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        Arimaa >> Events >> 2007 World Championship Discussion
        
(Message started by: Fritzlein on Nov 4^th, 2006, 9:44pm)

Title: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 4^th, 2006, 9:44pm

We have twenty players registered, from ten countries! If everyone plays their games, this will be another record in participation.

Last year with 16 players, there was a perfect symmetry in that every player needed exactly six wins to become champion. This year, with 20 players, there will be byes starting in the third round already. It will be possible for some players to become champion with only six wins, while others will need seven. However, I don't think there is a scenario in which anyone would need to win eight games, so it seems as nearly fair as one can make it. The great thing about elimination tournaments is that each player is in total control of his own destiny.

Three players, namely omar, naveed, and 99of9 have been in every World Championship tournament so far. We wave a sad farewell to MrBrain and Belbo, each missing their first World Championship ever.

Every year so far the World Champion has been someone who had learned the game less than a year before. This year chessandgo is the highest-rated of the nine players with less than one year of experience. Will he extend the streak of inexperienced winners to a fourth straight year?

Nine players are returning from last year. On average, they are rated 119 points higher than last year. I fall just 2 points below the average increase. It is interesting to speculate whether that entire increase is attributable to increasing skill, or whether there is rating inflation afoot. I personally like to think that I have learned enough in a year of playing and studying to be 117 points better player than I was last year. According to the rating formula, I should be able to beat the me of one year ago 66% of the time, which seems plausible.

(Another reason to suppose there is no rating inflation is that the bots are rated about where they were a year ago: only the humans are rising.)

My sense is that, compared to last year, there are more strategies rather than fewer on the table. It is not the case that a single way of playing has become dominant. On the contrary, it seems more and more that it is essential to keep multiple strategic themes balanced. I expect to see games this year that are even deeper and more interesting than last year's excitement.

Let the games begin!

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by chessandgo on Nov 5^th, 2006, 2:43pm

amen :)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Nov 5^th, 2006, 11:08pm

Aargghh... I think we have the dreaded southern hemisphere timezone problem again. I'll try to work it out in the first week, but sorry if I miss any games by 2 hours.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by seanick on Nov 6^th, 2006, 12:40am

what is that, toby?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Janzert on Nov 6^th, 2006, 1:40am

on 11/05/06 at 23:08:33, 99of9 wrote:

Aargghh... I think we have the dreaded southern hemisphere timezone problem again.

Why can't you just call your warm season winter and follow us right side up types on the daylight savings thing, then there wouldn't be all these nasty problems. :P

Janzert

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by IdahoEv on Nov 6^th, 2006, 4:52am

on 11/06/06 at 01:40:31, Janzert wrote:

Why can't you just call your warm season winter and follow us right side up types on the daylight savings thing, then there wouldn't be all these nasty problems.

No kidding! Celebrating Christmas in the summer is just WRONG. You could at least call it winter, it would be a little better. Some styrofoam pellets for fake snow and you'd be all good.

Darn ozzies can't get anything right, eh?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Nov 6^th, 2006, 8:45am

I'm just reminding new players and spectators that there's usually a lively chat going during each WC match game. Just click on the chat button when the game is about to start or during the game. You don't have to comment to be welcome. I think it's the best spectator experience.

I recall that often Fritzlein and PMertens will disagree about who's winning. Each sees threats and strategy that I would never think of myself. Then the players make better moves than any of us see. I always come away amazed at how smart the other players are, even while losing.

There's added tension as your move number prediction approaches and you want the game to get sharper. Meanwhile other spectators are rooting for a longer game. It's a great sports experience and you don't even have to be quiet.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by IdahoEv on Nov 6^th, 2006, 1:02pm

I fear I may have entered my time preferences backwards. Of the three boxes for each time slot, which one meant "least preferred" and which one meant "most preferred"?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 6^th, 2006, 1:53pm

leftmost = most preferred, unless mine are the backwards ones.

I think 99of9's problem is that the server doesn't properly recognize his local time. It's confusing to try to pick time slots when you are on Eastern time and the server insists on believing you are are Central time, or something like that.

