Hoplite Infantry, Phalanx Formation and Battles on chess.com

Hi Generals,

Ancient Greeks were tremendously preoccupied with the notion of honour. The indicator on chess.com which Tribal Generals of New Athens should be most proccupied with is the total match points earned for New Athens.

The total number of match points won for New Athens by each Tribal General will be credited to him (Google Doc) as a matter of public record. The match points won by any given tribe is simply the total of all match points won by Generals who have served that tribe and that total brings honour to the tribe.

Individual hoplites bring honour to themselves simply by winning games for New Athens in matches. A running total of the game points won by each citizen shall be a matter of public record. Game points are as per usual, 1 pt for a win, 0.5 pts for a draw.

I intend that we have cordial relations with other groups we play matches against so I’ll actually be keeping track of their match points won by playing against us as well as the match points we win from having played against them. I think they should find that an interesting way of playing so they will want to keep playing us again and again. Provided we are at least winning some of the matches then we are actually helping each other raising our match point totals.

There’s some confusion about how match points are calculated but it’s really very simple so let me quickly cover that. If you go to any completed match in one of the other groups you participate in, you’ll see that each player gets standard game points (i.e. 1 pt for a win, 0.5 pts for a draw) and these game points are summed up. The side with the greater number of game points is declared the winner and that group earns match points totalling (5 * # of players). When the two sides have equal game point totals then the match is a draw and they both receive (2 * # of players) match points.

There is a curious consequence of the way match points are calculated which Tribal Generals may wish to bear in mind when they organise battles. Consider a match between us and some other group where we put up 8 players each (i.e. 16 games). Suppose now that our players and theirs are very close in chess ratings so that every single game results in a draw (i.e. we have 8 total game points and they have 8 total game points). This is obviously a match draw so our group will get 2 * 8 = 16 match points and they will also get 2 * 8 = 16 match points.

But what if every individual game is a draw except for one which our player happens to win. That suddenly makes the game point total 8.5 vs 7.5 and we win the match which earns New Athens the full 5 * 8 = 40 match points. The surprising result is that that pivotal game win rewarded New Athens with an extra 24 match points!!

We have grown to a reasonable size now so Generals who already have their admin-privs should go ahead and create one match each. One thing I’ll ask you all to try to do is come up with a good match title and description text which is in keeping with New Athens historical re-enactment aspirations. Also, don’t forget to include your own name (e.g. “General slide_checkmate of The Aigeis Tribe”) near the begining of the description text so that I can credit you and your tribe with the match points you earn for New Athens.

Citizens should be allowed to join as many matches as they feel like, even matches organised by Generals from other tribes. They will still earn game points for themselves since they’re still playing for New Athens but any match points won will go to the General and his tribe. In situations where our opponent is not able to put up enough players then you should prefer to retain hoplites from your own tribe. This will help ensure that every citizen will have at least one match they can play in and earn game points for themselves.

Good luck, Generals! I look forward to each of your first match.

Kind regards,

Shah.