The Dark Knight Opens (group 3)

Hello Dark Knights,

The Joker (Amr14) has finally been removed from the tournament and will no longer be causing us any trouble!!!  In FIVE games he refused to open with a Dark Knight, and refused to resign.  So in 2 out of 3 rounds, he eliminated players who should have rightfully advanced.  I'm very sorry about that!!!  I will be creating another tournament and making it invitation only to avoid these problems in the future, and make it up to those of you who were wrongly eliminated.  In the meantime, if you ever see his name in a Team Match, Tournament, or whatever, make sure you stay away.  He is obviously a morally bankrupt cheater with no sense of decency whatsoever.  Avoid him at all costs!!!

CALLING ALL DARK KNIGHTS!!!!

The time has come!!!  Our most important Speed Vote Game so far has just begun!!!  We are playing against the Chess Nuts who made it all the way to the finals last season!!  They are big, strong, and well organized, so we need all the help we can get (the Final Championship Game last season is the ONLY game this team has EVER lost in Vote Chess so far)!!  Whether or not we make it to the playoffs this time around is all dependant on this game, so we really need to win this!!  The game will undoubtably last many many hours, so any time that you can give today would be greatly appreciated!!!

PLEASE join this game and help us out!!!!  Thank you!!!!

http://www.chess.com/votechess/game.html?id=14500

If you're not a member of The Dark Knights already, what are you waiting for?    Here's the link to the group (everyone's welcome):

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/the-dark-knights

CALLING ALL DARK KNIGHTS!!!!

I don't normally throw up the Bat Signal like this, but we are going to need all the help we can get in our upcoming Speed Vote game against the Chess Nuts!!

These guys are GOOD!!!  They are big, smart, and well-organized.  They didn't make it to the Grand Finale game in Season 1 by accident!!  Their Semi-Final game last season lasted for 81 moves (28 hours), so you know these guys are not going to time out!!  They have only lost ONE Vote Chess game (speed or regular) and that was the Grand Finale game last season.

EVEN IF YOU DON'T NORMALLY PLAY SPEED VOTE GAMES (VOTE CHESS AT 10-MINUTES PER TURN), PLEASE CONSIDER PLAYING IN THIS ONE!!!!

If you're not a Dark Knight yet, please click here to go to the group.

The game is scheduled for Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 13:00 GMT.  That gives us just over 2 weeks to get ready for it.  Please mark this in your calendar and plan on playing.  The game will probably last for 10-16 hours.  No one is expected to be there for the whole game (even tho I'm sure I will be), but whatever times you can make it, please help out.  Any time you can give will be appreciated.  I will be giving trophies to anyone who posts comments during the game.

Each team will make 3 moves per hour.  So the opening will take 2-5 hours (depending on how quickly we go out of book, but I know they like to use the databases just a much as we do).  So the mid-game will probably start somewhere between 15:00-18:00 GMT.  By 21:00 GMT the game will be on move 24 and possibly nearing the end game.

Here is a guide to find the Start Time in your local area:

Time is fixed on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 13:00:00 UTC time

Modify calculation | Show current time

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Welcome to Round 3!!!  At the beginning of each new round, many players seem to forget that their new games are a part of this tournament.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO OPEN WITH YOUR DARK KNIGHT!!!!

YOUR FIRST MOVE AS BLACK MUST BE Na6, Nc6, Nf6, or Nh6!!!!

Good Luck Everybody!!  Have Fun!!

The Dark Knight Opens

One Year Later

As The Joker said, “Let’s rewind the clocks back a year.”  Can you believe it’s been a whole year already?  Tournaments were a brand new thing on Chess.com back then, and none of us had any idea how long these things were going to end up taking.  This was the very first tournament I had personally set up, and it’s certainly been a learning experience!!

On July 18, 2008 we had 300 people begin this unique adventure together.  It is now July 18, 2009 and only 25 of those 300 remain.  Along the way, The Dark Knight was released on DVD, and 84 new players joined the game along with 16 former players who seized this opportunity to try again.  Only 7 of those 100 remain leaving a total of 32 players still in contention for The Dark KnightCustom Trophies. 

My group, The Dark Knights, has grown in number, and steadily climbed the leader boards in both Team Matches and Vote Chess.  If any of you have not joined yet, I invite you to do so now.  For a while I was tracking the tournament in great detail in my Dark Knight Tournament Blog, and giving out all kinds of trophies to everyone who was eliminated, advanced, or completed a checkmate with their Dark Knight.

There was even a spin-off tournament (called The Dark Knight: Redemption) started by a player who was forced to resign for opening with a black pawn instead of his Dark Knight.  Yes, it’s been quite a year!!