These quirks aside, I think the scheduling tool is a nifty way to allow a true World Championship without extravagantly disadvantaging any time zone. Of course, since 99of9 is the lone Asian player competing against nine North Americans and ten Europeans, he's much less likely than the rest of us to get comfortable time slots, but it still works out better than making him compete at a set time that is convenient for New York or Berlin.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Nov 6^th, 2006, 3:04pm

on 11/06/06 at 13:53:20, Fritzlein wrote:

I think 99of9's problem is that the server doesn't properly recognize his local time.

Yes, something like that. It gets my time right in the gameroom, but wrong for all scheduling. I think it's related to the fact that we've just switched to daylight savings, but you've just switched off it (if you have it).

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 7^th, 2006, 8:29am

Eerie flashback? In the first round one year ago, Adanac was paired against megamau for a game time in the middle of the night (for Adanac). Apparently Adanac is unavailable during the day. Megamau forfeited that game, but later came back to win twice before elimination. In the first round this year, Adanac is paired against megamau for a game time in the middle of the night (for Adanac). Adanac, I think you should just sleep in this time, and save yourself the trouble. Is it really worth waking up just to be sure? ;-)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Adanac on Nov 7^th, 2006, 1:39pm

on 11/07/06 at 08:29:19, Fritzlein wrote:

Correct, it's deja vu all over again. Every November my friend Mel hosts a late night Pizza & Movie party. Last yeart my first game was 5:00 in the morning after her party and I only had 4 hours sleep before waking up to face Megamau. This year, Mel is hosting her annual party on Saturday November 11th and I'm playing megamau next morning at 5am. Oh yes, it all sounds very familiar!!

I couldn't even begin to tell you how few available time slots I have this week. I breathed a sigh of relief when I got the Sunday 5am slot because most other times would have overlapped other commitments if the game goes 50+ moves. Hopefully, by the end of November I'll be able to practice regularly and schedule some normal times.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 10^th, 2006, 10:32am

I woke up this morning expecting to see that Brendan had forfeited his game to JDB, due to a lack of Internet connection. However, it turns out the game has not yet been scored. I asked Omar about it, and he said that a game can't be forfeited unless one person shows up and the other doesn't. The rules do not specify what happens if neither player shows up.

I am guessing that in this case, JDB didn't show up because I tipped him off that Brendan would have no Internet connection until Monday. I don't suppose that Brendan will want to claim a draw or a replay or anything on the basis of the vagueness in the rules. Still, it would be good if JDB could respond as soon as possible with his story.

Also, for future reference, players need to be sure to show up in order to claim a win, even if they know their opponent will be forfeiting. My apologies if I earlier implied the contrary.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by chessandgo on Nov 10^th, 2006, 11:52am

Actually, jdb was there, and logged to the game window ...
it's really too bad that you couldn't play, Brendan. It's not only one less exciting game, but a hard blow to the "Newbies Team" as well ... I hope you'll be able to play next week under good conditions.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 10^th, 2006, 3:35pm

on 11/10/06 at 11:52:46, chessandgo wrote:

Actually, jdb was there, and logged to the game window ...

Oh, sorry, my mistake. Omar said the logs showed neither player sat down. There must have been a technical glitch as well. Anyway if JDB was present, then there can be no question of a rules loophole.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Nov 10^th, 2006, 4:12pm

I second the testimony that jdb did everything he was supposed to.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Janzert on Nov 10^th, 2006, 5:41pm

Yes, from my view jdb was seated at the game from the time I opened the window about 1 minute early to at least 13 minutes after the game start time.

Janzert

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by omar on Nov 10^th, 2006, 9:24pm

If that's the case, then there must have been a glitch in my program. I'll check into it. Thanks to the eye witnesses.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Nov 11^th, 2006, 5:17am

Tore just asked me to move our game from 5 OLT to 7 OLT.
That is fine with me ...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 11^th, 2006, 5:49pm

What is the record number of simultaneous gameroom logins? Janzert said there were 17 logged in this afternoon at one point.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by arimaa_master on Nov 11^th, 2006, 11:56pm

I saw 17 too.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by arimaa_master on Nov 12^th, 2006, 12:37am

