I see two more or less reasonable ways I could handle a team's failing to vote at all by the deadline: I could forfeit them then and there, on the theory that failing to move by the deadline is like letting your flag fall in classical chess, or I could automatically burn extensions for them until their time runs out, on the theory that it can be assumed that the players on a team would prefer using up some of their time to forfeiting the game. I guess I'll throw it open to the public.

Poll: What should be done when a team has not voted by the deadline

Take an extension for them. (2)

67%

Other (1)

33%

Forfeit 'em. (0)

0%

3 total votes

Your vote: What should be done when a team has not voted by the deadline

(Vote): Forfeit 'em.
(Vote): Take an extension for them.
(Vote): Other

Vote on what you think the rule ought to be in general, if you please, rather than on what you think would be the best outcome for this particular game.

KarlKaliente

United States434 Posts

April 11 2013 00:56 GMT

#1186

Voting for other

I'd hate to see the game end this way, but I'd rather not check back every couple days for the next month either. Maybe give them one or two extensions? Or find some middle ground...

Zen5034

United States384 Posts

April 11 2013 01:34 GMT

#1187

45. Resign

Pretty sure we're dead.

Malinor

Germany4751 Posts

April 11 2013 03:00 GMT

#1188

45. Rb5

qrs

United States3637 Posts

April 11 2013 15:20 GMT

#1189

On April 11 2013 09:56 KarlKaliente wrote:
Maybe give them one or two extensions?

Hmm, perhaps that's the best approach in general: limit the number of extensions that can be taken per move.

In any case, in this particular game, all three options ended up converging. After one day's extension, the White vote ended up split between resigning and playing on: same as last move, except that this time, the "Resign" vote got in first, so by the tie-breaking rule, it prevails. Final vote:

45. White resigns

+ Show Spoiler [Votes] +

45. Resign (1): Zen5034
45. Rb5 (1): Malinor

+ Show Spoiler [gone inactive] +

+ Show Spoiler [gone active] +

+ Show Spoiler [unused time this move] +

-24:00

Black wins! Congratulations to the Black team and thanks to everyone for playing. Good game!

KarlKaliente

United States434 Posts

April 11 2013 15:27 GMT

#1190

Hey thanks qrs for seeing this through the 7+ months it took to finish this. Was a nice way to spend some time and I learned a lot of chess along the way.

Also shoutout to both team members for keeping this alive for so long, and especially black for carrying team Karl :p

I'll definitely sign up for the next one should anyone want to run it again.

chesshaha

United States1117 Posts

April 11 2013 19:10 GMT

#1191

On April 12 2013 00:27 KarlKaliente wrote:
Hey thanks qrs for seeing this through the 7+ months it took to finish this. Was a nice way to spend some time and I learned a lot of chess along the way.

Also shoutout to both team members for keeping this alive for so long, and especially black for carrying team Karl :p

I'll definitely sign up for the next one should anyone want to run it again.

gg to all, till next time.

Zen5034

United States384 Posts

April 11 2013 19:43 GMT

#1192

Ja. Huge thanks to qrs.

Would like to know where we went wrong, haha.

Arevall

Sweden1133 Posts

April 11 2013 22:51 GMT

#1193

Huge thanks to qrs! And grats to black!

hp.Shell

United States2527 Posts

April 11 2013 23:02 GMT

#1194

qrs is awesome. Also I would like to say that this game sparked some chess inspiration in me for the first month or two. I even began memorizing some of the more obscure openings and learning about the theories surrounding their positions! Thanks for the game everyone, it was a pleasure playing with all of you.

qrs

United States3637 Posts

April 12 2013 01:59 GMT

#1195

You're all very welcome.

On April 12 2013 04:43 Zen5034 wrote:
Would like to know where we went wrong, haha.

OK, so I was curious about this too, so after the game, I reviewed it very quickly with an engine—just a few seconds per move, so the following is not deep analysis by any means, just a basic overview of a couple key points.

The game was closely matched for quite a while: with the edge going back and forth several times. White probably had his biggest advantage at move 36, right before capturing Black's a5 pawn.

