Third International Chess Championships (OOC Discussion)

[Karditan]

Signups are closed.

It's time to bring this back. Are you ready to see how your local grandmaster matches up with the competition?

New to the Sports section? Check out the Guide to Sports Roleplaying. If you have any more questions, feel free to telegram me.

What is this?
A tournament to determine the world's best chess aficionado. The more you roleplay your entrant, the better their chances to win.

How will the results be produced?
Using the single-match chess function of the latest version of xkoranate. Roleplay bonuses will be administered directly as rank. Due to complications with the ranking system (and the time gap) after the Second ICC, everyone will start with a clean slate.

When/where (OOCly) will it be held?
I'm aiming to get the in-character thread up on Jan. 2nd, and for the first matchday to be Saturday, January 5th. Group stage matches will follow every day. Playoff matches will happen every other day. Roleplay cutoffs will be at 4AM UTC (11PM EST).

Where (ICly) will it be held?
At the prestigious Karditani Institute of Technology, located in the seaside city of Bashtun. More information will be provided in the IC thread.

How will roleplays be graded?
RP bonus will be purely cumulative (they add up over time). Each matchday, RPs will be graded based on quality, creativity and length (in that order) in increments of .25, up to 1 point per day. The max skill will be set to the highest possible bonus for that day. Multiple RPs in one day will be averaged out, NOT added together; please don't post multiple times for one matchday. Bonuses will be cut in half at the start of the playoffs.

How will the tournament be structured?
Depends on how signups numbers work out, but I'm expecting four groups with the top two players advancing to the playoffs. Playoffs will be best-of-five matches, but all will be scorinated at the same time.

Rook Slide - Karditan
Fer von Sparó - Farfadillis
Peregrine Konstantinovich - Pawn and King
Victoria Valdemar - The Babbage Islands
Motzur Cellius - Warkus
Stewart Perrault - Sicoutimont
Joseph Van Holland - Lymantatia
Bob - Darmen
Raymond Yarsley - The Inevitable Syndicate
Izziah Koggenspire - Grifone
Kolb Gunt - Paradystopia
Alphonse Vrbas - Timfen
Tyrece Harrison - Vettrera
Shiro Suzuki - New Ecopia
Joseph Edwards - 19th Century Beards
Mr Amor - Solaris
Roberto Pescador - Audioslavia
Adam Smithson - Ipeland

[Farfadillis]

Fer von Sparó.

A young man, 23 years old. He likes to play defense even when using the white pieces, very good at detecting the opponent's strategy, very sharp at thinking when to attack. He's famous for how he uses checks as a type of defense incredibly effectively and how he tends to win matches with surprise checkmates. His moves are really fast, but he still thinks a lot during the short amount of time he uses, still around ten minutes. He's Farfadillis' best chess player and has won back-to-back national championships, being the holder of the title as of now. Fer is probably an underdog here, but who knows? He might pull something off.

[Pawn and King]

The great Peregrine Konstantinovich (full name and title; Lord Peregrine Aronimzo Kaspar of Konstantinovich) returns, a solid competitor from both the first and second International Chess Championship. Currently 30, he is seeking to finally win his first International title, after solid domestic play.

Peregrine was renowned from a young age for his natural chess ability. He first learnt chess from his maternal grandfather - Anand Kramnik, whom quickly recognised his natural chess ability. However, it was only when Peregrine attended school that his ability began to show. He easily beat his peers, and with no perceptible effort won the U16 Champion title at the age of 11. This feat naturally drew attention to his considerable talent, whereupon Reyfus Lewis, the Kingian national champion, began to extensively tutor Peregrine.

The tutoring paid dividends, and Peregrine rapidly won more and more titles domestically. By the age of 20, he was considered the second best chess player in the nation, after he beat his tutor, Reyfus Lewis, in the domestic championships. However, Feydor Lewis, the nephew of Reyfus Lewis, beat Peregrine. This habit continued for many years - Feydor had been playing his uncle for many years, and had a built in ability to calculate, until at the age of 27, Peregrine finally beat Reyfus as white, in an astonishing game (viewable here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1334664). This victory, and the next two domestic championship titles, confirmed Peregrine as the greatest Kingian chess player.

