[Retd.LoyolaCpt]

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]

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

[mikhail]

Originally Posted by sodacat11

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]

Any chance Alex will Twitch it?

[Retd.LoyolaCpt]

Originally Posted by Ficheall

Any chance Alex will Twitch it?

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

[Retd.LoyolaCpt]

Originally Posted by Retd.LoyolaCpt

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Ficheall

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]

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

[Ficheall]

Ahh, sincerest apologies. My bad.