Board Game Smogon Chess Tournament - Won by Ashwins72 and Royal1604

[Windingsss]

Why not? In, casual bracket

 

[ash_won_kalos]

Hello everyone. Chess has been popping off over the Coronavirus period and is getting even bigger now with Queen's Gambit being such a big deal. It's time to capitalize on that with the first Smogon Chess tournament in years- with prizes!

The tournament structure will heavily depend on the amount of signups we receive. I am planning to host two brackets- one casual and one experienced. If we don't get enough signups that may have to change. You can choose which one you sign up for and I will not require any proof of experience. If you're brand new and want to compete in the experienced bracket you can sign up for that but I'll ask experienced players to not join the casual one. The prize will not be worth it. Each bracket will be run in a Swiss style, not elimination. Everyone will get to play every week and be matched up with opponents who have performed to a similar level.

Each round will be 1 week long, similar to your average Pokemon tournament. Matches will be bo1 with a 15-5 time control (15 minutes on your clock with a 5-second increment, you gain 5 seconds every time you move). Colors will be assigned for each round, you will be told to play either Black or White. Games will be played on Lichess.org. It is free and no account is required. You can use the "PLAY WITH A FRIEND" button on the side to create a game link to send to your opponent. Replays/Game links will be required for all games for the result to be valid and I will be checking games for the use of a Chess engine to avoid cheating. Draws are a valid outcome, you do not replay if a draw happens and brackets will reflect your half-point earned. The length of the tour will depend on signups- I'm hoping for 6 weeks of play but it really depends.

The plan is for each bracket to have a single prize go to the player with the top record (although a better one for the experienced bracket). If there is a tie, I'll have the top performers play off. I do not know what the prizes will be yet but when I do I will make a new post about it.
e: I am also very excited to announce the prizes! For the casual bracket, I will be mailing the winner my Super Mario Chess Set. Opened and used once or twice but in pretty much brand new condition. I believe this page is for the same product although it was definitely cheaper when I got it so there may be differences. For the experienced bracket, Hogg is generously offering either $50 or $25 + 1 year gold membership on chess.com.

To sign up please post "in" and indicate whether you would prefer to play in the beginner or advanced bracket. Signups will last until Sunday, December 6th. Good luck to all competitors! And I am in for the experienced bracket.

in Advanced

 

[Galarian Sith]

in advanced

 

[MarquisPhantom]

In, casual

 

[JTMagicman]

in for casual please, do i need a link or something to sign up? cheers

 

[Boubu]

In, casual

 

[roman]

in for casual

 

[Blue Rocket]

In ,Experienced

 

[LNH]

in, casual

 

[dpascett]

in, experienced

 

[Hrizu]

In, advanced

 

[Artstein]

In, casual

 

[Hyperuser]

I'm in.
Casual bracket.

 

[Tomahawk]

in, casual

 

[zugubu royale]

in, experienced

 

[coolio1223]

in, ill go ballsy and go advanced

 

[Rigas]

In, advanced

 

[Hogg]

In, advanced. I'm a (likely former, not very clear with COVID) chess instructor for K-2nd grade students and I'm probably around 18-1900 USCF, and I'm a chess.com puzzle addict.

By the way, a time of 15|5 is really asking for immoral people to use Stockfish or similar because there's a cash prize. I'd definitely think it'd be better without one Hogg. That way you keep it as people just playing solely for fun.

I agree, the cash prize will definitely incentivize cheating, and it's quite hard to catch non-obvious cheaters (esp without experience)

Yeah, this is definitely a concern, but I don't want to revoke the prize when hundreds of people have already signed up. As for the prize itself, I'm in a server with MZ and others that started as a team tour chat but has basically turned into a full on chess discussion server at this point and it's pretty fun to see all the discussion and games even though I'm not much of a chess player myself. That's why I wanted to offer a prize: I wanted to encourage people from the competitive Pokemon scene to try their hand at it, instead of just focusing on the hardcore chess enthusiasts. I've talked to MZ and others and they do have some ways of spotting cheaters, so hopefully this will not be a huge problem, and I'm hoping the honor system also helps keep people above board. Honestly I'm not particularly concerned about potentially sending some money to a cheater so much as I am concerned about making the tour less fun by encouraging people to cheat instead of playing on their own. After all, the fun of this for me is getting to see some of my favorite Smogon battlers duke it out in an entirely different medium, and I hope they all do that on their own merits.

