Things have been pretty slow lately, but around here that's not a bad thing.    Still I think we're big enuf to venture out into the competitive arenas a little bit.  I've sent out an Open Seek for a Vote Game and a Team Match, both with Turtle Time Controls.

The Vote Game (Turtle Week) is set for the maximum 7 days per turn.  This is the exact speed that the entire game will take (2 weeks total per move), which means that the game could last 8 months to 2 years!!

The Team Match (Turtle Ten) is set for 10 players, 10 days per turn, and only one concurrent game.  So it could take a little while too.

I've also picked a few friends to be my Co-Administrators:

Feel free to invite new members, and issue or accept Team Matches and Vote Games (but let's keep all the time controls to a minimum of 5-days, preferably 7-days).  We are a cozy little group, and I like that, so let's not go overboard or anything, but you all have the power now if you want to use it (or not - it's up to you).

Thank You!!  Good Luck!!  Have Fun!!

I am always in the mood for a vote game... count me in!

where can I sign up for team matches for the chess turtles?

I've added The Chess Turtles to my Red Wings Rotation.  After each Detroit Red Wings Hockey Game I send out a new Team Match Open Seek for one of my four groups (The Dark Knights, Animal Lovers, The 2K Club, and of course The Chess Turtles).  The games are 5x5 autostart which means that as soon as both teams have 5 players, the match starts with whoever's signed up at that time.  This reduces the odds of someone signing up for a match and then not making the cut.  The time controls are determined by the score of the game.  The higher the score, the higher the time controls.  This should mean that in each group, a new Match will start at least once a week.

The other option to make sure that everyone who wants to play gets to, is to have a big mega-match with lots of players.  It's usually not good to have too many of these going at once (cuz you need such a large number of members to sign up, and you don't want to stretch your membership too thin), but we don't have a big mega-match going yet, so I'll set one of those up for us.  We are up to 70 members now (or back down to 70 members - we just lost somebody) so I think we're finally ready for one.  We've got enuf members now, and enuf interest.  You got it.  I'll go do that now.

Question: can we keep signups open for a tad longer, given that more than 20 people can join? I think one or two more people would be interested in joining.

EDIT/UPDATE: that part is sorted.

(also, the current odds, given the rating distribution, are less than stellar: 3-17 to our disadvantage. This will change drastically if we can get a few higher-rated people in)

EDIT/UPDATE: still the case. But the differences aren't too big in many cases. It will be very much an uphill battle, but it isn't impossible.

Good Work Billium. You must be pretty busy, but take it easy and slow, we're the turtles!

Seems we have a new team match, against a women team! http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match.html?id=4158

I don't know who handles this on our side, but give it some time to round up enough turtles ;)