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Game result  (chess)


S. Nichols, 2036
J. Riha, 1932

0-1

See game 26119




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There are 6 results for West Graham in the games.


Game_257   Game_262   Game_266   Game_269   Game_272   Game_273  




There are 24 results for West in the forum.


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-05-27 23:02:00)
An interesting quote :)

"Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double entry accounting." from Shibumi, bestseller by Trevanian

Thanks to Vincent from http://www.godiscussions.com


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-01 17:44:41)
Format For Championship

Hello John.

After all, if it wasn't unusual, the interest would be lower for sure... :)

So you noticed, the 8 players with the highest established correspondence chess ratings play a pure knockout tournament.

I thought about this format a long time ago (and a long time). Combining a knockout tournament (more "spectacular") and a round-robin cycle (everyone can play, no more than 5 cycles) gather together the advantages of both. It is one of the reasons I made FICGS... I think pure knockout or pure round-robin wch cycle is not efficient enough for chess championships.

The other thing you'll notice in the rules : "The special rule is that in case of equality (4-4), the winner is the player with the strongest tournament entry rating if all games are draw, the player with the lowest tournament entry rating if not all games are draw. The winner is qualified for the next stage."

This rule (in case of equality in the round-robin tournaments, the player with the strongest TER is qualified too) is another way to avoid short draws... It may sound strange at a first sight, but I really think it's fair enough and a good way to find most probably the really strongest players in the last stages. Anyway, it's amazing for sure :)


The FICGS chess wch rules :

http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#tournament


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-24 13:03:25)
Future of correspondence chess......

That's a fine analysis, Glen.

However, it's legitimate to consider that chess at a higher level is becoming much harder so that some of the very best players may stop their career, thinking that it's no worth the energy anymore, for results more influenced by 'chance' in statistics...

How many "super-grandmasters" (2700+) said that each point over this mark represents more and more work ?

It's probably the same (and more) in correspondence chess. I do think that it's still possible to improve a lot ! .. but there's a lack of a higher class of players. That's a pity the very best correspondence chess players (ie. former ICCF world champions : Joop van Oosterom, Gert Jan Timmerman...) retire or at least don't defend their title since they achieved it. Of course it's a lot of time, but result is the top class appear to be bigger and there's no clear champion. That's not good IMO to popularize correspondence chess.

All games need champions. I read recently on a Go forum that the success of Chess nowadays was due to his champions (Go is not popular yet in the west because there's noone to represent it, except a manga [Hikaru No Go]..), Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer... That's true IMO, and that's what particularly misses to correspondence chess. Maybe things won't change in ICCF (maybe I should pretend to the board :)), but anyway that's why I chose the knockout system for the FICGS world chess championship, and the possibility for the winner to play a final against a challenger. We'll see...


Don Groves    (2006-11-29 08:18:21)
"Next" request

The new next function still can be irritating when the game with the newest move is the one you want to skip until the end. Next takes me back to that game each time. Is it not possible to cycle through the list of games presented when one logs on? As new games become available, they can be added to the end of this list, not the beginning. In fact, a "Next Game" button beneath the board would be a nice feature, making it easy to skip over games needing more thought.


Lionel Vidal    (2007-01-21 17:49:41)
Go and Chess

About your point number 3... A chess world champion could very well note its moves before playing and yet be mated in one move :-)
In Go pro-matches, the moves are usually recorded during play by another (younger :-) pro, who has also to deal with time keeping: it makes sense not to disturb gods at play by basic housekeepings :-). I remember an article on the WEB counting the numbers of obvious blunders in go pro-games, and it was *very* low compared to chess.

Concerning your point 2, it is not quite true AFAIK: most top pros run a school of younger pros or wanabe pros who play and analyse numerous games on the Master supervision (He does rarely play with students and then it is a great honour!). So a master does not not really analyse alone, but discuss many ideas with others.

Concerning your point 4, I think that increasing the number of games would change the playing calendar too much and a pro cannot play many more games by year without consequences on his results... even at my very low level, I find a go game *much* more tiring than a chess one (here I mean a face to face game, not correspondence or server go... something I still don't manage to get used to :-)
BTW, I also find that recovering from a loss in go is much more difficult (again I mean face to face Go) than in chess: maybe because of a higher involment, maybe it is just me. What do others players think?
Another point is that a pro is paid by the federation (a fixed amount depending on its rank, not linked with his gains in tournaments that are much more important), and have to give some services to the community: lessons, conferences, teaching games... and so on... and this is more true for the lowest ranked pros!


