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The biggest news of the 8th PAL/CSS Freestyle main tounament on April 11-13th was that none of the previous Freestyle Champions got to the final, neither 'king' Rajlich, two times Freestyle Chamion, nor Anson Williams, who had won the last event. Instead, for the first time in Freestyle Chess, we might see a woman taking over the crown. IM Iweta Rajlich (former Radziewics) achieved half a point more than her husband Vas. She came sixth and will now defend the family's honour under the playchess.com handle "Rybusia".
More than 90 players and teams of about 25 countries took part in the nine round event with a rate of play of 60 minutes per game and 15 seconds bonus per move, among them 26 titleholders of FIDE and ICCF, not to mention lots of strong players staying anonymously in the background as co-analyists. Apart from eleven US players, participants from more non-Europeen countries like Mexico, Columbia, New Caledonia, Malaysia, India, Nigeria, South Africa and New Zealand had enrolled for the Freestyle 'World Open'. For an online event that means big differences of the time zones: When the first round starts at 2 p.m. CET (Central European Time), the clock shows 5:00 a.m. in Los Angeles and 8 p.m. in Singapore.
Everybody knows how hard it is to get through to the final, as this generally means you have to win at least three games, and draw the other six. Only two players (or teams, you never know!) achieved 6.5 points. Like five other qualifiers they had the benefit of playing five white games and only four with black. So this means, you not only have to play very well, but also need some luck in order to go through. The absolute winner by progressive score is "Moro Gamgee", which is the playchess.com handle of Dutch computer chess specialist Hans van der Zijden, who is said to be playing in a team with the Rybka book author Jeroen Noomen. Thus, the Rybka 'clan' had another reason to pop the corks…
The second winner, "Flyingfatman", is already well-known as a former Freestyle finalist. It's the Englishman Nick Carlin, who is rumoured to be playing with very strong hardware, as may be assumed by his 2976 computer rating on the ChessBase server. The third finalist is "Enchanter", the German correspondence chess IM Klaus Sperhake, who – as a newcomer – sensationally started with 3 out of 3 and then defended his good position, though he lost one game against "Flyingfatman". Fourth place was taken by "Komodo1", another Rybka submarine, who has been outet by others as the US IM Larry Kaufman. Wow, what a phalanx of 'Rybkies' the other finalists have to resist in order to earn some bucks…
The fifth is another computer chess specialist and experienced Freestyler from Italy: Alberto Gueci, who is also known as "Spaghetti Chess". We already spoke of IM Iweta Rajlich, who came sixth as "Rybusia". But who in the world is "Regina H-Milch" from Germany? He (or she?) was 16th in the previous Freestyle tournament. We will see later who is behind the seventh qualifier’s nickname. "Luminarydebris", the eighth, sounds like a new name in Freestyle, but the owner, Steven Cramton from the US, is none other than the teammate of Steven Zackery, both well-known as "ZackS", the legendary First Freestyle Champion. "Snuggles", the ninth finalist, is another German CC-IM, called Ulrich Stephan, who had his second try in Freestyle. Last, but not least, we see "Ultima", another Italian participant, on tenth place. His info shows the name of the mysterious young lady "Terra Branford", but insiders reckon that it is the well-known CC-SIM Eros Riccio, who came third in the previous Freestyle as "Auryn".
