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Update July 24, 2025: White resigned on move 29. The Black Team wins! Vote for White's next move or Vote for Black's next move The image below and the current position webpage are both kept up to date with the current position of the team game: https://wjkiely.github.io/spell-chess/current.html Each time there is a new move I comment it on this thread, then update the image in this first comment and update the position on the webpage linked above for redundancy. I recommend either bookmarking this comment here or the current position webpage to making checking the current position and voting easier. Note: I vibe-coded the webpage using Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Post any thoughts, questions, or feedback you have on the operation and hosting of the June 2025 Team Spell Chess Game that I am hosting in this thread (or message me directly). Thanks!

Hi all, I'd like your feedback into whether or not "Vote for Your Move (Responses)" spreadsheets should be private to their own team, or whether both teams should be able to also view the opposing team's vote spreadsheets. Originally I didn't want each team to be able to see into the mind of their opponent by being able to see what other moves their opponent was considering besides the move that they actually played, but given that I unavoidably need to have this access to declare each team's official move I find myself not wanting my access to grant my team (the white team) an unfair advantage. I'm tentatively planning to make both spreadsheets public in a few hours to eliminate this potential advantage, but am open to hearing arguments for and against making this change. Thanks.

[White] Team Spell Chess - Vote for Your Move (Responses) [Black] Team Spell Chess - Vote for Your Move (Responses) I've decided to make the votes public to avoid my team (white) from having an unfair advantage due to me (the game host and player on the white team) being able to see the opposing team's votes early. My original rationale with making the response spreadsheets private to their respective teams was that I didn't want the opposing team to be able to see what moves their opposition voted for that didn't end up actually getting played. (For example, maybe there is a piece sacrifice move like Bxf2 that some players voted for, but ultimately wasn't chosen, but it would end up being a valid good move on a future turn.) This seemed like it was unfairly being able to see into the mind of your opponent. However, another consideration that has now lead me to decide to make the votes public is that since I personally can see both team's responses spreadsheets and need to check black's votes regularly to see if they've played their move, this gives me insight into what move they will likely play before it is our turn, potentially giving my team over 24 hours to decide on a move.

Game Format The First Correspondence Team Spell Chess Game will begin on June 1st, 2025 at 12:00 PM Central Daylight Time (my time zone). The time control will be 24 hours per move. Teams can use less than 24 hours to make their move, at which point the next team's 24-hour clock will begin ticking as soon as their move is announced in this club. As this is a friendly game, I will not allow a team to lose on time. Anybody can join a team and participate from now until the conclusion of the game. Players will not be allowed to join both teams after the game begins. How Teams Will Decide on Moves Teams are encouraged to discuss and analyze what moves they want to play with their teammates. Each team has a link to a Google Form in their team club to cast votes for their preferred moves each turn. In the event that team members disagree on which move to play, the move voted for by the highest-rated blitz spell chess player on the team before the 24-hour turn move deadline will be selected as the official move for the team. How to View the Team Spell Chess Game I will be posting all moves that both teams make in this group, for both teams and any spectators to see in the official game thread: Official Thread to follow the Spell Chess Team Game. Other Logistics I, LongTermFuture (the game host), will be playing for the White Team. I'll remain an admin/member of both teams' clubs, however I will not read the Forums communications of the team whose side I am not playing on during the game. I set the team club settings so that the forum discussions in the team clubs are private to members of the club and so that requests to join the club need to be accepted by me. When the game finishes, I will change the settings for each team club to make all of the forum threads public. This will have the effect of making the teams' communications on their team club's forums private for the duration of the game.