The Town Hall Archives

Boa · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:16 am Post subject:

Can I play guys? I'm at work now so I will have to wait until I get home in the morning to download the software.

Samwise · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:32 am Post subject:

no, don't download it, it's just two weeks triaol. We'll do it either MSN or Yahoo! Games.

I'm playing!

Jared · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:41 am Post subject:

Samwise is correct... You'll just need to sign up with Yahoo! Games... (http://games.yahoo.com/)

If you have a Yahoo account or email address, you're already signed up.

And yes, you're free to join! Welcome!

Zaphod Beeblebrox · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:55 pm Post subject:

When will this start, and will we be doing it through Yahoo! Games? How will it work? Is it going to be a set time? Will there be prizes? Wink

Jared · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 8:13 pm Post subject:

Starting in probably 2-3 days... I just want to give a lot of people time to join.

Games, as said before, will be assigned and can be played any time during a week-long period. Results get reported back to me. Games can be played on Yahoo! Games, yes.

No prizes, sorry.

Unless it's just a virtual "Walton Chess Achievement Award" or something... Smile

Elf of Rivendell · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 4:17 am Post subject:

Yeah! Post a picture of the trophy!

Zaphod Beeblebrox · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 11:39 pm Post subject:

I wasn't thinking of literal, physical prizes. ;)

Sounds cool; I might play as "Trippyshoe."

Jared · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 8:17 am Post subject:

Okay, we have ten players now. This tournament is ready to start!

I'll be sending out an email to everyone involved very soon to get us started! Smile

DrBlackgaard · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 9:01 am Post subject:

By the way, my Yahoo ID is JMP1124. I didn't see any notice about my trial expiring when I downloaded the software... Confused

But maybe it's on there and I just didn't see it. I'm not the most observant person in the world.. Wink

Jared · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 11:31 am Post subject: Getting Started!

Okay, here we go!

I sent this out to everyone in the tournament, but in case someone's email has changed, etc., and they didn't get it, here it is!

[Note: if you did NOT get this message via email, let me know so that I can make sure that you DO get future ones.]

-----------------------------------------------------------

The First Great Odyssey Chess Tournament is about to get underway, and to paraphrase the great Bernard Walton, I imagine that none of us have been this excited since we had our corns removed. Well, stuff me with feathers and call me a pillow... you never had your corns removed?

Lay down your squeegees. Turn over the bucket and sit down. Don't forget your sandwich. Rye bread of course; the pumpernickel's not too bad, but it's a little heavy on the molasses.

Yes, it's time to play some chess! It's time to move your queenie into position to pin your opponent's tower to his guy with the pointy head, as Bernard would observe. Or, if you prefer, the time has come to incorporate the tactics taught by the masters regarding pawn formation, proper use of zhughwangs and tactical procedures and well-reasoned strategies to result in an impressive show of calculative force resulting in victory.

Or something.

We are not able to play at the original designated place, chess.net, as newly registered accounts are only two-week trials as chess.net requires all new users to pay for their service. For this reason, we will be playing at Yahoo! Games, which actually works out better than I had originally expected. Here are the instructions on how to set up a game properly for this tournament using Yahoo! Games:

1. Go to http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=ch (if this does not work, go to http://games.yahoo.com and click "Chess" under the board games category)
2. Scroll down on that page. You'll see a section that is titled "Global Game Rooms" and features rooms with funny names like "Turtle Shell" and "Frog Pond," as if chess enthusiasts were mindless toddlers who need to be amused by animal-related names for everything. Come to think of it...
3. Go to the room you and your opponent have agreed upon at the designated time (more on this later).
4. An new window featuring a Java applet will pop up. Give it up to a few minutes to load. At this point, the person playing for black may skip to #10.
5. Once it's loaded, the person playing white must click the "Create Table" button found near the top left of the popup window.
6. As soon as a new window featuring a chess board pops up, look at the left sidebar (sort of blue-green in color) and find the "Table Type." The heading is tiny, but there's a menu and "Public" is selected. That should be easy to see. Immediately click that drop-down menu and choose Private so that no one except your designated opponent, who you will invite to the table in a minute, can join. In the event that someone joins before you make the table "Private," you can hit the "Boot" button (not far below the "Table Type" selection) to kick them out. Making the table private is very important.
7. Once you have done that, look farther down on that left sidebar. You'll see another button that says "Set Timer." Click it. An option box will come up and the "No Timer" option will be checked. Un-check it, then put 25 into the "Initial Time" box and keep the "Increment" box. You may keep the "At most 10 minutes per move" box checked or not; your choice. Then, click "OK" to close the box.
8. Click the "Sit" button next to the word "White" on the right of the chess board at the main playing screen.
9. Now you're ready to invite your opponent. Since you and your opponent will have chosen a time and meeting-place already, he or she should hopefully already be in the Yahoo! Chess room, waiting for you to invite them to the game. Look at the left sidebar again and you'll see an "Invite" button. Click that, then, assuming they have arrived at the room, click on their username from the list and hit the "Invite" button.
10. The person playing white now has a break from setting things up. The individual playing black will see a box pop up telling them that they have been invited to a game. It is possible that they could receive other invites while waiting, so it is important that they only accept an invite from the username of the person they are to play chess with. They will of course know this username, as I will explain in a minute.
11. Now, the person who plays black has joined. A new window featuring the chess board will pop up. The person playing white is already waiting. The person with black must click the "Sit" button above the word "Black" on the right side of that window.
12. Now, to both players: it's time to do what this whole tournament is about: play chess! Moves are made, obviously, by dragging pieces to the square to which you wish to move them.
13. At the end of the game, I ask that both players click the "Email History to Me" button. You'll be sent an email with a list of the moves made during the game. Forward this to jaredw86@nauticom.net once you get it, please. Why both of you? Simply in case someone forgets -- and so that I can make sure that both of you report to me accurately. This is how I will know who won the game!

