ICU Online Events

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 15-03-2020 4:43pm #1

We’ll be running the ICU Bullet Championships on LiChess on Monday, 16 March at 7pm.

https://lichess.org/tournament/jODJUy1i

PW: IrelandBullet

We’ll post information about Blitz and Rapid Events also coming up this week. Free entry and it looks like a strong field already for the bullet with a couple of Irish IMs, FMs, and CMs.

sodacat11 · 15-03-2020 4:53pm

Pity that we can't play classic tournaments online but some people couldn't be trusted not to use engines.

mikhail · 15-03-2020 5:48pm

sodacat11 wrote: »

Pity that we can't play classic tournaments online but some people couldn't be trusted not to use engines.

Maybe we can have some unrated (and prizeless) events like that. If someone wants to cheat so pointlessly, so be it.

Ficheall · 15-03-2020 6:23pm

Any chance Alex will Twitch it?

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 15-03-2020 7:36pm

Ficheall wrote: »

Any chance Alex will Twitch it?

I think Fiona will commentate - but I’ll confirm when I know

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 15-03-2020 8:29pm

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

I think Fiona will commentate - but I’ll confirm when I know

Fiona is confirmed as commentator on her twitch stream.

Thanks to Killian Delaney for arranging all of this!

checknraise · 16-03-2020 10:52am

Fiona will be streaming the tournament which will start at 7pm. No idea how it will go but it should be fun. Fiona's channel can viewed through the following link https://www.twitch.tv/fionchetta

The plan is to have blitz and rapid tournaments later on in the week too. We may not be able to play chess over the board but at least we can get our fix online!

Does anyone have any preferences for time controls?

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 16-03-2020 11:12am

Two more of these set up now - 32 entries for tonight (remember, you don't have to be there for the whole event and can play as few games as you want without ruining it for anyone else):

We’ll be running The ICU Online Blitz Championship 2020 on LiChess on Saturday, 21 March at 3pm. Free to enter.

PW: ICUBlitz

https://lichess.org/tournament/sfwwD65X

We’ll be running The ICU Online Rapid Championship 2020 on LiChess on Thursday, 19 March at 7pm. Free to enter.

PW: ICURapid

https://lichess.org/tournament/IzSP5myc

EnPassant · 16-03-2020 12:48pm

It's a great idea to hold online tournaments ... I've entered for the bullet tournament tonight.

There may well be a few new players to online chess, given the circumstances. It might be a good idea to have a bit more information for them, or to have a page with a guide to entering and playing in ICU lichess tournaments.

e.g.
- you need to register on lichess to take part
- how to enter the tournament.
- what the time limits for the bullet, rapid and blitz tournaments actually are
- what happens when the tournament starts - e.g. be logged into lichess at the start time

What seems obvious to those who have been playing online chess regularly may not be obvious to new players

Ficheall · 16-03-2020 1:26pm

Further to that, not changing the event start time at short notice would be helpful if possible

I even checked Fiona's channel last night and she also said 8pm. (I'm aware things unavoidably change, yes, but where possible...)

I'd already mailed the Galway mailing list about this and can't be emailing them repeatedly, or I'll be relegated to the spam folder (if I have not been already). Not many would actually play in the Bullet, and they'll be able to catch up on the Twitch stream later, but more will definitely want to play in the Blitz, and it would be a pain if that time changed at short notice.

Secondly (and possibly going against my first point), this thing will be around for another few weeks/months at least - perhaps shift the Rapid back a little?

Finally, I've set up an online correspondence knockout tournament (3 days per move, 6 games at a time type of thing, using chess.com since more of them are on it) for the Galway crowd, partially for the purpose of checking in with/keeping tabs on people whom we mightn't otherwise contact - I'm trying to keep this one local, but perhaps other clubs might be interested in doing something similar for their members locally, or maybe the ICU could run such a tournament on a bigger scale, just for fun?

cdeb · 16-03-2020 2:16pm

Great idea.

Another option is to set up Leinster League "matches" online on a 2-day-per-move basis. So, for example, St Benildus play Drogheda in the Heidenfeld in two weeks - that's off obviously, but could 8 Benildus players challenge 8 Drogheda players online for the craic?

I'm only on gameknot - it has a teams function. What site are the majority on though, and what functionality do they have?

Ficheall · 16-03-2020 3:16pm

Chess.com definitely has a teams option which works quite well, with a number of different match types.

Lichess has teams too, but I've never used the feature there.

I was wondering similar about Gonzaga's 4NCL game etc - would there be too much distrust to play the games online? With combinations of screen-sharing and video calls, hopefully someone could be somewhat reassured that opponents weren't using assistance..

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 16-03-2020 3:23pm

Ficheall wrote: »

Further to that, not changing the event start time at short notice would be helpful if possible I even checked Fiona's channel last night and she also said 8pm. (I'm aware things unavoidably change, yes, but where possible...)

I'd already mailed the Galway mailing list about this and can't be emailing them repeatedly, or I'll be relegated to the spam folder (if I have not been already). Not many would actually play in the Bullet, and they'll be able to catch up on the Twitch stream later, but more will definitely want to play in the Blitz, and it would be a pain if that time changed at short notice.

