a thinking man's war

Garry Kasparov once famously said that chess is mental torture. And it is. Chess is one of the most intellectually challenging and grueling activities one can engage in, aside from a rousing debate with our friend Eriatlov. The value of chess, however, stems beyond its value as a mere game. Many of the qualities that are necessary for any great chess player to have are also often essential to maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle in general. As Fischer said, a strong memory, concentration, imagination, and strong will are the most potent weapons in a chess player’s arsenal. In the spirit of competition and mental strength, free cognition introduces its first Amateur Open Chess Tournament. Entry is free and all are welcome to join. You may signup by emailing us or by responding to this thread under the comments section. The tournament will be held on Friday, June 3, at 8:00 PM EST (5:00 PM PST). Be on AIM or MSN ten minutes prior to this time. Click read more for tournament details.


Tournament Details:

The tournament will take place at Yahoo Chess, so make sure you register an account at Yahoo, if you have not done so already. Your Yahoo ID does not have to match the name you are using in the tournament bracket. Each round is a best of three series. Each player plays white once and black once. If the series goes to a third match, you must report to the tournament administrator to determine who play as white (via coin flip). If you are able to come to agreement amongst yourselves, without admin intervention, more power to you. The final round is best of five.

Additionally, each game should be set so that the timer starts at an initial time of two minutes and an increment time of thirty seconds. This means that you begin the match with two minutes each, and thirty seconds is added to your clock with each move that you make. This allows more than enough time to think carefully, while maintaining reasonable time constraints.