Pente is that way too. The advantage is not significant for novice players, but expert players rarely lose as Player 1.

In games like these, I think the BKRs should be calculated as follows:

Calculate BKRs separately for games in which the player moved first (Player 1) or second (Player 2). Calculate the percentage of the player's wins that come as Player 1 and as Player 2. Multiply each BKR by the player's winning percentage **of the other position**.

For example, if player has a BKR of 2000 as Player 1 but only 1800 as Player 2 and was Player 1 in 70% of his wins (meaning he was Player 2 in only 30%of his wins) then his BKR should be 2000 * .3 + 1800 * .7 = 1860.

This system usually produces better BKRs than the curent system. And it never produces worse BKRs than the curent system, at least not in any situations that I can think of. I can think of situations where this system wouldn't give a very good result, for example, when a player plays as P2 exclusively. but the system we have in place now doesn't give a good result in these situations either.

Raistlin: I wonder if 3 Maharajahs would be too much? As White, I would try to combine threats against f7, c7 and g7, as a capture on any of these squares with a protected Maharajah would be mate. So Black would have to either protect each of these squares twice, which looks difficult, or create an escape for the king, which looks risky.

cd power: Maharajah chess would be easy to balance : add two more white Maharajahs. For horde chess, its harder...

Roberto Silva: And let's not forget about Maharajah chess... that is probably the worst offender of all the games. If I play the black color, I am 100% guaranteed victory in 24 moves. Anyone who does not believe me, then send me an invite where I am black and I'll prove it to you!

Carpe Diem: Horde chess is another example of imbalance. I think the only effective solution to that is to only play 2-game matches for those games. Of course that's a problem with random game tournaments.

I think Mancala is one of the most skewed games when it comes to first move advantage - 63% - 33%. Does BK ever look at rules tweaks when there is a heavy bias like this?

ketchuplover:

crosseyed: It didn't help matters when someone on the iyt board spoiled the end of The sixth Sense.

So far today I am able to play my games without any problems with this site.

rabbitoid: I'm a member of both and more. I'm sure bk version 420 will have no discusion groups..mearly a place to drop money. sooo glad I never became a black rook.

badgerboy78: Since so many people are experiencing the same problem. Then Fencer should temporary stop time-outs.

BrainKing.com (Fencer, 2009-08-17 08:08:37)

Can't the ISP be approached like in the example above to try and get them to sort out something?

It's been poor for me the past several days. I'm to the point of giving up for a few days and hope it clears up by them. Sorry to the players I've timed out onm (and will time out on.)

From the feedback so far, it seems most people in Europe but one are doing fine, whereas most people in America/Australia are having problems. Like I said, I'm not a bandwith expert.

The site is loading pages fast for me today...so far, so good,

Bwild: Yes I was able to play my games without problems for a short time last night. Today so far I am getting the white pages that takes ages to clear.

rabbitoid: I have no problems with connecting to Goldtoken. It's yourturn used to have discussion boards but they were not monitored like they are on this site and things got so bad he removed them. How can Fencer know that there is a problem with his site if he removed the discussion boards? Would he really like hundreds of emails complaining.

Bwild: Goldtoken is always here if you want it, but they're having far worse connection problems lately than BK, and most of  their client base is US. And itsyourturn solved the connection problem: no discussion groups, so no complaints! now why didn't Fencer think of that simple solution? 

its always been...if it works in Prague...who cares.
fyi...its been terribly slow for me too,these past three days..till this evening,things run better in spurts.

Bernice: What that means, is when I make a move, it is sent firstly to England, then to the West Coast USA before heading to the Czech Republic!

SL-Mark: and what does all that mean?

Bernice: Yes it seems to be working faster at times now and the white page is not coming up so often. I hope it lasts.
At present the superbowl is on in the USA. At present only 100 players in this site?