Although his early games show a particularly traditional attacking and defensive method, he has been extensively trained by both Reyfus and Feydor - both of whom recognise his talent, and wish for him to be the first Kingian international champion. His style of play, as such, is seen to be as deceptively genius - that is, one would mistake him for an idiot in the first 5 moves, yet 15 moves later, realise his true genius. As his famous victory against Reyfus shows, he can set up a game within the first 8 moves to determine exactly how he will win.

Personality wise, Peregrine is from a particularly aristocratic family. His father, a Duke, is quite insane, and as such, Peregrine is prone to his more 'eccentric' moments. He is famous, in particular, for physically having to complete a Knights Tour if he encounters an 8x8 square (say of paving slabs in a park - whereupon, he himself is the Knight). His head is constantly in the clouds, and he is ever forgetful of everyday items - such as forgetting his toothbrush in the first championship, or the name of the building he had to go to in the second championship (and as such, being late). Regardless, at the board he is ever focused, and a formidable opponent.

[New Ecopia]

Shiro Suzuki signs up.

Shiro Suzuki



National Titles: Grandmaster & Queen of Chess

I am Shiro Suzuki a 25 year old female, I am born and raised in New Ecopia. I have being playing chess since 8 years old and have won 40 New Ecopian Local Chess Tournaments, 30 New Ecopian District Chess Tournaments, 20 New Ecopian National Chess Tournaments and 10 various Global Chess Tournaments. I became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 and the Queen of Chess at the age of 20.
I'm etiquette, intelligent and creative that's how I am.

Also the way I play chess is that I make a mixture of quick, creative and intelligent moves to a varying degree whist being etiquette at the same time.

[The Babbage Islands]

The Chess Federation of the Babbage Islands (CFBI) nominate reigning national champion GM Victoria Valdemar as their representative to the Third International Chess Championships in Karditan.

Valdemar, 17, is the daughter of footballing legend Tegan Nash and her late husband, former Football Federation of Babbage general secretary Richard Valdemar. She claimed her first win over a titled player ten years ago, at age seven. From there Victoria rose through the ranks rapidly winning her first of three women's national championships at 11 and her first of two open national crowns at 14. She qualified for her grandmaster title in the latter event.

Her style has been described as eclectic, with a flair for complex tactical middlegames. With White Valdemar plays the d-pawn and often winds up in a Trompowsky, an Exchange Slav, a Queen's Gambit Accepted or a Catalan. She wrote her first book on the Leningrad variation of the Dutch Defence, her favoured reply to 1. d4 (and often chosen against 1. c4 as well), and plays the Petroff or the Scandinavian against the king's pawn.

[Warkus]

Motzur Cellius signs up.

Biography
Name: Motzur Cellius
Age: 16
Age at first titled win: 9
National Title: Grandmaster
National Championships Won: 3
Local Championships Won: 11
Style of play: Makes a large focus on positional play, and tends to play a very strong endgame.

[Pawn and King]

Would I be a dick if I said in real life, women have their own seperate tournaments, as they often have a lower ELO/FIDE rating than men (often by around 200 - 400 points), and as such, are generally quite easily beaten by male chess masters (Anand, Kramnik, et al).

[Sicoutimont]

(OOC: Haha, I was planning one of these in the next few days!)

Sicoutimont would like to send its only chess Grandmaster, Stewart Perrault. He is 28 years old, and has won 6 Sicoutian championships. He is usually patient at the start of the game, mostly using his rooks and knights to remove pieces. However, when these are lost, he is very aggresive with his queen, often sacrificing it to remove the other player's queen. He plays a good no-queen game, and has a solid all-around game, which won him the Grand Chess Title of Sicoutimont, and the title of Sicoutimont's only Chess Grandmaster. He likes to play strategicly, and will sacrifice powerpieces for less important ones if he believes it will benefit him eventually.

[The Babbage Islands]

Would I be a dick if I said in real life, women have their own seperate tournaments, as they often have a lower ELO/FIDE rating than men (often by around 200 - 400 points), and as such, are generally quite easily beaten by male chess masters (Anand, Kramnik, et al).

There are 22 grandmasters (that's full grandmasters, not the lesser WGM title) on the current FIDE list of the top 100 women. The highest-rated of those has a 2705 Elo, and her peak was 2735 and eighth in the world. The youngest woman to earn a GM title was in fact 14; two others have done so at 15. So feel free to RP whatever you like; I'll handle my own prodigies, thank you very much.