Here (36. Rxa5) White missed an important tactic when he allowed Black to round up the d-pawns. The a5 pawn is obviously not a crucial priority at this point in the game: it's hanging and Black has no way to save it. What's slightly less obvious is that White has the ability to save his d-pawns: at a quick glance it looks like there's no way to do that, as they are double-attacked, and there's no way to get a second defender to them, but the move immediately spotted by an engine is 36. Kc2! Once you actually look at the move instead of dismissing it out of hand, the tactical point is obvious: if Black captures with the Bishop, 37. KxR, of course, and if he captures with the Rook, White has 37. RxB, removing the guard of Black's Rook. In fact, after 36. Kc2, with the d-pawns off the table, and the Black Rook more or less trapped in enemy territory, Black's counterplay grinds to a halt, and White has a comfortable advantage.

So, missing 36. Kc2 was one big mistake on White's part, allowing Black's counterplay to continue, but Team White was still doing fine overall, at that point. The mistake that permanently turned the advantage from Team White to Team Black was the decision that immediately followed—after the semi-forcing sequence 36...RxP+ 37. Ke2 RxP, White played 38. Re5: a move that doesn't do very much in particular. Here White woefully underestimated the strength of Black's counterplay with ...b3! advancing the pawn with tempo, and sealing the deal with ...Bc2. We all saw how that worked out in the game. Instead, the engine suggests that White could have kept a lid on things with 38. Rd2.

Finally, even in the final position, Black did not necessarily have a winning advantage according to the engine—White could have kept fighting with Malinor's 45. Rb5—although it would certainly have been an uphill battle.

Malinor

Germany4751 Posts

April 12 2013 07:02 GMT

#1196

First of all, thank you for setting it up and to keep it going for so long. And while I enjoyed it very much, if we set this up again we have to find a way to make it shorter. 7 months is just too long for my taste.
Also I wanted to play 45. Rb5 two days before, but I wanted to wait if someone saw something better. Since now my vote came second and only therefore the resign vote took priority over mine makes me unhappy. It certainly looked very bleak, but I did not yet see a clear winning plan for black, so we should have kept fighting a little bit longer.

Anyway, it was a nice experience and I have started to play some (a lot) of online chess lately (correspondence chess with 3-7 days to move - but of course you can move earlier). So if anyone is interested in playing, drop me a PM. FWIW, I am playing on a german site right now and am ranked ~1900ish, But I'm willing to migrate to an englisch speaking site to play with you

Thanks again to everyone.

Tansu

Finland63 Posts

April 12 2013 11:12 GMT

#1197

The final position is a clear draw. It's VERY hard to win as black. White just exchanges a rook for the b3 pawn and the bishop (if black tries to stop it then the a-pawn runs). So it'll be R+N+ 1 pawn against R+ 3 connected pawns which is a really simple draw.

Thanks for qrs!!

Dandel Ion

Austria17960 Posts

April 12 2013 12:37 GMT

#1198

Yea I'm not sure why it happened, but I'm glad we got them to resign just on the basis of our massive swag.

gg all

qrs

United States3637 Posts

April 12 2013 13:45 GMT

#1199

Yes, the resignation was a bit premature, but the real problem for White was that almost all of its members had lost interest. This was the second move in a row that the vote was split between playing or resigning and almost nobody was voting at all anymore. For example, Tansu, why didn't you say anything before your team voted to resign? It does seem like less time per move might have been a good idea.

Since people are interested in another game, I think I'll start a preliminary thread to gauge interest in TL Chess Match 7 (edit: thread is here), although I'm not sure whether I'd run it again. If anyone's interested in running it, by all means volunteer.

popzags

Poland604 Posts

April 17 2013 08:40 GMT

#1200

Uhhh, we lost

I was offline for couple weeks and someone followed with Re5 instead of Ra7; the Knight wasn't pinned, and it's activity decided the outcome. OK, too early to call it with a certainity, but I feel we could at least hold that ending by keeping that Rook active instead of just wander Ra5-e5-a5 for no reason.

Anyway, gg guys, though I guess qrs could just call it a draw once the number of participants hit one digit.