EPTOn April 17 2013 17:40 popzags wrote:
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.
Well, too late to call it a draw after the draw offer had been rejected. It does look very much like the game was resigned in a drawn position, which is too bad, in a way, but I don't know what would have been a better way to handle it. The problem was that most of Team White wasn't playing anymore by the end, and the ones who were weren't discussing anything. (That happened with Team Black too, but to a lesser extent.) If you had discussed your strategic ideas with your teammates before going away, or if Malinor had tried to convince Zen not to resign yet when he saw his vote for it, or if Tansu had made his last comment before the game had ended, then things might have turned out differently, but as it is the game took the course it took.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.
If it sounds like I'm bitter about people losing interest, btw—that's not the case. I'm just an observer, as I was all along. A similar drop-off in interest happened in TL Chess Match 4, towards the (untimely) end. It might be worth thinking about what sort of policies might mitigate this tendency for people to lose interest as the game goes along.
A shorter time limit seems like a good place to start (in the feeler thread for TL Chess Match 7 the vast majority of voters favor 2 days/move instead of 3). Another potential idea I had is to add a touch of incentive for people to stay active. For instance, the most senior team member (active the longest) could be the nominal captain of the team, like what I did at towards the end of this game, when I named the teams after their most senior members. Another idea along these lines would be to break ties by seniority, rather than by when the votes were cast. (In this game, that would have resulted in Malinor's 45. Rb5 being the decisive vote, rather than Zen's 45. Resign.)
Anyway, if you have any comments or other ideas about how a game like this should be run, and particularly if you're interested in running the next one yourself, go comment in that feeler thread I mentioned.
