Computer interclub matches sf ASTC online

[blackbishop]

The successful final of the online 2021 Australian Schools Teams Championships involved the winning primary, secondary, girls and open teams of four players from each Australian state and territory. Many volunteers were involved in organizing the event, in particular the National Organizer, Hughston Parle, The National Arbiter, Peter Tsai and Technical Officer, David Esmonde.

Each participating student in the ASTC used their own laptop or one that was provided for them. Perhaps a simpler version of this at club level might be possible using one laptop with one operator at each of the distant clubs conveying all the moves. If this is not possible, participants could bring their own laptops to the club and log on to the agreed tournament. That is certainly possible.

In the late 1800’s, regular telegraphic matches were held not just between the states but also between provincial cities. These continued for years. After the second world war, Australia played Britain, France and Canada in Radio matches. STD telephone matches started in the 1980’s. A national inter club competition was conducted with subsequent interstate Telechess Matches. The ladies adopted the telephone for their Dorothy Dibley Shield.

Now that we are relatively so mobile and so technically advanced, we stay at home and play a few five minute games on the net. In a post Covid world, it would be nice to see Redcliffe playing Ballarat, Brisbane playing Cairns etc as part of a regular chess club calendar with matches being conducted at the chess club venue.

[blackbishop]

Geelong Chess Club versus Brisbane Chess Club Consultation Game.

No, it isn’t arranged yet. Just an example.

The easiest form of an inter-club match conducted via a computer link would be one game with one laptop and portable modem, conducted via Chess.com or LiChess
where the members of the Geelong Chess Club say, consult with each other to determine their move. The move is relayed then the Brisbane players consult etc.

Perhaps the weaker players could be allowed to make the first analysis. This might be amusing, instructive and sociable. We join together to fight the common enemy. A national competition might eventuate.
Let’s leave the rest of the world out of it for a while. They are probably already into it.

One difficulty might be finding clubs that meet on the same day of the week. Which clubs, other than Redcliffe, meet on a Wednesday evening?

[blackbishop]

Still trying to figure out how to conduct inter-club chess matches, at the chess club, over the internet using one laptop and one portable modem as a means of transmitting all the moves from all the games being played.

I understand that it is possible to connect two distant computers, over the internet, so that they share a common document. One operator, placed in a central position so that he can see all the games could transmit the moves via the shared document. Perhaps Skype would be another alternative.

Has anyone tried this sort of thing?

[Desmond]

Still trying to figure out how to conduct inter-club chess matches, at the chess club, over the internet using one laptop and one portable modem as a means of transmitting all the moves from all the games being played.

I understand that it is possible to connect two distant computers, over the internet, so that they share a common document. One operator, placed in a central position so that he can see all the games could transmit the moves via the shared document. Perhaps Skype would be another alternative.

Has anyone tried this sort of thing?

If the players aren't using a laptop, they are just sitting at a board by themselves, waiting for a move to be relayed. In this sense the internet/laptop is not needed at all, you could just have the players SMS each other their moves, like in a correspondence game. I text 1.e4, and await the reply. Either have each player do it themselves or a dedicated person to do it for everyone. I prefer each doing it themselves, as it would be quite prone to error juggling many games.

Better solution would be everyone login from home, using their own PC or phone. You can use Zoom meetings or whatever for the social interactivity part, and use existing free platform to handle the chess: lichess / chess.com etc.

Failing that, if people do not have access to such devices, you could go to a place with many available - a lab in a public library, an internet cafe. Book it out for a couple of hours.

[blackbishop]

Better solution would be everyone login from home, using their own PC or phone. You can use Zoom meetings or whatever for the social interactivity part, and use existing free platform to handle the chess: lichess / chess.com etc.

Failing that, if people do not have access to such devices, you could go to a place with many available - a lab in a public library, an internet cafe. Book it out for a couple of hours.

Staying at home and using Zoom for social activity may be the appropriate solution for now, while the pandemic rages, but that approach does nothing to invigorate our chess clubs. Has anyone tried file sharing?

[Desmond]

Has anyone tried file sharing?

Yes, easy with google sheets for example.

[blackbishop]

Yes, easy with google sheets for example.

That could be a very good suggestion. A shared spread sheet would be appropriate for recording multiple games.

