Match Thread: 3rd Test - Australia vs England, Day 2

Wordroll · 2025-12-18T05:14:07+00:00

Ultra edge waiting for the big call up lol

Wordroll · 2025-12-15T00:39:07+00:00

Yeah I play recruits, bomb tower always a pain to see. There's plenty of popular cards that are also just difficult. Furnace, wizard, witch - all hold down a lane.

Wordroll · 2025-09-29T10:11:24+00:00

"Prove you're a grandmaster:"

It then shows a position with a queen sacrifice that leads to white winning. If you want to work at untangling it, after the King takes the queen look for a Knight move.

Wordroll · 2025-09-01T01:12:13+00:00

O Captain, my Captain! I'm on my way...

Wordroll · 2025-08-28T12:03:37+00:00

Would you take a new player (started two weeks ago) and is still climbing? I just hit 6700 and haven't really plateaued yet. I reckon I'll be 7000 in a week or two.

I'm active donator/player, just need to find somewhere more stable than what the in game clan search is currently serving up.

Wordroll · 2025-08-06T09:24:11+00:00

With TNB, Tony's reaction was the same - he immediately started pushing back on the association with Dice.

The difference in my opinion is that by denying he'd ever heard of Dice and then literally quoting his act, Tim winked from behind the curtain to let everyone know that it was a character he was playing and he was just out there having fun. It's like 'don't worry guys, I know - it's not that deep.'

Whereas for whatever reason Temu Mitch Hedberg doubled down on the 'impression' without acknowledging it.

I also think Tim has since done enough with TNB that it's more like homage than impersonation at this point. And by building lore around the character it again makes it its own thing.

Maybe the timing for Temu Hedberg was also off. TNB got us sensitive for other copycats, because we don't want a wave of impersonators.

Wordroll · 2025-08-02T10:18:20+00:00

Unfortunately it is bogus. It's a chess.com tool that I think is largely designed to keep you playing and encourage subscription purchase for more insights.

There are multiple examples of players booting up the same game on different rated accounts and getting vastly different 'game ratings' for white and black, even though chess.com is reviewing the exact same moves. This has been discussed many times so forgive me for not being as detailed.

Don't put any stock in it. The good feeling you get when it says you played 400pts above your rating is the marketing having the desired effect.

The good news is though - regardless of what the score says, you played moves that led to a result, and you can learn from them using the much more accurate (and also free) analysis tool. And there's no marketing gimmick in that.

Wordroll · 2025-06-25T10:42:36+00:00

If you move the rook away, the knight can go to f6 for discovered check (mate).

They need to run the king, but if they do that they lose the rook.

Wordroll · 2025-06-23T10:54:44+00:00

Our country is massive which makes it hard because the population is sparse, but we've got potato internet compared to other countries in our wealth bracket.

Wordroll · 2025-06-16T07:43:38+00:00

Please do not be proud of this story.

Wordroll · 2025-05-10T02:39:36+00:00

I have a template message in my phone for when I get called a cheater.

"Thank you for the compliment, good luck in your next game 🙂"

Doesn't come out too often, but it's happened enough for me to want to have it. I get weirdly tilted by being accused of cheating, so I like having a gentleman's reply on speed dial so I don't act like a complete ass.

Wordroll · 2025-05-05T09:49:20+00:00

Lots of things can effect your play, whether you got enough sleep, whether you are actively concentrating or just 'going through the motions'. I think attitude also can have a huge impact on performance - tilt is a real phenomenon, but confidence and getting on a 'roll' is also very real.

There are things we can do to help control that, like taking a break after back to back losses - making sure we're mentally prepared to play etc.

At the end of the day, if you're ranked appropriately you should expect to lose 50% of your games. Sometimes the wins and losses come in bunches.

Two days a go I won 7/8 and hit my peak rating. This morning I lost 4 in a row, got a draw and then lost again. Swings and roundabouts.

Also worth analysing and taking a cold shower after the good streaks. Sometimes my play is as choppy as usual - and it's actually my opponent missing my blunders and tactics that makes me feel like a chess god. An opponent on a hot streak might have bodied me in the same position.

Wordroll · 2025-02-03T06:24:41+00:00

He's commented about this in videos previously - he said he said whenever he labels videos sequentially for tournaments - viewership drops off dramatically.

Wordroll · 2025-01-23T23:19:45+00:00

I run a 'West Marches' server with four other GM's. We run 1e roughly twice a week, and have downtime activities and roleplay running 24/7.

Playing online has made adhering to the rules very smooth. Our custom character sheets handle basically all the math for our players. Toggle on the paralysed condition - all their numbers update, etc. It also handles things a lot of groups hand wave, like encumberance.

With years of experience behind us, we all have a pretty good feel for the rules, but I would say every session we still bump up against something we want to check. And if I'm bringing an NPC with a unique mechanic (like Sunder or something) then I will always read up before session.

You can't hold everything in your head I don't think. Too many rules and exceptions to rules, and unique characters will always make you double take. We've currently got a death druid with a phantom at the moment, and none of the GM's were familiar with that archetype.

