It's Your Turn

[Pedro Saavedra]

Many of the best players have left IYT and all seem to have left the forum. I still play there because it is the only turn-based server for Russian checkers. I played in Wyllie, which I considere the best for English checkers, except that I find it difficult to turn down challenges from friends and the tournaments are too big, so soon enough I was swamped.

But here is my question for any of you who are still there. I have noticed a switch in the ballots. A larger percent of the game ballots are barred openings. Before, they were the exception, but now most of the ones I am getting are not played OTB. Yet I saw no announcement of any change.

Any of you who are still there notice it?

[Patrick Parker]

are you talking about iyt? i have played there for years though i havent noticed any change....could you give more info or an example
do you mean like in pro checkers ...you balloted tame openings more often 11-15 23-18 8-11....but for some reason now you are getting these hard type 10-14 22-18 9-13? those tougher ones more often?

[Bob Murr]

Hi Pedro, I still play at both iyt and wodc and am very fond of both, I agree that at wodc it can be very overwhelming with all tournaments being round robin no matter how many entrants. At iyt I have had openings that are not on the approved list and considered losses. In one match, we each lost on a losing ballot and in another match I was able to win both sides. I asked DINO2 about it and he said that he has contacted the administrator but no change in policy. Apparently they allow all 3 move openings whether they are approved or not. I have noticed that all of the Pro Checkers tournaments do not have an adequate number of entries and never start. As far as all good players leaving, I havent seen that. There are many strong players still playing there. Good luck and I look forward to meeting you some day.

[Roberto L Ernest]

I like IYT because they have Straight, Russian (almost the same as Pool), Italian and International Checkers.
It is the only turn-based site I know of that has all four.

My one complaint is that they do not have the rules right for the Italian game.
I keep encouraging them to correct this and they have promised to do so, but so far this has not been done.

Nevertheless, the site is an excellent one.
The graphics are great.

R L Ernest (papaTrex), Chicago IL -- Thu 1/2 at 20,30

[Pedro Saavedra]

I play almost exclusively in the ladders, and there you only get one side. I often rely on Basic Checkers for anaysis and I am finding more and more that I need to go to the Barred Openings pages or other sources because many of the openings are correspondence only.

I know there are still many good players still there, and many do not play in the ladder. But I also know of others who have left and play only at Wyllie.

I also miss the forum. They are still there, but most of the old participants are not posting. Lindus and Jan seem to have exited. I have not seen Francesco at all in over a year (is he still playing server-based?).

Maybe I should try a Pro-Checkers tourney again. I have been tiring of signing up and not enough persons do. And I do not like GAYP as much.

[kiwinurse]

I find Pedro that the Wyllie site is enough for me at this stage.It has great graphics, and excellent players who provide me with as much competition as i can cope with,and i like to know who im playing.

[kiwinurse]

Although i do miss a lot of the great players at the site, like Richard Fortman,its more a time factor thing with me that i dont play there anymore.

[Roberto L Ernest]

Francesco plays at BrainKing, which is turn-based.

R L Ernest (papaTrex), Chicago IL -- Fri 2/2 at 13,45

[Pedro Saavedra]

> I find Pedro that the Wyllie site is enough for me at this stage.It has
> great graphics, and excellent players who provide me with as much
> competition as i can cope with,and i like to know who im playing.

Yes, I know. Once I sent you a message in IYT and in Wyllie you complained that I had not answered a previous message. Then I realized that you did not know my alias in IYT.

Wyllie would be ideal for me if I played only one game. But I love so many that I need to spread the action among them. In IYT I play in three pro-checkers (3-move) ladders, one GAYP, two Russian, one International and one chess, plus a half dozen non-ladder Jambles (a scrabble-like word game). Then I play 20 chess games or so in Chess World. Two phrases have been applied to me:

1) Jack of all games and master of none, and 2) a mile wide and an inch deep.

I still miss you there. And I miss the old forum.

Pedro Saavedra
(vatecubano)

[kiwinurse]

Miss your cheerful face too Pedro,do you ever play at kurnick, i play there when i can.