Grrr, I wonder why my prediction score is so low and now I noticed that I have -300 points coz predicting IdahoEv to win against Fritzlein. But there is not obviously true (if I am not completely mad) in reality I predicted opposite result. So I guess I am starting to be out of main field of predictors - hmm - maybe I was drunk though I am the abstainer :)

Ok, this is not supposed to be replied - it is only my bitterness needed to be ventilated :)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Adanac on Nov 12^th, 2006, 4:31am

on 11/12/06 at 00:37:21, arimaa_master wrote:

I accidentally gave Richard 100% against 99of9, so I know how that feels :-[

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Nov 12^th, 2006, 5:38am

... and I always wondered who made such weird predictions ::)

but just imagine what would have happend if Fritzl's computer had exploded after move 5 ... you would have totally dominated the field

On another topic:
I would like to remind the officials that Tore and I are going to play at 7 CET and not at 5 CET.

Since attempts to contact the officials were either mistaken as game-invitations (don't you guys read the text ??) or where obviously filtered as email-spam ... it would be nice if once in a while you would be reachable ... maybe in the chatroom during a game or so ;-)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by IdahoEv on Nov 12^th, 2006, 11:27am

on 11/12/06 at 00:37:21, arimaa_master wrote:

Grrr, I wonder why my prediction score is so low and now I noticed that I have -300 points coz predicting IdahoEv to win against Fritzlein.

Alas, so sorry. My loss was unexpected, but Fritz just got lucky, the dog! ;-)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 12^th, 2006, 3:30pm

For the record, 18 players were logged in at the end of the Omar vs. Chegorimaa game, and nobody in the chat room remembers ever seeing more.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Janzert on Nov 12^th, 2006, 4:14pm

and the screenshot: :)
http://arimaa.janzert.com/gameroom_18.png

Janzert

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by arimaa_master on Nov 13^th, 2006, 4:14am

[quote author=Adanac link=board=talk;num=1162698295;start=15#22 date=11/12/06 at 04:31:47]

I accidentally gave Richard 100% against 99of9, so I know how that feels :-[/quote]

Thanks for sharing it. I am feeling much more better knowing that I am not alone. :-/

" Alas, so sorry. My loss was unexpected, but Fritz just got lucky, the dog! Wink" :D LOL 8)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Nov 13^th, 2006, 12:14pm

I would not mind being able to play on mondays or tuesdays as well ... especially when weekends are going to be busy ...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by arimaa_master on Nov 13^th, 2006, 1:06pm

I am with Pmertens with mondays and tuesdays as plaining days.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 13^th, 2006, 1:13pm

on 11/13/06 at 12:14:55, PMertens wrote:

I would not mind being able to play on mondays or tuesdays as well ... especially when weekends are going to be busy ...

What should be compressed?

1) The time between the last game finishing and Omar posting new pairings?
2) The time between pairings being posted, and games being scheduled?
3) The time between games being scheduled and games possibly starting?

Squeezing (1) or (2) puts pressure on Omar, while squeezing (2) or (3) puts pressure on the players. Still, it would be doable if it could be made very regular.

One thing that would still worry me is the high proportion of unusable slots early in the week. Let's say we had one more day, so 71 slots to choose from instead of 59. That would mean we had to pick 36 slots instead of 30 to insure an overlap. Usually I won't be able to pick six of the additional twelve. I'll get at most four additional feasible slots (one morning and three evening) per additional weekday. So having another weekday in play would actually put me under more scheduling pressure for most weeks.

Of course, not everyone has a 9-to-5-plus-commute type of job. A month ago, when I was working part-time on a very flexible schedule, having an extra weekday would have helped me rather than hurt me, because I would have been able to pick seven slots on some weekdays, if need be. Given the variety of situations the players are in, I'm curious how other people feel about this.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Nov 13^th, 2006, 2:32pm

As far as I remember posting the new pairing was done almost immidiatly ... so not much to compress there.
Why can I only put up my schedule after I know my opponent ? There is actually no need for that ... (even though I prefer manual handshaking over the scheduling anyway - but knowing it is not an option on a large scale)

Anyway ... of course I made this post mainly because I am personally in a rather tight situation this week.
Probably neither nor tuesday would help me due to the different timezones Adanac and I are in :-(

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 13^th, 2006, 5:49pm

on 11/13/06 at 14:32:59, PMertens wrote:

As far as I remember posting the new pairing was done almost immidiatly ... so not much to compress there.

