Fourth International Chess Championship [OOC/Discussion]

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

Hello, and welcome to the Fourth International Chess Championship! Are you ready to see how your national grandmaster scrubs up to the rest of the competition? Well, now's your chance!

FAQ:

How will you scorinate?
Matches will be scorinated using the single game chess function of xkoranate. Roleplay bonuses will be administered as rank, as I feel that this should be a tournament that anyone can win, given enough quality RP.

How will RP be graded?
Like the Third International Chess Championship, RP bonus will be purely cumulative. Every matchday, RPs will be graded based on quality, creativity and length 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, so please don't post multiple times for one matchday. Bonuses will be cut in half at the start of the playoff rounds.

When/where is the tournament being held?
The tournament will be held in the snowy city of Pinehearth, in the headquarters of the Syndicatian Association of Chess. Pinehearth, often called the "Crystal of the North" is one of the coldest areas in the Syndicate, but life still manages to find a way to flourish. There are many attractions to experience whenever your grandmasters have any downtime, such as the Pinehearth Outdoor Ice Rink, and the many restaurants along the river bank.

When actually will the tournament be held?
I hope to have signups up for a week (Until the 23rd March), or until we have a nice round number to begin with. RP Cutoff will be at 8PM GMT every day.

To sign up, please post the following information about your competitor (however, feel free to include anything else!):

Name:
Nation:
Age:
Short Bio:

Raymond Yarsley - The Inevitable Syndicate
Bob - Darmen
Alphonse Vrbas - Timfen
Rook Slide - Karditan
Linda Baritone - New Sideburn
Charles Du Went - Stretta
Kolb Gunt - Paradystopia
Dr. Hubertus Schimmel - Kriegiersien
Victoria Valdemar - The Babbage Islands
Jampoti Lazarki - Schmiegelland
Julio Ramos - Johamlandia
Ashra Kazali - Khazmatistan
Greg Sova - The Sova Empire
Alexandra Turner - Grandterre
Castra Steenbergen - Steenbergen
Howard Staunton - Tobys Great Britain

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

The Incumbent Champion is, of course, returning for another shot at the crown.

Name: Raymond Yarsley
Nation: The Inevitable Syndicate
Age: 34
Short Bio: After winning the Third International Chess Championship, and coming second with his team in the Hadsten Fejringen af Tankesports in Baltskandio, Raymond has become a big name in the Syndicate, featuring on television shows, interviews in small magazines, and on posters, all this fame has gone right to his head. Nowadays, he plays an attacking game style, going hard and fast to leave opponents in the dust, in stark contrast to previous tournaments. Whether this is to hold on to his crown or due to madness is yet to be seen. On his home ground, however, he's quietly confident he can win.

[Darmen]

Name: Bob
Nation: Darmen
Age: Exact age unknown, believed to be in late thirties, althoug he looks nothing like it.
Short Bio: Information on Bob can be found here. As far as Chess goes, he started not long before the 3rd ICC, and hasn't played much since. 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.

[Timfen]

Timfen will send the same competitor as last time

Name: Alphonse Vrbas
Nation: Timfen
Age: 53
Short Bio: 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 75 of his 424 games. Alphonse has a reletively defensive style, and his motto is "I'm in no rush". He has won the Dradeg Masters 19 times and the Brozjok Chess Meet 15 times. Alphonse is now 53, and lives only a few streets away from where he was brought up.

[Karditan]

Rook will give it another go; after consecutive third and second place finishes, perhaps he'll finally claim the top spot.

Name: Rook Slide
Nation: The Lunar Duchy of Karditan
Age: 54 years old.
Short Bio: A unicorn (light blue coat, dark blue mane; cutie mark is a black rook crossed with a white knight) who has been Karditan's top chess player for over 15 years. Growing up outside the now-abandoned mining city of Manehattan, he never quite took to manual labor. From a young age everyone knew he would be an excellent scholar; he had a knack for mathematics in particular. He easily graduated as the Valedictorian for his class at Commocha High, part of the last wave of students to leave Manehattan before the mine ran dry and the area was deserted. His family wasn't exactly well-off (his father was a miner and his mother ran a struggling daycare business), but a hefty combination need- and merit-scholarship issued personally by the Duchess saw him off to the Karditani Institute of Technology. Nearly a decade later, he finished his education by receiving his doctorate in advanced mathematics from Krava University in Fillydelphia. It was when he returned to FIT as a professor that he learned his long-time hobby--chess--actually held national competitions. His incredible natural ability combined with the logical, calculating mind honed by years of studying math to quickly advance him in the rankings. It wasn't long until his hyper-defensive strategies had him in the top spot and there have only been a handful serious challenges to his title since.

