2009 Championship

...but not that much easier! I'm already finding it hard to get an edge against some of the 1800s. They must raise their game for the Championship 🙄😕

Two of the sub 1800s in your group are actually quite strong players who seem to have had a bit of a loss of rating form. Plus, if an 1800 really concentrates on his game he can be a fairly tough opponent - they are certainly players to be taken seriously.

Believe me, I have every reason to take them seriously - ratings are never a secure guide; only moves

Originally posted by Tyrannosauruschex
No, you are ok, in fact your group is nowhere near as bad as group 3.Tournament 5854

Aumonde in group seven has been banned... hopefully Russ will weed the engines out now before the final round...

I'm surprised. I have played Aumonde twice, and thought he was OK. In one game, he blundered a pawn unaccountably; in the other, he outplayed me but timed out, unaccountably. Unlike with many others, I didn't get the impression I was playing an engine. So I'm pretty saddened by this.

The second round of the championship is a sudden load of hard games and time consumption that might push some people in that direction.


I will make sure I make enough blunders to secure my reputation.
Game 6306411

Its a shame so many people lose interest in this tournament in the late stages - it is the most important one of the year, and this time it seems alot cleaner then last years.

It's my first championship so I have nothing to compare. But if this year is 'cleaner', I hate to think what previous years were like.

On a sidenote, I just got awarded two wins v. (the recently banned) Jacklobo to round off my 'triumph' in the Najdorf themed tourney. I say 'triumph' because I entered a three-way in the final, with David Tebb the third player. But he withdrew because he wants a break; so I settled down to play JL. After seven moves, he's banned. And as a fairly silly bonus, I've been awarded a fat slab of grade points for my 'effort'. This is not how I imagined the final play-off would pan out a few weeks back.

Interesting to see Zubrea has been banned too. I took a very bad mauling from him a while back. He was captain of the Romania 3/7 league team that 'won' Div 3, half of which now appears to have been banned 😕

And, no doubt, he will be back within a few months time using a new alias to lead his team to further cheat their way up the clan leagues. I am glad to see so many of the Romanian clan have left of their own accord, it shows they have some respect for their country and are getting tired of him dragging their reputation into the mud with his cadre of engine users.

Originally posted by Tyrannosauruschex
And, no doubt, he will be back within a few months time using a new alias to lead his team to further cheat their way up the clan leagues. I am glad to see so many of the Romanian clan have left of their own accord, it shows they have some respect for their country and are getting tired of him dragging their reputation into the mud with his cadre of engine users.

User 357863 has recently posted this on his homepage, in practice explaining why, in group 1, he hasn't moved for several days. I don't suppose he's the first, or the last, player to hurl his toys from the pram in this fashion

THe Machines have won. I give up :-( The RHP '09 Championship is a joke of Rybka users at least in Group 1. So CC is toast for me when playing 9 out of 10 cheats :-((

His first time-out fell to me today, albeit in a position long lost for him. Other time-outs will doubtless follow, most but not all in lost positions by any means. Frankly I find it all pretty sad. At the personal level, I'm now going to win a second game on time that has been a really interesting battle with loads of play left; it's even moved theory on a little. But for the competition as a whole, it's going to distort the outcome of Grp 1, by no means to my advantage I must say, by giving some players points they haven't earned.

OK, that's tough luck for me, and I can shrug it off. And I can't comment, as an active competitor, on the substance of his claim. But I can say that I've found it inordinately hard work even to hold most of the players in the top half of the group, never mind beat them. So I assume they're finding it hard work against each other. My games are now mostly done and dusted, so I can sit back and watch events unfold. 🙂

But it's a pity Katonah first took his wins against the lower half before deciding that those he couldn't beat must be cheating. His claim would carry more conviction had he seen things through to the end.

Yes, I saw this. I’d actually put all the games in Group 1 on my watch list, purely because it looks to be the most interesting, with so many highly-rated players. I’ve also been watching all Quirine’s User 19960 games too, as they are always exciting.

I see quirine opponent ave ratings are about 300 points less than his lets see who he those with the 2000 plus players

First player through to Round 3 comes from Group 3: User 232353