Yes, but is it fair to Omar to expect that it will always be done immediately? I don't know, maybe he can keep every Sunday afternoon free...

Quote:

Why can I only put up my schedule after I know my opponent ? There is actually no need for that ...

That's true. Sometimes I adjust my preferences because I know the time zone of my opponent, but this isn't necessary. If necessary I could post preferences before the previous round completed. I couldn't post my predictions before the pairings are up, but that is an issue of how compressed the time is between when the pairings are up and when the games actually start being played.

Quote:

Anyway ... of course I made this post mainly because I am personally in a rather tight situation this week.
Probably neither nor tuesday would help me due to the different timezones Adanac and I are in :-(

Having Tuesday might not help you even if Adanac were in Germany. I suspect you are looking for 30 spots and want more options for where to put those 30, but if you had 12 more options and needed to select 36 spots, you would be no better off. Or do you not work this Tuesday?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 15^th, 2006, 10:18pm

on 11/07/06 at 13:39:20, Adanac wrote:

This year, Mel is hosting her annual party on Saturday November 11th and I'm playing megamau next morning at 5am. Oh yes, it all sounds very familiar!!

This is just getting weirder. Now that Adanac has won in the first round against megamau again (albeit by timeout rather than forfeit) he is paired in the second round against PMertens again! Apart from these two games, no one has been paired with anyone this year that they were also paired with last year.

I don't know about anyone else, but based on the way history is repeating itself, I'm betting 100% on Adanac to win in 65 moves again.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Nov 20^th, 2006, 8:10am

Now the prediction contest really begins. Trelawney forsees big changes in the leaderboard now that there are almost no lopsided matches remaining. Don't take too much risk at this point. Predictors can catch up if they wisely read their tea leaves. Mine keep telling me to drink coffee instead.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Nov 20^th, 2006, 8:40am

Quote:

I don't know about anyone else, but based on the way history is repeating itself, I'm betting 100% on Adanac to win in 65 moves again.

Somehow I doubt that you really did that :o

Quote:

Now the prediction contest really begins

Absolutely ... even I have only 3 games left were I am going to bet 100%.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Microbe on Nov 20^th, 2006, 9:05am

I had to go home last weekend to see my girlfriend so I missed the last round. So I'm busy catching up on the games I missed.

What happened about the game Richard didn't play? Why couldn't he make it?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by IdahoEv on Nov 20^th, 2006, 12:05pm

Unfortunately, a significant number of the times that I was forced to pick this week will be while I am traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. I will be with family in a hotel in San Diego, and vacations with my family are always extremely busy. It is very unlikely that I will be able to play a game if it is scheduled after Thursday morning PST.

Heres' hoping that I end up with the game scheduled Tuesday or Wednesday, otherwise Adanac will most likely get a bye. :-(

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Adanac on Nov 20^th, 2006, 5:23pm

on 11/20/06 at 12:05:03, IdahoEv wrote:

I didn't receive an e-mail this week to set my 30 time slots and and I can't remember where to change it. It's very possible that we'll end up with a time slot that doesn't work for either of us :(

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 20^th, 2006, 6:13pm

I posted the URL in comments to your game, Adanac, but in case anyone else is interested, it is

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/wc/2007/selectTimes.cgi

The special thing about the e-mail URL is that it has an authorization code, but if you don't have that code, you can still go to the above URL, log into the game room, reload the game-time selection page.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Nov 26^th, 2006, 2:40pm

I note that the pairing for round 4 had bad choices for gold/silver for 99of9 v IdahoEv, Brendan v robinson, and jdb v omar. After talking with omar and verifying that reversing gold/silver for these matches is appropriate, I have approved the reversal.