[Pawn and King]

Would I be a dick if I said in real life, women have their own seperate tournaments, as they often have a lower ELO/FIDE rating than men (often by around 200 - 400 points), and as such, are generally quite easily beaten by male chess masters (Anand, Kramnik, et al).

There are 22 grandmasters (that's full grandmasters, not the lesser WGM title) on the current FIDE list of the top 100 women. The highest-rated of those has a 2705 Elo, and her peak was 2735 and eighth in the world. The youngest woman to earn a GM title was in fact 14; two others have done so at 15. So feel free to RP whatever you like; I'll handle my own prodigies, thank you very much.

All I'm saying, is there's 1353 male chess grandmasters (there's 27 women grandmasters). The highest rated man (Carlsen) hit a peak of 2848. Top chess players are consistently male - this makes sense, with a larger likelihood of men playing chess, you have a broader pool with which to find the talent. The youngest male to ever earn a GM title was 12; four more did it at 13; and seventeen at 14. There is yet to be a female world champion. Handle your own prodigies, but at least pay heed to the statistics.

[Warkus]

There are 22 grandmasters (that's full grandmasters, not the lesser WGM title) on the current FIDE list of the top 100 women. The highest-rated of those has a 2705 Elo, and her peak was 2735 and eighth in the world. The youngest woman to earn a GM title was in fact 14; two others have done so at 15. So feel free to RP whatever you like; I'll handle my own prodigies, thank you very much.

All I'm saying, is there's 1353 male chess grandmasters (there's 27 women grandmasters). The highest rated man (Carlsen) hit a peak of 2848. Top chess players are consistently male - this makes sense, with a larger likelihood of men playing chess, you have a broader pool with which to find the talent. The youngest male to ever earn a GM title was 12; four more did it at 13; and seventeen at 14. There is yet to be a female world champion. Handle your own prodigies, but at least pay heed to the statistics.

There are simply less female chess players. Statistics are simply numbers at the end of the day. As someone who plays at my local chess club, I've seen a fair few female players, and quite a few of them would probably beat some of the male players I know.

Just because something hasn't happened yet, it hardly means it's impossible. Especially in NSSports, where you'll find all kinds of absurdities.

[Lymantatia]

I am signing up Joseph Van Holland, 10-year champion.

[Darmen]

May I remind everybody, even though I shouldn't have to, that NS is a game, and anything can happen.

With that in mind, the Darmeni Chess Federation presents its entrant into the 3rd ICC: BOB!

Information on Bob can be found here. As far as Chess goes, he started playing yesterday. And he still thinks Knights are called Horses. And the Rooks, well, for some odd reason, he thinks they're Chariots. And he calls the Pawns, Hobos.

[The Babbage Islands]

There are 22 grandmasters (that's full grandmasters, not the lesser WGM title) on the current FIDE list of the top 100 women. The highest-rated of those has a 2705 Elo, and her peak was 2735 and eighth in the world. The youngest woman to earn a GM title was in fact 14; two others have done so at 15. So feel free to RP whatever you like; I'll handle my own prodigies, thank you very much.

All I'm saying, is there's 1353 male chess grandmasters (there's 27 women grandmasters). The highest rated man (Carlsen) hit a peak of 2848. Top chess players are consistently male - this makes sense, with a larger likelihood of men playing chess, you have a broader pool with which to find the talent. The youngest male to ever earn a GM title was 12; four more did it at 13; and seventeen at 14. There is yet to be a female world champion. Handle your own prodigies, but at least pay heed to the statistics.

All you're saying is that you correctly named yourself in your initial criticism. Good luck.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

Chess! Now, this is the Syndicate's kind of tournament!

We sign up our resident chess Grandmaster, Raymond Yarsley. Yarsley is 33 years old, from Diomede, Nostromo Partition. He has had a natural aptitude for chess all his life, winning several youth and partition tournaments, and going on to be the first victor of the Syndicatian National Chess Championship. He plays a very defensive game, but often comes out on top in the end.

[Pawn and King]

All I'm saying, is there's 1353 male chess grandmasters (there's 27 women grandmasters). The highest rated man (Carlsen) hit a peak of 2848. Top chess players are consistently male - this makes sense, with a larger likelihood of men playing chess, you have a broader pool with which to find the talent. The youngest male to ever earn a GM title was 12; four more did it at 13; and seventeen at 14. There is yet to be a female world champion. Handle your own prodigies, but at least pay heed to the statistics.

