HaHaHa! Good for you <Annie K.> ! :-) We'll know soon enough when the Leaderboard gets updated... Who had what in major gains (so where did the other 12,160 c-bucks go?). ~lol~

I decided to take a small risk and bet to entertain the possibility of increasing my pre-tourney bet(s) on Ural to win by counter betting on the Economist to either tie with a counter measure to win to cover the tie bet. Should have just bet heavy on Linex to win or tie to counter my 3 previous pre-bets in this ECC tourney (a couple of grand there easy would have doubled my c-bucks bet).

Oh well, so I lose a few thousand c-bucks (instead of breaking about even just covering my forthcoming losses on all of my losing pre-bets). Still won nicely on Ural to win (bet my max 2,500 c-bucks) with side-bets on Tomsk and Baden-Baden to win also (albeit small gains there with those last two heavy hitters - odds wise).

Adams and Kamsky don't need an introduction, ;) and I remembered Cheparinov's excellent performances this year in Sigeman and the "Rising Stars" group in NH (and of course he's well-known as Topalov's talented second and acknowledged author of some of his strong TNs); Rublevsky's making it as far as the Candidates Matches; and Sasikiran is not exactly chopped liver either. :) Perez I never heard of, so I was taking a small chance on the unknown quality of their sixth board, (he did fine as it turned out), :) but on the whole I knew most of this lineup of players to be strong, still rising, and spirited fighters - just what the doctor ordered!

Nice job <Annie K.> ! :-) Well done!

If I may please let me just embellish on a few points... Skipping the first two chess legends. Can't say that they nailed Boards #1 & #2 but they certainly held them down and made this win possible! ~lol~

- Rublevsky: He first showed me the light when he won the Russian Chess Superfinal tournament back in 2005. You all remember that one where Moro overslept (with his girlfriend) and Kramnik was understandably still in a slight slump? He went +4 to win it and he never looked back! - Cheparinov: Yes his TN's for Topalov have become famous! Also, when he played at the 15th Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament (back in April). Of course he was strongest player there and was fully expected to win it, but it was the way in which he won it by clearly outclassing the field that impressed me. Even here at the ECC on Board #5 he trounced all opposition scoring 'best' in both percentage (85.7%) and points with 6 out of 7 with a fantastic RP of 2846!

[Substituting GM Gabriel Sargissian for Sasikiran - one of the strongest 'chopped liver chess players' on the planet! ;)]. - Sargissian: Just how do you get strong? Easy - you're the best pal of the Chess Super Star GM Levon Aronian! Hanging with Levon has got to be good for your chess! ~lol~ Finally... - Manuel Candelario Perez: Strong IM clearly and probably way overdue for his GM title. Scoring 5 out of 7 here (71.4%) with a RP of 2609! He can play the bottom board of any chess team and do it proud I suspect. Need I say anything more?

Thinking that my underdog bet on 'Tomsk-400' at 6:1 odds and the winner of the last two ECC chess tourneys here was good enough along with my primary bet of Ural Sverdlovskaya to WIN! *NoT* Close but no banana... :-(

So, we need to make the <Annie K.> Chess Bookie betting rule - if you see a team or a player that looks promising (the right mix of players in a team or good solid individual performances in previous chess events recently) that no one in particular is betting on, atm. Even though the odds of their winning are just bloody incredible! Bet on it! Not the entire goldmine just a small bar of latinum (Ferengi style) will do quite nicely. You may reap rewards that you never dreamed of and the magic will be all yours at the end! <Annie K.> did... :-)

OK 'Chess Bookie' show us the money... I mean "c-bucks!" ~ROFL~ ;-) - Mal

Sorry about the Sargissian/Sasikiran slip! :) Just a glitch - apologies to both, as neither needs to be mistaken for the other to be respected. ;)

Well <TIMER> the return was certainly much better than either the 'Baden-Baden vs. Clichy Echecs 92' or 'Tomsk-400 vs. Gros Xake Taldea' match-ups - c-bucks wise. Of course I had the 'Ural vs. Bosna' match with an added Insurance side-bet just in case of an incidental tie. I was quite confident that the Ural team would win but the tie factor can not be either overlooked or easily dismissed! ~lol~ ;-)

<Annie K.: Thanks much for the extra info <Mal>! :) [...] Now the difficult question for the rest of the leg - to bet, or not bet... ;)>

You're welcome <Annie K.> ! :-) Looks like CG.com had some 'down time' and we should get the ECC pre-tourney bets updated and awarded (or as the case may be deducted from our Net Worth) to us shortly... <Annie K.: Well, me filthy rich! ;)> - Hehehe! Followed by the Leaderboard being refreshed as well. Looks like none of us are going anywhere too fast (at the present rate the Leaderboard is moving along like a snail).

