Imbaud vs Strumilo, 1922

Compare me, yesterday.

<SwitchingQuylthulg: Ratings only ever measure a player's results in and relative to the current pool. Rating differences - which the whole system is based on - do a decent albeit (inevitably, due to limited sample sizes, different opponents and random chance) far from perfect job measuring domination in a pool. Absolute rating numbers on the other hand aren't even meant to measure anything at all. Trying to compare ratings from different pools is the best kind of experiment there is - everybody can draw whatever conclusion suits their views best.>

Sorry to bother you, but something screwy is up with my FICS account?

I noticed today that my autoflag is not working, and yet in my profile it says it is turned on.

Then I looked at my recent history, and it says that my last two opponents were jessicafischerqueen.

Does this mean my computer is broken?

Hey the next time I am signed in, and you are around, would you consider looking at my profile to see what is wrong?

Thanks very much-

Ok I just checked again, and now my profile games history is back to normal.

But I swear to God that previously it had listed me as playing agaisnt myself.

Also, in my last game today- the gentelman resigned, but after he resigned, I was looking at my profile- you know, with the dead game board still on the screen.

AND A ROOK MOVED BY ITSELF.

I almost jumped out of my skin!!!

I checked, and my opponent had already logged out.

Plus it WAS MY ROOK THAT HAD MOVED.

How is this possible?

Are there possibly some bugs or gremlins in the FICS program?

Also, as a long suffering watcher of my abortive attempt to become a 10/0 player, you may be pleased to notice that I did finally manage to crest the 1200 mark.

I'm at a towering 1190 at the moment or something like that.

"I've come a long way from my apprecticeship in the lower 1000 range"

Are you sure you weren't looking at the recent game history of somebody else? If you were looking at the history of examickb or Nilcraft for example you would of course see two jessicafischerqueens as the most recent opponents. And of course this would go away when you carefully rechecked.

However, this wouldn't account for the autoflag or the ghost rook.

The autoflag - were the problems specifically with the auto part? That is, when you tried to flag the guy manually that worked? Otherwise, I'd suspect heavy lag, either with your own connection or (more probably) your opponent's.

Anyway, which game(s) did you encounter this problem in? In none of the recent history games did your opponent run out of time. You specified "today" so I presume it would have been a recent history game all the same. Conclusion: nobody ever ran out of time, and somebody's connection was lagging heavily. In reality, the guy resigned with some time still left, and the news took some time to get to you.

Alien rook syndrome - I note that you do not, in the final position of your latest game, in fact have a rook. You just testing me? Or have you played more games since?

If you have, was it a good move the rook made? As in, did it look like God was trying to nudge you towards some deep and beautiful plan in the position, or was it just an essentially random move?

It's quite possible to take moves back in the type of situation you describe. If you did this by accident... (And if it was your latest game, you must have taken moves back to even have a rook to make a move with.)

Perhaps this can help.

all of the weird things happened in a game that I was ultimately able to adjourn.

So whatever game I adjourned today is the game in question when all the funny stuff happened.

Does my record show an adjourned game from today?

In that mystery game, it can't have been lag- his "lag meter" showed just .02-

And also, the clock ran up to a minute after.

I also pressed the autoflag command button and nothing happened in that game.

HEreigns - jessicafischerque, FICS 10 0, 2009

1. e4 d5 2. e5 e6 3. f4 f6 4. Nf3 c5 5. Game courtesyadjourned by Black.

"Courtesyadjourn", as far as I know, is only possible when an opponent has connection problems. So I was right about that one at least. There was nothing wrong with your autoflag; it was just that your opponent hadn't run out of time, but was lagging very, <very> heavily.

You are a genius.

Ok- so if I had just waited long enough, I would have been awarded the win, correct?

I don't know what to tell you about the Rook phantom. Actually that might have been in another game that I won.

So if I had hit "undo move" or something in that game, this would account for the ghost?

Ok I think I'm finally understanding.

If I had waited long enough, his next move would have come in- then I would have played a move- and then if he was still ultra-lagging I'd have to wait several minutes for his next move, etc. etc.

So he was having a horrifying connection problem, and was likely relieved that I adjourned, right?

That doesn't sound like me- as my playing record will attest - I've played what- 500,000 10/0 games now?

And I've not done that on any other occasion.

I'm not certain but it's possible I was actually disconnected- though given your description of the game, that sounds fishy as well.

Possibly this was a moment of pique on my part.

How can I call up the game and resign it?

Do I do that from the console?

Hey is it possible for me to give you <administrator privileges> on my FICS account?

OK I just resigned successfully against Aunty Mame as per your method.

And I've just discovered I can't remember my password.

It's a wonder my rating isn't 800 when you think about it.

I have it written down on something, but whether that something is still in my apartment is anyone's guess.

Hang on- my password should be in the original email I got from FICS right?

heh-

Maybe I'm not quite so stupid as I'd like to believe...

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I was White here in a rare opening experiment (Sicilian) and was of course totally winning anyway. I'm still happy I put enough energy in to find the most effective (and most beautiful!) insta-killer in this position...

<25.Bc5!>

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A most excellent example of the value of placing one's pawns on light squares when the opponent has a dark-squared bishop. One of White's pawns is still on a dark square, and consequently the bishop is threatening to storm out of his prison with a bang: 39...e4+! and 40...Bxh2.

White thus brings this plan to an immediate end, completing his light-square bind with 39.e4! (if such an obvious move deserves an exclamation mark)...

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