There are simply less female chess players. Statistics are simply numbers at the end of the day. As someone who plays at my local chess club, I've seen a fair few female players, and quite a few of them would probably beat some of the male players I know.

Just because something hasn't happened yet, it hardly means it's impossible. Especially in NSSports, where you'll find all kinds of absurdities.

I don't believe it to be impossible. I know women can be strong players, but I thought they focused more heavily on their own womens' tournament.

All I'm saying, is there's 1353 male chess grandmasters (there's 27 women grandmasters). The highest rated man (Carlsen) hit a peak of 2848. Top chess players are consistently male - this makes sense, with a larger likelihood of men playing chess, you have a broader pool with which to find the talent. The youngest male to ever earn a GM title was 12; four more did it at 13; and seventeen at 14. There is yet to be a female world champion. Handle your own prodigies, but at least pay heed to the statistics.

All you're saying is that you correctly named yourself in your initial criticism. Good luck.

Sorry? Good luck? What on earth?

[Grifone]

Grifone has elected to send their rising star of chess, the 14 year old, Izziah Koggenspire of Caermere. He began playing chess at the age of four, and won his first youth tournament at the age of 6. Since then, he has won multiple local and state tournaments, and the First International Chess Tournament of Grifone.

His playing style has been discribed as random, as he plays intuitively. This makes his moves hard to predict, something that the boy believes to be his strongest strength in chess.

[Paradystopia]

Paradystopia will send their current chess champion, Kolb Gunt.

Kolb Gunt is more of a leering thug than a chess master. 23 years old, 6'8" and with a body more befitting a professional wrestler, his main tactic is that of intimidation. He won the latest Paradystopi championships after his malicious grimaces caused his opponent to resign. His opponent had several pawns, queen, both knights and a rook still on the table. Gunt had only a pawn and his king.

He plays bold openings with violent sacrifices. Whether or not he intends such sacrifices or is just making egregious mistakes, no-one has mustered up the courage to ask him. He has on occasions been noted to have played 'en passant' incorrectly, again, no-one dares correct him.

[Farfadillis]

snip

Look, statistic don't matter at all here. Anyone can RP as they wish, maybe they won¡t aliens to be their best chess players? Cows? Maybe a rock? They can if they want. That's all.

[Karditan]

A couple of notes:

1. Any gender, race, or species is accepted. There aren't too many unicorn grandmasters in the real world, nor vampires, but both have done well in the first two iterations of the ICC.
2. Only one grandmaster per nation; I'll admit I forgot to clarify that in the OP. I'll be contacting New Ecopia to see which (s)he wants to send.
3. The participants list have been updated updated to the time of this post.

[Timfen]

Timfen will send Alphonse Vrbas, the winner of the Dradeg masters.
Alphonse was brought up in a block of flats in West Ponsgrof, Timfen. When he was 9, his school teacher told him to go to the school chess club, and he took to it like a pig to mud. By the time he left primary school, he had won the school chess cup all three years he had entered. He then won his high school chess tournament 7 years in a row. Since he turned professional, he has only lost 73 of his 390 games. Alphonse has a reletively defensive style, and his motto is "I'm in no rush". He has won the Dradeg Masters 18 times and the Brozjok Chess Meet 14 times. Alphonse is now 52, and lives only a few streets away from where he was brought up.

[Vettrera]

Name: Tyrece Harrison
Age: 26
National Title: Grandmaster
Most Recent Championship: The Platinum Crowne (earned right to compete here once again)
Number of Championships: 16 (6 Provincial (2 15 & Under) | 3 Regional | 4 Collegiate | 3 National)

[19th Century Beards]

The Ministry of Sport have decided to send Joseph Edwards (43) to the 3rd ICC.

Edwards, a recent immigrant to the country, is regarded as the father of chess in 19th Century Beards. He introduced it around two years ago, giving lessons on how to play it for free as a hobby, alongside his regular day job as 19th Century Beards' only shoemaker/cobbler. Chess hasn't really caught on in 19th Century Beards, the people much preferring more physical sports like football or rugby. Chess still has a market though, unofficial tournaments, including the one to decide who the Ministry would send here, has been competed by upwards of 100 people, Edwards coming on top of most of them so far.