It sounds like a lot of instructions. It is. But it's really quite easy and most of those things are very intuitive. Once the applet loads, it takes about 45 seconds to set up a board. I just wrote up that list so that there would be no confusion whatsoever.

As I mentioned earlier, later on in this email, you will find who you are playing and as soon as you're done reading this message, I ask that you contact them (as explained in a moment) to see when a game will work. But, while you wait for them to get back to you, go to Yahoo! Games, make sure you have an account (if not, it's free and easy to get one) and play around seeing how things work. It will save time when you actually play the game.

Okay, now I'm most of the way done with this email. Here are the first round pairings. But please don't quit reading this note as soon as you see who you're playing. There's more. Yes, this is a long email.

By the way, in the pairings below, all names are formatted exactly as they are on the Town Hall and any Private Message or via-Town Hall emails sent to these individuals can be sent with the To: field on either form at the Town Hall filled out exactly as these names are written below.

PAIRINGS:

The Top Crusader [white] vs *Robbin Baggins [black]
Samwise [white] vs Arthur Dent [black]
Elf of Rivendell [white] vs Bennett Charles [black]
DrBlackaard [white] vs Boa [black]
coralfish107 [white] vs Jared Walczak [black]

So, how do you contact these people? As I hinted below, do so via the Town Hall. I have set up a special "Usergroup" at the Town Hall Called "Odyssey Chess Tournament" and have set all those participating in this tournament as members. You can see a list of those involved in the tournament in this group and have immediate access to private messaging them -- or, if they have it allowed, emailing them. This group can be found at the following address: http://townhall.aiosf.com/groupcp.php?g=206&sid=5551aa9a2a84fe7ee5de560bddcccb7d
If that does not work, go to http://townhall.aiosf.com/groupcp.php and look for where it says "Current Memberships." You'll see that "Odyssey Chess Tournament" is selected, so hit the button to the right of that. It says "View Information" and will take you to the same page that the link above this one does.

So, if you're DrBlackgaard, you would go to this page and click either "PM" or "Email" next to Boa's name and immediately contact him to see what time would work. If they have email allowed, use it as your first choice. If not, settle for sending a Private Message. But just because DrBlackgaard is expected to send Boa a message does not mean that Boa is exempt. If you're Boa and you receive this email but have not yet received any communications from DrBlackgaard, you follow the same instructions to contact him. In other words, it's the responsibility of both people involved to contact each other and get the game going.

Here's what you and your opponent will need to agree on:

- Time and date of the game.
- Which room at Yahoo! Chess you will meet in. It has been my experience that Tarantula Theatre, Alligator Tunnel, Walrus Rock, Weasel Way and Wombat Wagon are often the least full and most likely to have room to play. Pick a first choice room and a backup to go to in case the originally chosen room is full.
- Additional forms of game time communication. Not required, but if both of you have AIM, for example, trading screennames wouldn't be a bad idea and would give you a chance to keep in contact as you are setting the game up, etc. But as I said, this is not necessary. Once you're both playing, you can chat in the game window if you so choose.

Okay, that's it! Actually, looking up at what I've just written, that's a lot. Sorry for writing this long missive, but I wanted to insure that there is no confusion. Save this email so that you will have the full instructions throughout the tournament. Each week, I'll send the new pairings, but not all these instructions. If you lose them, though, contact me and I can get them to you.

So, let's start playing -- and soon!

You'll need to play the first game within a week's time. I'll need game results by (and preferably before) March 31st. Thank you.

Enjoy the games. And thanks again for joining The First Great Odyssey Chess Tournament!

Sincerely,
Jared Walczak
Mayor of Odyssey

P.S. If you have any questions, difficulties, etc., please email me at jaredw86@nauticom.net or contact me on the Town Hall. Thank you.