Final 4  !!!!

Sorry about that.  Thanks for letting me know.  I'll send him a message too.

Anyone else having any problems with Jokers who won't open with their Dark Knight?

we still have  opponents who seemingly forget to use knight to open with the dark pieces.. case in point...

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=22335659

and he tells me he will not

I am there have been so  many opening errors as blk ( Knight moves first ) and time outs.

in remembrance to a very close friend , i resign , i,m sure you,ll understand

Awesome picture!!

There's only 2 games left, and they're between the same 2 people (one of whom is about to run out of vacation time, so it shouldn't be long now).

I am ready  !! How many more days till next round  ?

I meant to send that bulletin out only to Active Players rather than All Players.  I realized what had happened as soon as I clicked the send button, but it was too late.  Sorry!!

Only 69 more games left in Round One!!!  (I just like the number 69.) 

I hope you guys are enjoying the tournament.  Why don't you check out the blog and give us more details.  So far I'm the only one that's really posting over there.  Tell us about how you made it to the second round, or how you went down fighting.  Post your most triumphant win or your most humiliating loss.  I would LOVE to hear some details.

http://blog.chess.com/Billium248/the-dark-knight-tournament-blog

I’ve been asked a couple times now about the number of players advancing to the finals, the number of rounds, etc.  Good questions.  Let's do the math.  There are 3 Major Groups of 100 broken into 25 Minor Groups of 4 each (75 total).  So at least 75 players will advance to round 2 (25 per Major Group) - probably more with all the ties and draws. 

Just for simplicity sake let's say 25-32 players advance to round 2 in each Major Group (75-96 total).  That would make 7-8 Minor Groups of 4 per Major Group.  So at least 7-8 players will advance to Round 3 in each Major Group (21-24 total).

7-8 players will be broken into 2 Minor Groups (possibly 3 if 9-12 players advance).  This will produce 2-4 players advancing to Round 4 from each Major Group (6-12 total).

So Round 4 will be the Final Round of The Dark Knight Opens where I guess everyone will essentially advance, they'll just be fighting over the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Custom Trophies set up for The Dark Knight Opens.

At that time, I set up another tournament called The Dark Knight Finals (which is essentially Round 5 of the Dark Knight Tournament) and invite the top 4 players from each Major Group (12 total).  This will make 3 Minor Groups (possibly 4 in case of even 1 tie in round 4). 

Regardless, this means that 3-4 players will advance to the 6th and Final Round of the tournament to compete for the Custom Trophies set up for The Dark Knight Finals.

Unless there is at least 1 tie in round 4 which causes there to be 4 groups in round 5 instead of 3, AND there is at least 1 tie in round 5 as well which would cause at least 5 players to advance to Round 6 instead of 4 which would make 2 groups instead of 1 and force a Round 7.

Wow!  6-7 Rounds!  They may have the next Batman movie done before this tournament is complete.  ;)

My opponent Kehinde does not resign after his first move as black. He moved the pawn insted of the knight/Mac 74

Just to clarify:

As white, you are free to open however you want.  It is only as black that you need to open with a knight.

I am sending many messages to players who have opened with a black pawn instead of their knight informing them that their game is forfeit.  Please let me know if any of these players fail to resign.  If your opponent has opened with a black pawn instead of a dark knight, and I have not contacted the both of you yet, please inform me so that I may do so.  Thank you.

my opponent "Hongo", opened with a pawn.... is he disqualified? or we can just continue?...tnx

big fun now baby !! My Dark knight rules !!

I hope nobody will use chess program assistance when making the move... lets just play and learn... anyway we have all the time to think.... hope it's gonna be a FAIR PLAY.....:)

Hello all Dark Knight Tournament players,

The movie was AWESOME!!!!  Best Batman movie EVER!!!  Heath Ledger did the best Joker ever seen on film.  Has anyone else seen it yet?

The tournament is now underway.  Apparently the tournaments don’t start automatically at the time we set.  We must start them manually, I guess.  Sorry about that.  I didn’t know.  I thought when I got back from the theater that all the games would have already begun.  At least they’ve started now, right?

DON’T FORGET YOUR FIRST MOVE AS BLACK MUST BE YOUR KNIGHT!!  I hope everyone is playing by the rules.

For anyone interested in overall opening stats on the tournament:

There are 300 people registered for the tournament from all 6 inhabited continents ranging alphabetically from Able1222 to Ztron.  The 1^st person to join was WickedRachel (a few weeks ago), and the last person to sign up was Hero_Museum (less than an hour before it began).  The ratings range from 745 to 2185.

Most importantly there are 52 Jokers (Wild Cards – players with a 1200 rating and no previous games at Chess.com – they may play horribly (or not at all) or they may be Masters in disguise.  You never know what you’re going to get.  One of these Wild Cards won the 1^st tournament I ever joined (didn’t you Ray?), so never underestimate them!

Thank you all for joining my tournament!  I hope you enjoy it.  Good Luck!!

12:07am  are we there yet ?

ready..