I remember there was an effort to test the pairing program, but somehow it has a bug. That's what muggles get for trying their own spells.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 26^th, 2006, 5:51pm

Note that the game times are already posted, even though the previous round just finished. This is because PMertens and chessandgo asked for their game against each other to be on Tuesday night, earlier than any available slots in the scheduler. Omar ran the scheduler so that he could change their game time by hand. For the rest of us, he will run the scheduler again at the usual time, so you still have 24 hours to enter your preferences for this week. (I'm not sure IdahoEv will want to play Tuesday midnight this week, like he did last week when he had Thanksgiving vacation disrupting his schedule.)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by IdahoEv on Nov 27^th, 2006, 12:21am

on 11/26/06 at 17:51:02, Fritzlein wrote:

(I'm not sure IdahoEv will want to play Tuesday midnight this week, like he did last week when he had Thanksgiving vacation disrupting his schedule.)

Actually, midnight times are usually fine with me. It's the 8:00am times that scare me. People are actually awake at that hour, and lucid enough to play arimaa?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 4^th, 2006, 8:19pm

Players,

We have determined that Brendan's forfeit was due to temporarily incorrect information on the game site. We have decided to reschedule the game Brendan v. robinson. If they can play this game early this week, round 5 games may be able to be played later this week. As of now, round 5 pairings and predictions are void until the Brendan v. robinson game has been completed. Thank you for your patience.

Tournament Director

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Dec 5^th, 2006, 6:10pm

Please hurry to get it rescheduled. Christmas poses high forfeit risks, so it would be good to get in as many as possible of the rounds before then. I hope we can still play round 5 this weekend!

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by DorianGaray on Dec 6^th, 2006, 4:29am

How about a recess for the Xmas/New year period?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by chessandgo on Dec 8^th, 2006, 4:36am

Hello,

The first scheduled game for round 5 should begin in about 36 hours, and we still have no news about the late Brendan-Rob game. Just for the sake of organizing our week-end, are we going to play ? Or will this round be postponed ? It would be great to know whether we can freely plan our week-end or not ...

Thanks !

Jean

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Dec 8^th, 2006, 4:47am

The information flow on this is somehow a bit low :-(
IMHO the games have not yet been scheduled (and cannot be since the opponents are not yet fixed)

I assume that postponing and first bringing certainty into the whole thing would be the wise choice.

Have a nice weekend ...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Dec 8^th, 2006, 6:12am

I hope we can at least have the robinson / Brendan game this weekend, so that we can use the normal scheduler again for next week.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 8^th, 2006, 7:30am

Round 5 is postponed until next week Dec. 11-16.

Sorry, players. We hoped to get the Brendan-robinson game in this week. We haven't gotten any response from robinson so we think the game site e-mail for him doesn't work anymore. We're trying other means.

I realize the players have lives and need to plan their weekends. At this point, if we tried to play round 5 this weekend, conditional on the Brendan-robinson game, players would not know if they have a game or not, since the pairings will be different if Brendan wins. Even if the game happens today and robinson wins, preserving the current round 5 pairings, there's not enough time left to reasonably inform players that the games are on. The postponement is also in consideration for the spectators.

Our current last resort plan is to schedule Brendan-robinson for Sunday at the time currently reserved for PMertens-robinson. That way robinson shows up and plays even if none of our messages reach him. This is subject to change if Brendan and robinson agree to a different time. Remember that the game site gave Brendan the wrong time for this round 4 game and that's why we're giving it special consideration.

We apologize for the confusion.

Tournament Director

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Dec 8^th, 2006, 10:25am

I will try to reach him on his phone ...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Dec 8^th, 2006, 2:08pm

Rob just told me that he can play on sunday at 21:00 CET (as scheduled against me)

Actually he could play more or less anytime on sunday ...
If there is anything else then I will transfer any information to him via phone ... (I will be checking my mail/forum every few hours anyway)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 23^rd, 2006, 11:53am

It was an unhappy event that chessandgo lost his connection and timed out in his round 5 game against Fritzlein. This was a game between premier players that many spectators anticipated.

After the timeout, there was discussion about restarting the game at the end position. We all wanted to see these two play. After reflecting on that discussion, I was impressed with the sportsmanship of all involved in their desire to see the game resolved by playing it out rather than accepting the outcome on the connection technicality. However, sportsmanship became complicated when considering other games in the tournament decided by connection failure. We all accepted those outcomes as unfortunate, but fair. Note that the Brendan/robinson game problem was caused by an error on the game site, but the other connection losses were caused by events external to the game site.

