestinian territories".
"inhumnan war crimes by Hamas caused this"
It is more precise to say that Hamas's attack PROVOKED Israel's reaction.
"Hamas strategy is to hide after civiliens, thats so obvious and you fall for it"
I cannot speak with someone who arbitrarily ascribes to me some thoughts or attitudes I do not have.
The use of human shields by Hamas in no way justifies Israel's current massacres in the Gaza Strip.
Your argument is based on not knowing what is and what is not a war crime and what exactly is written in, e.g., the Genova Convention. It is also based on ignoring the text of my Public Appeal.
I cannot continue the discussion with you because you violate the most basic principles of meaningful discussion.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-15 21:44:51)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Dear Herbert Kruse
My Public Appeal is about the sports sanctions, particularly about the chess sanctions, in the context of the Ukraine/Russia war and the more recent Israel/Palestine war.
My position is that it is wrong to politicise sports and, therefore, it was wrong to impose chess sanctions on Russia and Ukraine. The chess sanctions imposed on Russia and Ukraine should be lifted.
However, if these sanctions remain in force and politicising sports is regarded as a new normal, I think similar sanctions should be imposed on all countries that have seriously violated the international conventions.
Since October 2023, Israel has committed serious war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip (and elsewhere too).
Therefore, I suggest that if the chess sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus will not be removed, then similar sanctions should be imposed on Israel.
For example, Israel should be excluded from the International Correspondence Chess Federation membership.
I explained all these points in my Public Appeal.
In your replies, you have actually not addressed my arguments presented in the Public Appeal.
First, you started to talk about the Jews in Germany. But the word "Jew(s)" appeared only once in my Public Appeal - to declare that the sanctions should be imposed on the states or the citizens of states and not based on ethnicity:
"As far as the Jews are concerned, collective punishment must not be applied to them. No one may be accused or discriminated against based on their nationality."
Finally, you started to talk about Israel's right to self-defence. Again, this distorts the content of my Public Appeal. I have nowhere and never denied Israel's right to self-defence. However, from the right to self-defence, it in no way follows that one has a right to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Unnecessarily killing a large number of unarmed civilians is a war crime, and it cannot be justified by referring to self-defence or the war crimes the other side has earlier committed.
Unfortunately, I cannot continue discussing this with you, as you have systematically ignored the content of my Public Appeal.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-15 01:32:18)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Herbert Kruse:
"jews fear for their lifes in germany now"
Collective punishment is banned by the international law.
Collective punishment during war activities is considered a war crime.
Right now, Israel is applying collective punishment towards the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
It was amazingly explicit in the speech of Israel's president.
The current rise of antisemitism outside of Israel is a reaction to Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, but this antisemitism is too collective punishment.
In my Public Appeal, I have explicitly said that in the case of chess sanctions, the Jews should not be targeted. No discrimination is allowed based on nationality.
My Public Appeal addresses only Israel's current administration.
Besides, there are some interesting facts about Jewish great thinkers.
After WWII, Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt published her famous book
"The Roots of Totalitarianism"
The Stalinist regime and the Hitlerian regime were both regarded as totalitarian regimes in that book.
I have read that Arendt had conflicts with ultra-Zionists after WWII.
Albert Einstein wrote a letter on 10 April 1948. It was 1 day after the Deir Yassin massacre, committed by Israel's radical Zionists. Einstein called them "terrorists" and declared that he did not want to see them or talk to them.
Herbert Kruse (2023-11-14 15:56:31)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
She advocated for Palestinian children and a two-state solution. It is now clear: The 74-year-old activist Vivian Silver was murdered in the Hamas terrorist attack.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-14 03:57:14)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
Herbert Kruse:
"... our older generations did the holocaust, so for me its never again, so i am with jews always!"
"Holocaust" is the name of a historical event.
"Genocide" is a concept derived from that event.
Shortly after WWII, the first international conventions preventing genocide were adopted.
Today, we have:
Article 6 "Genocide" of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf
Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (= Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide)
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf
There is one serious problem that has arisen.
Israel's actions toward the Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, since October 2023 seem to match the definition of genocide exactly.
Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity were sufficiently proven already in 2014.
https://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TRP-Concl.-Gaza-EN.pdf
Jews are like all the other nations. In Israel, they have their state, government, and so on.
The problem is with the politics of that government, not with Jews.
