On-line engine blitz tourney October

[sovaz1997]

I would like to participate. True, I have a very weak engine (~1850-1900 ELO). This version: https://github.com/sovaz1997/Zevra/rele ... 1.6.1_r512

[hgm]

Well, just PM me a username (Zevra?) and an e-mail address, then I will make an account for you.

[Michael Sherwin]

Hi HG, I'm going to try to participate. I downloaded the AA beta version of WinBoard. For the shortcut in the target field I have, "C:\Michael\Chess\WinBoard\WinBoard\winboard.exe -zp -ics -icshost -icshelper timeseal -fcp RomiChess.exe -fd RomiChess -autoKibitz"

When I start it up I get "Fatal Error". I assume that is because I'm way too early at the moment. The time here is 5:20 AM Mountain time. The error message is, "Could not connect to host -icshelper, port 5000: No such host is known.

Am I set up correctly? Or is something wrong?

Thanks!

You're missing the host. It should be -icshost winboard.nl

I missed it because I was not copying that color. Thanks!

[sovaz1997]

Should I be present? If I must attend, I can not at this time.

[sovaz1997]

My email is "sovaz1997@yandex.ru"

[tttony]

I alwayes check the Amsterdam time here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ ... /amsterdam

[hgm]

Should I be present? If I must attend, I can not at this time.

It is strongly encouraged to be present at least part of the time, to supervise the program. Occasionally disconnections will occur, for you or your opponent, requiring you to connect again, or restart a match. If many participants would disconnect during the tourney, and not come back because there is no one to reconnect them, it sort of ruins the tourney.

I can join engines that are logged on at the start time to the tourney, when the operator cannot be present. But this is just intended as a service for people that want to be there most of the time, but happen to be just a bit late for joining themselves. If I would have to join everyone myself, it would take ages.

[sovaz1997]

Good. Do not register me yet. Thank you!

[Michael Sherwin]

So everything seems to be set up. There are some things that idk.

Can I pretest my setup before the tournament?
Do I have to type something to join or just log on?
Once joined to the tournament is everything automated from then on? (except reconnects of course)

[hgm]

About 10 min befor the start time I program the parameters in the tourney manager 'mamer', and 'open' the tourney. Then everyone must type "mam join 1" (or whatever number the tourney has; today it might be 2 as I already ran a bullet test) to join the tourney. If everyone is in, I 'close' the tourney, and from then on everything should be handled automatically by mamer.

After a disconnect/reconnect, however, you will have to resume the adjourned game by hand, though the command

match <OPPONENT>

This assumes the game had already started. If you or your opponent were disconnected when mamer tried to start your game, you would have to give the game parameters as well:

match <OPPONENT> 5 1 r <COLOR>

where <COLOR> is 'w' or 'b', depending on what mamer wants you (so not your opponent) to have. You can see this through the command "mam games 1" (or 2).

There are plenty of engines logged on already; you can start games against those. There isn't any tourney, however. But if the 'match' command works, it should not matter if you issue it, or mamer.

[Edit] Perhaps it is a good idea for first-time participants to play a few blitz games (5+1) to establish a rating. If we are going to use McMahon pairing, they would otherwise be seeded at the tail of the field, and only encounter very weak opponents for the whole tourney.