Bulldog Candidates Tournament #4 !!!

The Bulldog Chess Federation has selected the four players who will play in the bulldog candidates tournament #4. These tournaments are announced approximately one month after a challenge game begins, so that the World Champion is targetted to have a new challenge within a few months of his/her last challenge game. The current World Champion is @Martin0. He is currently being challenged by @captaintugwash in a game (here).

The winner of this tournament (#4) becomes the next player eligible to challenge the World Champion for the crown.

The four players selected for the next tournament are as follows:
@HolographWars
@thegreatauk
@JamesAgadir
@Chess_Condor

Note that the federation chooses players based on ELO score, and also merit based on trend in recent games. Player etiquette can also be a factor - players known for talking about moves in games are not eligible. (such a suspension may be lifted after a period of good behavior).

Before the Candidates Tournament begins, I need the four selected players to confirm they will play.

HolographWars, thegreatauk, JamesAgadir, Chess_Condor: please confirm that you are able to play. Once this is done, I will announce the tournamant format.😀😈😀

This will be the third time for both holo and auk to participate in the candidates. However, each time they have qualified by rating, so they clearly deserve to be here.

Good luck to all participants! I hope I win my game against captaintugwash and play against the winner here.

It's an honour to be invited. Yes I can and want to play.

I would be very happy to play, thank you.

Thanks JamesAgadir and thegreatauk for confirming you'll play. I'm still waiting to hear from HolographWars, and Chess_Condor. I sent messages to them.

(Holograph has not been online for 6 days. Chess_Condor seems active).

Yes, I would love to participate! 

I'm rooting for James. Best of luck to everyone, though.

The way the candidates are selected is described here:

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/bulldog-chess-championship-cycle

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

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

C: A player nominated by the federation.

D: A player nominated by the federation.

@McGoohan did not have high enough rating to be player A. Since he participated in the challenge game before the one being played right now he can not be player B.

The nominated players C and D are both players that have never participated in the candidates previously.

It's also worth noting that McGoohan was last online in January.

Thanks Condor for replying - we're happy to have all three who have agreed to play so far.

Only HolographWars has not replied yet. He appears to not have been on-line since 5/13, and yesterday he lost a game due to time. His invitation stands until June 2. If he does not reply by this time, we will announce an invitation to another player.

I anticipate the tournament can start in early June.

HolographWars has been online as recently as yesterday but has not replied to invitations to join this tournament. He also issued a statement saying, "I have decided to stop playing chess pretty much completely...".

I take this that he has declined to participate in this tournament. Therefore, to replace his position, @JustARandomPatzer is invited to play in this tournament.

JustARandomPatzer - please confirm if you'd like to play.

After Patzer confirms, I will announce the tournament format, and then games can begin right after.

Thank you, Vick. I would love to play.

Awesome! We have the four players for the tournament. The format is here:

<< Game 1 >>
  JustARandomPatzer (White) vs. Chess_Condor (Black)
<< Game 2 >>
  thegreatauk (White) vs. JamesAgadir (Black)
<< Game 3 (Final) >>
  winners of games 1 and 2.

I can mod both games but I'll stagger the start a few days apart. If anyone can't start right away please let me know. Otherwise I'll start Game-2 on Wednesday, and Game-1 will start about a week later. (Condor just started a game in the Mega-dog tournament, so this lets it move ahead a little before starting a new one).

Please visit (here) for Game-2 (thegreatauk vs. JamesAgadir).

And now, please visit (here) for Game-1 (JustARandomPatzer (White) vs. Chess_Condor).

Tournament update:
JustARandomPatzer wins against Chess_Condor (today).

thegreatauk vs. JamesAgadir is still in-progress.

Good game by Patzer and Condor which involved an (expected) rook sacrifice (10.RxB...PxR). Unfortunately the game ended early due to time while Condor was travelling. Conder says White was better (But I'm not good enough to say for sure).

(links to games are in last two posts).

It's been 3 months since the candidates started!

Your game (against Condor) finished quickly, but Game-2 (Auk vs. Agadir) started on June 4 and is still in progress. Isn't that 4 months! The game is at move 39 which at 114 days makes it 2.9 days per move average (1.5 days per ply).

I'm not going to make a prediction of when the game is finished because that would be talking about the game! But I'm ready to see the Final game started!

James is up two pawns things are looking good for him