Update for Week 8

Super Friends team members completed 31 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 244. As of Saturday night, our team rating was up to an end-of-week record 1342, which moved us up 31 spots to 40th place in the GameKnot team tables. That's our highest finish ever!

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 19 wins, 11 losses, and 1 draw, bringing our total to 122/113/9 for a team score of positive 9. Wins this week came in from ADAMSKI, BEANOBUDDY, BILLYTHEWONDERGOAT, CM26, DALEMAN, HOME_ALONE_MARV, JAMES55, MRUCK, PIZZAKEITH, PUPPY_KING, and ROKHOUND.

Super Friends added two new members for a team record 30 players as of Saturday night. Here are our recent additions: DODGER69 and EL_UNICO (both on Sept. 20). Welcome to Super Friends!

Feel free to extend an invitation to players you know. Anyone can sign up to join Super Friends by visiting our team profile page.

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

Yet Another Forum

GameKnot Team Forums only hold 50 messages each, and we filled up #6, so the new one is now available. It's titled Super Friends VII: The Newest Forum.

GameKnot Forum

It's happened again. We ran out of space on the old GameKnot Team Forum, so DALEMAN started a new one. It's called ummm......super friends episode 6??.

Chess vs. Halo

Does playing chess actually improve your mind more than, say, playing a video game?

Men's Health magazine asked the question earlier this month. What do you think?

Update for Week 7

Super Friends team members completed a record 57 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 213. As of Saturday night, our team rating was steady at 1305, the same as last week, which moved us down 2 spots to 71st place in the GameKnot team tables. We've maintained our top-100 spot for more than a month now. Excellent!

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 28 wins, 26 losses, and 3 draws, bringing our total to 103/102/8 for a team score of positive 1. Wins this week came in from 1987DODGE, BEANOBUDDY, BORBA, DALEMAN, ETERNAL_SHADOW, HOME_ALONE_MARV, MIKE_MAXTED, PIZZAKEITH, PUPPY_KING, and ROKHOUND.

Super Friends added four new members for a team record 28 players as of Saturday night. Here are our recent additions: BAAL, LETHAL_MUTANT, MRUCK, and SJMACK (all on Sept. 18). Welcome to Super Friends!

We also lost two players this week: XTERMINATOR and Z-DAWG. They joined up early on when we were struggling to get the team started and will certainly be missed. XTERMINATOR offered this parting message: "Sorry team, I have gotten a little too busy to be able to keep up with team matches, and I don't want to be a negative to this team, so I am am going to have to quit. It's been short but great being on your team! GOOD LUCK!"

Feel free to extend an invitation to players you know. Anyone can sign up to join Super Friends by visiting our team profile page.

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

Anybody going?

The richest open tournament in chess history.

Here's more.

Update for Week 6

Super Friends team members completed a record 43 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 156. As of Saturday night, our team rating was up 13 points from a week ago to 1305, which moved us up 15 spots to 69th place in the Gameknot team tables. We set a record end-of-week team rating last week, but effortlessly surpassed it this week. Congratulations!

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 22 wins, 21 losses, and no draws, bringing our total to 75/76/5 for a team score of negative 1. Wins this week came in from ADAMSKI, BEANOBUDDY, HOME_ALONE_MARV, JAMES55, MIKE_MAXTED, PIZZAKEITH, PUPPY_KING, RKBA6, and ROKHOUND.

We have no new members this week but could always use the addition of people who love to play. Feel free to extend an invitation to players you know. Anyone can sign up to join Super Friends by visiting our team profile page.

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

Once Again

It's happened again. We ran out of space on the old GameKnot Team Forum, so we've started a new one. Visit Super Friends V: The Forum, and join the fun!

Cheating the ICC

How to Cheat at Chess: A Security Analysis of the Internet Chess Club

Click on the PDF link on the bottom for the full report.

Update for Week 5

Super Friends team members completed a record 38 games this week, bringing the total count of finished matches to 113. As of Saturday night, our team rating was up 17 points from a week ago to 1292, which moved us up 10 spots to 84th place in the Gameknot team tables. That's our highest end-of-week finish since I started compiling these reports!

Our team record for the week on finished matches was 18 wins, 18 losses, and 2 draws, bringing our total to 53/55/5 for a team score of negative 2. Wins this week came in from 1987DODGE, BEANOBUDDY, DALEMAN, JASQUET, JVOLD, MIKE_MAXTED, PIZZAKEITH, and ROKHOUND.

Super Friends added one new member for a team record 26 players as of Saturday night. Our newest member is CHECKING4FUN. Welcome to Super Friends!

E-mail me at dirtwindow@myway.com if you would like to have me sign you up with a username and password for posting messages at this site.

Origins of Chess

Where did it come from? How did it start? What was its purpose? Asthpada, a four-handed race game, is thought by some to be the earliest form of chess. But others disagree.

"The theory that chess is a development of an earlier race game involves the hypothesis that some reformer changed the whole nomenclature in order to make it self-assistent as a war game and secured the agreement of all his contemporaries. I find this hypothesis incredible."

-H.J.R. Murray (1913)

This site presents a collection of essays on the origin and evolution of chess.

Man vs. Machine

This image demonstrates computer analysis of a chess game. It raises the question of whether the game is a complex art or mathematical computation. Is it possible for machines to destroy the joy of chess?

For the Record

The longest chess game? 269 moves.
Most moves in a tournament match without a capture? 72.
Earliest stalemate? 27 moves.

Check out Tim Krabbe's chess records: "This inventarisation is limited to the practical game; no longest winning streaks; youngest grandmasters; selfmates in 418. 'This is the record' means: 'this is the record as known & recognized by me.'"