Carpe Diem: If you create a single game, you can chose the color you play. For a tournament, I am not aware of such a possibility.

JerNYC: I think the rules say something that there is no frog in a specific spot ever, for that reason. Or something similar.

crosseyed: you probably have to wait for Internet Explorer to support proper HTML5. Don't hold your breath though.

I'm sure this was discussed often before, but I could not find anything:
There is an RSS button on the Branking page, and it shows what looks liek an RSS feed. How do I use that? I use Outlook, and I'm considering to connect this. How to do that? Does it work at all?

speachless: for each game. The clock always resets, after each game.

Something fishy is going on. When you check this move: <http://brainking.com/en/showgame?g=6535691&i=87>
my opponent had a 1 and a 9 (yes, no typo, a nine). There is no image for the nine (but you can check the link's name, http://i.brainking.com/back/small-die9-25.gif). She could not move the 9 either, for unclear reasons (she could have just beared off).
Did I miss something? Were the Backgammon rules changed? Or how comes you can roll 9s now?

Looks like the color codes are applied at Checkout, not when you put it in the cart. I tried to put several one-year rooks in the cart, at different times, having different colors, but the cart merges them together into the current color.
So if someone wants to buy multiple color codes (which is only interesting if you try to get them all, otherwise you would always use the highest), you need to checkout for each color separately, and produce multiple orders (I'm pretty sure you can still pay them all in one go).

Also, this means that if you are trying to catch the Easter-Egg bonus, you can already prepare your cart, and when it appears - even for 15 seconds only - you can just quickly check-out and get it. :-)

There is an Achievement which gives you a Black Rook once you have used (bought) all bonus code colors.
Question: does it also apply if the buys are for other players?
So, could I buy some one a rook for a year with the yellow bonus, later buy a rook for a year for someone else for a year with the red bonus, etc. and get the Black Rook for it? Or do I need to buy all those rooks for myself to get the achievement?

Heluvagi: i would like that a lot.
With a large number of people, many rounds are not interesting, because there is always someone who forgets to bid and falls out. Often half the rounds are kind of random, and then whoever happens to have the strongest position is already winning.

computeropponen: you said below "...i don't pay much attention to the time control here...". Well that's exactly your problem, and you should stop projecting it onto others.
The time controls can please any taste, yours included, but if you don't care about them when signing up, then stop caring (whining) about them after signing up.

crosseyed: did anyone ever seriously approach Fencer about giving control of the site to someone else? Selling the site, or even just having someone else administer it? If he doesn't care too much, he might be ok with either?

Pedro Martínez: i actually think this is a good idea. Nothing important is on Wed or Thu typically, and if anything would be there, I could easily move it to Fri. So I support that change.
(Of course I understand that you meant to _remove _ Wed and Thu, not just reorder the sequence and have them somewhere else)
That would also help with work/live balance, as right now the ratio is certainly skewed with 5:2. Having 3:2 instead is a big step in the direction of balancing them.

jadarite: just as an idea: you can save the page link - after entering your move but before submitting it - in your browser as a shortcut. When you click that link later, the move is visible again.
I'm not saying this is a great solution, but it would work.

rabbitoid: timeout = loss of turn? So if you get in 'Zugzwang', you simply time out, and it is your opponent's turn? That should blow up many games.

Artful Dodger: sometimes you need to accept superior strategy. You are just not up to that level of play... ;-)

Pioneer54: it's a Dragon, by the way.

If you bookmark not the login page, but instead any other page (like list of your games), it doesn't bother you anymore.

Today, I got the much discussed 'White Screen' for Brainking for the first time. I was in a restaurant, using my iPad. Here is the interesting part: I took out my iPhone, and - using the same wireless access point - it worked! I could do some moves on the iPhone, and during that time, the iPad still gave me white screens. I then tried to clear the cache, reload the page, close the page, the browser, reboot the iPad; nothing helped. I finally killed the browser, and then it worked.

From my (limited!) understanding for how web servers communicate with browsers, it looks like the browser is using a session ID that the Brainking server is no longer accepting (for whatever reason), and Brainking is not telling the browser, so the browser doesn't know it and keeps using it. maybe somebody with more knowledge can enlighten us.
I think it is definitely useful to know now that it is not your location, network, router, DNS server, etc., as two devices coming through the same access point can have different behavior.

Heluvagi: i gave up wondering about it 210 days ago. Just one of the quirks that nobody cares to fix.