Therefore, I have decided this game must stand as a win for Fritzlein. Letting it get rescheduled would be essentially discrimination against lower rated players. I would propose that next year's tournament include a rule for continuing disconnected games within some reasonable time limit. That way we can address connection issues while applying the tournament rules equally to all players.

I have discussed this ruling with the players involved and I am greatful for their graciousness in accepting it. I am hopeful for a nicely connected tournament from here on out.

Tournament Director

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Dec 23^rd, 2006, 7:36pm

I cannot promise anything about my connections, since the tournament somehow did move into my move into my new house ... (due to well known reasons I was not totally uninvolved in ...)
I will try to be able to play ... but actually the 27th might be the first, last and therefore only day :-(

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by omar on Dec 23^rd, 2006, 11:33pm

I agree with Ned's decision. In situations like this if we stick strictly with the tournament rules then the decision is easy and fair to everyone.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 24^th, 2006, 12:25am

but actually the 27th might be the first, last and therefore only day :-(

You are not allowed to forfeit against me, PMertens. If you do, I could conceivably win round 7 and become World Champion having beaten only one player in the top half of the draw, while you and chessandgo have each beaten three.

What time slots work for you on the 27th? I could comfortably play 1, 2, 3, or 13. Slots 4 and 7 are not so good, but I'd rather play then than see you forfeit. Also, if Omar allows us to schedule a game on the 26th, i.e. earlier than the official window, -4 and -3 are good for me, while -5 and 0 are inconvenient but possible. But maybe the 26th is bad for you, since you said the 27th is the "first and last" day.

You really need to play this game, because if you and chessandgo both win in round six, you will get to play me again in round seven while chessandgo takes the bye. Could your heart desire more than an opportunity to humiliate the #1 seed in back-to-back games? :)

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Dec 24^th, 2006, 5:05am

I guess anytime after 14:00 CET on the 27th is good for me ...
Unfortunately my hearts desires have little to do with my real life in this special case ...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 24^th, 2006, 11:28am

on 12/24/06 at 05:05:48, PMertens wrote:

I guess anytime after 14:00 CET on the 27th is good for me ...

OK, so if I am converting time zones correctly, our only hope is slot #7, correct?

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by DorianGaray on Dec 24^th, 2006, 3:33pm

on 12/24/06 at 00:25:16, Fritzlein wrote:

I understand your ruling, Ron, and I accept it, although I would rather have resumed the game. Forfeits and timeouts have really plagued this tournament, so I think there should be an official possibility to resume games written into the rules for next year, with a procedure detailed enough that it can fairly apply to all players.

Another change to consider for next year is making the pairings blind to pre-tournament ratings. A ratings-blind tournament would have a lesser chance of crowning the best player as champion, but right now the ratings have too much of an effect. This year the bad luck of chessandgo's disconnect has combined with my #1 seed to give a ridiculous inequity: I have so far had games against seeds 20, 15, and 13, with two free games while PMertens has had games against seeds 14, 5, 4, 3, and 2.

You are not allowed to forfeit against me, PMertens. If you do, I could conceivably win round 7 and become World Champion having beaten only one player in the top half of the draw, while you and chessandgo have each beaten three.

What time slots work for you on the 27th? I could comfortably play 1, 2, 3, or 13. Slots 4 and 7 are not so good, but I'd rather play then than see you forfeit. Also, if Omar allows us to schedule a game on the 26th, i.e. earlier than the official window, -4 and -3 are good for me, while -5 and 0 are inconvenient but possible. But maybe the 26th is bad for you, since you said the 27th is the "first and last" day.

