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   Author  Topic: Postal Tournament  (Read 6734 times)
Rabbitball
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #90 on: Mar 14th, 2005, 11:11am »
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What do you do when the board says it's your move but it won't show any pieces?  I think I got a win on time, but I don't know for certain.
 
Omar, if you see this, check out Game Board 16196...
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RonWeasley
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Harry's friend (Arimaa player #441)

   


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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #91 on: Mar 14th, 2005, 11:43am »
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Interesting comments about time commitment.  Because of my browser problems and family responsibilities, these postal games are about the only ones I'm able to play.  I haven't always taken the time to make the very best moves.  I've been content to make moves that seem not obviously bad, and maybe the most fun.  As a result, I seem to be the fastest player in the field.  So consider that when I say I like the current time format and number of games, but don't recommend faster or more games.
 
That said, I find I've had dreams about some of my games.  There's definitely effort expended when playing at this level.  Trelawney gave me extra credit and 10 points to Gryffendor.
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Fritzlein
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #92 on: Mar 14th, 2005, 2:44pm »
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I think I'd rather have the same pace and only eight simultaneous games, rather than 2 days per move as some people have suggested.  The present tournament could drag on for a long time before the final results are in: Omar has yet to finish a single game.  At 2 days per move it might take most of a year before the last game ends, and who knows if I'll even be playing Arimaa next year?  If it is a contest of endurance now, at 2 days per move it would even be more about commitment and staying power than at present.
 
The one game I'm clearly losing is to Adanac, and I think it is partially that he is out-working me, thinking harder and longer on every move.  I doubt a longer time control would change the balance in my favor.  He would still work harder than me, but it would take extra months for the game to finish.
 
I do like postal Arimaa, though, at the current pace.  The blunders get cut way down, and it is time to learn something about theory.  Paul and Adanac have taught me that the correct response to having a horse framed is to use the camel to break or threaten to break the frame.  (And the Belbo vs 99of9 game shows what happens if you don't do this.)  This is very important, as it plays into the ultimate soundness (or unsoundness) of the EH attack.  Meanwhile Omar seems to be exploring the exact value of a camel hostage.  Against me he got a cat, which I hope is not enough.  Against 99of9 he got a dog for the hostage, and that game has remained in dynamic balance for a long time.  This serves as better evidence that "early camel hostage = early dog capture" than any half dozen blitz games.
 
In summary, I like postal games as a means to learn more about Arimaa theory, but I think half the present pace would be too slow for my patience.
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Adanac
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #93 on: Mar 15th, 2005, 10:17am »
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I suggest 2 days/move only if we significantly increase the number of games in future tournaments or if we introduce a new time control for players that don’t have enough time for 1 day/move.  For example, we could make 2 groups:
 
Group 1:  Round robin (or some max number of games), 1 day/move
Group 2:  Max 6 or 8 games, 2 days/move
 
I would join group 1 and I assume that all the top-ranked players who can play very quickly and accurately would also join this group.  Group 2 would obviously appeal to some of the players that had unpleasant time pressure due to other commitments.  And if someone were really gung-ho, they could join both groups to maximize their game-playing.  The group 2 games could theoretically last more than one year, but I don’t have any problem with that.  It slows down the theory-learning but it ensures that those players will be active members of the website for a long time  Smiley
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omar
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #94 on: Mar 17th, 2005, 12:37am »
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on Mar 14th, 2005, 11:11am, Rabbitball wrote:
What do you do when the board says it's your move but it won't show any pieces?  I think I got a win on time, but I don't know for certain.
 
Omar, if you see this, check out Game Board 16196...

 
Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I don't see that game in the current games list any more. I think it must have been the one against MrBrain. I've fixed that so it should be OK now.
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omar
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #95 on: Mar 17th, 2005, 12:56am »
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I am experimenting quite a bit with my postal games; I couldn't resist the opportunity to try new things in a game where I would have plenty of time to think. But as a result I am having to think a lot about my moves. Theres been times when I thought about a move for half an hour and looked about 12 moves deep. The postal tournament has been quite interesting. But I would also perfer fewer simultanious games in the future.
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99of9
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #96 on: Mar 29th, 2005, 6:30am »
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Aaaarrggghhh... I can finally sympathize with you Mr Brain - I just did your "send the plan" trick in my game against Omar.  I guess I'll soon find out how bad it was!
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MrBrain
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #97 on: Mar 29th, 2005, 8:48am »
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For postal games, the "Send Move" button should require a confirmation, the same way that "Resign" does.  That would easily prevent the error that we have so painfully experienced.  For me, this type of error pretty much ruined the tournament unfortunately.
« Last Edit: Mar 29th, 2005, 3:11pm by MrBrain » IP Logged
omar
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #98 on: Apr 3rd, 2005, 10:15am »
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I don't know which move you did that on Toby, but I haven't seen anything yet that looks like a blunder or even a weak move. Our postal game is one of the toughest game I've ever played. You are really making me think Smiley
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99of9
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #99 on: Apr 4th, 2005, 2:20am »
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It was the move when i swung your dog onto the sideline.  You can tell it was a bad move because the very next move I had to swing it even further out - which I could have done in the first place.
 
However what was really bad was that I didn't get to fully consider making an attack myself - I had chances on that move, and haven't had many since!
 
You're right though, it has been an incredibly active and tense game.  My game with Adanac has been very similar at times.  Both of you have a similar style (when playing against me at least) ... really ramping up the rabbit pressure, and gradually eroding my backrow.
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MrBrain
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #100 on: Apr 4th, 2005, 4:57pm »
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Sounds like your error was not as serious as a couple of mine, which were instant game losers.  In two of my games, I made the exact same mistake, which was when I was trying to eventually get a piece onto one of my traps, I left the trap insufficiently defended.  In analysing, this is obviously not a problem, because one will see the next move (lose piece), and take it back to try a different move.  But in the actual game, there is no chance of recovery since you've now totally lost control of a key trap deep in your own territory.  Hitting "take back", only to have that message window pop up, revealing the error, is like a punch to the stomach.  I was just so mad after the second time I did the same stupid thing, I just did not want to continue at all.
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99of9
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Re: Postal Tournament
« Reply #101 on: Apr 9th, 2005, 7:03am »
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Personally Mr Brain, I'd say the loss of 4 steps in a close endgame is often easily as bad as the loss of one piece early on.
 
Omar announced goal one move after the second dog swing.  Perhaps I made an error in that one subsequent move (certainly possible since I didn't see Omar's subsequent 5 move forced goal --- 9*4=36 ply no less!!! Wow.)  But an extra 4 steps certainly wouldn't have hurt me!
 
All credit must go to Omar of course.  Our games have always been real battles, and this one perhaps more than the rest.  From the very beginning of the game, where I got a camel hostage but had to give up material... until the end.  In the end he was able to save his camel, and apply so much rabbit pressure, that even when I regained the material lead, my position was hanging by a very thin thread.
 
I highly recommend anyone examining this game very closely.  To my mind it is one of the sharpest games I've ever played.  This has got to be my first nomination for the games almanac that somebody suggested on another thread.  Adanac's camel sacrifice in our postal game wins my second nomination Smiley...  about 10 moves later it has paid off with double interest and he now has a significant material lead.
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