[blackbishop]

I installed Google Sheets on my Android Tablet and on my Android Smartphone using their App Stores. I then created a spreadsheet on the tablet using the spreadsheet column headings A, B, C etc for different games and the vertical row numbers for the move numbers.

On starting up the phone, the Spreadsheet was immediately available, the tablet based spreadsheet having ascended to the Google Cloud. Typing in a move in a game on one device resulted in the move appearing on the other device without much of a delay. I have not tried sharing the spreadsheet with another person yet.

It would seem that to conduct a chess match between distant clubs all that would be needed is a smart phone or a tablet or Windows laptop with a portable modem. It may be possible to use the smart phone to transmit the moves verbally as we used to with the STD matches when eight people were happy to contribute ten dollars each to pay for the call. The relative costs of transmitting the moves verbally as compared to using Google Sheets is unclear although Google sheets is supposed to be free for non business use.

[blackbishop]

Inter-club Chess Matches at Chess Clubs via Google Sheets.

Prior to the match, the two “Move Senders” need to have been in contact to establish and set up the link and decide a time for the match, how many players etc.


Setting up the chess spreadsheet prior to sharing.

Only one club has to do the file setup since the file will be shared. However the link should be tested by both move senders prior to the match.

1. Install Google Sheets from the App Store of an Android Smartphone. A Windows laptop could be used or an Android Tablet with a portable modem.
2. Open a spreadsheet using the + at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Enlarge the columns by touching the column heading then dragging the left boundary of the column to the right using the circle appearing on the right side of the column heading.
4. Enlarge enough columns to correspond to the number of chess games being played in the match.
5. Touch cell A1 which corresponds to game A move 1. Increase the font size to 24 or whatever size is comfortable.
6. Enter a move at the bottom of the screen or at the top of the screen depending on the device, not in the actual cell you have highlighted. Highlighting a cell will activate the keypad.
7. It seems that saving the work is done automatically.

Setting up the link
8. With the chess spreadsheet you want to share activated, touch the three vertical dots on the upper right of the screen.
9. Touch Share & Export then touch Share. An input screen will appear.
10. Under People, type in the email address of the other club’s move sender. On the right should be a symbol which should be set at “Can Edit”. There is space for a message.
11. Touch SHARE.
12. The opponent’s move will appear in the same column A. He should put a few spaces between the initial move and his reply. One column per game.

At the Chess Club.
The move sender should be able to see all the boards all the time. The players should be grouped around and close to the move sender. They will be playing as in a normal game recording their moves on score sheets and using clocks. No computers are required. There is no need for “runners” to convey the moves to the move sender as was the case in the old telegraphic matches.

On receiving a new move on the spreadsheet, the move would be made on the player’s board and his clock pressed. Only the time shown on the local player’s clock would be significant. Perhaps, late in the game, the time remaining on the opponent’s clock could be relayed along with the move.

A single club could trial "Sheets" in order to reveal any problems. Three players, say, at one end of the room, against three players at the other end of the room, with a move sender for each group relaying the moves via smartphones using Sheets.

[blackbishop]

Screenshots of the early moves in a match in which the moves are relayed using Google Sheets. The first screenshot shows the games as they might appear on a 10 inch Tablet. The second screenshot shows the view from an Android Smartphone.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tes481d28u...shots.pdf?dl=0

[blackbishop]

There are millions of people playing chess online on quite a few different web sites.

Sparkchess, Tornelo, CCLA, Chess.com, Chess24, Lichess, Internet Chess Club (ICC)
FICS: Free Internet Chess Server, Playchess.com, GameKnot, Red Hot Pawn…...

On some, perhaps all of these sites, you can set up a chess club and play tournaments between club members or matches against other clubs. In the majority of these events, the players are at home using their own computers and have their own account with the chess website. This has been adopted by many clubs during the current pandemic as a means of providing some link to club chess activity.

Because it has seemed necessary to eliminate the possibility of cheating in those relatively few events when a title or prize money is involved, players may be required to have a Zoom account
so that they are monitored audibly and visually during the game. Computers may be used to review games to detect possible cheating.

In the School Teams Chess Championships, games in the finals were played from state chess hubs, where all the players congregated. Separate laptops were needed for each game. Local arbiters ensured that all the rules were followed.