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-04-30 22:34:37)
WCH rules

Thanks Sandor & Wolfgang for sharing your views.

As you said, there's no perfect rule for everyone, particularly in a correspondence chess championship, where time is a predominant factor. As for me, I like much FICGS rules so far because of these major points :

1) The best players have the best chances.
2) A new cycle can start every 6 months.
3) There's no external influence in a knockout tournament.

I think the lowest rated player has to prove he's stronger than the highest rated player or champion, so it's coherent in round-robin and knockout tournaments. I particularly like the special rule in the knockout tournament (stage 1, 2 & 3). I'm now playing an exciting quarter final against Wolfgang, that I'm to lose because of this rule - the winner is the player with the strongest TER is all games are draw, the player with the lowest TER if not all games are draw - even if it finishes with a 4-4 score. Simply because I'll lose most probably at least one game. I think it's fair ! .. I knew the rule (of course, I made it :)), I knew I had to draw all games or to win by one point at least. Rules are the game ! .. It's not more unfair than to draw a game with one or two pawns more ;)

However I agree that WCH round-robin tournaments should be 9, 11 or 13 players groups to give more place to chess. I'll take care of this in the next cycle.

Finally, not only rules are to be taken in consideration... To attract players, there must be a real challenge ! .. To take the title to the champion will be really hard for sure :)


Wolfgang Utesch    (2007-06-14 22:45:22)
Figlio - Schuster

Have a look into the WCH tournament rules: "The knockout tournament is played into 8 games matches. The special rule (avoiding short draws) is that in case of equality (4-4), the winner is the player with the strongest tournament entry rating if all games are draw, the player with the lowest tournament entry rating if not all games are draw. The winner is qualified for the next stage." Any questions?


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-20 22:54:33)
Internet chess

Well, the discussion with Tryfon Gavriel continues at TCCMB. As I had to explain the way I make FICGS, I copy my responses here :

http://ancients.correspondencechess.com/index.php?topic=109.15


Hello again Tryfon !

That's a very interesting discussion...

Actually I have to explain FICGS in its whole to respond :) .. To be continued for sure..

While registering a new member wrote to me a few months ago "Thanks for creating this ultimate chess challenge" or so... That's exactly what I try to do, mostly with the FICGS championship knockout & round-robin rules... Players just want challenge, that's the only assumption I start with, so I try to create interesting challenges. About the intellectual part, you're right but I'm quite sure that top level correspondence chess players still consider their game as an intellectual challenge, much more than a brute force or computer skills one. That's not the case for Advanced chess with fast time controls.

Let's take a look at the bicycle races again... The "Tour de France" is dying IMO.. because everyone understood we "don't know" if the champion is ok.. If doping was allowed (it would be a scandal for health of course), I'm sure the interest would raise again ! I think it is the same for chess & for everything else... The "Tour de France" syndrom happened in Elista with the match Kramnik vs. Topalov... It will have consequences. We need champions and we want true champions, every means are ok for this ! .. So the "engines allowed" rule is the only one possible or reasonable in my opinion.

Of course, chess & correspondence chess are changing, because these "walls" are nearer & nearer... maybe chess will die, maybe not.. The main problem is that in 1997, a super computer became World Champion... this year a "simple" computer Deep Fritz became world champion, soon Rybka on a cellular phone... :) Who is really interested to be a champion in "human category" ? FIDE world chess championship will continue to progressively lose its interest IMO...

Correspondence chess is just starting to grow in popularity and is told to be dying already. Surely correspondence chess will ask more & more time at a high level to win a few points, but it is possible to create more challenge by ie. changing the rating rules (the "design" of Elo rating system will become a problem).. Then, if it is not enough, we'll look for other challenges... It's told for years that Go (Weiqi) will replace chess in western countries... why not Big chess as the "brain only" game if there can't be doping in it.. just trying, as there's no other solution :)

A word about Poker of course, as it's probably the fastest growing game in popularity : IMO this game is at a stade like chess in year 1900, but the same problem will happen, even quicker. At a high level the game will be just more and more boring (if you wish to win real money) or chancy (in a wch tournament), or you'll have to always find weak players (well, not very challenging).

About the simultaneous exhibition against Alekhine or Capablanca, I'm not sure at all they would crush everyone at our chess servers, they are undoubtly more talented than all of us, but I feel it wouldn't be enough in all cases to win against correspondence chess style of play & knowledge accumulated for 50 years... A few players rated OTB 2000-2200 could draw against them IMO...