Heluvagi: I asked that same question some months ago, and the Master himself answered, but I don't remember the answer for sure... I think it will be split between them.

crosseyed: Crosseyed, the point he is making (and I say that witout any irony) is *we are not his customers*.
We are just some guys he let's play in his backyard for nickels because he happens to have it and we are willing to.
Not that I like it, but it is a valid business decision. I also hear that he doesn't care too much financially if we all get pissed and go away and pay somewhere else.
So - face it - he is offering us to play in his backyard for nickels, but he doesn't clean it for us. And we can take it or leave it, and we can like it or not.
Again, I'm not happy about it, but I understand this as a business decision, and can accept it.

beach: These complaints keep going around for some weeks now, and I understand that it is a real nuisance (I left another site because of it).
But - I had no issues all day. Of course I wasn't playing every single minute, but whenever I tried, it worked well (and I tried often).
I think it is something in the internet's structure like DNS or whatever magic failing that affects large parts of the world intermittently, but the site itself _is working_ fine, believe it or not.

thechosen0ne: I don't understand your question?
You cannot time out during your weekend days, but of course your time does count down. Once it reaches 0 (or 0 to -9 exactly), the time demon gives you a free hour, which is like vacation, but doesn't use any.
So what did you mean??

chessmate.home: but you can just change your name in this account. That might do it?

ustica tnp:
a) it has to be activated when the tournament is created (otherwise it will not be used)
b) the player needs to activate it in his settings (check under Settings/GameFilter/Autopass which is brainking.com/en/settings?p=3&sup=2 )

Chimera: *All* your games.
Except the ones that say 'No Vacation'.

thechosen0ne: Correct.
But it is not the only page that needs updating, and probably not the most important one...

thechosen0ne: the vacation system was changed a while ago, and the whole flag has no meaning anymore.
Everybody's vacation works the same way, and there is nothing you have to do (or could do).
As was explained, whenever the first game runs out, all games get an extra hour, and your vacation time is reduced by an hour. Also you have two 'weekend days' which by default are Sat and Sun, but you can modify them. On those days, you do not use up vacation at all, its free.
If you have enough vacation left, you don't need to do anything, just go in vacation. If you have not enough left, nothing you can do.

The difference for non-paying and paying members is the total amount of vacation you get on Jan/1: Black rooks get 40 days (this means 8 weeks, as only five days a week are needed - see 'weekend' above), and non-paying get (I think) 10 days = 2 weeks. No roll-overs, just everybody gets reset on Jan/1 to his current membership's amount.
I hope that helps you!

Oh, and about the -2 minutes: The timer demon comes around every ten minutes. Until then, the remaining time just keeps counting, so might end up with it showing up to -9 minutes. That does not matter to you, the timer demon applies your vacation (as explained above) before it times you out.It's the same program, so it can't happen the wrong way around.

WHOA! I just found that I get a white page too, when I use
www.brainking.com
but not if I use
brainking.com

all is fine when I drop the "www." Now that makes no sense? Try it.

cd power: well I *don't* clear the cache, neither automatically nor manually, and I don't have issues. So I think it's not the cache.
What I sometimes see is delays in DNS resolving or in the hops - to verify that, open a CMD window (Start/Run/ type 'CMD'), and enter there "tracert www.brainking.com". You can then see which servers you hop along until you get there. If the shown delays in milliseconds suddenly jump up, you see the server that is the issue. (nothing you can do about it though).
Also, try to connect to http://81.91.83.6 (the server IP from the last line in the list - type/copy it in your browser) instead to www.brainking.com. This avoids speed issues with your DNS, which are quite common. The only disadvantage is that when Fencer moves the server, the number becomes invalid

Thad: lol.
Looks like the coder saved memory and used a one-byte integer to count them. 80ies style.

Roberto Silva: Just found it works perfect from my iPad. Delays only through my PC !?!
Both run through the same wireless router. PC uses Chrome browser, beta line. Maybe there is something fancy like the browser checking for certificates.
IPad uses Chrome too, but that is of course a different build for a different OS.

Bernice: I see a long delay/dead behavior, but when I repeatedly click, after five to ten clicks the page comes quick. This is not the usual reaction, it started only yesterday.

If a tournament has prices for 1 - 3. Place, and it is for example single elimination, there is no third (only two equal thirds/fourths). Who gets the price for third??
There are other possibilities, like two groups in round-robin, which are even more difficult. What happens?

Looks like the time keeper process died. This pond has already -30 minutes (http://brainking.com/en/Pond?g=7319)

Thad: Thad, you can do about that by setting the time for example to 6 days +1 day per move, no vacation, max 6 days.
That means everyone starts with 5 days 'vacation' plus 1 day for the first move, and plus 1 day for each further move.