Never takes the bait when he sniffs a trap and is extremely protective of his pieces. Might pull a gambit on occasion just to mix things up, but it's not at all likely.

[New Sideburn]

Name: Linda Baritone
Nation: New Sideburn
Age: 29
Appearance: Blue eyes and shoulder-length chestnut hair frame an angular face. Pale-skinned. Somewhat short, average build. Every inch the flapper, and she usually wears the same clothing when playing.
Bio: A renowned beauty of whom pinups can still occasionally be found, Linda Baritone is a singer by trade and decided to master chess on the side. A natural player, taught by her grandmaster father since she was old enough to grasp the concepts, and she was a quick learner. It's only been recently she's stepped out onto the national scene, and last national tournament, Baritone entered for only the second time and won. She plays quickly and decisively, never planting her feet and waiting for the attack to come. Win or loss, it'll happen fast.

[Stretta]

Name: Charles Du Went
Nation: Stretta
Age: 16

Short Bio: Chess isn't big business in Stretta. In fact, it's surprising there's anyone from Stretta headed to the ICC at all. Du Went, though, is an avid player. He began at the age of 5, playing against his family and anybody he could find, before starting to join the handful of tournaments that are held within Stretta. He eventually took his game online, pitching up against players from all over the world, and now has the chance to meet more world players, face-to-face.

This unpresuming young man, "geeky" in appearance - with his swept dirty blonde hair, glasses, and ears a little too big for his head - plays a hypermodern game of chess, allowing his opponents to gain what they believe to be an advantage before striking. In a piece for a local Strettan chess hobby magazine, "Sicilian Defence", Du Went has been summed up by other players as a force not to be underestimated.

He works as an assistant curator at a Strettan museum while he studies, and has scrimped and saved for a ticket to get to the 4th ICC. Suffice to say, with all of his savings spent, he's determined to win.

[Paradystopia]

Paradystopia will, for a second year send their current chess champion, Kolb Gunt.

Kolb Gunt is more of a leering thug than a chess master. 24 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.

[Kriegiersien]

Name: Dr. Hubertus Schimmel
Nation: Kriegiersien
Age: 7
Short Bio:
As a warfaring nation, strategygames are beloved in Kriegiersien and chess is one of them.
Hubertus Schimmel however comes from a strange isle, which was conquered by Kriegiersien some hundred years ago and was populated by sentient Strawberries only until then. Many of them were eaten and so the population dwindled to some hundred thousands, before laws finally condemned this behavior as murder and cannibalism. The "Fruitman" as they were called before of their own name "Erdbären" got obligatory, are about 1 m tall and have a superior intellect.
Hubertus Schimmel, medical scientist and biologist, began to play chess after making his exam with 2 years and easily won tournaments in whole Kriegiersien. After winning the hard contest on the Isle of Strawber, he won the national championship finals without losing a game.
After a visit in the presidents palace, where he destroyed the president and 20 of his Ministers and Generals in Simultaneous exhibition, while at the same time solving soduku and a Rubik's Cube, the president handed him solemnly and proud the tickets, an expensive chessboard and large staff to fly to the International Chess Championships as delicious participant of Kriegiersien.

[The Babbage Islands]

Teenage grandmaster Victoria Valdemar, still smarting slightly from her loss to the world champion in the Hadsten team tournament, will again enter the world championship. She is the highest-rated player in The Babbage Islands with an Elo rating of 2614, and has been a grandmaster from age 14. Victoria is an aggressive player who favours lines that dictate the early flow, thus her predilection for such openings as the Trompowsky with White and the Scandinavian and Dutch with Black.

[Schmiegelland]

Name: Jampoti Lazarki
Nation: Schmiegelland
Age: 22
Short Bio: At 22, Jampoti Lazarki is the youngest person ever to win the Schmiegelland Grand Tournament of Chess. He was 16 when he got a scholarship to Schmiegelland's most prestigious college. He is hoping to become one of the great legends by winning the tournament at such a young age. He still thinks that capturing is called "eating".

