This sounds like fun, though some sort of handicap system should be used to even the playing field. Maybe something like 1 extra (or fewer) minute per 100 rating points difference between players.
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I’d be up for 5 min games and you spot worse rated players a minute for every 100 point (rounded) rating difference. I’ll make a signup thread at some point and see how much interest there is.
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If anyone has an opinion on how exactly the time thing should work (maybe restrict time for the better player for big diffs) and whether it should be round robin or swiss or what, weigh in. Latter depends how many ppl we get I guess.
Interested in what other players think, but my 2p:
Personally I’m ok with 5 mins but anything less than say 3+2 is far too often a loss on time. Old brain = slow = meh.
Handicapping is good but not sure 100 points is that significant - variance in my rating easily spans that over a week, though that could just be me or chess.com’s rating system, idk.
So maybe aim for a floor at ~3+2 and a much higher ceiling (15? 20?) and work out a rating-based formula from that to penalise the higher rated and reward the lower, because at the extremes a, say, 1900 (I think there may be one or two here) with 5 mins is going to crush an 1100 with any amount of time imo and it won’t be a lot of fun for the latter.
Round robin would be most fun for all I think, if doable.
We would want this to be fun so people want to do it again some time.
Yeah I think with the time rules the most we can hope to achieve is create a situation where people with gaps of 200, maaaaaybe 300 rating points can be competitive. I’m around 1700, maybe 1750 on chess com and I’m just going to destroy an 1100 basically regardless of time rules and there’s nothing reasonable to be done about that. I don’t think it’s that hard to calculate rating performance, right? We could have a handicap winner for whoever outperforms their rating the most.
I agree 3 2 is a decent base, maybe 5 0, but 10 0 would be OK if there are a lot of people who find blitz too fast. I also agree round robin is the most fun.
I’ll play whatever, but I’d rather play rapid (10+0) than blitz with an increment, but I’d prefer 3+0 or 5+0.
Good one. A slight shame the WB has the delaying block.
Did you play Bxe5 instead?
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yeah, it wins pretty easily. I saw the first few moves of the mate when I looked at the Q sack followed by R exchange followed by last rook to a8+, then I just didn’t see the dark square bishop maneuver that would have ended it. Can’t blame time control either, this was from a rapid.
Sac everything on a2, end up with rook on a8 and bishop on c1
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How did I have the lower accuracy?!
Nitting you up here.
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So, I’m trying to teach my kids chess. I got them those canvas boards that roll up. Any tips on how to store them? If I store them rolled up, then when I try to flatten them, they stay a bit curled at the edges while in use.
Also any general tips or resources on how to teach kids to play? One complicating factor is they have very little motivation to play on their own. I’m hoping they develop it and if they don’t, they don’t. But I’m going to give it a solid effort before I throw in the towel.
Show them some pretty mates eg stifle mate.
They’re not ready for that yet I don’t think. They’re 5 and 8 and have had very little exposure so far. They can set up the board and know how the pieces move, but that’s about it.
For example, yesterday I was showing them how to force a mate with Q+K vs K. They got frustrated after about a half hour and I’m still not 100% sure they can do it.
Okay then - show them simple boards with 3 pieces + Ks and forks, skewers and pins.
Sounds good. I’ll try that.
Yeah, that is something that I might need to think about doing. It’s very unnatural for me, largely because when I was that age, I would have hated it if someone (even an adult) let me win. So, I avoid that when we play games (any games), but it’s very slowly dawning on me that they don’t like that. On the other hand, my wife lets them win at stuff all the time and they love it. So they enjoy playing games with her more. And when we all play something together, I am constantly reminded to let up.
I’m slowly coming around to the fact that my kids aren’t wired like me and I need to adapt.
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Try rolling them so that they curl toward the table when unrolled. The weight of the pieces will flatten them out while playing. You’ll need string to keep the ends tightly rolled up. Paracord looks better and you can use it to show them some simple knot-tying as well.
A square know or clove hitch (pictured) works fine.
Edit: rubber bands are a lot easier than string if you’re not interested in knots, ha.