BB3 - Final standings

BB3 has now ended: 

1. BlindMaras (5)
2. jonesBlind (4)
3. blindpchesso (3)
4. BlindOsaridSaris (2)
5. Blindnham (1)
6. BYE (0)

Congrats BlindMaras and thanks everyone for participating!

Outlook: Some more Blind Bandits action later this year should be fun. For those wishing to get some quality STC games sooner, please check out Snail Bucket. Unlike Teamleague, Snail Bucket accepts Blindfold players. Start dates of the next Snail Bucket tourney have not yet been announced, though.

Pairings round 5

Update on Jan 18th:
Blindnham and BlindOsaridSaris have asked for 1 week extension to play their game.

--

Thank you for finishing the round 4 games again ahead of the alotted time. I suggest playing another (last) round, basically turning the Swiss into a Round Robin tournament, with the following pairings:

1. blindpchesso (3) 0-1 jonesBlind (3) [120 30]
2. BlindOsaridSaris (1) i-o Blindnham (1)
3. BlindMaras (4) - BYE

This way, everybody will have played everybody else exactly once, and everybody will have had the white and the black pieces exactly twice. You have until Monday, Jan 18th to play this game.

Have fun!

Pairings round 4

1. Blindnham (1) 0-1 BlindMaras (3) [35 35]
2. blindpchesso (2) 1-0 BlindOsaridSaris (1) [90 30]
3. jonesBlind (2) 1-0 BYE

Happy New Year!

Pairings round 3

Both round 2 games have already been played, so I'll post round 3 pairings a bit earlier than scheduled - maybe the few extra days help some of us in view of upcoming holidays.

1. BlindMaras (2) 1-0 blindpchesso (2) [120 30]
2. BlindOsaridSaris (1) 0-1  jonesBlind (1) [120 30]
3. Blindnham (0) 1-0 BYE

If signing up quickly enough to start negotiations, the next interested FICSer (B) may become Blindnham's opponent in round 3.

Pairings round 2

1. jonesBlind (1) 0-1 BlindMaras (1) [35 35]
2. Blindnham (0) 0-1 blindpchesso (1) [35 35]
3. BlindOsaridSaris (0) 1-0 BYE

If signing up quickly enough to start negotiations, interested FICSers (B) may become BlindOsaridSaris' opponent in round 2 or late-join to round 3 (in which case BlindOsaridSaris will get a BYE for round 2).

Pairings round 1

Five players have signed up to Blind Bandits 3. Pairings round 1:

1. BlindMaras 1-0 BlindOsaridSaris [35 35]
2. jonesBlind 1-0 Blindnham [45 45]
3. blindpchesso 1-0 BYE

Interested FICSers (B) may become my opponent in round 1 or late-join to round 2 (in which case I'll get a BYE for round 1).

I wish all participants great games. Once more: If you and your opponent do not like 35 35, feel free to arrange any other time control. Instead of one standard game, you may even conduct e. g. one 6-game blindfold 5 0 crazyhouse mini-match, if you can type the moves fast enough! Just report a result to me afterwards.

Participants

Signed up so far (Nov 16th):

jonesBlind, BlindOsaridSaris, BlindMaras, Blindnham, blindpchesso.

Blind Bandits 3

After a five year hiatus, a new tournament for blindfold players on FICS is due: Blind Bandits 3. Since TM veteran drinkeh is now busy with work and GF, he gave me (pchesso) the keys to this blog, and I'll continue the trend.

Signing up

Send me an FICS message from your blindfold account (B) before Nov 27th 2015 (if the software can handle it, signing up later and late-joining will be fine as well). Log on to your blindfold account as soon as possible to confirm you can access it. If FICS has locked your blindfold account due to long inactivity on your part, you may try contacting Blind(*)(B) to get it unlocked. I don't know FICS' policies and cannot assist you. If Blind does not accept your request in such short time, you cannot participate in BB3 - but perhaps in BB4... So do give it a try.

Tourney Format

We may experiment in future editions, but for now I guess it's good to stick with the Swiss tourney format used by drinkeh in 2010. As in BB1 and BB2, the default time control is 35+35, but feel free to arrange a different time and/or increment per move with your opponent. Pairings will be posted on:

Rd 1: Tue, Dec 01st 2015
Rd 2: Fri, Dec 11st 2015
Rd 3: Mon, Dec 21st 2015
Rd 4: Thu, Dec 31st 2015
Rd 5 (if enough players): Sun, Jan 10th 2016

You have eight days to schedule and play. Afterwards report the result: Find your game on Watchbot or Gamebot and message me the link on FICS or leave a comment here on the blog, below the respective round post. The remaining two days of every round are meant as a buffer for me, in case I need to confirm results with you etc.

I hope we can do without BYEs, but if you need to skip a round, send me a message two days before posting of pairings of that round.

Scheduling

After pairings have been posted here, negotiate a time with your opponent and show up at the agreed time to play. Use FICS messages for negotiations. I cannot monitor them, so there are no contact deadlines like in Teamleague or Snail Bucket. Please behave well, reply to your opponent promptly, "set mailmess 1" on your regular and blindfold accounts (so that all messages get forwarded to you per email). Make sure your email address is up to date. Use GMT or FICS server time or whatever else; if lost in timezones, type "date".

The first two Blind Bandit editions used to be great fun, so I trust all participants are eager to play and will succeed in getting games going. If despite best will the two of you cannot find a time to play, let me know, and I'll set the result as a draw. If the game did not get scheduled or played and you feel you are to blame (e. g. your opponent has put significantly more effort into negotiations, or you did not show up to the game), please honestly let me know that, too, so I can set the win for your opponent.