Secondly (and possibly going against my first point), this thing will be around for another few weeks/months at least - perhaps shift the Rapid back a little?

Finally, I've set up an online correspondence knockout tournament (3 days per move, 6 games at a time type of thing, using chess.com since more of them are on it) for the Galway crowd, partially for the purpose of checking in with/keeping tabs on people whom we mightn't otherwise contact - I'm trying to keep this one local, but perhaps other clubs might be interested in doing something similar for their members locally, or maybe the ICU could run such a tournament on a bigger scale, just for fun?

We'll probably do them quite frequently - 3 a week for now. But room for more or less - not as if we've to worry about filling a room... And scope for longer matches - for now its 1 min, 3+2 and 10+5. But we could do a 20+10 or 30+15 or correspondence format etc.

Wasn't aware the time changed - thought it was always 7 but maybe it was moved from 8 to suit Fiona? No idea.

checknraise · 16-03-2020 3:25pm

Its possible Fiona was referring to 8pm Luxembourg time. The time for the event has never changed.

Ficheall · 16-03-2020 3:27pm

Ahh, sincerest apologies. My bad.

mikhail · 16-03-2020 8:53pm

Oh man, I'm awful at 1 minute.

Ficheall · 16-03-2020 9:29pm

Really enjoyed that. Well done to

Amadan

, and thanks to Fiona, and especially Alex for the entertainment! Cheers for organising guys.

Joedryan · 17-03-2020 12:11am

Hmmm. 1 minute for all the moves? Sounds random but fun

edit - oops its over sorry

L1m1tless · 17-03-2020 12:53am

Its a similar but different skill to longer games.

I enjoyed the tournament. First time on lichess. Takes a little getting used to over other sites I'm more familiar with. Especially for bullet.

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 18-03-2020 11:50pm

Unfortunately, the Easter Festival is now cancelled too

So more online events are coming!

We’ll be running the ICU Online Rapid Championship 2020 on LiChess on Thursday, 19 March at 7pm. Free to enter.

PW: ICURapid

https://lichess.org/tournament/IzSP5myc

sodacat11 · 19-03-2020 12:41pm

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Unfortunately, the Easter Festival is now cancelled too So more online events are coming!

We’ll be running the ICU Online Rapid Championship 2020 on LiChess on Thursday, 19 March at 7pm. Free to enter.

PW: ICURapid

https://lichess.org/tournament/IzSP5myc

I tried to enter but when I press "join" it just keeps asking for my password. I am registered so don't understand why I can't enter?

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 19-03-2020 12:44pm

sodacat11 wrote: »

I tried to enter but when I press "join" it just keeps asking for my password. I am registered so don't understand why I can't enter?

Password: ICURapid

sodacat11 · 19-03-2020 12:47pm

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Password: ICURapid

Thanks!!

DmanDmythDledge · 19-03-2020 8:28pm

Getting tired of waiting in the lobby, how long is wait to get a game?

DmanDmythDledge · 19-03-2020 11:45pm

Got there in the end when switched from phone to PC.

Thought it was decent but thought time controls were too long for a time restricted event like that. Ideally wouldn't be open to beginners either but almost impossible to prevent that.

sodacat11 · 20-03-2020 12:19am

I thought that it was a very enjoyable event but a couple of young kids that I coach played in it and their mums weren't very impressed with Fiona's use of the F word and the word **** in her commentary. Perhaps something to bear in mind when children are playing.

checknraise · 20-03-2020 2:58pm

Unfortunately it seemed like there was quite a bit of cheating going on which is common in online rapid tournaments but I had hoped a tournament made up of mostly ICU members would be different.

The chat at times was toxic and I hope it doesn't continue with future tournaments. As Sodcat mentions there were quite a few young kids playing and if any parents read the chat it wouldn't leave a good impression. I would ask people to try and behave themselves for future tournaments!

The next tournament is on Saturday https://lichess.org/tournament/sfwwD65X

Its a blitz tournament with 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment.

DmanDmythDledge · 20-03-2020 10:14pm

What parts of games did you suspect cheating?

Tomorrow should be pretty good & better time control I think for the tournament format. Might be worth seeing if the chat feature can be disabled?

checknraise · 20-03-2020 10:48pm

At least 3 people were banned for cheating. The long time leader of the tournament was banned, the person who ended up winning the tournament and another person in the top 10. I am not sure if anyone else was subsequently banned for cheating.

Not sure if its possible to turn off the chat but we shouldn't need to. Its a friendly tournament between members and I would hope everyone will behave themselves better in future tournaments.

The tournament itself was really strong. I believe we had 1 GM, 4 IM's, 2 WIM's and 4 FM's. I might be missing a couple of people.

Ficheall · 21-03-2020 12:16am

Obviously not ideal, but there is the option to turn off communications from the user side:
https://lichess.org/account/kid

Mishvili · 21-03-2020 6:48am

It might be a bit more attractive if there was a facility to somehow require entry with realnames, and also a “proper” tournament without some of the bizarre rules that seem to be attached to it.

Not sure if either of those can happen when piggybacking on third party sites though?

ICU Online Events

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