At last, yes I'm a fan of Sun Tzu's "The art of war" :) .. I strongly believe that correspondence chess will not die in the next few years because players will follow its principles more and more, as the only way to win ! .. Big chess follows the same principles... and Go is the most challenging game because of it too !

Tryfon, I'm not sure that we're opposite in our vision of chess ! .. Our servers have obviousy different goals, nothing more.. I do enjoy playing mad blitz games without chess engines... I just believe that the future of internet chess is "serious (engines allowed, rated) correspondence chess" on one hand and "human chess for fun (no engines, unrated)" on the other hand... The other ways look like nonsense to me.

I hope it responds.


Best wishes, Thibault


Thibault de Vassal    (2007-06-22 17:36:50)
Russian players or not in FICGS team ?

Well, that's very hard to decide. Actually at a first sight I agree with Garvin too, the real fun and the sense of such a match is players from western countries meeting russian players IMO, but no "rule" forbid it.

Whatever the decision, there will be deceived players :/ .. My suggestion is that all russian players who just registered at FICGS should play with IGAME.RU team but it's up to Sergey (for Igame.ru team). I'd like more opinions about this issue, also from Sergey Pligin, who organizes the match for Igame.ru


Sergey Pligin    (2007-06-23 19:18:53)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

Dear chessfriends! My name is Sergey Pligin and I am the co-organizer of this match, representing igame.ru. Originally this match was planned as a friendly rivalry of 2 servers which are igame and FIGCS. The 1st one is Russian, the 2nd one is western. The main idea was to make new foreign friends. This match caused a big avalanche of interest at our server. Unfortunately, not each player can play this match for the teams consist of 25 players only. Some players of igame who are not in have decided to play for your team. I don’t know their motives, but it is their right to play for any team they are willing to play for. Their honest play is the main item to be discussed. On the other hand, several permanent players of the FIGCS have lost an opportunity to participate in this match, as, for instance, was pointed out by Mr. Garvin Gray. I sincerely wish to organize this friendly match with no misunderstanding and beg you to pay attention to Russian players whom you’d like to be in your team.


Alexander Shalamanov    (2007-06-24 07:12:04)
Hello, chess friends!

Yeah, I've read the polemics, but don't feel like doing that, coz whatever I say would be misinterpreted by Serge & Co. Lol! I've got nothing to do with IGAME now. I've left it forever and explained the reasons behind my move on the IGAME forum. Thibault, I do respect your decision that only western-based FICGS players join your team for the match. I thaink, that is quite right to do in the current situation. Cheers, Alex


Vadim Khachaturov    (2007-06-28 22:44:14)
FICGS vs. IGAME.RU

Dan, Your opponent uses nickname filler on IGAME.RU. His rating is 2241. One of the lowest in their team.Here is his stats : win 18 draw 8 lost 1.


Garvin Gray    (2007-07-17 09:52:11)
Game sorting


Currently on the game page, the order of the games is shown from oldest created game to newest created game.

I would like the ability to show the games in terms of least amount of days till time out, where the game with the shortest number of days till time out is at the top of the list.

It would be even better if there was a way to show only the games where it is your turn to move.



Mladen Jankovic    (2007-09-10 01:54:09)
Confessions of a Magic 8 Ball ;)

Well, first off I started with the provisional rating of 1200, then I signed up for a bunch of tournaments and started playing 60+ games. Next, add irregular Internet access with no conditions to perform any reasonable analysis of games in progress and the pressing requirement to answer 40 moves in one go, only to go trough the same at the next soonest opportunity.

I "solved" the problem by not playing and forgetting about the server for about a month (needed that). For that reason I lost more than 250 points (254 to be exact).

Needless to say, the recovery of my rating to any decent level is slow, as, in the meantime I have gone trough periods when I played little chess here, or even none, with games in progress.

Your speculated reasons for my supposed intrusion here (it might be argued that your first post here is the real intrusion) are just plain wrong.

I also don't find ELO ratings to be a valid measure of a man. The real reason I "intrude" in the matter is that I like the general atmosphere here. I am also quiet aware that I am probably the lowest rated poster here, but, before few minutes ago, I was not aware of your rating (good job, while we're on the subject) or Garvin's, for that matter.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-01-09 05:42:09)
4th FICGS chess championship

The 4th FICGS chess championship just started, it is now much easier to find tournaments (quarter finals, stage 2...) in the Tournaments page.

Quarter finals this time are :

1 - Harry Ingersol vs. Mark Noble
2 - Hannes Rada vs. Farit Balabaev
3 - Eros Riccio vs. Marius Zubac
4 - Peter Schuster vs. Thibault de Vassal

As a reminder, in case of equality the highest TER in each match qualifies if all games are drawn, the lowest TER qualifies if not all games are drawn.

