User Profile: Penguincw

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Penguincw
Member since Dec-22-10 · Last seen Nov-11-25

♔ MY PROFILE ♔
I'd like to thank the user who gave me a year of premium services from Feb/14/2012-Feb/14/2013, the user who gave me 3 years of premium services from Dec/26/2015-Dec/26/2018, the user who gave me 2 years of premium services from Dec/31/2018-Dec/31/2020, the user who gave me 3 years of premium services from Dec/25/2020 to Dec/25/2023, the user who gave me 1 year of premium services from Dec/26/2023 to Dec/26/2024, and the user who gave me 1 year of premium services from Dec/26/2024 to Dec/26/2025. :)
??? BIOGRAPHY ???
Outside of chess, I also like to watch sports (who doesn't), and even play sports (even though I'm not great at it). Baseball is by far my favourite sport.
??? GAME COLLECTIONS ???
Penguincw's Game Collections
To view all my collections, see here: Game Collection: 0: Table of Contents.
??? CHESS PUZZLES ???
Here are some chess puzzles I composed. I'm not a very strong composer, but they should be fun to solve nevertheless. However, since my forum won't always be open, I decided to use one of my game collections for that purpose:
Game Collection: Chess Puzzles
Here's a sample:
White to move, mate in three

click for larger view
Solution: (click on above game collection)
??? ACHIEVEMENTS ???
Here's my short list of achievements on this site (other than achievements relating to the prediction contests, which are listed further below):
966th user to open up their forum.
Became the 45th user to reach 13,000 posts (unofficial).
Only the 2nd user (honour shared with 7 other users) to win a membership from the Santa Claus draw twice.
In the ChessBookie Game, finished first in the Championship 2015 preseason with 1727 cbs, 174 cbs ahead of 2nd place. Also, in the Fall 2014 preseason, I finished in 2nd with 1418 cbs, just 40 cbs behind first at the last known update.
4th user, and 3rd overall (after <SwitchingQuylthulg> (x2), <wordfunph> and <Annie K.>) to run the ChessBookie Game.
At the 2016 Caissar Awards, I was nominated and won the "Most Helpful" award for 2015.
In Spring 2016, I became the 172nd user to qualify for the Championship Leg in the ChessBookie Game, finishing in 10th place with 4,204 cbs. (fact-checking needed)
??? PREDICTION CONTESTS ???
I like competing in the prediction contests, and so far, have won these medals (along with the rank listed):
<Golden Executive>
♔♔♔♕♕♕♕♖♖♖♖♖♖♖ (3 gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze; 23rd)
<chessmoron> (hosted by <OhioChessFan>) ♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗ (10 gold, 12 silver, 22 bronze; 10th)
<lostemperor>
♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♖♖♖♖ (7 gold, 4 bronze; 3rd)
<Overall>
♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♔♕♕♕♕♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♘♖♖♖♖♖♖♖♖♖♖♖♗- ♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗♗ (20 gold, 16 silver, 33 bronze; 8th)
Updated through Tata Steel 2018.
<Golden Executive>'s Games Prediction Contest: User: Golden Executive
<chessmoron>'s Moves Prediction Contest (hosted by <OhioChessFan>): User: OhioChessFan
<lostemperor>'s Final Standings Prediction Contest: User: lostemperor
Other Notable Achievements:
Only user to ever win a quadruple crown (London Chess Classic 2011) in the Moves Prediction Contest (or any contest for that matter).
Only user to ever win a Betting title crown in the Games Prediction Contest, and defend it the very next year, same tournament (Tata Steel 2014 & 2015).
First user to ever win a gold medal in each of the 3 contests from the same tournament (Tata Steel 2015).
The 4th user to have won at least 3 golds in 3 different contests (after <chessmoron>, <lostemperor> and <SwitchingQuylthulg>). Members of this club are unofficially considered to be "grandmasters" of the prediction contests.
For the 7th consecutive year (2011-2017), I have won at least one gold medal in one of the contests. I am one of just 6 active users to have done so, the others being <chessmoron>, <cromat>, <lostemperor>, <SwitchingQuylthulg> and <WinKing>.
??? NOTABLE POSTS ???
I've made over 13,000 posts, but not all posts are created equally. In fact, most of them don't have too much value, but here are some of my best posts:
Probably my most "viral" post to date (introducing the now defunct Chessgames Playing Zone The Kibitzer's Café
Probably the first <on the internet> to notice the Original Six sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning were going through during the Stanley Cup playoffs, 2015: Mating Net chessforum.
More posts will be added as time progresses.
Here are some of my favourite posts by <other users> around the site (no reason given to some):
The Kibitzer's Café
SwitchingQuylthulg chessforum
chessgames.com chessforum
<YouRang> describes his Hall of Fame (which I am in): YouRang chessforum
Golden Executive chessforum (kibitz #3235)

More posts will be added as time progresses.

