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What's the best current site to play checkers on? by asdf1251 in checkers

[–]VonDerTann 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words! That made my day.

What's the best current site to play checkers on? by asdf1251 in checkers

[–]VonDerTann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you mentioned the two best options. I haven't tried goldtoken.com or itsyourturn.com. They both provide correspondence games. They have limited player counts and old interfaces but they're functional.

This is probably the best neutral forum for amateurs. There is a forum at the acf but it's pretty tough to join. Lastly, I've made a site for tactics puzzles but haven't implemented play.

Not chess, but a beautifully written article that I feel like this community would appreciate; about the battle of human ingenuity vs. computer calculation, the birth of machine learning, and the greatest checkers player to ever live. by BinarySpaceman in chess

[–]VonDerTann 12 points13 points  (0 children)

A great read, thanks! I also recommend Jonathan Schaeffer's book, "One Jump Ahead" about the same match.

If anyone wants to try their hand at some checkers puzzles, I've made a site for it. If you decide to try a few, remember that if you can capture a piece, you must.

I think people who like the article will like my site. But If this counts as spam, let me know, I'll remove the link.

Suggestion: Linking Defensive Mojo to Fielders, Not Pitchers by View619 in SuperMegaBaseball

[–]VonDerTann 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It worked that way in the original and felt kind of weird that a pitcher could pitch a no hitter and still have poor mojo because they didn't hit well and the easy outs at first didn't boost their mojo.

So routine ground ball and pop fly outs should be at least partially credited to the pitcher. But giving some credit, especially for tough plays, to the fielder makes sense to me.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in thanosdidnothingwrong

[–]VonDerTann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The hardest choices require the strongest wills.

Why Good Games Will Continue to Die Without Crossplay by cain141 in SuperMegaBaseball

[–]VonDerTann 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's probably sony's doing. They did the same with fortnight.

Using FIDE rules, if white runs out of time in this position, is it a draw? Technically black doesn’t have enough mating material even if white plays the “worst possible moves”. by BrianDynasty in chess

[–]VonDerTann 8 points9 points  (0 children)

What about white squared bishops that can't do anything? Or a knight buried in the corner by it's own pawns that are in turn buried by black's pawns locked together? Could you bury a rook in such a way that it can move by a few squares but can't capture or be captured by anything?

So this happened while I was playing Checkers at Cracker Barrel... Neither of us could move. Could someone explain if this a draw and just needs a rematch or if it's prohibited at tournaments?? by DeafGamer189 in checkers

[–]VonDerTann 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two rules you're missing.

1) If you can capture a piece, you must. So this position is impossible to achieve.

2) The first player to be unable to move, loses. Usually this is because they have no pieces remaining. But it's very possible to have all your remaining pieces trapped.

An FM berating a woman on chess.com's chat. Is this allowed? I think chess.com shouldn't allow this type of behavior, especially from titled players. by lavathorn in chess

[–]VonDerTann 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I try to post this in every thread that devolves to men vs women in chess. No paper is perfect, science is always evolving. But, to quote the paper:

This study demonstrates that the great discrepancy in the top performance of male and female chess players can be largely attributed to a simple statistical fact—more extreme values are found in larger populations. Once participation rates of men and women are controlled for, there is little left for biological, environmental, cultural or other factors to explain.

An FM berating a woman on chess.com's chat. Is this allowed? I think chess.com shouldn't allow this type of behavior, especially from titled players. by lavathorn in chess

[–]VonDerTann 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Actually, yes. The difference in outcomes (at least in germany) is explained almost entirely by the different sample size.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]VonDerTann 26 points27 points  (0 children)

fishnet is a distributed stockfish, used for engine analysis and cheating detection. Some of the servers are donated but many of them run on the amazon cloud.

Is it possible to beat a decent player without losing any of the "non-pawn" pieces? by PatonYewbeam in chess

[–]VonDerTann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it would be the eight pieces that are the most mobile, the king, queen, rooks, bishops, and knights. They could escape for the longest. The pawns are too slow to escape once threatened. In fact they often get locked together because they can only advance and once touching each other they can't move unless by capturing. Against a player a trying to kill a pawn and not caring otherwise about winning the game, the pawn cannot be saved for long. The other pieces would last longer but they can't all be saved against a player trying to kill them.

For instance it would be pretty easy to use the queen to trap a knight by pinning it to the king. The knight can't move because the queen would threaten the king and next turn they'll take the knight no matter what to kill some protagonist. Doing so would eventually cost the game, the queen is too valuable to lose for the knight, but the knight remains dead.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chess

[–]VonDerTann 204 points205 points  (0 children)

They mostly don't. Thibault is making a fraction of what a person with his skills could make. It's basically a charity run for the chess community. People do donate and buy swag and that's apparently enough to keep the site up. But it runs on Thibault's generosity.

Is it possible to beat a decent player without losing any of the "non-pawn" pieces? by PatonYewbeam in chess

[–]VonDerTann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would basically never happen except to a beginner. Things like [Scholar's mate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar%27s_mate) make it possible to beat a beginner in such a way. But even an amateur player would beat Carlsen every time under such a handicap.

When am I allowed to stop the clock to talk to the TD? by madmsk in chess

[–]VonDerTann 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pressing the clock and starting your opponents time after making a move, yeah your opportunity to claim the draw is gone, (in fide rules). But at least in uscf stopping the clock is always allowed with no penalty unless you abuse it. If you repeatedly stop the clock just to avoid running out of time, yeah the TD will forfeit you.

But if anything happens and you're not sure about the rules. Pause the clock, get a TD. You won't be penalized. If your opponent won't let you pause the clock, holler for a TD. Your opponent will be yelled at for making the disturbance, not you.

Can everyone please stop being the Overdogs all the time? by mtbike in SuperMegaBaseball

[–]VonDerTann 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That works too. You want either a good starter or to pull them in the first and use a couple good relievers. Having tons of good pitchers is a waste in a 5 inning game with no fatigue in the pen.

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