The next stages of the previous championships will start as soon as possible...

Have good games !


Jason Repa    (2008-05-12 23:25:56)
Rating changes

It's amusing to witness the hypocrisy of someone who is perpetually provoking, ridiculing, and abusing to speak of there being no place for such offenses. And anyone who resorts to posting links to random, off-topic internet conversations from half a decade ago that have no relevance to the thread they are posting in, in order to try to get revenge for losing a chess game to the thread starter, is the lowest form of troll. I don't doubt that Thibault is aware of the intent of such an element, or the numerous and sundry ways they continue to try to provoke. In the end, we have to look at the results on the chess board. The fair medium for settling disputes. After all, that's why we're here in the first place (no offense GO players)....to play chess. In this arena, I have soundly defeated my opposition.


Benjamin Block    (2008-07-16 14:32:33)
New idea

i have think about this a long time but now i think it is time to write it down.
What do you think about make you´re own money price tournament. First you choose e-points fee 10 or 100. Then you choose how many games you want. Of course the site need to have limit so nobody take 100 games. And you choose the highest and lowest rating you want here the site need to take a limit. And the last thing you choose the time control. Here it will be fun if we can take more time control example 30/10 days,50/10 days and 60/10 days.

What do you think?


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-17 14:14:25)
New idea

BTW it may be possible in the future to choose exactly how many E-Points to play but (thinking like a lawyer, Normajean ;)) french laws are still quite hard and fuzzy. There's a difference between entering a tournament with an entry fee & money prize and betting money on a game.

To choose how many games before to decide the result may be possible but there's some work yet... About the lowest and highest rating, I may add this option in a few weeks. Finally about time control, I may add it but is it a good and necessary thing ? I'm not sure.

Thanks for discussing new ideas anyway :)


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-25 23:13:44)
Alexis

What you are actually doing - is just trying to convert Ficgs.com into Igame.ru :)) I'd recommend you to register on chess-online.ru - they have vibrant russian forum. The palpable difference between westerners and russians - is in absence of desire to communicate a lot (and most time to chatter about nothing :)). Just look at Ficgs forum - visitors are pretty rare and usually they pretty brief and discuss only chess/site related issues.


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-28 17:30:23)
Iouri Basiliev

"I would accept any language by voting majority". For you to know that majority of people in Crimea are Russian speaking people. "It could be tatarian in Crimea in 10 years from now" It'l happen not until Turkish language became second official language in German. Again "I would accept any language by voting majority". Western "dermocrats" and their supporters here in Ukraine showed very clear that they "accept" only those views of "voting majority" that correspond to their own interests. and this is you and others like you to blame that word "democracy" (not so bad concept actually) turned into CURSE here in Ukraine and in Russia.


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-28 17:38:13)
Alexis Bromo

"Many of my friends in eastern and southern regions have serious problems with communication." this IS what our western "friends" (like Iouri Basiliev) actually want to have in Ukraine.


Iouri Basiliev    (2008-09-28 21:24:57)
Denis Ivanchenkov

Western "dermocrats" would be nice expression for a 12 years old idiot. Sorry. End of discussion.


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-30 00:08:25)
Iouri Basiliev

"<<you think it is good to use communist methods - making LESS than 10% of russian language schools>> where i sad this?" you just became bold enough to order me what to do: "Nowadays the situation is opposite. If you living in Ukraine, spend some time to learn ukrainian if you are able" and this is actuall means that you are considering that this is right (and good of course). so stop making a fool of you and just read what you are saying. I live in Central Ukraine where Russian speaking people are minority - so I don't say that Russian should be introduced here. But in East and South and 100% in Crimea Russian WILL BE introduced by people - whatever you(foreigner/traitor/ agent of western influence) want/order/dislike.


Denis Ivanchenkov    (2008-09-30 00:18:12)
Iouri Basiliev

"If you so lazy to learn Ukrainian or you hate Ukraine, why you are living there? " I, my mother (Ukrainian) and my relatives lived here, live and will be living - whatever aliens like you want/like/dislike! "Go to Siberia or Chechen and hate Ukraine from there. You, probably, gifted by russian TV :) " who you think you are to issue orders to me here in Ukraine? relax! live where you a$$ find warm place - in Europe and don't make stupid orders and advices to us Ukrainians. you are - the last person we will be listetning to. you didn't find your place in Ukraine or Russia - so go away to your western "friends".




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