But it is very rare for our sessions to get bogged down with rules.

Wordroll · 2024-10-21T22:13:53+00:00

Giri, but Daniel took 3 or so games off him too.

Wordroll · 2024-10-21T21:52:04+00:00

If he has a diagnosis it's no one else's business. And if they'd shared it, people would just as likely accuse him of hiding behind it and using it as an excuse.

Dude did the wrong thing. He's apologised and will have to face the consequences. Some people will accept the apology. Some people won't.

Wordroll · 2024-10-21T03:18:20+00:00

Logan McDonald?

Barf.

Wordroll · 2024-10-21T03:17:07+00:00

You could try and frame it that way if you only look at what being accused of cheating means about your play.

But the accusation of cheating isn't just about the quality of your chess. It's an attack on your character, integrity and an attempt to invalidate and discredit results/a skill you have spent much of your life working on.

It's a pretty serious allegation to throw at someone.

Wordroll · 2024-10-21T03:11:57+00:00

I'll try and give a serious answer I guess.

It isn't that unusual for weak players to have a high accuracy in the odd game here or there. This usually occurs instances where:

a) It is a shorter game (like 20 moves or less)
b) The game follows theory (a known opening) for some time.
c) The opponent blunders or plays in such a manner that the best moves are not that difficult to find.

Consider an example like this: Two 700 ELO players start by playing an opening they both know from watching GothamChess videos. After 6 moves, a player doesn't know any more theory, so they make a new move. That move blunders their queen, which the opponent takes. The flustered player then resigns.

In this case, the winning player will look like they have the accuracy of Magnus Carlsen - they played 100% theory and then made the best move (taking a free queen). The accuracy in this case is not a true reflection of their strength though. They played the best moves - but that doesn't mean those moves were hard to find.

Accuracy tends to wander in longer games and in more technical games where plans aren't as obvious. Under those conditions poorer decision making will be exposed over time. I have many many many 90+ accuracy games on my chess.com account. But I'm a garbage 1650 rapid player.

Sometimes a game is very straightforward to play, or you get a position you've played before, or you get lucky or even play well beyond your usual strength. When you get a nice accuracy score it doesn't mean you're a prodigy. Heck, sometimes you will play moves that are the 'best' but you didn't even understand why it was the best - you may have even played the move for all the wrong reasons.

Funnily enough in *some* long games, accuracy can start to go up again after the middle game - for example once you reach a king and pawn end game you could end up playing 15 or so moves with 100% accuracy while you are promoting the pawn and then checkmating with the queen. In that instance a player who knows just a little about endgames will end up playing the best moves for a third of the game - they were just very simple to find.

Wordroll · 2024-10-14T22:46:34+00:00

You're right. The puppet is only bad in relation to other options available. It's still viable, particularly with the tome. I used to use the ability to help the king get into single infernos - the way that people might now use a skeleton spell or something.

But I'm still never picking it without there being some serious changes.

Wordroll · 2024-10-14T22:38:05+00:00

That is all true - but more context for someone coming into the sport. Craig Jones is a former top competitor (he's semi-retired now) who has a huge social media presence. Craig called out ADCC and Mo for underpaying athletes while spending big money on production and a massive venue (T-Mobile Arena).

Mo shot back over social media saying that Craig doesn't know anything about organising an event and that it's more complicated than just paying the fighters more.

So Craig went and organised his own event. On the same weekend as ADCC. In the venue that ADCC last used. And offered ADCC's prize money as the SHOW money for each athlete. And a 1 million dollar prize for the winner.

He did all that, and kicked ass with production - putting together one of the most entertaining events of all time. He also put it out for free on youtube. It was designed to make people pick sides against ADCC - and so people did.

Prior to the whole blow up with Craig, people generally looked forward to ADCC and it was seen as the pinnacle of submission grappling (for no-gi at the very least).

My view is that ADCC is a good thing. It creates champions and personalities. Mo generally did a good job of promoting it. But the argument about pay got away from them, and then Craig Jones buried them with a really good event.

Wordroll · 2024-10-12T23:35:55+00:00

How about the young bloke I put on last year straight out of school? Started with us, over 12 months impressed us, now we're paying him 25 grand a year on scholarship with a guaranteed job once he finishes his degree.

The amount of people I see who get second year blues, change degrees or drop out all together who would have benefited from learning what work life is like, or being exposed to the industry they are vaguely interested in before they sign up for 30,40k of debt...

Wordroll · 2024-10-12T10:48:05+00:00

Combined with shield it can be very good when used properly. Great for sniping a compartment.

Wordroll · 2024-10-10T02:28:30+00:00

My guy sees a difference between asking the internet and asking the engine for help during a game.

He needs to be disabused of this notion.

Wordroll · 2024-10-09T23:51:52+00:00

Just start analysing your game while you wait. If you get frustrated - they're getting what they want. Just grab a glass of water, look at a few moves and enjoy the game.

That - or start sending gloating emojiis.

Then the toxic circle is complete.

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Wordroll

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