I will say this: cheating on Smogon is never allowed. We infract and ban for it when it happens in tours, in C&C or in suspect tests. This chess tour may be happening in Circus Maximus rather than the tours forum but that doesn’t make it any different. I’m not familiar with all the mechanics of how to cheat in chess myself, but I’ve talked to MZ and he does know ways to check for cheating, and he’ll be recruiting helpers to monitor games. Anyone who’s cheating will be jeopardizing their Smogon account for a chance to win fifty bucks. Maybe that’s worth it to them, but I hope folks will keep it honest.

 

[Isa]

Recommend that people link towards a FIDE account or similar if they wanna claim adv prize. Knowing some of whos signed up makes me confident the likely claimants are assured to have one

 

[MZ]

I like the requirement of linking a FIDE/USCF account for claiming the advanced prize, I also liked a previous suggestion that advanced players all play under a Lichess account and was going to require that when the round went up. I'm also going to require a Lichess account for casual since they're free and easy to make. My goal was still for this to be a chill tournament with the opportunity for just getting some games in which is why I want to leave the time control even though it is harder to cheat in a shorter game. The prizes definitely change the dynamic for this but Hogg wanted to offer and I was willing to put up for the casual section so now I'll be doing my best to screen all the games for cheating and hopefully the account requirements make it even more difficult.

 

[MTG Xerxes]

Sounds super fun. Count me in for casual bracket.

 

[Arai]

in, casual

 

[qwerty1015]

in advanced

 

[Da Letter El]

Just confirming from circus staff side: don't fucking cheat. It will be punished if caught and I'll also be looking at replays

 

[pulsar512b]

I like the requirement of linking a FIDE/USCF account for claiming the advanced prize, I also liked a previous suggestion that advanced players all play under a Lichess account and was going to require that when the round went up. I'm also going to require a Lichess account for casual since they're free and easy to make. My goal was still for this to be a chill tournament with the opportunity for just getting some games in which is why I want to leave the time control even though it is harder to cheat in a shorter game. The prizes definitely change the dynamic for this but Hogg wanted to offer and I was willing to put up for the casual section so now I'll be doing my best to screen all the games for cheating and hopefully the account requirements make it even more difficult.

Yeah, this is definitely a concern, but I don't want to revoke the prize when hundreds of people have already signed up. As for the prize itself, I'm in a server with MZ and others that started as a team tour chat but has basically turned into a full on chess discussion server at this point and it's pretty fun to see all the discussion and games even though I'm not much of a chess player myself. That's why I wanted to offer a prize: I wanted to encourage people from the competitive Pokemon scene to try their hand at it, instead of just focusing on the hardcore chess enthusiasts. I've talked to MZ and others and they do have some ways of spotting cheaters, so hopefully this will not be a huge problem, and I'm hoping the honor system also helps keep people above board. Honestly I'm not particularly concerned about potentially sending some money to a cheater so much as I am concerned about making the tour less fun by encouraging people to cheat instead of playing on their own. After all, the fun of this for me is getting to see some of my favorite Smogon battlers duke it out in an entirely different medium, and I hope they all do that on their own merits.

I will say this: cheating on Smogon is never allowed. We infract and ban for it when it happens in tours, in C&C or in suspect tests. This chess tour may be happening in Circus Maximus rather than the tours forum but that doesn’t make it any different. I’m not familiar with all the mechanics of how to cheat in chess myself, but I’ve talked to MZ and he does know ways to check for cheating, and he’ll be recruiting helpers to monitor games. Anyone who’s cheating will be jeopardizing their Smogon account for a chance to win fifty bucks. Maybe that’s worth it to them, but I hope folks will keep it honest.

First off- thanks for alleviating concerns about cheating and infracting the players is a strong negative incentive.

However, the potential idea of requiring a FIDE/USCF account is perhaps a bit ehh, since with the new boom of chess of late, there has been a rise in the number of solely-online players, and many/most of those will not have those (and, it's worth noting, I believe USCF takes money, and FIDE comes from registering with your national federation.. so it's not exactly free for many). It also allows anyone that knows it access to your IRL info, which is another potential concern.

Just some thoughts. Thank you for your commitment to keep it fair.

EDIT: Forgot to note that I'd be down to help monitor games for cheating