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-05 18:00:41)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
The following paragraph was added after the publication of the first version of the Public Appeal:
“However, at a non-individual, organisational, official level, the third point above, which calls for public condemnation of Israel’s actions, should be avoided. Notably, the Israeli police have threatened to severely punish anyone who criticises Israel’s current military action in the Gaza Strip. It is unreasonable to formally demand that a sports person should make such a statement, which would result in him being punished by the authorities in his own country.”
Juri Eintalu (2023-11-05 06:03:45)
A Public Appeal to Chess Organisations
A PUBLIC APPEAL TO CHESS ORGANISATIONS ON THE BOMBING OF THE GAZA STRIP
Israel’s bombing of the civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip has resulted in a catastrophic number of causalities in a very short time. It may amount to crimes against humanity, war crimes, mass murder, collective punishment or genocide, as noted by the UN and several international independent organisations.
I suggest that international chess organisations like FIDE and ICCF should revoke their sanctions on Russia and Belarus concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or they should impose the same sanctions on Israel.
Independently of the decisions of these international chess organisations, I call individual chess players to refuse to play chess with those players who are using Israel’s flag, etc.
The full text of my appeal can be read here:
https://medium.com/@eintalu/a-public-appeal-to-chess-organisations-on-the-bombing-of-the-gaza-strip-be56afd3f5ca
Thibault de Vassal (2023-08-13 02:11:55)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament
The 25th round-robin final just started... 7, 9, 11 or at most 13 players should qualify (2 from stage 1 SM group, 1 from each stage 1 M groups, so 4 in total from stage 1, added to the winners of stage 2 groups, 3 in total).
According to the stage 2 results, I added one co-winner (best TER) from each stage 2 groups + the next best TER cowinner (3rd in his group).
Total : 11 players (good luck everyone!)
Juri Eintalu (2023-08-09 22:29:42)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
I have not made any political posts on the Forum.
Quite to the contrary: I have criticized politicizing sports.
I am shocked by the answers I received from Garvin Gray and Thibault de Vassal. I do not think their comments exemplify a civilized discussion. The problem is that they are not arbitrary chess players but chess organizers. I conclude that rational discussion with those who support politicizing chess is impossible.
I had already forgotten the FICGS server, but now I have received a notification that someone has commented on my old post.
Bogoljub Teverovski announces on 09 August 2023:
"A self-ban of karjakin continues"
No hints have been made about what event he is talking about—no references, links, or explanations.
I can only understand that Bogoljub regards the FIDE ban on Karjakin as a Karjakin's SELF-ban.
Let me add that 1 e2-e4 is the initial move of the Queen's gambit, and 1 Ng1-f3 is the most popular opening in checkers.
I am logging out from the FICGS not to receive any notifications anymore.
Stanislas Gounant (2023-08-09 00:42:36)
Next Ficgs World Championship Tournament
I try to ask the players of my chess club to join FICGS and the poker championship
Pavel Hase (2023-05-23 13:57:57)
Problem players.
Why are players still accepted into tournaments who overwhelmingly fail to finish their games or lose on time? A tady zase jednoho po pár letech vidím - stále to samé. Plus několik dalších.
Juri Eintalu (2023-03-31 21:13:22)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
You are quoting me wrongly. And you are doing it intentionally.
Moreover, I was talking about whether FIDE and ICCF decisions were justified. My argument was that these decisions applied some important principles discriminatively, selectively.
Suddenly, you started to talk about whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified. You also started to talk about war crimes.
Let me remind that the ICCF started a process of banning the Russian team just a few days after the Russian invasion began.Thus, your arguments about what happened months later might be pretty irrelevant.
Let me also remind you that you decided to talk ONLY about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. You dismissed the US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the war crimes committed during the Donbas civil war (both Ukraine and the separatists committed war crimes there), and, finally, you also dismissed the war crimes committed by Ukraine in the present war.
And now, before I answered to your mess, you managed to attack me personally.
My answer to your provocative questions is that if the political regime will go absolutely crazy, then I will not defend that regime against anyone. But I still hope that it will not go absolutely crazy.
Anyway, I will not discuss with you anymore, because you are systematically ignoring important relevant facts and you regularly change the context of discussion.
Juri Eintalu (2023-03-31 09:09:17)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
To Thibault de Vassal:
Thank you for taking a look at my open letter on Medium.
“... isn’t it a bit short to compare Russia’s war in Ukraine to what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq or Serbia? (that are quite different cases by the way, involving different groups of countries)”
If country A starts a war against country B, the relevant question is whether that war is justified or unjustified, whether it is a war of aggression or, instead, the attacker has the right to do so.
