Free subscriptions for GM's and IM's

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Do you think it's the 30 buck price tag that is turning GMs away?
Are the scroungers who pop up in the forums actually GMs begging for a sponsor?
Damn! And we sent Gizmo28 packing. He could have taken our clan to the top. 😳

Originally posted by Mixo
Do you think it's the 30 buck price tag that is turning GMs away?
Are the scroungers who pop up in the forums actually GMs begging for a sponsor?
Damn! And we sent Gizmo28 packing. He could have taken our clan to the top. 😳

I know there is much more too it thatn that - busy guys, not wanting accusations etc. But if we knew it was free for known IM's then I imagine there rea several known to players on the site who could be encouraged to have a look at the whole package for free - they will probably stay as it's good here - I think the fact that they get the whole lot for free shows we are giving them a bit more than the average joe because of who they are.

I'd even go further and ask that some of out subscription money went to pay GM and IM players to play here as resident GM and IM... I don't know how much and I guess it would be a minimal amount.

I would love us to have a GM forum where they posted advice and teaching hints etc. Perhaps only the GM's and IM's could start threads which we could contribute in. I'm sure they would add to the site in lots of other ways as well.

Even one known and properly checked out GM would be a massive asset.

I do not think many IM or GM players would be interested in playing on this site even if I really would like if they did. Instead I have another proposal wich I think would work better:

Let anyone with an official elo-rating over 2200 play here for free! That would attract many players I think. (If anyone is worried that this might be some of our subscribers I am sure that of all subscribers there will be no more than 0,5 % at most wich has this rating.)

What do you think? I think personally this is a very good idea😉

While I think this a reasonable idea, I think it would be impossible to implement in practise.

We've already had a couple of incidents of GM-impersonators (Seirewan and Jean Hebert being the ones who spring to mind, though was it ever verified JH was an imposter??).

How would we know whether someone claiming to be GM Smith was genuine?

Originally posted by Redmike
While I think this a reasonable idea, I think it would be impossible to implement in practise.

We've already had a couple of incidents of GM-impersonators (Seirewan and Jean Hebert being the ones who spring to mind, though was it ever verified JH was an imposter??).

How would we know whether someone claiming to be GM Smith was genuine?

Fide has lists of all grandmasters (probably avalible on the internet) and there is always e-legitimation to confirm their identities.

Originally posted by bikingviking
Fide has lists of all grandmasters (probably avalible on the internet) and there is always e-legitimation to confirm their identities.

What's e-ligitimation?

Originally posted by bikingviking
I do not think many IM or GM players would be interested in playing on this site even if I really would like if they did. Instead I have another proposal wich I think would work better:

Let anyone with an official elo-rating over 2200 play here for free! That would attract many players I think. (If anyone is worried that this might be some of our sub ...[text shortened]... most wich has this rating.)

What do you think? I think personally this is a very good idea😉

I'd go for this. Anyone else...

I think having GMs on the site would be a good thing, but I certainly wouldn't want some of my subscription money going to pay them for playing here. They wouldn't really be under any obligation to help people. If they are getting paid, they better be under contract to give lessons to subscribers or something. As far as playing them, I've never had the chance to have Akizy or DavidTebb or Gatecrasher or any of the other bigshots beat the pants off me, so I doubt I'd ever get a game with a GM either.

How do we know there are none here already? In fact I suspect there are a few.

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
How do we know there are none here already? In fact I suspect there are a few.

I agree, there could easily be some here.

What I think Horsey's point is (please correct me if I am wrong) is that it would seem that many strong players around the world could be put off playing here due to the issues of cheating and allegations that fly around any strong player that dares to show their face.

This throws up a statistic that I read recently in that if you compare online poker to online chess, you see that many professional poker players play regularly online because they love to play poker and play regularly. This must be the case for "pro" (GM) chess players too. There must be tons of strong chess players who love the game and can't play enough, yet they don't seem to all be playing here. If there was a way to encourage some of the true chess greats to play here, we would have a benchmark of strength to compare to - if the top 10 positions were taken up by GMs then it would surely lessen the accusations of cheating, as well as being able to have their names to add more credibility to the player tables.

Perhaps, by offering an official accreditation scheme (through a water-tight verification proceedure) and a reasonable incentive (ie free subscription) the playing community here could be the real winner.

Originally posted by Hindstein
I agree, there could easily be some here.

What I think Horsey's point is (please correct me if I am wrong) is that it would seem that many strong players around the world could be put off playing here due to the issues of cheating and allegations that fly around any strong player that dares to show their face.

This throws up a statistic that I read ...[text shortened]... nable incentive (ie free subscription) the playing community here could be the real winner.

I think that offering free subscriptions to GMs and IMs would be an interesting experiment. But I doubt that there would be many takers.

For one thing, the subscription (at $30 per year) is so cheap that it wouldn't be much of an incentive. They would much rather be paid. Especially as many people seem to assume that the GMs would need to make themselves available for plenty of challenge games, play for clans, give tuition and regularly post in the forums.

Secondly, if GMs and IMs are already playing anonymously on the site, it's because they wish to remain anonymous. I imagine they just want to quietly play some chess without being constantly pestered for games and advice.

Thirdly, a lot of GMs won't play on correspondence sites because they don't want to be bashed up by a lot of engine users. They know that their GM title will act as a big magnet for every kid with an engine who wants to boast to their mates that they have beaten a famous player.

Also, as has been pointed out already, it would be very hard to put in place a fool proof method of verifying identities. The site admin might have to enter into prolonged correspondence or ask for documents to be posted to them. It would be a lot of hassle on their part, and would cost them money in the short term, although that would probably be recouped later with an increase in membership.

Finally, although it would be very nice to have such players on the site, nobody is above the law. The GMs and IMs would have to be treated with the same level of scepticism as any other high rated player on the site. Their games would inevitably attract a great deal of attention and will be analysed by the game mods. Having a GM or IM title should not protect them if the game mods find overwhelming evidence of engine use.