[Pedro Saavedra]

> Miss your cheerful face too Pedro,do you ever play at kurnick, i play there > when i can.

I understand Kurnik is live play rather than turn-based. That presents several problems for me. The main one is that I tend to lose my Internet connection, and that would be a problem when playing live. I also tend to doze off and stopped playing over the board for that reason among others. Finally, I do not have a terrific memory, so I rely on the literature as far as it goes, then try a cook or (better yet) let my opponent try one. Live I cannot look the position up or follow a line up to a point.

I played correspondence checkers in the 1970s. Now turn-based gives me another chance at it.

I may return to Wyllie's if I can figure out how to keep my game quota low. For me playing time is mostly between when my wife goes to bed and when I collapse which is about two and a half hours later (though I make a few moves during breaks at the office) . When I was at Wyllie's I was having an unidentified medical problem. I still have it, but it is now identified (arthritis of the neck -- another reason for not playing OTB).

By the way, not everybody at IYT uses aliases. I just started out of reluctance to give my name at first, so I used my Yahoo name, and then decided not to mess with it. But Bernard Coll and Jim Loy and Lindus (when I last saw him there) used their real names.

Regards,
Pedro

[Mary Strazicich]

Hello I couldn't help but comment in this thread because it involves Russian Checkers. I am currently working with my programmers on adding several checker variations to GoldToken's game list. What variations are your favorite? Which are more likely to be played or ignored?

~~GoldToken's Badger

[Pedro Saavedra]

> I couldn't help but comment in this thread because it involves Russian
> Checkers. I am currently working with my programmers on adding
> several checker variations to GoldToken's game list. What variations are
> your favorite? Which are more likely to be played or ignored?
>GoldToken's Badger

IYT has English, Italian, Russian and International checkers. Interestingly it has Polish Checkers, but only for challenges (no ladders or tournaments). The difference between Polish and International is almost trivial (removing pieces as you jump or at the end). Well, I like American Pool Checkers, but the difference between it and Russian lies mostly in that in Russian a man can jump to the last row and continue the move as king.

What would make ACP desirable is that it might attract ACP players to turn-based players. However, Russian might attract more players from other countries.

So I would like ACP. but would settle for Russian, Brazilian or any similar version.

Also, the last time I visited Gold Token there was no 3-move that I could see. I would like that.

[Roberto L Ernest]

I would love to see American Pool Checkers and Italian Checkers implemented at GoldToken.

The only other variant that is really equivalent to Pool Checkers is Russian Checkers (Shashki). The three essential features are (1) the flying king, (2) the backward-jumping men and (3) take-to-your-advantage --as opposed to jump-the-maximum--. These rules make for a surprisingly lively game.

Italian Checkers must have the correct capturing rules to be valid: (1) a man can never jump a king; (2) jump the maximum number of pieces; (3) take the maximum pieces with a king, if possible, rather than with a man; (4) take the maximum number of kings when you jump with your king; (5) while taking the maximum kings, jump king-then-man rather than man-then-king. Arthur H Olsen's Checker pages spell out the rules very nicely.

The better Italian players will not play Italian Checkers at the site if the rules are not correct because these rules all figure strongly in their tactical combinations. ItsYourTurn botched up the rules, and even though they have promised to correct this, they have not done so to date. With the correct rules, this is a very nice variant of the Grand Old Game.

R L Ernest (papaTrex), Chicago IL -- Fri 9/2 at 11,45

[Mary Strazicich]

Thank you for your thoughts, I think those would be great additions! GoldToken makes all games available for ladders, tournaments and friendly games. Doesn't make sence to limit how you can play them.

Since the games you mention are all similar, we should be able to provide several of these variations in relatively little time as few changes are needed to code one to another. As a player, how would you prefer the game boards to identify the different variation? With different colored borders or just the title at the top of the page?

You will be thrilled to know Chad completed 3 move Restriction Checkers last fall along with two games each ladder match so each player is able to play the opening. We still have to enable a player to select a spesific opening, but that is coming soon.



~~Mary