By now, it is a piece of common knowledge that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were wars of aggression.
Chess organisations FIDE and ICCF have punished Russian chess organisations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine while not punishing the US chess organisations for the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. FIDE and ICCF have not presented any comprehensive analyses about how justified or unjustified some of those wars are. You are turning the burden of proof around and accusing me of not delivering the arguments that FIDE and ICCF had to present.
“It seems that most russians in Russia still support this war (“special op”) while everyone ignored the truth about those weapons in Irak (in example). Any context should be analysed in depth IMHO.”
Excuse me, but I cannot follow what you are trying to say.
You argue that any context should be analysed in-depth, but you fail to hint at why Russia should be punished and the US should not. Your only fact mentioned, “everyone ignored the truth about those weapons in Irak”, remains mysterious. I do not understand in what context you are saying this.
We know already for ten years that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Concerning your other remarks, I make only one reply. We know that there are saliently some Nazis in Ukraine.
Here, on the chess forum, I technically cannot answer in detail to your several remarks that, in my mind, are all somewhat inexact or vague.
Juri Eintalu (2023-03-30 11:51:52)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
I wrote an open letter to the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation that I am leaving this organization.
https://eintalu.medium.com/an-open-letter-to-the-estonian-correspondence-chess-federation-4d7edcb8fe5c
Thibault de Vassal (2023-02-05 20:53:53)
Advertising a win or a draw with 7th or
You found the right way (email or any way to contact webmaster)...
As of January 2023, rule is :
"11. 5. Adjudications
In some cases, the game continues but the result is obvious.
If time control is superior to 1 day and if a player doesn't want to resign (or accept draw) and obviously last the game, his opponent may report to referee a first time. If the player takes 30 days more to finish the game, his opponent may call referee another time, then the game will be adjudicated. An analysis submitted by a player should contain sufficient information so that no doubt is possible. This may include a sequence of moves, but in some circumstances it may be sufficient to claim a win or a draw on the basis of material or positional advantage. Final decision belongs to referee."
Scott Ligon (2022-11-25 17:10:39)
I did not win a game since 3 years
What does it even mean to have an advantage? Engine analysis has changed my perspective on this issue. From a human perspective, we can say that white has an advantage at the start of the game, and the statistics support this. At the highest levels of human chess white wins more often than black, but it's more often a draw. So white has a slight advantage.
From the perspective of correspondence chess with modern engines, the advantage is shown to be an illusion. It's just a draw. The engine evaluation at the start might be +0.15 or whatever, but if both sides are using an engine and there's no severe time constraint, it doesn't mean anything. By move 20 or so of a competently played correspondence game the engine analysis will have converged to 0.00 and it will stay there for the rest of the game.
In the final analysis, there's no such thing as a slight advantage. Every position is either a forced checkmate for one side or the other, or it's a draw. Even modern engines haven't pushed things that far, but they're strong enough to obliterate our human concept of an advantage.
Scott Ligon (2022-11-22 16:25:45)
I did not win a game since 3 years
Yet another amendment. From the previous post, we can eliminate the FICGS server evaluation and let the first player stipulate which side is playing for the win. If they assign the advantage incorrectly, this only helps their opponent, so the first player has no reason to lie. Example: First player picks the King's Bishop Gambit as the starting position (1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4) but erroneously claims that white has the advantage, so the second player has to choose between playing white for the win or black for the draw. Second player happily chooses to play black for the draw and should have no trouble holding the draw.
Scott Ligon (2022-11-22 16:00:33)
I did not win a game since 3 years
Even the idea of having preset pools of starting positions isn't necessary. Going off my previous post, the first player selects any starting position they like (has to be a position that can be reached in an actual game of chess, so let's say the first player gives a sequence of opening moves that results in the position). First player wants to pick a position right on the border between win and draw, but they don't even need to stipulate which side is playing for the win, because a chess engine can run a quick search and determine that automatically. So the first player submits an opening sequence of moves, the FICGS server runs a quick evaluation with Stockfish or whatever just to decide which side has advantage, and the second player chooses between playing the advantaged side for a win or the disadvantaged side for a draw.