>> Click here to see Penguincw's game collections.

   Current net-worth: 1,457 chessbucks
[what is this?]

   Penguincw has kibitzed 16389 times to chessgames [more...]

   Oct-23-25 Chessgames - Sports

Penguincw: Hello <keypusher>.

   Oct-20-25 Daniel Naroditsky

Penguincw: Heard about it from chess.com https://x.com/chesscom/status/19803... R.I.P. Naroditsky. Gone far too young.

   Feb-27-25 Boris Spassky

Penguincw: Rest in peace, Mr. Spassky.

   Feb-04-25 lostemperor chessforum

Penguincw: Thank you <lostemperor> for hosting this. Happy to come away with a gold. Congrats to the other medalists, hope to see you next time, whenever that may be.

   Jan-01-25 Benzol chessforum

Penguincw: Dropping by to wish you Happy New Year, <Benzol>.

   Dec-26-24 OhioChessFan chessforum

Penguincw: Hi <OCF>. Seasonal greetings to you, my friend.

   Dec-25-24 WannaBe chessforum

Penguincw: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, <WannaBe>.

   Dec-25-24 juan31 chessforum

Penguincw: Feliz Navidad <juan31>.

   Dec-25-24 Golden Executive chessforum

Penguincw: Hello <GE>. Merry Christmas to you, your friends, and your family!

   Dec-25-24 FSR chessforum

Penguincw: Hello <FSR>. Dropping by to wish you a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. :)

indicates a reply to the comment.

March of the Penguins

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 38 OF 45 · Later Kibitzing>
Dec-26-17		FSR: I hope that you had a Merry Christmas, and that you have a Happy New Year, <Penguincw>!

Dec-26-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: <Penguincw: Canada, well, the competition has really toughed up the last few years, and well, a lot of Canada's talent is in the NHL> Is it, though? Looking at players who could be here if they hadn't made the NHL, you lose Tyson Jost, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Nolan Patrick and Samuel Girard; we lose Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujärvi. I don't think we'd be worse off if both sides had their NHLers here. You'd get a full extra line of very good age group players, but you wouldn't get anyone with the potential to totally transform the team, and the players bumped out of your team would probably be better than the players bumped out of ours. We could change the face of our offense completely and we likely need that extra firepower more.

Dec-26-17		WinKing: Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you & yours <Penguincw>. Let's hope the new year brings us all peace & joy. A little excitement thrown in too so we know we are still alive hehe. ;)

Dec-26-17		Penguincw: Thank you <FSR> and <WinKing>. --- <Switch> For some reason, I thought 1997 kids are still eligible to play (it's 1998-2003 this year). If 1997 kids were permitted, of course, guys like McDavid would be eligible. But he has committed his playing time to the NHL, so not like it matters.

Dec-26-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: McDavid, if he were eligible, would count as a lot of Canada's talent all by himself :) Last-minute prediction: 4-2 win for Canada.

Dec-26-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: 4-2 for Canada it was. I should have placed a bet... You got some generous help from the refs (that 1-0 goal should have been disallowed), but you were also the better team. We were too soft in our own end, especially in the first two periods, and left your guys alone in front of our goal too often; which we might have got away with against a lesser team but not Canada. You didn't make as many defensive mistakes as we did and didn't allow any easy goals.

Dec-26-17		visayanbraindoctor: <Penguincw: I'd like to wish you a Happy Holidays> Thank you. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too!

Dec-26-17		juan31: Feliz año Nuevo !

Dec-26-17		Penguincw: Good work <Switch>. Any predictions for tomorrow's (27th) games? Since I have nothing to lose, I'm going to predict Canada beats Slovakia 5-2, and Switzerland beats Belarus 3-1. --- As for Canada vs. Finland, close game, with 2 close calls, both benefiting Canada. The 1-0 goal was one, the other in the 3rd period when Cal Foote used his left glove to clear the puck out of the zone. Finland had their chances with 6 powerplays (though they did convert one of them). Very easily could've been tied, or even the other way around. CAN, USA and FIN will all make it to the knockouts. Seeding is the only thing they're jostling for, though you gotta beat the best, to be the best.

Dec-27-17		Fusilli: Happy holiday season to you too, <penguincw>!

