On-line engine blitz tourney October

[hgm]

The monthly on-line engine blitz tourney for October will take place on:

Saturday October 28, 3pm Boston daylight-saving time (21:00 Amsterdam time)

To connect:

winboard -zp -ics -icshost winboard.nl -icshelper timeseal -fcp ENGINE.exe -fd ENGINEFOLDER -autoKibitz

(for UCI engines, add -fUCI)

Note: I am sure that this is the last day of the year we still have daylight-saving time in Amsterdam, but I don't know about Boston. So check the peculiarities of your time zone!

[AlvaroBegue]

In the US daylight saving time ends on November 5th, so there shouldn't be any issues.

[Henk]

Why not split into a two monthly European tournament and an American tournament.

Of course American participants could participate in European tournament etc.

For each tournament you take time that fits best for local participants and of course for tournament manager.

I personally think 9 o'clock is one hour or perhaps to hours too late. But I probably won't join for engine plays too bad or is not interesting enough to watch it play games.

[Robert Pope]

One of the great things about HGM's tournament is with 30+ participants, there's a worthy opponent for everyone, even Skipper and Abbess. I think we would lose some of that with a dual tournament.

I don't know how much a concern it is about the start time, but with it being a Saturday, I wouldn't think that moving the regular start time 1-2 hours earlier would be an issue in the America's.

[AlvaroBegue]

I don't know how much a concern it is about the start time, but with it being a Saturday, I wouldn't think that moving the regular start time 1-2 hours earlier would be an issue in the America's.

I agree. 1pm in the East coast of the U.S. is 10am in the West coast and 7pm in most of Europe. I imagine that would work well for the vast majority of people in this group.

[Sven]

I don't know how much a concern it is about the start time, but with it being a Saturday, I wouldn't think that moving the regular start time 1-2 hours earlier would be an issue in the America's.

I agree. 1pm in the East coast of the U.S. is 10am in the West coast and 7pm in most of Europe. I imagine that would work well for the vast majority of people in this group.

Have to disagree. 7:00 pm is still within shopping time in Berlin
Seriously I think 9:00 pm is kind of optimal. 8:00 pm might be ok as well.

[Volker Annuss]

Don't forget that it is HGM who organizes these tournaments and it has to match his timing requirements.

[AlvaroBegue]

Don't forget that it is HGM who organizes these tournaments and it has to match his timing requirements.

Of course! I'll adapt to what HGM says. But I think it still makes sense to inform him of our preferences.

[pkumar]

One hour earlier would be great for us in Asia if it is convenient for HGM.

[hgm]

This can certainly be discussed. I originally settled for Saturday 9pm as a convenient time for all Europe, all of the U.S., and not completely in the middle of the night for Australia (where it would be early Sunday morning). I am aware that leaves lattitudes from East Africa to India in the cold. But at the time there didn't seem many candidate participants in those time zones, and the distribution of continents over the Earth makes it impossible to please everyone.

It has been years since we had any participant from Australia, though. So I guess either the current arrangement is not good enough for them, or they are not interested at all. In any case nothing would be lost if it is made even worse for them by moving the tourney to earlier times.

As far as I can see moving from 9pm to 8pm Amsterdam time could be unfavorable for participants from the UK, although it still would start at 7pm there, which doesn't seem to clash too badly with their dinner. It is probably worse for California, where the starting time would then shift to 11am, and the tourney would badly collide with lunch, while with a 12am starting time they could conceivable have an early lunch in advance.

I am not sure, though, if this would be any improvement for people in, say, India. It seems they are at GMT+5:30 there, so what is 9pm-11:15pm in Amsterdam is 1:30am-3:45am in India, and shifting that 1 hour would still be 0:30am-2:45am, i.e. in the middle of the night. Would that be really helpful?