| # | Player/team | Points | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 |
Moro Gamgee |
6.5 / 9 |
36.50 |
|
| 2 |
Flyingfatman |
6.5 / 9 |
32.50 |
|
| 3 |
Enchanter |
6.0 / 9 |
35.50 |
|
| 4 |
Komodo1 |
6.0 / 9 |
32.00 |
37.50 |
| 5 |
Spaghetti Chess |
6.0 / 9 |
32.00 |
37.00 |
| 6 |
Rybusia |
6.0 / 9 |
31.50 |
|
| 7 |
Regina H-Milch |
6.0 / 9 |
31.00 |
|
| 8 |
Luminarydebris |
6.0 / 9 |
30.50 |
|
| 9 |
Snuggles |
6.0 / 9 |
30.00 |
|
| 10 |
Ultima |
6.0 / 9 |
29.50 |
|
| 11 |
WindPower |
6.0 / 9 |
29.00 |
35.00 |
| 12 |
Etaoin Shrdlu |
6.0 / 9 |
29.00 |
33.00 |
| 13 |
Rajlich |
5.5 / 9 |
29.00 |
34.50 |
| 14 |
Chopy |
5.5 / 9 |
28.50 |
|
| 15 |
Sciolto |
5.5 / 9 |
28.00 |
|
| 16 |
Ragged |
5.5 / 9 |
27.50 |
|
| 17 |
Rodo |
5.5 / 9 |
26.50 |
|
| 18 |
New Man |
5.5 / 9 |
26.00 |
|
| 19 |
Talok |
5.5 / 9 |
25.50 |
|
| 20 |
Antonaustirol |
5.5 / 9 |
23.50 |
|
| 21 |
Averell |
5.5 / 9 |
23.00 |
The table shows two more players with six points, who however failed to qualify because of a slightly lower progressive score (half a point!). That's tough, especially as these players, the well-known Freestylers "Etaoin Shrdlu", Patrik Schoupal & friends from Czechia, and "Windpower", FM Michiel Wind, from the Netherlands, living in Malaysia, drew their last round games, hoping their six points would be enough for the qualification. Both had black against strong opponents, so what would you do? And if you remember the times zones, you must realise that it was already 2 a.m. for Michiel Wind when his last round game started. I am sure we will see these players back at the top in further Freestyle events, same as many successful players with 5.5 points – and also good old "Rentner2" with 5 points, who was in the top group until he lost in round 8.
Maybe it's a sign of ever more powerful hardware and software that the draw rate for the first time increased to 55%, while in the 60m + 15s tournaments before it the figure was about 50%. Yet, if we only consider the number of games with less than 31 moves, we find, that the percentage of the "quick draws" increased dramatically; instead of 10%, we now have 20% of these short and mostly drawn games. If this tendency continues in the round-robin final, where the draw rate in any case tends to be higher than in a Swiss tournament, then the organisers will have to think over the format, though each system, pure Swiss or play-offs, has its drawbacks.
But before any of this happens we invite you to come to the Playchess server on April 25-27th and enjoy the exciting games of the final, where for the first time also a webcast is planned.
| April 2008 | |||||||
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | |||||
| 1st round Spaghetti Chess – Ultima Komodo1 – Rybusia Moro Gamgee – Snuggles Flyingfatman – Luminarydebris Enchanter – Regina H-Milch |
2nd round Ultima – Regina H-Milch Luminarydebris – Enchanter Snuggles – Flyingfatman Rybusia – Moro Gamgee Spaghetti Chess – Komodo1 |
3rd round Komodo1 – Ultima Moro Gamgee – Spaghetti Chess Flyingfatman – Rybusia Enchanter – Snuggles Regina H-Milch – Luminarydebris |
| 4th round Ultima – Luminarydebris Snuggles – Regina H-Milch Rybusia – Enchanter Spaghetti Chess – Flyingfatman Komodo1 – Moro Gamgee |
5th round Moro Gamgee – Ultima Flyingfatman – Komodo1 Enchanter – Spaghetti Chess Regina H-Milch – Rybusia Luminarydebris – Snuggles |
6th round Ultima – Snuggles Rybusia – Luminarydebris Spaghetti Chess – Regina H-Milch Komodo1 – Enchanter Moro Gamgee – Flyingfatman |
| 7th round Flyingfatman – Ultima Enchanter – Moro Gamgee Regina H-Milch – Komodo1 Luminarydebris – Spaghetti Chess Snuggles – Rybusia |
8th round Ultima – Rybusia Spaghetti Chess – Snuggles Komodo1 – Luminarydebris Moro Gamgee – Regina H-Milch Flyingfatman – Enchanter |
9th round Enchanter – Ultima Regina H-Milch – Flyingfatman Luminarydebris – Moro Gamgee Snuggles – Komodo1 Rybusia – Spaghetti Chess |
The following schedule will help you to find the correct time for your location. Simply click on the time in the right column to get a list of different locations around the world.
