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

Specifications (2)

Detailed guideluines for BB#2

*Scheduling:
Pairings will be announced here on the blog. You have 2 weeks to play the game, try to have it scheduled before the end of the first week. Use messages on fics to communicate with your opponent, make sure you are talking about the same timezone ("date" will show you server time).
I cannot follow this process, so let me know if your opponent is not responding (please do check your messages frequently). Also you can let us know here on the blog when you're due to play, so that others can have a look at it.
Also discuss the time controls if wanted, otherwise use 35 35.
Pairings will be announced every other Friday around 12:00 (starting this week).
Start dates of the rounds are: Oct 15, Oct 29, Nov 12, Nov 26 and Dec 9.
Be sure to join before Friday 11:30 (watch out, I had put Saturdays initially).

*Playing:
-time controls: By default 35 35, but open for discussion. Time or inc should be 25 or higher.
-noescape: Don't forget to turn this off (it seems to me we want to avoid losing/winning a blindfold game by disconnection, as it's too big an investment of time and energy). If necessary try to resume as soon as possible; adjourned game situations will have to be looked at individually.
-board: You can look at an empty board if preferred, the key idea is obviously that you don't see the pieces.

*Bye request:
I think I'll disable this option from now on. Two weeks should be enough to play the game and without bye requests pairings are much easier. Last time it wasn't too popular anyway.

BB #2

Blind Bandits is returning to the scene! Round 1 starting at Oct 16.
I copied some stuff from earlier posts, not much has chanced anyway.

Though initially set up for TeamLeague, this platform is now surving a new purpose. Rather than trying to fill up whole team competition, an individual blindfold tourney will be held throughout the next couple of months. The format will still be similar, but less tight.

The intention is to play 5 rounds of 35 35, with 1 game every two weeks - this should leave plenty of time for you to schedule something with your opponent. Also I don't mean to be too strict on time controls, it is open for discussion along with the date. However, in the spirit of standard chess, time or increment should be 25 or higher (for instance 10 25 or 25 5 are fine too, or even the 45 45 as in TL). 35 35 is merely the compromis in case no arrangement can be found.

Those that want to be listed already can let me know, and don't forget to spread the word a bit.

Credits

Thanks all for playing in the tournament - I could hardly have wished for fairer participants. Running it was simply a pleasure.

I'll add the final scores here, but I guess you've all figured out:
Having scored quite an impressive 4.5 out of 5, crazyblue is the winner of the very first BlindBandits tournament!

1. crazyblue (4.5)
2. Boedi, FeSfW and Maras (3.5)
5. drinkeh (3.0)
6. Thingummywut (2.5)
7. jones and pchesso (2.0)
9. thehippo (1.5)
10. OsaridSaris (1.0)

withdrew: sangalla

PS: Sorry for the late update, I put this aside for a while as there was no real deadline.

Round 5

It seems sangalla was unable to play in round 4 and 5. I've removed him from the player list, so there will be no bye in this last round:

Blindcrazyblue (4.5) 1-0 BlindBoedi (3.5)
BlindMaras (3.5) 1/2-1/2 Blinddrinkeh (3.0)
FeSfWBlind (3.5) 1-0 Blindpchesso (2.0)
BlindThingummywut (2.5) 1-0 jonesBlind (2.0)
Blindthehippo (1.5) 0-1 BlindOsaridSaris (1.0)

Intermezzo: TL?

I saw OsaridSaris wondering whether we should try blindfolded Teamleague again, so I'll add this extra post in case you want to share some opinions on it. Here's mine:
I'd still be glad to blend in with the regular guys, not necessarily teaming up with other blind accounts even. It'd be quite a disadvantage like this, so I don't really see how that'd be bothering others (but I feel somehow it does).
Also I think going for a complete blindfolded section is definitally too early. There's simply not enough people that want to make this kind of commitment at this point and others are not even able or allowed (I do agree with the 20 games minimum of the TL guys). And honestly, even 3 teams will in my opinion not suffise for any decent competition.
Apart from that I should also mention I will probably not compete in any TL for a while, blindfolded or not. I do however intend to run more tournaments like this one, after a break of a couple of months. More updates will follow on this blog, I'd say BB #2 will start Friday Oct 8 for now.