Chess articles of any kind: games, tournament reports, web sites, ... |
October 04, 2008The BanzayFish scandal - Scene II (Blindness)You probably know that the final edition of a movie that reaches the theatres has nothing to do with the original script. There are always new ideas from the writer, the director and sometimes the actors that alter the content, the scene sequence and the characters. In our case, I must add Scene-II in the middle of Scene-I, after the end of the Internet game between you and BanzayFish and before the local club simul with Marta. There is no variation this time. You (only you) play the leading role. Scene II When the Internet game was over you were very angry, but your conscience instructed you to try and forget the incident, as if BanzayFish never addressed insults against you. But BanzayFish did not forget. She was angrier than you, insisted that you cheated her with computers, and decided to act further. She sent a message to you, using the messaging system of playchess.de, did not hesitate to append her e-mail address (very irritating, don't you think?), with a content of only two words: "pathetic guy". Then she made an Internet search and found your name as a member of your local chess club and posted a comment to your chess club web site, repeating her accusations. She signed the post as WIM Marta (full name of course). Blindness Allow me to start with the final conclusion. Our little virtual chess club is blind (totally blind, unforgivably blind) compared to the real world of OTB chess, where real chess players meet in open tournaments and play each other on real chessboards with real pieces, real clocks and real score sheets. They have the chance to meet, talk, have fun and drink a couple of beers together. What do we have? The distance that separates us is a thick dark colored curtain that does not allow us to have real contact with each other. Technology offers e-mail, instant messaging system and video conference but all these cannot be compared even with a simple handshake. So, a cheater accused many players for cheating. Some of these players could be real cheaters and they really used computers. There are many cheaters out there, isn't it? Who cheated whom with a cheat-cheat here and a cheat-cheat there? Here a cheat, there a cheat, everywhere a cheat-cheat. Who deserves the best cheater Academy award? "And cheaters, wherever you are out there…" I hail you with the same three little English words that Al Pacino used in the crowded Baird school auditorium, in the final scene of the film "Scent of a woman". (Remember that the hero Frank Slade was a blind person) Blindness test Memory may cure blindness. One of those handles was “anne_t”. I remembered that I played against her 5 years ago and I annotated our game. Click here for the annotation. What do you observe? What goes wrong here? You don’t have to read the whole annotation. You don’t even have to scroll down the page. The critical information lies in the comment after 2.Nc3 Well, any comments? Please, no sharp language, no real Dutch names. Comments
Thanks for writing a very good story, also if you find the cheater please let me know as I would like to ask them why. Most of the time I get bad messeges back, but sometimes I get real answers too. Posted by: Tanis at October 5, 2008 02:57 AM Blindness, self imposed or real? You say that the internet is blind. Why? "They tell us not to put real names and information online. We are told that if we do, we will be raped, kidnapped, frauded, identities will be stolen, bank accounts will be drained, and we will be killed." Indeed, the article IS about cheating. Posted by: Michalis Kaloumenos at October 5, 2008 06:59 PM"They are hardly worth waisting the time to talk about them." I also agree, but this case is an exception. It is both inspirational and educational. Posted by: Michalis Kaloumenos at October 5, 2008 07:03 PMWhat is all this fuss about ? I understand nothing ! Why make such a fuss about those Dutch handles? Posted by: gambitfan at October 5, 2008 07:30 PMgambitfan: The fuss is that the internet provides anonymity. You don't know if your opponent is who they say they are. Not everyone is honest. Michalis Kaloumenos: I'm guessing the critical part of the comment is the reference to 'Ann'. Since her username is 'anne_t', and you spend a lot of time on the annotations and writing, I imagine you looked up her name in her profile, and at the time, it said 'Ann'? I can't imagine you would have intentionally misspelled it the same way throughout the entire annotation. That's not your style. Posted by: HFlew at October 5, 2008 09:52 PMA chess site like playchess.de should be happy to welcome top level chess players... Idendity check is very easy on internet, as easy as detecting cheaters... I exchanged emails with BanzayFish and ZorMaster ; I read all of her exchanges on Playchess.de. I think there is a little pack of frustrated "Fritz9" players on Playchess... Thanks to their beloved Fritz9 they reach astounding PCRs 2300 - 2400 whereas top real human players reach "modest" PCRs 2000. Those Fritz players are furious with those ladies because they do not like to be reminded of theit vacuity... That's all ! It is fun for me to play with nice human beings and I am honoured if I can play with top level players... I am not ineterested in playing with computernerds who sleep with their Fritz9... Posted by: gambitfan at October 5, 2008 11:02 PMwho are you and those dutch(ladies),that you can say when somebody is using fritz or some chessprogram.maybe there are more good players and not only you.It's about loosing a chessgame and I know that there are people who can hardly live with that,because they think they are the best.Too big ego's and when somebody beat them,they are with their nose on the facts that they are not unbeatable.And then it's easy to say that there are cheaters. Posted by: chessdisaster at October 6, 2008 09:32 AMchessdisaster, Impossible to know who he is. He accuses, gives names except his. He played a game against BanzayFish that finished by:"Funny, i am WIM and you ever play better Fritz" and draw... For those who say I am anonymous, just have a look at the PLAYBOOK BASIC DIRECTORY ! Posted by: Gambitfan at October 6, 2008 02:34 PMZmaster vs onzedu I commented several times that it was unusual for so many of the alleged Dutch to have the same bad manners/attitude. Michaelis is now hinting that it may have been more than coincidence. Gambitfan, if it turns out that these alleged Dutch players were not in fact who they claimed, and possibly they were all manned by a single individual of questionable character and human chess skill, then how will you react after all this fuss in "their" defense? Posted by: Shurlok at October 7, 2008 05:39 AMGambitfan, look at this game: http://www.playchess.de/movelist.cgi?gid=284756&wp=ZorMaster&bp=half is it just a righteous anger? Nobody provoke her. I know this man personally and I know that he never uses chess engine, but plays chess for 40 years and knows the game quite well. |
Links
Find articles
Archives
October 2008
September 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 June 2004 May 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 Categories
Chess news
Chess philosophy Chess puzzles Community Recognition Game analysis Interviews PlayChess news PlayChess Open Stories Tips and tricks Tournament reports Recent Entries
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The BanzayFish scandal - Scene III (The avatars of the tortoise) The BanzayFish scandal - Scene II (Blindness) The BanzayFish scandal - Scene I (Introduction) Do these Dutch ladies know everything? (final cut) What do they think about cheating? Cheating in PlayChess.de Recent Comments
|