Scott Ligon (2022-11-22 14:53:59)
I did not win a game since 3 years
As for ways to address this, if engines are allowed you could have tournaments from a starting position where the game theoretic value isn't clear. Where maybe it's a win for one side or the other, or maybe it's a draw, but it's right on the border and it's not obvious which side we're on. Then you play two games from that position against each opponent, once as white and once as black.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-11-22 02:31:19)
I did not win a game since 3 years
Voilà un débat qui pourrait être intéressant...
Stanislas' message in english:
"I've been playing on this computer-assisted site for 15 years. Fifteen years ago to win a game you had to use several analysis programs depending on the game phases. I seem to remember that Hiarcs was better in the final than the other programs. Until a few years ago, it was possible to find fortresses that resisted the onslaught of the adversary, even when my program told me that I had lost. But it's been 3 years since I only won against players who played without the help of the computer or who made a mistake when playing their move. What I would like is that a solution be found to restore interest in the game by correspondence."
Stanislas Gounant (2022-11-21 18:00:54)
I did not win a game since 3 years
Cela fait 15 ans que je joue sur ce site, assisté par ordinateur. Il y a 15 ans pour gagner une partie il fallait utiliser plusieurs programmes d'analyse suivant les phases de jeu. Je crois me souvenir que Hiarcs était meilleur en finale que les autres programmes. Il y a quelques années encore, il était possible de trouver des forteresses qui résistaient aux assauts de l'adversaire, même quand mon programme me disait que j'avais perdu. Mais cela fait 3 ans que je n'ai gagné que contre des joueurs qui jouaient sans l'aide de l'ordinateur ou qui se sont trompés de case en jouant leur coup. Ce que j'aimerais c'est qu'une solution soit trouvée pour redonner de l'intérêt au jeu par correspondance.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-10-25 23:44:07)
respectful legacy
That is a very tough question, it may have many consequences in case of a rules change...
In all cases, I have no idea about Luis situation, so if anyone knows, feel free to send me a private message.
Yeturu Aahlad (2022-10-25 03:45:09)
respectful legacy
Luis is another esteemed opponent and very dear friend from a different troubled region of our world. Once again, should death be the only consideration for the restoration of a player's legacy?
https://ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=135663
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 (2022-10-06 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.
Garvin Gray (2022-08-22 03:43:25)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
As I have just attended the in person 2022 ICCF Congress, and only just seen this thread, I will clarify some matters.
It is correct that before the matter of the situation in Ukraine, the ICCF statutes only allowed for a Member Federation to be suspended for financial reasons, and this could only be done at Congress ie by majority vote of the Federations.
Therefore, with the situation in Ukraine, the ICCF EB set up the Online Congress and proposals were arranged to deal with that situation. All proposals were designed only to last until the 2022 Congress in Glasgow ie they would be reviewed at the 2022 Congress and the Member Federations would vote again on whether to keep any sanctions, or not.
At the Extraordinary Congress- The Member Federations decided to vote to suspend both Russia and Belarus Federations, but not the individual players.
First of all, there needed to be a vote to change the Statutes, this is what required the 2/3 vote. And the count for the 2/3's is a simple 2/3 majority- For - Against, abstains don't count.
If abstains were to count, then the term would be an absolute majority. That is not the case here. It is a simple 2/3 majority to change the Statutes.
As is pointed out, 'However, that EC was online.' Hence why the Statues proposals vote was first.
If it did not receive the 2/3 simple majority and the Member Federations did not approve the change to allowing Member Federations to be suspended for non financial reasons, then all the other proposals would be null and void, no further voting would take place on the other proposals and no action could be taken against Russia or Belarus until the 2022 in person Congress in Glasgow.
And at the 2022 Congress, this suspension of the Russian and Belarus Federations were continued until the 2023 ICCF Congress in Amsterdam.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-08-19 02:55:17)
poker reflection time
"the new rule with 30-day max accumulated time would end the game 30 days sooner" : Statistically, it is quite hard to evaluate IMO... so... maybe.
Anyway, I'll make that change within a few weeks if there is no strong argument against this.
Herbert Kruse (2022-08-08 08:46:44)
poker reflection time
do you really think that my solution courses bigger problems
Thibault de Vassal (2022-08-08 01:16:17)
poker reflection time
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_01__000016 :
2 years and 10 months
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_02__000016 :
2 years and 4 months
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_03__000016 :
2 years and 5 months
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_01__000015 :
2 years and 11 months
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_02__000015 :
2 years and 9 months
FICGS__POKER_HOLDEM__WCH_TOURNAMENT_03__000015 :
2 years and 5 months
Well, as the final stage will be statistically shorter than stage 1, a complete cycle should take about 5 years, or almost 6 years.