I'm sure that I'll continue to bet but take only small risk - % wise. The key is to bet smart! (Not 'dumb' like I did with GMT 10... ? - where I threw literally thousands of c-bucks away needlessly). Just remember that <TD> can wait it out as the Loanshark is gonna take his 'juice' every day at midnight sharp! The main thing to observe is don't be careless and that should work out just fine... ;-)

As, my only aim here is to make the 'Top Ten' and qualify for the Chess Bookie Winter leg finals! There we can all have some real c-bucks betting fun! :-))) - Mal

Hehehe... We're gonna be just fine! :-) The 'Chess Bookie' is just exercising its 'thrill of suspense' to taunt us and will update the Leaderboard per their usual time right around 5 AM in the morning EDT (about an hour away from this posting). Then we shall finally see how many of us might have pre-bet thousands of c-bucks on losers in the ECC tourney (or perhaps made no pre-bets at all on our pre-tourney team favorites). As well as the fortunate ones that bet wagers against all odds on 'Linex Magic' to win the Championship crown! ~lol~

We still won't have enough info to figure everything out but we should see if there are any other major c-buck winners in the top group. Since <Annie K.> had 25% of the Linex bet and if no one else demonstrates big surges now then perhaps all the rest were bet in small sums broken down into many bidders. As even a $50 bet on 'Linex Magic' was worth 2K in c-bucks! :-) - Mal

PS: Don't forget for those now betting on the 'World Junior Championship' that this is Round #8 of 12 rounds! We are not quite at the end yet... ;-)

Actually two players I believe both of which must have had small bets on Linix. As, I was tracking everyone worth $2,500 c-bucks or more and only two players - Deathloks and plimko - shoot up from the group just below that! This would have been very hard to attain (new arrivals in the top 12 Leaderboard group) with a betting cap limited to $500 and betting only in the last round of the ECC to achieve it. So, you definitely had some company there betting on Linex Magic! :-)

<Good luck with climbing back up!>

One step at a time! ~lol~ ;-) - Mal

Thanks <TD>! :)

HaHaHa... ;-) Now just stay there! Everyone up to now that has attained '1st place' on the Leaderboard has strangely dropped down mysteriously... However, <Annie K.> got there by betting on 'Linex Magic' and that makes all the difference! :-) - Mal

PS: Yes a $200 - $300 pre-tourney bet on 'Linex Magic' would have been just like a rocket blasting off with booster flares! ~lol~

It's not real critical thinking really just playing my best hunches as too what I think might happen and guessing right most of the time. Yes, I noticed your recent 'fluctuation' it was fixating! ~lol~ Vertigo, eh? (reminds me I must tell you one day of my first trip to New York and my adventures on top of the Empire State building - OMG!). ~lol~

Now that I've just scooped up all the fresh money the 'Chess Bookie' so kindly wants to furnish me with it looks like I'll be joining you momentarily when the LB gets refreshed at the usual time! :-))) - Mal

PS: Yes, it's the last round of the World Junior... My betting tip of the day - don't get too excited about it as it's not the end of the world! ~ROFL~ Besides, 'Chess Bookie' has some fabulous betting surprises in store for all of us shortly... Great betting chess tourneys all right around the corner. So, stay tuned, stay loose and remember to bet smart! :-)

Yep, lost a bit on some small bets on the Juniors. I should have stayed away from that tournament altogether, I don't know these kids well enough... but an open bet is an open bet! ;)

<Vertigo, eh? (reminds me I must tell you one day of my first trip to New York and my adventures on top of the Empire State building - OMG!)>

Well yeah, finding oneself unexpectedly at the top of a ladder can do that! ;) Let's hear about your adventures! =)

BTW, on the Essent Open I put 100 each on Werle, Postny and L'Ami (L'Ami being my choice of "underappreciated player of the tournament"), ;) and 200 on Mamedyarov in the Crown group, since I can't really see anybody else winning that. :)

<Besides, 'Chess Bookie' has some fabulous betting surprises in store for all of us shortly... Great betting chess tourneys all right around the corner.>

That and following the current wunderkind's in the GM super star spotlights - Carlsen and Karjakin (omitting Radjabov and Wang the next to be moving out of the Juniors category), and the upcoming chess stars like - Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Parimarjan Negi and Yifan Hou! To name but just a few...

<Re: Essent Open> - I did about the same thing and decided on 3 runners to take it (GM's Postny, Werle and Nijboer). The only difference was I bet well into the hundreds on each one to get my 'fruits of victory' well into the thousands... Looks like we both stand well there in the last round of the Open with L'Ami playing Postny (each with 5) and a bunch all tied up at 4½.

Just realized we're possibly in for multiple winners here if L'Ami and Postny draw with Werle and Nijboer both winning! (my circumstances). Can't ever complain about 'multiple' winners! :-))) Same thing in the Essent 'Crown' event with Shak. Bet my max for him to win (of course!) and used GM Ruslan Ponomariov to cover that bet... Seemed like a 'Win-Win' situation no matter which way you sliced it! :-)

<Re: Arcane knowledge?> See, 'Chess Bookie' got right on it! :-) Bets everywhere with the Essent Crown & Open chess events as well as and the Bilbao 'World Cup' blindfold event! Also, we've got the 'Ivanchuk-Leko' rapids match and the European Team Championships in Crete all ready to fire up with Super GM's everywhere and bets galore! ;-)

I'll have to write a little story shortly about 'Vertigo' in my CG.com Forum. I'll call it - "Fast Elevators, long lines & breathtaking views!" ~lol~ Regards, - Mal

__________________________

Winants (5) vs. L'Ami (5½)
Postny (5½) vs. Smeets (5)
Werle (5) vs. Hort (5)
Nijboer (5) vs. Visser (5)
Van Delft (5) vs. Gofshtein (5)
Safarli (5) vs. Smerdon (5)
__________________________

Of course, the BIG game between Shak and Ruslan... Sizzle or a fizzle? ;-)

Go Bu! :-)))

PS: Don't worry <TD> once the tail spin starts you're still 'heads & tails' above the reversal of all the rest! :-)

Now my exams are over, I am going to reopen my eyes and ....!

I just threw away 10,000 chessbucks, well maybe I could win back 20,000...