I know I still owe a lot of trophies to a lot of people, and I still plan on fulfilling those obligations.  “Do I look like a man with a plan?  I’m like a dog chasing cars.  I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.  I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”  Check the “Notify me of new comments” for this blog, and I’ll try to be better about keeping it up-to-date.  In the meantime, this is where we’re at exactly one year later:

Group 1 – 7 players remaining – 13 games left in Round 3

Group 2 – 5 players remaining – 8 games left in Round 4

Group 3 – 13 players remaining – 6 games left in Round 2

Group 4 – 7 players remaining – 14 games left in Round 3

I hope everyone else is still enjoying this as much as I am.  Ok, I doubt anyone is really enjoying it quite as much as I am, but I hope you’re enjoying it none-the-less.  In honor of the one-year anniversary, I’ve just finished watching my DVD copy of The Dark Knight… Twice (back to back)!!   Heath Ledger was by far the best Joker ever!!!

Thanks to everyone who joined and made my first tournament such a success!!  Good Luck to all 32 players who are still active!!  The Custom Trophies await you!!

Billium

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry to say that Chess.com has appaently changed their rules regarding games less than 4 moves.  These games never used to affect your rating, but now they do.  I've been contacted by a number of players who resigned from their forfeit games in less than 4 moves, and they still lost rating points.  I'm REAL sorry about that.  I don't know when they changed that rule.  I thank you VERY much for your good sportsmanship, especially now when it is that much more expensive.

In future rounds, PLEASE REMEMBER TO OPEN WITH YOUR DARK KNIGHT!!!  It is a lot more costly now than it used to be if you default with a black pawn instead.

Thanks.

To anyone who wishes they had another chance at this tournament without all the timeouts and forfeits, here's your opportunity:

The Dark Knight Opens on DVD tomorrow (Dec 9).  I will be starting up the 4th and final group to be sent to The Dark Knight Finals (whenever that will be - I can't believe how long this is taking).

Anyone from the original Dark Knight Opens Tournament is welcome to try again.  This time however, standard minimum requirements apply, and the time controls are a little faster.  There's a new set of Custom Trophies up for grabs too.

Good Luck Everybody!!

http://www.chess.com/tournament/the-dark-knight-opens-on-dvd

http://blog.chess.com/Billium248/the-dark-knight-tournament-blog

http://www.chess.com/groups/view/the-dark-knights

Happy Labor Day everyone!

There are less than 100 games remaining in Round One.  I hope everyone is having fun.  I’ve started a group here called The Dark Knights, and you’re all invited to join.

http://www.chess.com/groups/view/the-dark-knights

Also, don’t forget to check out The Dark Knight Tournament Blog.  So far, I’m the only one that’s really posting in it.  I would LOVE to hear some different perspectives.

http://blog.chess.com/Billium248/the-dark-knight-tournament-blog

Hello all Dark Knight players,

We are now 2 weeks into the tournament.  I hope everyone is having fun.

I have set up a Dark Knight Tournament Blog for everyone to share their perspectives and keep abreast of how the tournament is progressing overall (It saves me from posting the same thing on 3 different Tournament Home Pages).  I’d love to hear about some of your more exciting games, and how you saw them.  Please feel free to share anything and everything.

We’ve still got a few “Jokers” who are not playing by the rules (22 to be exact – in 36 games).  If you accidentally opened with your black pawn instead of your Dark Knight, I’m sorry, but that game is forfeit.  I know this sucks, but please be a good sport about it and resign.  Everyone else has.  Please!  It’s the right thing to do.

For those who were inquiring about the default stats:

Out of 300 players in 900 games:  71 players in 123 games opened with a pawn by mistake.

Black never made a 1^st move in 289 games (including the 3 people currently on vacation).

So the Dark Knight Opened in only 488 games (54%).

Thanks to everyone for joining my tournament.  I enjoy looking thru some of your games.  I hope you don’t mind if I post a few of the really cool ones in the Dark Knight Tournament Blog.  I hope a lot of you will post some games in the Blog as well (or anything else you want to post there).  It’s because of all of you that this thing is so cool.

Thanks again,

Billium

Once again everybody:

In your games as white, you may open with any piece you choose.

In your games as black, YOU MUST OPEN WITH YOUR KNIGHT!!!

If you accidentally opened with a black pawn instead of your Dark Knight, I’m sorry but YOU MUST RESIGN FROM THAT GAME!

To those of you who have already resigned from such games:  Thank you for your cooperation and good sportsmanship.