Atlas Chess Tournament '21 (Final Scores)

[muon2]

I'd like to play, which I hope is ok as owner of the club. My chess.com name is count-Y

[muon2]

I'll defend my title but only if it's real time.  I don't want to do correspondence again.

If you want to do it like the real chess world championship, you could also make the winner of this tournament the "challenger", and we could do a best-of-12 blitz match for the title.  That would be more fun IMO.

But blitz, classical, and correspondence are in significant ways different games. People who are skilled at one form may not be as good at another. I thought it took a lot away from the classical world championship to introduce rapid games for the tie breaks. One doesn't use classical games to settle a tie for the blitz world championship.

[muon2]

I'll defend my title but only if it's real time.  I don't want to do correspondence again.

If you want to do it like the real chess world championship, you could also make the winner of this tournament the "challenger", and we could do a best-of-12 blitz match for the title.  That would be more fun IMO.

What muon said, plus we need correspondence in order to accommodate for people's schedules. Real-time matches will just increase the risk of people backing out or missing their turn, thus ending the game.

I found minionofmidas' argument for a Swiss tournament compelling, because that way better players play against each other and less skilled players play against each other. But the same problem exists, especially if people change their mind and don't want to play multiple games with such short time windows.

Swiss pairings could actually work better than single elimination if players abandon. In a single elimination match holes can open up in the brackets and create unfair advantages in the late rounds. In a Swiss players that abandon are just left off of subsequent pairings. It guarantees that no one near the top gets a bye due to an abandonment unless it happens after pairs have been set.

[muon2]

I agree with GMac's idea of having the final be a blitz match. Correspondence doesn't take as much skill since one can spend hours poring over the position.

Being able to concentrate on a position at length is a very specific skill, separate from being able to quickly analyze a position and find a move. Hikaru Nakamura is one of the best rapid and blitz players in the world, but often struggles in top classical events that require deep calculation.

[muon2]

Minionofmidas won our game after I resigned. It was quite thrilling, even if disappointing. As I understand, I’m not out yet, right?

Correct. In a Swiss tournament everyone plays every round, generally matched against an opponent with a similar score, but a player that they haven't yet faced. If there's an odd number of players the lowest score gets a bye, though a player can't get two byes in the tournament (think of the bye as an extra player to even things out, but one who loses every time).

[muon2]

I recommend playing them rated. If you play on the site outside the Atlas tournament the rating helps the system create a match at an appropriate playing strength.

[muon2]

After valiantly struggling on, I regret to announce I've been suffocated to death in my first game, congratulations to muon on a lethally sharp performance.

1. e4 d5 2. d4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3 exf3 5. Nxf3 Bg4 6. Be3 e6 7. Bc4 Bb4 8.
O-O Nc6 9. d5 Ne5 10. Bb5+ Nfd7

Nfd7 to block the bishop is what Chess.com's auto-analysis tells me was the crucial blunder, which seems right - I was in serious trouble from then. In retrospect my impulse was to not remove the e5 knight from piling up on f3 but simply swapping out which knight I block with prevents the brutal Qd4 being so scary and might save my kingside pawn from the coup de grâce in a couple of moves. I should have spent a bit more time thinking about this one. The f3 attack is a bit of an idle threat regardless - how am I going to capitalise on that?

11. Qd4 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Nxf3+ 13. gxf3 Bf5

The auto-analysis suggests castling instead and giving up the bishop as lost, which actually didn't cross my mind - my initial thought was to play Bh3 and attack the rook, but I doubt that'd work in correspondence: in blitz it might buy you a crucial tempo with a rook retreat, allowing castling.


14.
Qxg7 Rf8

All over bar the shouting. A cursory glance would suggest there's no way to survive here that doesn't end in my 1. giving up my queen and 2. having a pawn on the 7th rank. Yikes!

15. Bc5 c6 16. dxc6 1-0


This was a fun position on move 11:

Thanks for your thoughts and a well played game (minus 10 Nfd7). I looked at 11 Nxe5 but I wasn't confident enough in the queen sacrifice, so I went with the safer 11 Qd4. The engine tells me the sac was the way to go:

(11. Nxe5! Bxd1 12. Bxd7+ Qxd7 (moving the king loses to 13. Rxf7+) 13. Nxd7)

Here's the game link.

[muon2]

I'm already contemplating resigning against Muon on my first move.

There's literally no way I can be competitive against him.

Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be eliminated before I have to face him, because I'd get slaughtered.

Should we face each other, I do hope you give it a go. I've made my share of blunders over the years.

In any case you won't be eliminated, since in a Swiss tournament you play every round. As rounds progress you'll play others with a similar score.