| Round 1 | Friday | 25/04/2008 | 14:00h CET |
| Round 2 | Friday | 25/04/2008 | 17:00h CET |
| Round 3 | Friday | 25/04/2008 | 20:00h CET |
| Round 4 | Saturday | 26/04/2008 | 14:00h CET |
| Round 5 | Saturday | 26/04/2008 | 17:00h CET |
| Round 6 | Saturday | 26/04/2008 | 20:00h CET |
| Round 7 | Sunday | 27/04/2008 | 14:00h CEST |
| Round 8 | Sunday | 27/04/2008 | 17:00h CEST |
| Round 9 | Sunday | 27/04/2008 | 20:00h CEST |
Winners and prizes
The winner of the finals receives the first prize of US $7.000 and the title of "8th PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Champion". The runner up gets $3.500, the player coming in third $2.000, the fourth receives $1.000 and the fifth $500.
There will be no tiebreak games in case of a tie. The winner will be decided on the basis of Sonneborn-Berger (SB) points. If the SB points are equal the number of wins decides. If that is also the same, then the result in the game between the tied participants decides. If this was a draw then the player with the black pieces is the winner. All of this only affects the award of the title. The prize money will be divided equally if the final scores are equal.
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Eighth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament with $16,000
prize fund |
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Seventh PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament with $16,000 up
for grabs 05.09.2007 – A "Freestyle tournament" is one in which computer assistance – or help in any conceivable form – during the game is allowed and encouraged. The Seventh PAL/CSS Freestyle tournament will take place on the Playchess server on Sept. 7th-9th and 15th-16th. The main sponsor, the PAL Group in Abu Dhabi (UAE), has provided a $16,000 dollar prize fund. Join the fun. |
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Rajlich wins Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament 25.07.2007 – For the first time in Freestyle a team has succeeded in regaining the title. Vasik Rajlich won the third event in June 2006, and now, together with his wife and French Defence expert IM Iweta Rajlich, has staged a come-back, winning the $16,000 finals on the Playchess server exactly one year later. The 32-processor computer "Mission Control" came sixth. CCGM Arno Nickel reports. |
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Mission Control takes over in Freestyle Tournament 17.06.2007 – "A star is born" is becoming the normal headline for Freestyle tournaments, and the sixth edition of the PAL/CSS event, with 112 participants from 30 countries was no exception. A 32-processor machine playing on its own came first and, together with nine others, will take part in the $16,000 finals on the Playchess server, on June 22nd to 24th. Be there and watch the fun. |
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Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament with $16,000 prize 25.05.2007 – A "Freestyle tournament" is one in which computer assistance – or help in any conceivable form – during the game is allowed and encouraged. The Sixth PAL/CSS Freestyle tournament takes place from June 1st-3rd, with the finals being held three weeks later. The main sponsor, the PAL Group in Abu Dhabi (UAE), has provided a $16,000 dollar prize fund. Join the fun. |
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Freestyle Chess –Teaching an Engine how to Fly 28.04.2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament on Playchess.com is already history and the 6th issue is coming soon: Main event June 1-3, Final June 22-24. Freestyle Chess allows players to form a team and use any software and hardware they like. The main sponsor, the PAL Group in Abu Dhabi (UAE), has provided a $16,000 dollar prize fund for each online tournament. CC GM Arno Nickel reports. |
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Fifth Freestyle Tournament Final this weekend 22.03.2007 – The 5th PAL/CSS Freestyle Main Tournament, staged on the Playchess server, ended in a dead heat of 17 players. None of the 131 participants from 32 countries, including 20 titled players, managed to achieve six points in eight games, which is the magic barrier for qualification. The final, with ten players, will be held as a round robin tournament this weekend. Come and watch. |
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