Perhaps the chess web sites will one day introduce a form of inter-club chess where a single computer could be used to relay all the moves from all the games in an inter-club match conducted at the chess club rather than from home. This would presumably mean that we can ACF rate the games, provided an appropriate time control was used, and that cheating would not be a problem.
Perhaps attendance at the chess clubs would increase.

In the mean time, Google Sheets Chess seems to provide a solution to getting inter-club chess back into the chess clubs. Some trials need to take place when Covid has declined.

[blackbishop]

Apparently, Google Sheets is not limited to Android devices and Windows Computers. Just about any operating system can be used including ios
on Apple iphones and ipads as long as you have a Google account on the device. I have just installed it on a Ubuntu Linux Desktop.

[blackbishop]

Google Sheets Chess Matches.

In these matches, players are located at the respective chess clubs and are using chess boards and clocks, not computers. The moves are relayed via a shared Google Spreadsheet operated by the “Move Sender” using a mobile phone or tablet and modem.

The Clock Problem.
Suppose a match was organized between Perth and Cairns. The Perth players know how much time they have used since their side of their clocks records the time they have used. They don’t know exactly how much time their Cairns opponents have used.

It does not seem necessary to relay times all throughout the games. I suggest relaying times when a player has less than ten minutes remaining, less that five minutes and less than one minute. A shared spreadsheet on a mobile phone would look something like the attached screenshot which shows four games, A, B, C and D in progress. The player with Black on board A is in time trouble.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fqyxivr8t6kf3s/time.jpg?dl=0

[blackbishop]

This may be another source of income for some enterprising leading players and coaches.
Chess club players might be willing to pay for a game against say, an IM, even if the celebrity does not venture from his home.

Instead of two club teams exchanging moves via a shared Google spreadsheet, there would be one club team and a “Move Sender” armed with a tablet and / or smart phone with Google Sheets installed. The IM would also need a tablet or smart phone with Google Sheets to forward and receive the moves. To keep track of the positions the IM needs a computer with a reasonably large screen and ChessX or some similar software installed.

Attached is a screenshot of a 24 inch screen with eight instances of ChessX. Each new instance was created by right clicking on the ChessX icon and selecting New Window. This can then be resized.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7usghdcdg...oards.jpg?dl=0


The IM, playing White on all boards, would receive a move from his next opponent via the spreadsheet, maximize the appropriate board on the computer screen, consider the new position, make his move on the board, add the move to the spreadsheet then minimize the board. This would be repeated for the next board, maintaining the order A to H.

At the chess club, the eight boards, Game A to Game H would be arranged in a circle with the Move Sender in the centre of the circle and the players on the outside of the circle. As in a face to face simul, the chess club player must move when the IM is at his board. For example, the player on board E knows that he has to move now when the player on board D makes a move and the IM’s reply has been received and played.

A player would consider his next move during the time it takes for the IM to complete a lap of the boards as in a normal simul. More than eight boards could be used since the boards can be maximized when needed. The computer system used may limit the number of available instances of the software.

[blackbishop]

Inter-Club Chess and the Burleigh Alumni Teams Rapid.


Inter-club matches are still alive in Adelaide where teams of four players meet at the Chess Centre in April and May. Perhaps this is the only face to face inter-club competition surviving in Australia.

In Brisbane, the “Singer Cup” inter-club competition died years ago. Well attended one day allegro teams competitions have been held at a central venue while the Redcliffe Chess Club has successfully hosted the inchoate Bullwinkle Chess Club once or twice a year.

All the teams competition is at the junior level where the inter-schools face to face and hybrid competitions have thrived. On finishing High School, few of these chess players join chess clubs.
If they can still find time for chess, it is likely that they are playing on line. There are apparently many people who have never thought of joining a chess club but play the occasional game online.

Various attempts have been made over the years to encourage school chess players to continue playing chess. Chess Clubs have been formed at universities and inter- university chess competitions have been organized.

A new idea, being promoted by the progressive Gold Coast Chess Club, is the Burleigh Alumni Teams Rapid. Getting together with other members of your former school, university or chess club to form a team might be fun.

Burleigh Alumni Teams Rapid
06 Aug, 11:00 am – 5:30 pm
Fradgely Hall Community Centre, Park Ave, Burleigh Heads QLD 4200, Australia

https://www.goldcoastchessclub.org/