Dec-27-17		lost in space: Aloe for you happy holiday, <Penguincw>

Dec-27-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: The Cal Foote call was right, I think. The puck was >90% past the goal line but not completely, and the glove slap itself was apparently perfectly legal, though the former national-team defenceman doing the commentary for Finnish TV originally thought it was against the rules. Anyway, I suppose it will be another few decades before we've fully paid for this :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_... -- <CAN, USA and FIN will all make it to the knockouts.> That's what I thought last year, until we didn't. Though Denmark have looked very weak this year so far. I feel like picking Canada to win by more than 5-2. 5-1 or 6-1 maybe? (Though the Slovakians did have a good warm-up game against Russia, losing on penalties.)

Dec-27-17		OhioChessFan: Did you drop the wrong link Switch?

Dec-27-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: I don't think so? Finland-USA '08, when we got a totally phony goal and went on to win 3-2.

Dec-27-17		OhioChessFan: Oh, got it.

Dec-27-17		Penguincw: Ah right, I forgot about the pre tournament games. But I maintain my predictions. Denmark lost 9-0 though. The U.S. is the reigning champions. RUS, they lost 5-4 to CZE in extras yesterday. According to my unofficial rankings* (Penguincw chessforum or Penguincw chessforum (kibitz #892)), it's RUS, USA, CAN, SWE, FIN, CZE, SVK, DEN, SUI, BEL and then LAT. But of course, squads change significantly from year to year. * On a side note, I forgot which link works to all users, regardless of ignore list. Is it the one with the kibitz # displayed, or not. Does it have page and reply number, or just reply number (I'm guessing the latter).

Dec-27-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: <But of course, squads change significantly from year to year.> Lately, we have been good in even years and crappy in odd years; hopefully that continues here :) Yeah, links without page numbers should work for everybody.

Dec-28-17		Penguincw: As for my predictions, well, my SUI-BEL one was close. And CAN, I thought they could be a bit fatigued from just playing yesterday, but apparently not. And I forgot to reply to the incident about the glove in the crease. I thought it would be a sure goal there, as the puck nearly (if not already) crossed the line, and the fact that a non-goalie had their hand on the crease. Oh well. Canada did beat Slovakia 6-0, so no controversies that can affect the game here.

Dec-28-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: An ugly 4-1 win for Finland against Denmark. Comparing the Finland-Denmark game to the USA-Denmark game, one statistic leaps out: shots on goal. USA, in their 9-0 win, led 36-17 in shots on goal. We won shots on goal 62-7 but our efficiency was super-low. (Paradoxically, especially in the first period I often felt that our guys were too shot-shy and passed the puck around too much looking for a better opportunity that never came.) I think this is symptomatic of Finland's play, not just here (and not just on the junior level) but generally: we control games but we don't score. We won't be able to keep the big teams from scoring against us, not without better goaltending than we have here, so we need to start scoring more. Our power play in particular needs to be much more efficient going forward; we totally wasted heaps of power-play time in this game, including two fairly long 5-3 advantages. Also, our penalty killing needs to get its act together; the only thing that's kept it from being totally embarrassed so far is that we've done a good job at playing clean and avoiding taking penalties in the first place. And we need to be more mentally ready; we lost the thread after Denmark's goal, and it took us a while to get back in control. That is also symptomatic of Finland's play; we're not like Sweden (or Canada), who're almost always psychologically strong.

Dec-28-17		chancho: Seasons Greetings! May the new year bring you nothing but good things and may your chess become masterly.

Dec-29-17		Penguincw: Thanks all for the seasonal greetings. I have been receiving them. --- Speaking of Canada, Cananda managed to survive despite playing games on back-to-back days. Canada got to rest today (28th), while the U.S. had to play Slovakia. The U.S. surprisingly lost, 3-2, and it was a close game. Thanks Slovakia for wearing them down. Also nice to see that the U.S. couldn't beat a team that Canada just beat 6-0. Though that might not mean much... Especially when tomorrow's (29th) game will be played outdoors.

Dec-29-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: That was a huge upset, especially after the Canada-Slovakia game; but yeah, it's way too early to write USA off. Still, I thought USA would be favorites in the outdoor game before this; now I'm not so sure.

Dec-29-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: (Incidentally, Canada may have inspired a rule change in international hockey. IIHF will consider giving video judges more power, following the 1-0 goal in CAN-FIN which the video judge couldn't overturn despite knowing it was a no-goal.)

Dec-29-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: Last-minute prediction: 4-3 win for Canada.

Dec-30-17		SwitchingQuylthulg: Should have gone with my original instinct... Canada lost on penalty shots, but pretty much guaranteed first place in the group. Next up: Finland-Slovakia. Can we find a way to screw up?

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