The problem with all these settings is that you often hurt the wrong person: For example, if I start a tournament three months before a longer travel, and my opponent drags alone his full time for every move, I will lose on time during my travel, even though I used only 6 hours in the whole three month.

Carpe Diem: i think the core point of the question was if each game draws by itself from the vacation; and the answer is NO.
If your first game times out, it will draw 1 hour of your vacation, and all your games will get an extra hour (except the ones with the red dot, which say "no vacation" - those do time out). So every vacation hour is good to move out all your games for an hour, etc.
And yes, as stated below, you get new vacation on Jan/1.
And! you have your weekends free in addition.
So - again, except the games with red dots - your first game will time out earliest 35 non-weekend days after Jan/1, which is about Feb/18.
Have a good vacation!

beach: maybe Christmas was considered an extra weekend day?
Can you show an example?

Carpe Diem: and probably a year of rook of each. Not just a month of bishop or so.

bajvik: here is an *automatic* translation (for those that do not speak Russian) [Здесь автоматический перевод (для тех, кто не *говорит* на русском языке)]:

I do not know, I write about the creators of this site is that the rules of Thai sticks at them, apparently, are not true. Unfortunately, I do not know any English or Czech language, and write in Russian, apparently useless. Those who are here longer than I have, perhaps, prompt what to do. The essence of the problem is:
In my party with lasto, which is now played, after the moves 1. b2-c3 c7-d6 2. c3-d4 g7-f6 3. a1-b2 h8-g7 4. h2-g3 d6-c5 5. d4xb6 a7xc5 6. f2-e3 e7-d6 7. b2-c3 g7-h6 8. e1-f2 f8-e7 9. g3-h4 b8-a7 10. e3-f4 f6-e5 11. f2-g3 c5-d4 12. c3-b4 d4-c3 13. b4-c5 c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 White hit 15. f4xd6xf8, what might follow 15...a7-b6 16. f8xa3 black with a win (opponent has not responded yet).
Of course, I could have played differently, but went to the version with the undermining of 13. b4-c5, to check the rules.
The fact is that in reality in Thai Checkers was to follow 13 ... c3xe1 14. g1-h2 d6xb4 and then after 15. f4xd6xf8 black immediately have to beat on the a3.
I do not remember the name of this rule, but I know him by Thai sources. In Thai with fighting, there are many published combinations. A similar rule is, it seems to Yuzhnonemetskih drafts, unless the rules of the game are described correctly, which I'm not sure. I used to think that only the Russian sites are given erroneous descriptions of foreign drafts games, but now convinced, that in the West there are often errors. I'm familiar with, for example, the description of the rules of Kenova (Ossetian pieces), and so in Russia game is described differently in the English language \"Wikipedia.\ Therefore, it is a world problem, which is caused due to lack of coordination among those involved in the Games (Or at least drafts - on other difficult for me to say). If we take, for example, the rules of Tama (Armenian checkers), I sign with 4 (!) different versions of the rules of the game systems and which ones are real, likely, only God knows.

Regards Victor Bayguzhakov.


[do not assume that I understand a word russian. I was just curious what it means and translated it, so I thought I could as well post it for others to read.]

Bernice: Actually, 125% is the additional *bonus*, so you get 225% in total which is 27 months for paying 12.
I did that last easter :-)

Response to Justaminute: If you convince the guy that makes those tournaments, he could lock him easily out of all of them.

Vikings: yeah - just wait a decade, and you win! ;-)

Iamon lyme: Most 'draw' message texts are the wrong way around, but it worked for me many times.

ketchuplover: Not sure what you mean? When I transfer money, it goes into Fencer's personal account. Nobody gets anything of it. (I have no idea what he does with it, though)
If you use PayPal, they take their share as with everything going through them. I don't know the percentage (as they don't want me as a customer), but it can't be so bad.

thisbeme: The bug is really only the graphics, not the play.
Instead of showing the picture of a black piece pinning a white piece, because that image is missing, it shows nothing or just the white piece.
I'm not saying this makes it any better, it is clearly unplayable.
Just understand that the issue is solely the missing images.

rednaz23: Maybe you could run a macro in windows that clicks there ?

King Pyrhus: Agreed, it seems a bit extreme. But did you ever see the Guinness Book of records? ;-)

Mélusine: I would assume 'your own tournaments' means the ones you _created_, not the ones you chose to participate in. You can probably not keep him from joining any tournament just because you are in it.

Purple: I checked, he is playing Checkers in many of the small tournaments. You could just enter yourself into one of those.

Yippie! 100 won tournaments!