WOW!!  I cannot believe that the DVD is coming out, and we're still in Round One!!

You know I just HAVE to do a Dark Knight Opens when the DVD goes on sale, don't you?

This one is set a little faster (5 days instead of 7), and standard minimum requirements apply (no more no shows - hopefully).  This can be the 4th group to round out the Dark Knight Finals.

This tournament is also open to anyone from the first tournament.  Think of it as a 2nd chance.

http://www.chess.com/tournament/the-dark-knight-opens-on-dvd

The first of our 3 Major Groups has moved on to Round 2!!!

Group 2 had 4 ties so they are sending 29 players into Round 2 to be divided up into 8 Minor Groups.  One of the pairs that tied in the first round were paired up again in the 2nd round!!  What are the odds?

In the 78 games in Round 2, Dark Knights opened in 50 of them!!  That's 65.8%!!

Some preliminary 1st Round stats:

Of the 900 games in Round 1 (R1): 492 opened with a Dark Knight (54.7%)

Of the 300 games in Group 2 (G2): 160 opened with a Dark Knight (53.3%)

Of the 160 Dark Knight games in R1G2: 4 of them (2.5%) opened with Na6, 74 of them (46.25%) opened with Nc6, 79 of them (49.375%) opened with Nf6, and 3 of them (1.875%) opened with Nh6.

Of the 300 games in R1G2:  White won 154 of them (51.33%), Black won 143 of them (47.67%), and 3 were draws (1%).

Of the 300 games in R1G2:  176 were timeouts (58.67%), 68 were resignations or withdrawls (22.67%), 53 were checkmates (17.67%), and 3 were draws (1%).

Ok, I've finally gotten around to updating the top of this blog.  The numbers are all accurate as of right now.  Sorry I've let it go so long.  I've been playing a lot of games lately, and it's hard to keep up with everything.  We are getting VERY close to the start of Round 2!!  Only 19 total games left in Round 1!!

My group has ended all the games!!!

I has taken a lot of time, but at last, it´s over!!!

Ready for the second round!!!!

it is not macedonia , the name is fyrom

Sounds like you've got quite the David vs Golith story going on there Panic Puppet.  Thanks for sharing!!

We have just crossed the 69% completion mark!!  All 3 groups were saying 69% done at the same time!!  How cool is that?  I love the number 69!! 

This is looking interesting...its the top rated player (myself) or the bottom rated(xFireShard) whos going through from our group, and unless I pull out a pair of spectacular draws its going to be him! (curse you, unsound sacrifice/lack of attention-paying.....)

SInce Bill has

This opening is called the Frankenstein-Dracula varitaion of the Vienna Game, so I'm sorry I can't use Batman terms here.

This is my first time posting a games so we'll see how this works.

Group 3-03

Stefce (Macedonia – 1328) 5-1 Advances to Round 2

            I keep warning everyone:  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR OPPONENT!!  Here we have another group where it was the little guy, with the smallest rating who turns out to be the winner.  His status bar says, “Raping everyone except Semastaa.” 

SeMastaa (Austria – 1835) 4-2 Eliminated

            As white he knocked out Stefce to give him his only loss, but he submitted to him as black.  He traded defaults with Ditto, and won 2 games by timeout.

Ditto (Argentina – 1553) 3-3 Eliminated

            He submitted to Stefce in both games.  All of his wins came by timeout or default.

Group 3-22

Kevco (USA – 1629) 6-0 Advances to Round 2

            Another player who has beaten me (2 times) has beaten his way into Round 2.  He won 2 games by submission, 2 games by default, and 2 games by timeout.

Amac7079 (Australia – 1383) 2-4 Eliminated

            He had to resign from 2 of his games for defaulting, and he was winning one of them.  L  Which inspired The Dark Knight Redemption Tournament.  J  So his only game as black became the only knockout in the group.  As white, he submitted to Kevco and Punishment07, and won his last game by forfeit.

Punishment07 (Saudi Arabia – 1200) 2-4 Eliminated

            He also had to resign from 2 games for defaulting, but he also won a game the same way.  He submitted Amac7079, but got submitted by Sammypower214 and Kevco.

Sammypower214 (South Korea – 892) 2-4 Eliminated

            He only lost one game thru forfeit, but he lost 2 by timeout.  He submitted punishment07, got knocked out by Amac7079, and won the last game by forfeit.

Summary:

            This group had the ultimate 3-way tie for 2^nd place as Amac7079 won both of his games over Sammypower214 who won both of his games over Punishment07 who won both of his games over Amac7079.

Group 3-02

Ray_D (USA – 1975) 6-0 Advances to Round 2

            Remember when I told you never to underestimate players with a 1200 rating cuz one of them won the 1^st tournament I was in?  This is the guy.  He’s now played 40 games without a loss (38-0-2) and his rating has broken the 2K mark.  He is a GIANT, but a gentle giant – very humble and friendly.  You’ll almost be smiling as he’s gobbling up your pawns as appetizers.

Monta31 (Italy – 1568) 3-3 Eliminated

            He knocked out Thoma, and submitted to Ray_D.  He won 2 games by timeout, and lost 2 games by default.

thoma (USA – 1367) 3-3 Eliminated

            He got knocked out by both of his opponents.  All of his wins came by timeout or forfeit.

EDIT:  I believe Ray is going to be giving us an insiders view on how things went down.  I read his blog from our last tournament, so I look forward to hearing his accounts of this one.

Only 69 more games left in Round One!!!  (I just like the number 69.) 

Well Rachel, it looks like I was wrong.  You'll be the 4th player with a "bye" instead of the 3rd.