C:\tracert brainking.com

Tracing route to brainking.com [81.91.83.6]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 585 ms 1 ms 2 ms 192.168.1.1
2 27 ms 26 ms 26 ms 85-211-192-1.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com [85.211.192.
1]
3 37 ms 68 ms 37 ms 80.40.155.118
4 76 ms 37 ms 37 ms 80.40.155.107
5 37 ms 37 ms 38 ms xe-9-3-0.bragg001.log.as13285.net [80.40.155.37]

6 40 ms 38 ms 39 ms 80.40.155.70
7 70 ms 42 ms 42 ms xe-9-1-0-scr001.thn.as13285.net [78.144.0.238]
8 45 ms 41 ms 41 ms host-78-144-0-143.as13285.net [78.144.0.143]
9 83 ms 54 ms 48 ms v209.core1.lon1.he.net [216.66.84.213]
10 52 ms 52 ms 51 ms 10gigabitethernet4-2.core1.fra1.he.net [184.105.
213.146]
11 62 ms 68 ms 71 ms 10gigabitethernet1-1.core1.prg1.he.net [184.105.
213.234]
12 58 ms 59 ms 60 ms 216.66.84.27
13 61 ms 60 ms 59 ms gw1-web4u.cas.ip-anywhere.net [81.0.255.17]
14 58 ms 58 ms 72 ms 81.91.95.17
15 62 ms 60 ms 59 ms 81.91.95.10
16 75 ms 78 ms 64 ms web.brainking.com [81.91.83.6]

Trace complete.

well it is running Ok here at the moment....no long delays and no white pages.......I have never had the white page problem before and always wondered what people were talking about.....

SL-Mark:

Bernice: I agree with you Bernice. The word denial comes to mind.

rabbitoid: You must be one of the few lucky ones who is not having a problem with this site. I am in the UK people from the USA, Australia and Canada to name a few other countries who are getting the same problems. It has to be the site at fault.

there ARE problems, but you can't get those in charge to admit it :( sad really after all the money people have paid to be here, you would think there would be better connection/service :(

having problems since late yesterday with making moves ...after 2-3 moves, usually board turns white until i click to get back on the site...

Roberto Silva: I'm not as often here as I used too, but nothing to signal for the past days, works as fast as usual for me (France). Both by regular computer or cell phone.

Bernice: I can only see part of the board when I can get to make a move in game.

Aganju: Weird.

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.

For what it's worth, it's working fine for me.

Seems to happen every once in a while that a certain area of the world has trouble connecting here while another area is fine, then another time it's the other way around. Not a network expert so can't pinpoint the reason.

Aganju: At a minimum I have to double click. Sometimes more and this is just in last 2 days.

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.

hmmmmmmmmmmm 7 mesages when I just came on - 1 for and 6 against....cant be BK must be the rest of the world (said sarcastically)

It is the same for me again this morning, taking forever to load and all white pages with the print all over the place...oh well thankfully there are other game sites.

beach: 2 days of white pages for me but I'm use to it...and deal with it. This has gone on for years for me with uploads from bk while all my other sites work fast.

beach:Same for me since yesterday.

crosseyed:  same for me works fine for a little bit then white screen says waiting for response from brainking.com

For me, opens quickly, no problem.

crosseyed: Me too. Same problem.

Bernice: I agree with you Bernice that it has to be this site that has the problem. I am able to play in other site with no delay at all. This is my second attempt to post this message.

Well, since I don't have any problems loading any BrainKing pages, there is no issue with the site itself, otherwise it would be slow for me too. It is probably a network problem, more like.

Doris: thank you DOris and beach.....just goes to prove it isnt always on this side of the world.....

it has to be Bk because all other sites including game sites are accessible easily...it is only here that I am having any trouble....done the usual clean ups etc and still no better....

I am also having the same problem. The site is usually very fast to load pages for me...but now I am having to sit and wait for them to load....like it was when I had dial up many years ago...:}

Bernice:  I am having the same problem white screen

Fencer: Was 1 second. Now over a minute. Still not too bad.

Bernice: Actually, the average page loading time is about 1 second, based on long term measuring.