[muon2]

Hey muon2 let's play a few.  I sent you a challenge.

I didn't see it. Did you send it to count-Y (muon2 is a closed account)? In any case I'm prepping for the first day of class tomorrow, so I'll have to hold off for a few days until class gets going.

[muon2]

I defeated TimTurner with a time victory.
https://www.chess.com/game/daily/351178157

I never had any actual indication you were going to be playing in earnest, but okay.

Sorry? I responded to your initial move, and you didn't play for three days so the game expired. I'm happy to replay it if the group thinks that is necessary.

I reloaded the page one or two days ago and there was no notice in the places I looked that the game had started.
It seems that unfamiliarity with how things would proceed and with the site itself (I've never used Chess.com before), as well as insufficient communication from either end, precipitated this. I would like to apologize for not being forthcoming enough with questions and asking for notification and for my role in this occuring.

You should get email alerts that a game has started or you are about to lose on time. There's a notifications page where you can turn those functions on if they are off.

[muon2]

I didn't see it reported, but it looks like bore defeated morgieb on time.

https://www.chess.com/game/daily/351318581

[muon2]

When is the next round starting?

I'm still playing diptheriadan. Sorry for not updating the board.

NewYorkExpress v Old School Republican and morgieb v Ebowed are also still in progress. Pairings for round 2 can be posted as soon as all the games are complete.

[muon2]

When is the next round starting?

I'm still playing diptheriadan. Sorry for not updating the board.

NewYorkExpress v Old School Republican and morgieb v Ebowed are also still in progress. Pairings for round 2 can be posted as soon as all the games are complete.

Wait, morgieb already beat bore on time? He won this round.

My bad, I meant Ishan not morgieb.

[muon2]

When is the next round starting?

I'm still playing diptheriadan. Sorry for not updating the board.

Sorry about taking so long. Works been chaotic, so I've been more than a little scqtterbrained.

Edit: yeah, I'm gonna need to pull outta this is that's possible. Waste of time if I can't perform.

I hope you didn't feel pressured. You were playing faster than NYE/OSR. And you were playing quite well until the last five moves today. Perhaps you'll reconsider and give yourself the time available with the 3-day clock in the next round.

[muon2]

My game with muon is now in progress!

(i'm about to get assclapped pray for me)

Thanks to OBD for playing a good game. I was able to box in the queen and OBD resigned shortly after being forced to trade it for a rook and then give up a knight.

[muon2]

My game with muon is now in progress!

(i'm about to get assclapped pray for me)

Yep. I lost. Good game muon.

Honestly not even sure what went wrong but I went from ok to being pinned to all hell so…

I think you needed to get rid of my bishop on the light squares before castling long. That bishop made my rook on the c-file especially powerful by cutting off the king's escape.

[muon2]

ROUND 2! diptheriadian has been left out per his request, and so morgieb will be getting a bye unless someone else jumps in.

White vs. Black
AGA - Scott
bore - NewYorkExpress
Ebowed - minionofmidas
OBD - muon2
oakvale - YPestis25
Old School Republican - HockeyDude
Mimoha - Ishan
TimTurner - Abdullah
morgieb gets a bye

Interested in taking the open slot if it's still available...

I believe I already have an account, although not sure if I need to pony up a few $$$ for my chess.com account.

Your free account appears to be active as NOVA_GREEN_2008. morgieb was white in round 1 and should play black against a new entry in this round, which would presumably be you. I'll let Scott be the final judge.

[muon2]

I just got slaughtered against Bore.

If you have a merciful bone in your body, please don't put up me against Muon next.

Fear not. In a Swiss tournament I will be playing someone with 2 wins in round 3. You would most likely face someone with 1 win after two rounds.

[muon2]

Another silly question....

Is there an easy way to view all chess games of all Atlas Registered chess.com members?

Just curious about how badly I will get my bottom paddled against what appears to be an extremely formidable Atlas Tournament Lineup.

I think you'd have to manually look at the stats of each player, but you can find current players in the OP and we also have our chess.com club, which you can join.

As a member of our online club you can click on members, and then select an individual member to see the games they are currently playing as well as past games.

[muon2]

So apparently I won my chess match against Morgieb123 in two moves:

NOVA Green (White)      Morgieb123 (Black)

1.)    d4           f5
2.)    g3           **** Lost on Time ****

Needless the despite the obviously brilliant nature of my opening moves and deeply flawed Black Response, for some reason I feel distinctly underwhelmed....

morgieb lost on time in round 1, too. If this format isn't working, then he can let us know if he'd rather withdraw from future rounds.