I still agree that it is very long but I never found or read a solution that does not create a bigger problem... tough :/
Yeturu Aahlad (2022-08-06 08:59:44)
poker reflection time
For me, the length of any game is not (yet) an issue. One way to shorten poker games is to double the blinds faster. A downside to that approach is that it will increase the role of luck in the outcome.
Christoph Schroeder (2022-07-30 23:20:26)
poker reflection time
A single stage of a poker tournament lasts 3-5 years, as discussed in this thread. Preliminaries and finals combined, we are at 6-10 years per tournament.
Is "last man standing (being alive)" really the guiding principle of these tournaments? And does this annoy nobody?
It is very sad to see that this topic is another example where discussion is encouraged, an obvious solution is possible, but nothing happens.
Juri Eintalu (2022-07-17 06:30:46)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
Interesting. Russian defence minister Shoigu ordered the Russian army to do everything possible to prevent Ukraine from shelling Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
The next day, Sergey Karyakin appeared in Donetsk's chess club. Karyakin gave a simultaneous chess exhibition in the Donetsk chess club.
Karyakin announces that under the shelling, he understood the following. It is unimportant to have expensive cars, but it is of the utmost importance to stay alive and to have good friends.
On the same day, in the evening, Russia started the heaviest attack on Marinka - the town west of Donetsk, from where Ukraine was shelling Donetsk.
Karyakin invites all chess players to visit Donetsk's wonderful chess club.
No comments.
Juri Eintalu (2022-07-16 15:00:54)
Unvaccinated correspondence chessplayers
I am afraid that it is already too late to respond to my post written 7 months ago. For example, now I am already unable or unwilling to find out that old news reporting that somewhere, someone wanted to prohibit even online voting for the unvaccinated.
Juri Eintalu (2022-07-16 14:28:11)
Unvaccinated correspondence chessplayers
It does not seem to be sufficiently exact information.
Juri Eintalu (2022-07-13 09:45:36)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
The ICCF Statutes webpage provides a new Statute, valid from 9th May 2022.
www.iccf.com/message?message=449
Article 17 contains a new sentence now:
"The Executive Board is empowered by Congress to propose suspension or dismissal of member federations for non-financial reasons."
Thus, the ICCF has also made a decision to suspend Russia and Belarus.
Thus, it seems that the ICCF Congress has calculated as follows:
34/(34 + 13) = 34/47 = 0.72 = 72%
It means that the "abstained" 13 voters have not been taken into account.
But who voted how, who remained neutral, who was missing, etc.?
Article 12 says the following:
"Amendments to the statutes require a vote of the general assembly, called the Congress, and a majority of two thirds of the members present or represented."
However, that Extraordinary Congress was online.
Finally, the downloadable table has other pages providing more detailed information. Thus, there is information that Estonian representative Jüri Kuusik did not "attend" the online congress.
The meanings of the terms "present", "represented", "attended", and "abstained" have remained unclear, which makes the manipulations possible.
Clarity is missing around that issue and on the ICCF homepage.
Juri Eintalu (2022-07-10 19:05:13)
RUSSIA AND BELARUS NOT SUSPENDED?
It seems that Russia and Belarus have not been suspended from the international chess federation ICCF.
The ICCF Extraordinary Congress tried to suspend Russian and Belarus federations.
Online voting was carried on 27 April - 09 May 2022.
https://www.iccf.com/congresses
ICCF homepage does not provide a clear result. I do not see it. The link to THAT Congress disappeared today.
The downloadable table of the voting results does not show in detail, what country made what decision.
An excerpt from the results:
***
EC 2022-003 Suspend the Russian Federation - Void if EC 2022-001 is Defeated
For 33, Against 10, Abstain 14
(I calculate that FOR: 58%)
Amendment of ICCF Statute Article 17, EC 2022-01 required 2/3 votes. The result was:
For 34, Against 10, Abstain 13.
I calculate that FOR: 60% which is less than the required 2/3 or 67%.
***
It seems that the ICCF did not succeed to change its Statute so as to allow the suspension of Russia and Belarus based on majority voting.
Unfortunately, in my homeland, there is no information available on how our representative voted (if he voted) and based on what considerations. The national federation also has not responded to my question sent officially through the ICCF server. I also do not see any relevant news on the national federation's website.
