Bulldog Report July 2018

July Activity

In July a total of 27 games were completed, which is the same amount as the previous month. However, this month was a lot better in terms of timeouts. Only 22% of the games ended by timeout. While 22% might not sound good it is certainly better compared to 48% last month. After the month of July a total of 167 bulldog chess games have been completed

Rule discussions:

While no rule change has been made yet you can expect some rule changes in the near future. The rules discussed are:

Increase vacation time from 5 to 15 days (reset every 40 moves).

Add a maximum amount of time warnings before the game is automatically forfeited (currently there is no limit to how many time warnings a player can receive in one game).

If anyone has any complaints or issues with the suggested rule changes, then go to this thread and discuss what you believe the rules should be. Note that none of the above rules are in effect yet though at the time I'm writing this.

Challenge Game

The challenge game has been completed! It was a game between the current champion @Martin0 which had a perfect score of 12 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses against the challenger @captaintugwash which also had a perfect score with 6 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses. After 16 moves the following position was reached (black to move):

@Martin0 was white, @captaintugwash was black. @captaintugwash decided to try to grab a pawn with Nxg2. Game continues 16...Nxg2 17.Gxg2 Bxg2 18.Bxd6 Gxd6 19.f3

Blacks bishop becomes trapped and the question became whether black is able to save it. Game continues 19...i6 20.We4 h5 21.Be2

Here @captaintugwash realized that he could not play g4 as he had planned since then his rook would be hanging. At this point it became clear that blacks bishop indeed is trapped. For example 21...Rf8 22.Ne1 g4 23.Nxg2 gxf3 and black will not regain a piece with the pawn fork since after 24.Rdf1 blacks pawn is pinned. Black should get a pawn for the piece though and white would be ahead by 2 pawns for a piece. Instead game continued 21...Rg8 22.Qf2

Whites obvious threat is Qxg2, but there was also another threat that black missed. Black played 22...Wf5 which looses a guard after 23.Qxf6 exf6 24.Rxd6

The game continued for a while, but @Martin0 was up a knight for a pawn and managed to convert his advantage. @captaintugwash resigned on move 37.

After the victory, @Martin0 defends his title for the 5th time. The next challenger to face @Martin0 will be the winner of a candidate tournament.

Candidate Tournament:

The candidate tournament has started! The players are @thegreatauk, @rychessmaster1, @Waredude and @HorusTheThird. It is a knockout tournament and the games are already in progress.

Game 1: thegreatauk vs HorusTheThird

Game 2: rychessmaster1 vs Waredude

The way to select the candidates were:

A: The highest rated player that did not participate in the last challenge game. (@thegreatauk)

B: The highest rated player that did not participate in the last 2 challenge games or the last candidates. (@rychessmaster1)

C: Player nominated by the federation. (@Waredude)

D: Player nominated by the federation. (@HorusTheThird)

Superdog Tournament:

In the Superdog tournament the final between @Martin0 and @captaintugwash should start soon. It was delayed since there were an ongoing game between the players (the challenge game). The game is scheduled to start on August 4.

Big Dog Tournament:

In the Big Dog Tournament 2 playoff games has been completed.

@HorusTheThird won on time against @Yo-Thats-Fresh (link). @HorusTheThird has started playing against @ScootaChess in the semi-quarter final (link).

@Bad_Dobby_Fisher has won against @Donkey256 (link). @Bad_Dobby_Fisher has started playing against @unc07 in the semi-quarter final (link).

@vickalan is still playing against @Waredude in the semi-quarter final (link)

@SuperSam1 is still playing against @JohnHS in the quarter final (link)

Note: The bracket below is not updated with the latest results.

Old Dog Tournament:

In the old dog tournament all first round games has started and one game is completed. The first player to advance to the semi-final is @evert823 after winning on time against @unc07 (link).

Game 1: vickalan vs thegreatauk

Game 3: JohnHS vs HorusTheThird

Game 4: Junebug444 vs SuperSam1

New Dog Tournament:

In the new dog tournament 3 games has been completed.

@JamesAgadir has won on time against @fluffy_tree_kuttah (link).

@landontu has won against @friedmelon (link).

@McGoohan has won against @rychessmaster1 (link). @rychessmaster1 was the highest rated player in the tournament and @McGoohan was unrated, so this is a big upset.

The fourth and last quarter final game between @Bad_Dobby_Fisher and @aa-ron1235 is still in progress (link).

The semi final between @JamesAgadir and @landontu has not yet started

mamadog Tournament:

A new tournament has started called the mamadog tournament. It is a 5 round swiss tournament and it is the first bulldog tournament that is not knockout. There are still space for new players to join.

Pairings 1st round
-----------------------
friedmelon - Waredude
SuperSam1 - thegreatauk
rychessmaster1 - ScootaChess
HolographWars - aidanB1
landontu - raisingsun
evert823 - balashukla0761
unc07 - MathWizKid

4 player games:

two 4-player bulldog chess games has been completed.

One game started with @McGoohan and @unc07 vs @josephyossi and @Bad_Dobby_Fischer (link). After 12 moves @josephyossi resigned after loosing his dedication. @rychessmaster1 and @SuperSam1 took over for him (they both played with the blue pieces). Then @unc07 did not want to play anymore, so @landontu played for him instead. After 17 moves @landontu had no time to play anymore, so @HolographWars took over for him. After 19 moves the game ended by @rychessmaster1,@SuperSam1 and @Bad_Dobby_Fisher resigning. The game lasted 2 months and 21 days.

Another 4-player bulldog chess game was with @Martin0 and @Livewithfriends vs @Yo-thats-fresh and @rychessmaster1 (link). After 3 moves @livewithfriends lost on time and was replaced by @Fly-Eagles-Fly. After 13 moves @Yo-thats-fresh lost on time and was replaced by @McGoohan. After 18 moves @rychessmaster1 and @McGoohan resigned, so we could start play a new 4-player bulldog chess game with an archbishop instead of a guard (link).

Leaderboard:

The biggest change this month in terms of ratings is that we have 2 new rated players that took a lot of rating points from high rated players. @McGoohan is a new player that won against @rychessmaster1 and @aa-ron1235  is a new player which won against @HolographWars. @HolographWars would have gained a lot of rating points this month if it was not for that loss. In the leaderboard, @rychessmaster1 dropped to #8, while @Junebug444 is now rated #4 and @HorusTheThird is rated #5.

Full standings list below:

Games to look out for:

The candidate game between @thegreatauk and @HorusTheThird (link)

The candidate game between @rychessmaster1 and @Waredude (link)

The final in the Super-dog Tournament between @captaintugwash and @Martin0 (not yet started)

The semi-quarter final in the Big Dog Tournament between @HorusTheThird and @ScootaChess (link)

The quarter final in the old dog tournament between @JohnHS and @HorusTheThird (link)

The 4-player game with archbishop between @rychessmaster1 and @McGoohan vs @Fly-Eagles-Fly and @Martin0 (link)

Also, finally a reminder to check out the rules thread if you have an opinion on what should be changed (link)