Group 2-16

darksquares (USA – 1372) 6-0 Advances to Round 2

            He becomes the 3^rd person to draw a free pass in the 1^st round.  Apparently his name was so intimidating that he scared all of his opponents away.

Group 2-20

Tick_tack (USA – 1200) 6-0 Advances to Round 2

            Here is another fine example of why I allowed players with no previous experience to join this tournament.  Sure, most of them just disappeared, but he not only stuck around, he won!  There were only 2 real games in this group and he won them both (1 submission and 1 knockout), earning his way into the 2^nd round.

Kuppern87 (Norway – 1572) 3-3 Eliminated

            He resigned from the one game he defaulted in, lost both games with Tick_Tack and won the rest by timeout.

Group 2-17

Kingsley_azn (Australia – 1366) 5-1 Advances to Round 2

            He defaulted in one of his games, and resigned because of it.  But he wasn’t about to let that keep him out of the 2^nd round.  He knocked out both of his opponents to make sure he wasn’t eliminated.

Books (USA – 1624) 5-1 Advances to Round 2

            He knocked out MrChessBrain, and got knocked out by Kingsley_azn.  He won the rest by timeout or default.  He was the only American in a group with 3 Australians.

MrChessBrain (Australia – 1027) 2-4 Eliminated

            He won 2 games by timeout, lost 2 games by default, and got knocked out by both of his opponents.

Thanks, Bill and Salty_Dog.

Also, I meant to post this here, but somehow I did it on the boards instead, but it's a Batman thing, so I'm bringing the link with me and redirecting you all to it: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/off-topic/batman

I want the opinions of movie fans on this!

Hi Rachel,

Yeah, commenting is all we're doing.  Posting/Commenting whatever. 

Glad to hear you're moving on the the next round.  Sorry it wasn't under better circumstances.  Looks like you'll be the 3rd person with a "bye" in Round 1.

Good luck in Round 2.  I'm sure the number of timeouts will fall considerably.

I can't figure out how to post to the blog, so I'm going to comment instead.

Two of the guys in my group timed out without ever moving.  That left me and one other guy, and he started our games, but now he's been on vacation for a month.  His vacation time is almost up, and I'm pretty sure at this point he's not coming back.

This is my first tournament, and I'm glad that I'm apparently going to be moving on to the second round, but I would like to have earned at least one victory in the process.  I hope whoever I play in the second round sticks around long enough for me to checkmate them!

finally, my round's games are finished!

"Something like the most used opening ( alkhine or king´s indian maybe) , % white/black winners,"

I will definitely be posting these stats in addition to # of checkmates, resignations, and timeouts.

"average length of a game,"

I haven't been recording this stat.  With as many timeouts as we've had, this number will probably be misleading anyway.  If someone else would like to scroll thru the lists of games and calculate the average length, that would be great!  If no one else wants to do it, but enuf people are interested in the answer, I suppose I could go back and figure it out, but I can't guarantee when I would have time to do it.

and maybe we could analize the best 2 games (best game with white and with black pieces) of each group that agrees to show and comment their games. 

We could even have a trophy for the two best games of the tournament.

Unforunately "The Best" is a highly subjective term.  By what criteria would we determine which games are "The Best?" 

I am currently sending trophies to everyone who advances to the next round (Speedy Motorcycle), everyone who is eliminated (Movie Time (It looks like a pink slip which is a slang term for getting fired)) unless they timed out of all their games in which case they don't deserve a trophy (if they finished one game, win or lose, they get a trophy), and especially if they complete a checkmate with their Knight (Chess Duel - it's a picture of a knight on horseback).  I also sent a trophy (Chess Artistry) to all the players in the 7 groups that started with 100% Dark Knight games (2 of whom have since had time outs reducing the number of "perfect" groups to 5, but oh well, they already got their trophies).

I said this because we all would learn and because if you´re done with your movements and the next thing you have to do is wait, then, you would have a much more interesting thing to do.

I completely agree.  We must wait for the current round to finish before we can compile all the stats, but game analysis can be done at any point, and it would certainly give all the "players in waiting" something to entertain themselves with in the meantime.  So far, we've had 3 checkmates by a Dark Knight, and 3 with a White Knight.  I've only had time to turn one of them into a story, but I plan on doing the same with the rest when I am able.  I will probably also want to analyze whichever game ends up being the longest (in # of moves).

Also, most of my summaries are done after the group has finished all 12 games, and is based mostly on wins/losses.  This doesn't take into account how the round actually played out chronologically.  I would LOVE to hear about some "come from behind" victories either in a single game (white was winning for most of the game, but black didn't give up and came out with an unexpected win) , or in the group as a whole (player x takes an early 4-0 lead, but player Y has now handed player x their 1st loss, and player Z is winning their game with player Y so it's still anyone's round).  I don't know.  Maybe I watch too many televised sporting events where the commentators like to create drama for more interesting viewing. 

I'm still hoping that someone else besides me offers up a game analysis or at least some colorful commentary.

what do you think?

I try not to.  It hurts my brain.  ;)

Something like the most used opening ( alkhine or king´s indian maybe) , % white/black winners,  average length of a game, and maybe we could analize the best 2 games(best game with white and with black pieces) of each group that agrees to show and comment their games.

I said this because we all would learn and because if you´re done with your movements and the next thing you have to do is wait, then, you would have a much more interesting thing to do.

We could even have a trophy for the two best games of the tournament.

what do you think?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it interesting.  Yeah, I've got so much data pumped into this spreadsheet that I've got to post it!  If I didn't, I'd start to think that I was doing all this work for nothing.  Any stats in particular that you're interested in?