Juri Eintalu (2022-05-10 10:32:44)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
The wars can be unique, but they are classified as "just/unjust" wars or "justified/unjustified" wars.
JUST WAR
Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/just-war
The West is of the opinion that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an unjustified war.
Karjakin is of the opinion that it is justified war.
My arguments above assumed that if the Ukrainian war is unjustified, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were even much more unjustified.
Juri Eintalu (2022-05-09 20:00:46)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
I am worried about Kasparov's demand that only those Russian players should be allowed to participate in international tournaments who publicly disapprove Russian invasion of Ukraine. This demand seems to be extremist, like Lenin's and Stalin's slogans.
First, not every Russian sportsman can have the luxury of being a dissident.
Second, Kasparov is notoriously inconsistent (outside of the chessboard). From his logic, it follows that FIDE should have banned all the US chess players who did not publicly disapprove of invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Juri Eintalu (2022-05-09 19:58:15)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
Karjakin's Appeal was Dismissed by FIDE
Thus, Karjakin still cannot play in the candidates tournament because he publicly approved the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Karjakin, in turn, writes (on his Telegram channel) as a response that he is proud that his grandfather was a great soldier, also, that there are Nazis in Ukraine.
He criticises Kasparov.
Kasparov demands that Russian chess players who want to play in international tournaments should publicly disapprove Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Thibault de Vassal (2022-05-06 16:25:43)
Chess.com blocked in Russia
By the way, I'm still not sure what to think about the exclusion of russian teams (at chess.com) or russian players (even more significant, at Wimbledon e.g.) from certain tournaments... many argue not to melt games & political stuff, but it is probably not as simple as this.
Definitely I'm not in favor to exlude russian players from any competition, BUT if they display their political views in favor of this "special op", just like FIDE did for Sergey Karjakin.
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.
Juri Eintalu (2022-04-13 09:54:42)
ICCF Extraordinary Congress
ICCF is about to change its Statute to be able to suspend or exclude countries from the ICCF based on other reasons than financial reasons.
Then, the ICCF is about to suspend Russia and Belarus, using this fresh Amendment.
No reasons or principles are provided, the only criteria are the majority of votes.
However, if any new principles would be introduced, they would be applied backwards-looking and selectively.
https://www.iccf.com/Proposals.aspx?id=76
Juri Eintalu (2022-03-23 17:34:51)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
The Telegram channel "Chess Patriot" was established on 13 March 2022. FIDE made its complaint about Karjakin to the ethics committee earlier. Probably it was based on Karjakin's two tweets on Twitter, plus Karjakin's public letter to Putin. The complaint was made only 3 days after the Ukraine war started.
After FIDE banned Karjakin for 6 months, he has started to make a war propaganda on his Telegram channel. He asks "reasonable Ukrainians" not to fight and not to defend the Kyiv regime.
Karjakin's Twitter history is fun. After 24. February, several outstanding chess players should be banned as well by FIDE due to the nature of their replies to Karjakin's tweets.
I am sure that FIDE's ethics code did not contain any demand not to support any wars. There is even not any demand not to talk about the ongoing war during the chess competition, etc.
Moreover, this ethics code was applied right before it will be outdated. Since 1 April 2022, that code used to ban Karjakin is not valid anymore.
I am sure that this code was arbitrarily interpreted to ban Karjakin.
Juri Eintalu (2022-03-23 10:38:48)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
Very interesting. Karjakin has a Telegram channel "Шахматный Патриотизм" [= "Chess Patriotism"] The name of that channel is evidence that not only FIDE but also Karjakin is politicizing chess.
https://t.me/karjakinchess
Juri Eintalu (2022-03-23 04:30:48)
FIDE BANS KARJAKIN
I am sure that not everyone can competently decide whether Ukrainian war is a justified war or not. My personal feeling is that this war is unjustified, however, I do not know all the facts and I have not read the Genova Convention and other such documents either. The case of the Iraq war is much easier to decide because know we do know there were no chemical weapons in Iraq. Also, Iraq posed no threat to the US whatsoever as the US is on the other side of the planet and Iraq did not have intercontinental missiles.
As for myself, I will never participate in any tournaments or events of FIDE after FIDE has chosen a side in the West/Russia controversy and has allowed to weaponized itself.
There are 100 results for Lu in wikichess.
Alan Ludgate (2447)
d4 d5 Nf3 c5 dxc5 e6 e4 Bxc5 exd5 exd5
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Alan Ludgate (2473)
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