Edwards offensive style of play differs from most normal chess players. The most recognizable trait of his that he uses opening moves that are not that common in the world of chess. One of his favourites include the Deprez Opening, which he uses to utilize the rooks, believing they are the most important pieces after the King. He doesn't care much for queens, Normally sacrificing them for the rooks, rather than vice versa.

[Solaris]

The nation of Solaris is privileged to enter Mr Amor.



Mr Amor is a lump of sentient grey marble. Indeed, his name comes from the Russian word for marble - mramor. Top Solarian scientists realized his sentience when they got drunk and wired up a cliff to an EEG machine. Surprisingly, they found it had weak neurological activity. After doing a careful surgery involving pickaxes, they discovered the 'brain' of the cliff, a chunk of marble in an otherwise basalt rock formation.

Somehow, electrodes alone are enough for Mr Amor to display its intelligence, and various displays show what Mr Amor is doing - a vast intellect, he will convert sound to binary, allowing him to understand human speech, and for him to reply with binary, which an internal speaker translates into one of two languages (Russian or English). Similarly, he is able to pick languages up very swiftly, and a display shows how he does this - by logically analyzing the most likely function of words in a sentence. Various LEDs display the status of the machine and Mr Amor's needs - he dislikes cold weather, or humidity, as they make him feel 'crumbly', and 'like a piece of common granite.' He has got used to 'sitting' on a red velvet cushion, with gold tassels on a stool he designed.

Originally as an experiment, the scientists played chess against him. Mr Amor was found to have a natural ability, and beat every single scientist present after they explained how the pieces moved. Indeed, the chief scientist was ranked consistently around 1950, and had played at a national level, yet was defeated by a basic Petrov gambit, and resigned after 6 moves. This ability pleased Mr Amor, and he would continually vocalize his desire to play chess in a tournament. When he was finally allowed to, he accumulated so much money from all the tournaments he played that he 'retired' - in his own words 'I have lived for 4.6 billion years, and I'm tired of being a rock.' Experts predict he will survive indefinitely, unless dropped, melted, or chiseled to death.

Mr Amor can get very emotional, and has little understanding of social pleasantries, as there's a massive biological and mineralogical barrier between his nearest companions. He considers a pot plant called Steve to be his best friend, and will often request to sit in his shade, discussing in an unknown language. When questioned, he claims they argue whether the properties of nitrogen or hydrogen are more pleasing. As a hobby, he watches lonely hearts adverts on his television, and calls up the unattractive women to make them feel better. He is also the percussionist for the famous Solarian band 'Tarkovsky and the Book Club for Midwives.'

Mr Amor refuses to play on chessboards made of wood, stone or metal, and similarly refuses to use chess pieces made of organic materials. He even finds plastic distasteful, claiming some of the deceased shrimp that were made into oil were his friends. He views mining of precious metals 'as mentally distressing; metal is a subrace to a good rock, yet so much rock is wasted to extract these vulgar metals.' Indeed, even the sight of a natural material chessboard or chess pieces causes him extreme anguish and mental distress, after he claims he saw his long lost brother staring back at him on a marble chessboard. Regardless, he is not adverse to using natural materials other than chess, bizarrely.

Unsurprisingly, he is most likely to utilise the Stonewall Attack as white, or the Dutch Defense as black, though he will transition into the various Indian opening if necessary. The Sicilian Harbor is another favorite of his.

[Audioslavia]

Audioslavia will send thirteen year-old prodigy Roberto Pescador to the championships. Pescador lives in Cathair, Audioslavia, where he attends St. Smithington's School for the Gifted and Probably Very Rich. He favours the Italian game when playing as white and will, at most opportunities, opt to play the Evans Gambit (sacrificing a pawn for an attack on the uncastled king if black defends his F7 square with 3...bc5) or the Fried Liver (sacrificing the knight for a pawn on f7 if black opts for the two knights defence) variations in an attempt to force the initiative in an open and attacking game. As black he has been known to opt for the Scandinavian defence in an attempt to force an open game despite the loss of a tempo after 2..Qxd5 3 nf3 Qh5, and opts for the Gruenfeld defence should his opponent opt for 1. d4 or 1. c4 plays aggressively.