Dear Kossacks:
We had our first official draw yesterday! And it was a very exciting match, to boot. FreeRadical and FightingRegistrar battled it out for 71 moves, and ended in the most story-book kind of draw there is: Only Kings on the chessboard. FreeRadical forced a draw by capturing FightingRegistrar's last remaining pawn with only 3 seconds left on his clock! Amazing. You can view the chess game in the ChessFlash widget after the jump.
Reminder to all other chess players: PLEASE SCHEDULE AND COMPLETE YOUR FIRST-ROUND MATCHES WITH YOUR OPPONENT BY SATURDAY JUNE 20.
If you have contacted your opponent but have not yet heard back from him or her, please get in touch with me and I will shuffle some match-ups around so that you will get a chance to play a match.
If you have questions about how to use Chess.com, or Chess Cube, or FICS, or Yahoo! Games, please ask me and I can help you.
FreeRadical vs. FightingRegistrar
Quick analysis: I have to say, looking back at the match, both players were extremely lucky in this game. FreeRadical was able to avoid losing the match for running out of time (by only 3 seconds), and it was probably equally impressive that FightingRegistrar was able to hold off checkmate when White promoted a pawn to Queen near the end of the game. There was a lot of dancing between the rooks, bishops, and Black knight on the left side of the board around Moves 23-33. FreeRadical was trailing by a knight and then a bishop for a good part of the middle game, but was able to win it back around Move 35. I'll let you take a look at the rest of it.
NOTE: I've noticed that when I update the diary, the widget briefly disappears. Just refresh the page and it should work again.
UPCOMING MATCHES
neilliebus vs. Dan Morris on Chess.com, Wednesday 6/17 @ 4 PM ET. Their Chess.com usernames are Neilliebus_rex and WaterPoloDan.
Bill White vs. rhutcheson on Chess.com, Wednesday 6/17 @ 9 PM ET
brendanm98 vs. Jimdotz on Chess.com, Wednesday 6/17 @ 10 PM ET
To the chess players: Please post your match information (time and place) so I can update the diary.
To the community: If you would like to watch any of the upcoming matches, you will first need to register for an account on the website where the game is taking place and then log in. You can observe the games on Chess.com by opening the Live Chess module (under the Play tab at the top of the main page) and finding the user of your choice. On FICS, you will need to type "observe [INSERT USER'S NAME HERE]" into the command console to watch the game of the user you're looking for. On Chess Cube, you will need to add the user you're looking for as a friend, and then click on that user's profile and observe the game he/she is playing. On Yahoo! Games, you will need to know which room/lounge the user is playing in -- and once you know, you can just enter it and sit at their table.
See more information about using these websites here.
COMPLETED MATCHES
34 of 70 first-round matches have been completed. White is listed first, Black is listed second. The player in bold was the winner.
ZaBlanc vs. MakeChessNotWar
vets74 vs. Grey Paladin
Dbug vs. Abelian
valislav stein vs. Thutmose V
wmorriss vs. Spud1
dov12348 vs. dissonantharmony
high5 vs. mattc129
M31 vs. black2thefuture
TheCid vs. Chicagoa
hanswall vs. cmorrison
writerkirk vs. mconvente
DeadB0y vs. Seneca Doane
cskendrick vs. Blue Intrigue
vescis vs. montrealdan
Keith Pickering vs. sjohntucson
mquander vs. KillerKoala
matador vs. i know
Cobbler vs. Patch Adam
Anderson Republican vs. Unlabled
cschess vs. sharris0512
SuperBowlXX vs. Dvd Avins
jerseycorn vs. foodmetaphors
Guy Fawkes vs. ericledford
Odysseus vs. ben masel
USArmyParatrooper vs. RickMassimo
nargel vs. Something the Dog Said
cavebird vs. papicek
hekebolos vs. Elvis Vader
RageKage vs. evilstorm
FreeRadical vs. FightingRegistrar (DRAW)
ActivistGuy vs. lexington1
ThyrsiodB vs. AndrewMC
PedsNeuro vs. debedb
stlbucket vs. Ignacio Magaloni
NOTE: Odysseus was a replacement player for greeseyparrot, who was unable to play this week.