Canadian Closed 2009 - Round 8 Reports!

[Steve Douglas]

"Remember we presently have people claiming that writing your move down on a paper scoresheet before you move is illegal because *that* constitutes analysis."

Is that illegal? I write my moves down before making them almost all of the time, and only stop doing that if my opponent comments about it. Would that be deemed to be illegal?

It became technically illegal a few years ago. As Kerry says it is kind of stupid. I can see how in a few isolated cases it might actually *be* some form of analysis but I can't see that happening at high levels of chess. Usually it's just patzer indecisiveness, trying to choose between one blunder or another :-)

It did become a serious issue with junior chess since most kids, when they are first taught to write moves down, are encouraged to do so before they move, because that also helps with another thing at the same time: getting them to slow down.

I think the only time I've made an issue at a tournament was when my opponent started "doodling" board diagrams....

Steve

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Good points. I neglected to mention that I had also asked Monroi about various aspects of their device: specifically, would it disallow an illegal move - and thus apparently have the potential to alert a player to some situation they were unaware of? I guess it *has* to do so - it hardly can be expected record an illegal move.

Actually it does allow an illegal move to be recorded. You pick that option when you set it up initially but if you don't pick that option the device is not legal for USCF and presumably FIDE and CFC play. This can occasionally lead to some strange situations when you improperly select your opponent's king and it leaps seven ranks next to your own king.

After gaining familiarity with the Monroi at some of Hal's tournaments in Guelph and the Toronto Open, I bit the bullet and bought one at the OYCC after I had trouble keeping score (a blood sugar thing) in the one tournament where Hal and Patrick didn't deploy them. I have since used it in seven or eight tournaments and can't imagine going back to recording my games on paper.

Alas, even GMs who leave the board after every move are now accused of 'somehow' cheating, so I guess this whole situation puts a damper on the game.

Last weekend, in a Michigan tournament one of my opponents tried to raise a complaint about the Monroi being a chess computer after I won the game. Fortunately the TD was right there and squelched it right away before I had to get too indignant.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

I was personally surprised that they got through the FIDE certification process - but they did. I have inquired as to whether or not they might be releasing some new hardware, since theirs is several years old now, and they said there are no plans for new hardware.

I have a number of concerns relating to having to manage their use in the Closed, including:

[list][*]Extremely slow usage of SD cards (we're talking over 1-2 minutes some times to transfer 6k of data)[*]Unreliable battery remaining displays[*]The above actually lead to four instances of the devices dying in the middle of a game with absolutely no warning[*]Batteries charge very slowly and don't last for very long in game situations[*]The screen is sometimes too sensitive and will record a "double-click" far too easily[*]The devices are limited to SD cards of 256 megabytes or lower - becoming impossible to find these!

I have found that the battery on my admittedly fairly new unit seems to last all day even on those 12 hour days. I usually bring the charger with me and let it charge overnight.

I have experienced the occasional glitch more with borrowed units than my own (though even there I have noticed the occasional random move if I am not careful when I enter my moves).

There's probably more, but those are the main points. Given these flaws one would think MonRoi would be more interested in modernizing their devices...

It probably isn't that simple. There is probably a huge fixed cost involved in upgrading the units. As a standalone unit they work great. I wish they cost half of what they do but even at the $360 that I paid, I am still very satisfied with my purchase.

The only drawback in my case is that I used to know when my blood sugar was wonky because I would start having trouble keeping score. These days with the Monroi, I don't have trouble keeping score so I have to test my blood sugar regularly to know that there is a problem.

[Philip Feeley]

I know how everyone hates me beating a dead horse, but will there be a PGN file of ALL the games any time soon? It seems absurd that we still only have rounds 8 & 9.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Philip:

Arbiter Michael von Keitz has assembled the complete set of pgn games ( not sure of the link ), and Hugh Brodie now has them all in his CanBaseII, from which you can download them.

Bob

[Philip Feeley]

Hi Philip:

Arbiter Michael von Keitz has assembled the complete set of pgn games ( not sure of the link ), and Hugh Brodie now has them all in his CanBaseII, from which you can download them.

Bob

Well, I didn't find them there, but in a link in another post here. One reporting on the final results.

Thanks.