Blindfold play

Staring at an empty chess board throughout the game to help you visualize the position is allowed on FICS.

Scrolling up through the list of moves is not allowed on FICS. Only the last two moves are printed to your console and may be seen by you. I am bringing this to your attention, because the rationale is not clear from "help blind". The reason is not just simple server economy (printing two lines of moves instead of forty). A year ago, I asked abuse(*), and was told: FICS considers scrolling up through the moves as abusively taking notes ("help abuse", #9).

Variables

"set noescape 0"
"set kibitz 0"
"set notakeback 1"
"set private 0"
"set rated 1"

The FICS blindfold channel is 62, but you better "+ch 101" and announce your games in 101: Teamleagers and Snailbucketeers are great observers, routinely.You may also announce the game here on this blog, of course, leaving a comment on the given round post.

Interfaces

One bad thing I observed using Thief on Windows and years ago eboard on Linux on my blindpchesso account, is: Clocks don't move along like they do on my regular pchesso account - I don't get a count down warning when running out of time. Keep this in mind so you don't forfeit your game on time. If you know an interface that regularly handles clocks for (B) accounts, leave a comment here.

I wish you interesting games!

Standings

It is a bit late to round things up I guess, but beter late than never. Hereby the final standings after the last round:

1-3. FESfW, joddle, drinkeh (4.0)
4. Maras (3.5)
5. nham (3.0)
6. *Smirdo (2.5)
7-8. Boedi, OsaridSaris (2.0)
9. jones (1.5)
10. pchesso (1.0)
11. thehippo (0.5)

Round V

Final round!

1. FESfWBlind (4.0) 1-0 Blinddrinkeh (4.0)
2. BlindBoedi (2.0) 0-1 Blindjoddle (4.0)
3. BlindOsaridSaris (2.0) 0-1 BlindMaras (3.5)
4. Blindnham (3.0) 1-0 blindthehippo (0.5)
5. jonesBlind (1.5) 1-0 blindpchesso (1.0)

Round IV

Sorry for the delay, I eventually set the result on the last board.

1. Blinddrinkeh (4.0) 1-0 Blindjoddle (3.0)
2. FESfWBlind (3.0) 1-0 BlindBoedi (2.0)
3. BlindMaras (2.5) 1-0 Blindnham (2.0)
4. jonesBlind (0.5) 0-1 BlindOsaridSaris (2.0)
5. blindpchesso (1.0) 1-0 blindthehippo (0.5)

Round III

Update: Please refrain from playing the game yet, due to unforseen circumstances new pairings will be posted by the end of the week.

Update 2: After some consideration, it seems but reasonable to concur with TL's expertise on invalidating Kyuuketsuki's results. Boedi and myself hereby get accredited the win (which resulted in new pairings).
Ismirdochegal (having anticipated this event) decided himself to withdraw from the competition, as to even out the playercount again.

We're now basically back on scheme again(Round 4 theoretically starts Nov 26).

1. BlindBoedi (2.0) 0-1 Blinddrinkeh (3.0)
2. Blindjoddle (3.0) 1-0 BlindMaras (1.5)
3. BlindOsaridSaris (1.0) 0-1 FESfWBlind (2.0)
4. Blindnham (2.0)1-0 blindpchesso (0.0)
5. blindthehippo (0.5) i/2-i/2 jonesBlind (0.5)

Round II

PLEASE NOTE:
TL-players probably have probably received a similar message, but as a reminder don't forget to take daylight savings into account when scheduling the game (so far everyone seems to have done so -> excellent!).
Daylight saving ends in Europe this weekend (on Sunday, October 31st). So, server times will effectively be one hour later than normal there.
Daylight savings ends in the USA (where the server resides for FICS), Sunday, the 7th of November at 02:00 PDT (which will become 01:00 PST).
When in doubt, check on FICS using the "date" command.

1. BlindKyuuketsuki (2.0) 1-0 Blinddrinkeh (1.0) [35 35]
2. FESfWBlind (1.0) 0-1 Blindjoddle (2.0) [35 35]
3. BlindSmirdo (1.5) 1/2-1/2 BlindMaras (1.5) [35 35]
4. blindpchesso (0.0) 0-1 BlindBoedi (1.0) [45 45]
5. jonesBlind (0.0) 0-1 Blindnham (1.0) [35 35]
6. blindthehippo (0.0) 0-1 BlindOsaridSaris (1.0) [35 35]

Round I

Here's the pairings for our first round, start scheduling guys.

1. BlindBoedi (0.0) 0-1 BlindKyuuketsuki (1.0) [35 35]
2. Blindjoddle (1.0) 1-0 jonesBlind (0.0) [35 35]
3. BlindOsaridSaris (0.0) 0-1 BlindSmirdo (1.0) [35 35]
4. Blinddrinkeh (1.0) 1-0 blindpchesso (0.0) [35 45]
5. Blindnham (0.0) 0-1 FESfWBlind (1.0) [35 35]
6. BlindMaras (1.0) 1-0 blindthehippo (0.0)

You can use the comment section to announce time and result (ideally use: "Comment as ... Name/URL" and leave your handle).

Don't forget to use the "w" (white) or "b" (black) when challenging your opponent (for instance: "match BlindEvink 35 35 w").

Players

Entering the tournament is possible up to Oct 15 11:30.

Current participants (with estimated seed):
1. BlindKyuuketsuki
2. Blindjoddle
3. BlindSmirdo
4. Blinddrinkeh
5. FESfWBlind
6. BlindMaras
7. BlindBoedi
8. jonesBlind
9. BlindOsaridSaris
10. blindpchesso
11. Blindnham
12. blindthehippo