You really need to play this game, because if you and chessandgo both win in round six, you will get to play me again in round seven while chessandgo takes the bye. Could your heart desire more than an opportunity to humiliate the #1 seed in back-to-back games? :)

I agree that fair is fair but for next year we should definitely think of rules to considerably reduce if not totally eliminate the games decided on technical defects.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by omar on Dec 24^th, 2006, 9:05pm

I just ran the pairing for round 6. The pairing program thinks 99of9 should play gold and chessandgo silver, but I think it should be the other way around. Would like the TD to consider if this change should be made.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Dec 25^th, 2006, 5:40am

Omar, as discussed in the Player Availability forum, for my game vs Jean, could you please fix the time by hand?

I have no comment on the colours, I haven't been following, but I have played quite a few golds so far!

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by chessandgo on Dec 26^th, 2006, 5:06am

Thanks Omar for setting our time in this half-slot.
I've got a question : as mentionned before, the internet cafe opens at 10:00; just the starting time, so I cannot be sure that I'll be connected before 10:03 ("Note that if you do not enter the game within 3 minutes
after the game start time, you will lose by forfeit.").
Is there a way to make it so that I'm not officially forfeit before; say; 10:10 ?

Thanks

Jean

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 26^th, 2006, 10:00am

Omar,

Looking at past pairings, 99of9 has had 3 golds and 2 silvers. Chessandgo has had 2 golds and 3 silvers. I agree that for round 6, chessandgo should be gold and 99of9 silver.

I approve the change.

Tournament Director

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 26^th, 2006, 10:20am

chessandgo and 99of9,

The short answer is that I think a start time of 10 minutes after the hour is reasonable.

The long answer: Time blocks starting strictly on the hour are an approximation to an ideal time which could be agreed to by players. In practice, scheduling at odd times puts an unreasonable burden on Omar and the scheduling software. I think the current software allows a tournament game remains playable for an hour and a half past its scheduled time, and in the past players have begun much later than the 3 minutes stated in the rules. The purpose of the rule is to enable a fair rendezvous. With chessandgo's request for a game time later than the hour, assuming 99of9 agrees, the scheduling software can still schedule the game on the hour and the players can begin the game later at their agreed time (which takes precedence).

99of9, please confirm in this forum you agree to a start time between the scheduled hour and, let's say for safety, 30 minutes past.

Tournament Director

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by chessandgo on Dec 27^th, 2006, 1:35pm

Toby told me he would not have internet access until the game starts, but we agreed informally on this in the chatroom.
I hope if I'm 5 mn late and Toby gets disconnected at 10:04 the game will be played anyway.

Regards

Jean

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Dec 29^th, 2006, 1:12am

I'm back from holidays. Yes, I agree that I will wait for Jean. Me getting disconnected after 4 minutes is just as likely as getting disconnected any time during the game...

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by RonWeasley on Dec 29^th, 2006, 6:26pm

Well I'm glad we got the chessandgo - 99of9 game played. At the time of this writing, I think the prediction contest ignored our predictions and gave everybody a -21. I hate -21. Loathe that number.

Anyway, I assume Omar is aware and fixing the problem.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by omar on Dec 31^st, 2006, 10:30pm

Yeah, I finally figured out why it wasn't showing up right. The predictions were made for: 99of9 vs chessandgo, but the game was played as: chessandgo vs 99of9. I've fixed it now, so everyone who predicted should see the correct points for this game.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 9^th, 2007, 3:26pm

It is interesting that the top three predictors (with one game to go) are all non-players. Of the 20 tournament players, only 12 entered the prediction contest, while the other 13 in the prediction contest didn't play in the tournament. Maybe we are getting close to the year when it makes sense to reserve the prediction contest for folks not playing in the World Championship itself. Or maybe there is no need to change the rule, because the folks interested in each will participate in each, and we will find there is actually not that much overlap.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by 99of9 on Jan 21^st, 2007, 2:42pm

Players are at a little bit of a prediction disadvantage, so I'm not surprised that non-players have outdone players. But I don't think that's any reason to exclude the players.

What happened to the 2nd place playoff game? On my clock we're 2.5 hours past the scheduled start time.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by UltraWeak on Jan 21^st, 2007, 3:21pm

The game is apparently scheduled on next Sunday, 1/28. You can see it by clicking on the game board.

Title: Re: 2007 World Championship Discussion
Post by PMertens on Jan 21^st, 2007, 3:59pm

sorry for dragging this out, but I was unable to play this week ...