[muon2]

So apparently I won my chess match against Morgieb123 in two moves:

NOVA Green (White)      Morgieb123 (Black)

1.)    d4           f5
2.)    g3           **** Lost on Time ****

Needless the despite the obviously brilliant nature of my opening moves and deeply flawed Black Response, for some reason I feel distinctly underwhelmed....

morgieb lost on time in round 1, too. If this format isn't working, then he can let us know if he'd rather withdraw from future rounds.

Sounds good... honestly feel kind of crap to play my first Atlas Chess Game and end up with a "W" after my 2nd move.

The Swiss Model kinda reminds me of the "Old Skool" type of mail correspondence chess, which gives players some time to reflect upon their moves, while they can also do the IRL stuff, vs having to chase down the next upcoming Chess Tournaments down the Highway, etc....

It also allows Atlas which has a 24 Hour time zone population a proper amount of time to adjust for things like sleep schedules, work schedules, etc...

Although personally I don't mind a Tournament function with 1.5 Hrs / Player Total time, it does get tricky with things like time zones and all that and coordinating schedules with your opponent.

Anyways--- not sure who I am facing in the next bracket, but will await further instructions.

I won't know round 3 until round 2 is complete. Pairings are based on matching players with similar scores who haven't faced each other yet. The preference is to match players meeting those criteria who would get opposite colors than in the previous round. There are more details to resolve unmatched or multiple possible matches but those are the primary ones.

[muon2]

My game against Ebowed has concluded. https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/daily/355226703?tab=report
Looked fairly even for a long while until some gaps opened. I note chess.com finds no blunder by him (or me) in the game.

gg to both players. I took a peek once in a while as it progressed, it did look like a very even game. Ebowed seemed to have the upper hand with the rook and queen staring at the black king after 22. Rxh4. Black fought back to take control with a rook battery on 26... Rag8. After 35 Kd3 I was hoping to see if black would go 35... Qb1+ with a bunch of nice mating threats:

36. Ke3 Re8+ 37. Qe4 Qxe4#
36. Rc2 Rxe2 37. Qxe2 Rg3+ 38. Kd2 Ne4+ 39. Qxe4 fxe4 and mate in a few moves
36. Rc2 Rxe2 37. Kxe2 Qxc2+ 38. Kf1 Qc1+ 39. Ke2 Rg1 or 39. Kf2 Ne4+ and again mate in a few moves

[muon2]

I see that TimTurner and Abdullah have agreed on a draw. As a reminder, draws count as a half point for each player and don't need to be replayed. AGA - Scott and OldSchoolRepublican - HockeyDude are the remaining games in round 2.

[muon2]

I have resigned my game against AGA.

NOVA GREEN and morgieb's game is the last one for round 2.

That was quite a good battle for most of the game. gg to both players.

NOVA GREEN won on time a while ago. OldSchoolRepublican - HockeyDude is the remaining game.

[muon2]

I see that HockeyDude has defeated OSR on time. That ends the games in round 2. Here are the standings:

2   muon2
2    AGA
2   minionofmidas
2   bore

1   OBD
1   oakvale
1   NOVA Green
1   Mimoha
1   Ebowed
1   HockeyDude
1   ascott
1   NewYorkExpress
1   YPestis25

0.5   Abdullah
0.5   TimTurner

0   Ishan
0   morgieb
0   OSR


Scott asked me to explain the pairing method, I think that's a great idea. I use a pairing based on the Dutch system for Swiss tournaments. The priorities for each round are the following in order of precedence.

1. Players may not meet more than once.

2. Players may not get more than one bye in a tournament.

3. Players may not play the same color three games in a row, nor may the absolute difference in black and white games exceed 2.

4. Players should face an opponent with an equal or nearly equal score. Players with equal scores are said to be in the same scoring group.

5. When a group has an odd number of players, the lowest rated player in a score group is floated down to the next score group. If there is no lower group the player is given a bye.

6. Players with the same scores are divided into upper and lower halves based on their chess.com daily rating. Players floated down from a higher group are considered to have the highest rating. Players in the upper half should face players in the lower half.

7. Players should alternate colors. If two players face each other who would both played the same color in the previous round, the higher rated player gets black (except for priority 3).

8. Players with higher ratings in the upper half of a score group should play players with a higher rating in the lower half of the score group.

Note this tends to pair weaker players with stronger players in the early rounds, so that strong players will face each other in the later rounds. This is similar to a seeded single-elimination tournament where the highest-rated players face the lowest-rated players initially, with the top two players kept in separate brackets until the finals. The advantage of the Swiss is that lower-ranked players get a chance to face more equal competition in later rounds, rather than being knocked out.

In my next post I'll show how this algorithm leads to the pairings for round 3.