Bulldog Report - May 2018

The month of May was a very healthy month for bulldog chess which is continuously booming in activity.

You may remember that there were a sudden burst of activity in March when a total of 18 games were completed, which more than doubled the previous record of 7. April did not disappoint either with 15 completed games. So, what happened in May? Is the sudden boom that happened in March declining? Actually no, that would be far from the truth. During May a total of 30 (!) games were completed making a whole new record again. We also got past 100 completed bulldog chess games! To be more specific, after May a total of 112 bulldog chess games has been completed.

While I want to celebrate the new record there is also a back side to the story. In May the summer is approaching where some might want to enjoy the sun while others want to study for their exams. Maybe there are other reasons, but in May there was a total of 12 games lost on time (40% of games completed that month). I don't want to put too much emphasizes on this, but it is always nicer when games actually gets played out to the end.

new rules:

There has been some new rules added for correspondence games including some vacation time for those that may need it:

Vacation time: Each player is allowed four vacation days (added to the 3-day move limit, for a total of 7 days for a move), and this is refreshed at every 40 moves. The player must announce it before using the extra time. Vacation days cannot be banked.

Time warnings: Warnings may be called by either player, tournament directors, and game moderators. A member of the bulldog chess federation may also issue warnings for prize games (candidate and challenge games). Same rules apply to game forfeits (games called due to a time violation).

Board updates: Unless otherwise agreed, one player in each game should post a board update, or a board should be provided by someone who has agreed to moderate the game. Either player has a right to request a board once per move (2 plies). If a board has not been posted which is at most 1-ply from the current position, and a player requests to see a board, time waiting for the board does not count as playing time.

Candidate game:

The candidate game between @captaintugwash and @HorribleTomato (link) has been completed. After 14 moves the following position was reached.

@captaintugwash was white and @horribleTomato was black. The last move was Be2-c4+!. This move creates both a threat to blacks queen and a check to blacks king. An excellent display of how to make use of your witch. @HorribleTomato had no choice, but to lose his queen. The game continued a few moves 14...Kd8 15.Bxe6 Nh4 16.Bh3, but then @HorribleTomato decided to resign. Since @captaintugwash won he got a chance to challenge @Martin0 for the title and that game is currently in progress.

semi-final game:

The semi-final in the superdog tournament between @Junebug444 and @Captaintugwash (link) has been completed. It was a hard fought game. @Captaintugwash won a pawn on move 21 and then another pawn on move 32 and a third pawn on move 37. However, there was quite a bit of tactics going on when the third pawn was won.

Above is the position after 37.Rd1xd7+. @captaintugwash was white and @Junebug444 was black. Blacks next move 37...Kc8 is forced, but then the question is what will happen next? White has 2 pieces that are hanging, the knight on c5 is threatened by blacks guard and the witch on d4 is threatened by blacks rook. Additionally whites knight can not move since it is tied to protect the white rook. Was white too greedy when he captured the third pawn or is there a good move for white?

Actually, white is fine. The easiest move being Rxg7 and then move either the knight or witch to safety after the other one is captured. The move played though was 38.Ne6 (by premove!) and then @captaintugwash had a moment of horror after 38...Rf1 was played.

If white had a pawn on a2 black would threaten to checkmate with Rb1#. However, white does not have a pawn there, so there still is no problem for white.  @Junebug444 lost his witch and resigned after a few more moves: 39.Rd8+ Kb7 40.Rd7+ Kc8 41.Rxg7 Rb1+ 42.Ka2 Black Resigns.

Quarter-final game:

The quarter-final game between @HorusTheThird and @HorribleTomato (link) has been completed. @HorribleTomato won a pawn on move 3 and the game was mostly one-sided with @HorribleTomato repeatedly winning material. In the end @HorusTheThird resigned when he was in an endgame with a rook and guard against a queen, guard and knight.

The second semi-final in the Super-dog tournament between @HorribleTomato and @Martin0 has not started yet. It is scheduled to start on Monday, June 4th. The winner between @HorribleTomato and @Martin0 will face @captaintugwash in the final. All results in the Super-dog tournament can be seen in the image below.

4-player bulldog games:

There was 3 ongoing 4-player bulldog chess games ongoing when the month of June started. 2 of them has been completed. @Bad_Dobby_Fischer and @josephyossi  won against @unc07 and @McGoohan in only 4 moves! (link)

A rematch has started with the same players, but reversed colors (link).

The second game finished is @aidanB1 and @HorusTheThird winning against @thegreatauk and @Junebug444 in 13 moves. (link)

The third 4-player game is half finished. It is @WareDude and @HorribleTomato against @SuperSam1 and @Fly_Eagles_Fly. @HorribleTomato resigned, but his teammate @Waredude wanted to continue, so @Martin0 has taken control of @HorribleTomato's pieces. The game is still in progress. (link)

A fourth 4-player game has also started between @Martin0 and @Fly-Eagles-Fly against @Yo-thats-fresh and @rychessmaster1 which is also still in progress. (link)

Rating achievements:

Before the month of May started only 2 players had ever gotten a bulldog chess rating above 1400. The first player was @evert823 and the second player was @Martin0. On May 1st @Junebug444 became the third player to achieve a rating above 1400 by getting a rating of 1403. It did not take long time before he was joined by another player though. When @captaintugwash won against @HorribleTomato in the candidate game he achieved a rating of 1434 and became the fourth player to get a rating above 1400. @captaintugwash's win again @Junebug444 made his rating, even higher to 1480. That makes him close to beat the 1500 barrier which has currently only been passed by @Martin0. There has also been a fifth player to get a rating above 1400 during May. That player is @rychessmaster1 after beating @evert823 to get a rating of 1420.

Leaderboard:

There has been a few changes to the leaderboard. The inactive players has been removed (those that has not completed a game in the last 6 months). One new member has become rated and that is @rychessmaster1. To become rated a player needs to gain rating points in a rated game either by winning a game or drawing a higher rated player. Unrated players are counted as if they have a 1200 rating. Note that the changes used to compare ratings and standings here is from the last report on May 4th and not all changes during the month.

The leader is still @Martin0 with a rating of 1598 very close to getting over the 1600 barrier. One win against an unrated player was not quite enough to break the barrier (he was 11 rating points away last month).

Second place is @captaintugwash with a rating of 1480 which went from being rated #3 to #2.

Third is @rychessmaster1 with a rating of 1420 which was previously unrated. Most notable is his games against @evert823 where he got 2 wins and one draw.

Fourth is @Waredude which had 2 wins and 1 loss during the month and went from #6 to #4

Fifth is @Junebug444 which was above 1400, but lost some rating with his loss against @captaintugwash.

Full standing list below:

One last piece of news, but certainly not least is that a new bulldog chess tournament has started. The tournament is called Big Dog tournament (link). It is the biggest bulldog tournament yet with a total of 20 participants. Pairings was made at the end of June and games are starting right now with no games completed yet.

Some interesting games to look out for:

The challenge game between @Martin0 and @captaintugwash (link) for the champion title. It is the #1 rated against the #2 rated and both players have currently 100% wins. One thing for certain is that both players will not have 100% after that game. Will there be a new champion or will @Martin0 defend his title for the 5th time in a row?

The semi-final in the super-dog tournament between @Martin0 and @HorribleTomato (link)

There are a lot if interesting games in the Big-dog tournament and hard to pick favorites. If I had to pick one game to watch though it is @HolographWars against @evert823 (link) which features the Time Thief. A very interesting piece. evert has already lost his time thief though, so could there be an upset? 

Also, if you haven't already make sure to read through the correspondence chess rules written by vickalan (link).