I could start this article with" On a hot night in August..." but then some testosterone pumped
guy or a "french novel" reading girl could think that this is one of those hot, steamy, romantic
stories. So, not to get hopes up too high for those readers ...
When I came back from a holiday in August, I logged in at FICS. It was just a normal day like there
are 356 days in a year. So I didn't expect anything special. Was I wrong thinking that!
I wasn't online even a minute when I got a tell from yaltmax "tell logis got a second?". Still in
holiday mood I answered" Sure, all the time of the world." After waiting 20 seconds his reply came.
Doing what he asked, surfing to some website he made, I fell from one surprise into the next. While
I was on holiday, only thinking about girls in bikinis, which beer to drink, ... yaltmax had his
brain working in overdrive. The site I had surfed to was the start of what today is known as
ChessBattle.org
After I told yaltmax on FICS that I found it a splendid idea but that it needed some more work,
some finishing touches, he asked me to become co-owner of the ChessBattle. And since we where
already partners in crime concerning the altmax chess race 2000 (http://www.altmax.com/race) the only
answer I could possibly give him was "Yes, sure, I will be delighted".
So the ChessBattle was born. To make it special, we decided to make it a prize tourney. Of course
for such a prize tourney you must have a sponsor who is keen on the idea of such a tourney. And
luckly for us we didn't have to search far. Someone agreed to sponsor our tourney; none other than
chess publishing . com
Of course to make it stand out more, given the many other scheduled tourneys, we had to invent
something. Yaltmax, once again, came up with the idea of the battle game between the winner and
runner-up of the tournament, also called a banter game. A battle game is a game where the players
whisper their thoughts during the game. This combined with the whispers of numerous observers makes
such a game interesting to watch.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the ChessBattle tourney which is run each Monday at 1300 PDT
(FICS server time) grew to a big success in no time at all. It even grew so fast that we had to ask
kthorn to develop a bot for us that automatically calculated the GrandPrix standings. Also we called
in the help of ThoBjo. His responsibility concerning the battle is testing that everything related to
the ChessBattle works properly.
Let me finish with saying thanks to kthorn, ThoBjo, chesspublishing.com and (of course) to yaltmax
himself.
Hope to see you all on Monday! :)
For the rules of the ChessBattle, surf to:
the Chess Battle page
& click on details.
For the standings of the GrandPrix, the results of the already run ChessBattle tourneys and the
battlegames, check out:
the Chess Battle page
& click on status.
If you have suggestions or remarks about the ChessBattle you can go to:
the Chess Battle Forum
& post your thoughts and/or suggestions there.