[Johamlandia]

Name: Julio Ramos
Nation: The Republic of Johamlandia
Age: 27
Short Bio:His favorite subject is math, his favorite pastime has been games of strategy. He comes from the once-poor slums of Culebras, where his fascination with advanced math and logic skills helped him reach his job as a math teacher. He comes today, hoping to prove that no matter where you come from, intelligence is a skill from birth.

[Khazmatistan]

Name: Ashra Kazali
Nation: The Great Glorious Holy Chosen Nation of Khazmat
Age: 28
Short Bio: Ashra's entry into the Fourth ICC is Khazmat's first ever representative in an international sporting event. Chess is a popular pastime in Khazmat, where the poor often their own pieces by making markings on pieces of wood. From a young age, Ashra worked in a factory under poor conditions to raise money to support her bedridden grandmother who taught her the game. While she is not an expert by any means, Ashra hopes to represent her nation with pride and has been promised a large sum of cash as a prize from the government if she wins, which she hopes to use to help improve working conditions for other child labourers.

[The Sova Empire]

Name: Greg Sova
Age: 25
Nation: The Sova Empire (abbreviated: TSE)
Short Bio: Greg is the leader of TSE and is a relative amateur in chess, but has knowledge on the game and how it it played. It is anyone's guess how his lack of experience will affect his gameplay. Greg is one of the smartest people in TSE and believes that his participation in chess can help the relative intelligence of his nation and that he can be a good influence on the youth in TSE.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

I've decided to extend signups until the 23^rd March, as I'm away on a trip from the 18^th. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

[Grandterre]

As seen in this link, here's my participant:
Name: Alexandra Turner
Nation: Grandterre
Age: 44 (at time of post)
Short Bio: Alexandra Turner was born in April 20, 1958 in Carpathia City, Renault. She became the youngest Maître Supérieur at the age of 14 and the youngest Maître Avancé at the age of 19. When she went to high school, she formed a chess club. Then, during college in 1979, she formed the Carpathian Chess Union (Карпатский шахматного союза/КШС/Karpatskiy Shakhmatnogo Soyuza) which currently has over 80,000 members nationwide. Since she won the 2003 National Chess Cup, she will be going to the Fourth International Chess Championship.

[Steenbergen]

Name: Castra Steenbergen
Nation: The Armed Republic of Steenbergen
Age: 28
Bio: Cousin of National founder, Zack Steenbergen, Castra has been focused on nothing but chess since birth. Her father, former defense secretary Vlad Steenbergen, thought that it was important to start training the mind at a young age, a system that has since been implemented by the nation's military. Castra has beaten several past Steenbergen grand masters in matches over the years on her way to being the number one ranked chess player in the nation.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

We're at 15 entrants, only one away from the nice number of 16. Signups are still open until Midnight GMT. Signups after the 16th one will be placed on a conditional list until a round number of entrants are present.

[Tobys Great Britain]

Name: Howard Staunton
Nation: Tobys Great Britain
Age: 33
Bio: In his glorious career Staunton has won every domestic Chess Championship there is to win and has been dominant from the age of 17 to his current age of 33. He is a dedicated player and feels it is time to attempt to assert his dominance on the world wide stage. Most known for the creating a move called the TGB opening.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

With the inculsion of Toby's Great Britain, that brings up up to 16 Entrants, which is a nice round number. I'll create the RP Thread now, and groupings, and the first matches will be scorinated tomorrow. Please feel free to use this as a discussion thread!

[Khazmatistan]

How exactly do the matchups work? I guess it's because I've never been in one of these before, but how do I tell who I'm matched up against? Is it within or between groups?

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

How exactly do the matchups work? I guess it's because I've never been in one of these before, but how do I tell who I'm matched up against? Is it within or between groups?

As seen here, you'll play everyone in your group twice, on different matchdays. Check the schedule to see who you'll be facing on each matchday.

[Khazmatistan]

Ah, I see. I misread '1v2/3v4' as groups 1 and 2, not 1 and 2 within the groups. Thanks.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

Ah, I see. I misread '1v2/3v4' as groups 1 and 2, not 1 and 2 within the groups. Thanks.

Yeah, I can understand why you thought that. To avoid future confusion, I've renamed the groups from A-D instead of 1-4.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

A warning to all participating that the RP cutoff is going to have to be an hour earlier this evening - factors out of my control are forcing me to not be present when the actual cut-off is. Again, I'm really, really sorry to mess you all about like this, and hopefully everything should be back to normal tomorrow. (At least I can give you notice this time...)