I just have to disagree with this on principal, since money is at stake. If you are going to sit there and tell me a 5 year old girl is not going to get input from 'daddy' when there is a chance to win $3000, then you have to ask yourself what planet you are from.

If you want to play in a tournament with your kids, there are plenty out there for them to experience.

Read the rules for just about any contest here and you see ONE PER HOUSEHOLD.

It is not possible to AUDIT online participants. I suspect several of the pawn IDs that were made on the same day the tournament was announced are really duplicates of the same person.

Sorry Fencer, you are the genious..not me :)

LOL Jason..guess who my favorite opponent is?..and
in Eds tournaments im not allow to whupp her!! :)

No !
especially the spirit of those so called rules makes no sense altogether.

As previously ignored, CaoZ' siblings are strong enough
to play any tourney here on their own strength ...

and who could stop anyone from cheating anway ...
ever've heard of telephone ?? ( basic technics in Europe )
it cAn deprive you from the need of living
in the same household with any imaginable helper ...

Again I second the idea to exclude pawns from the Championship,
3000$ should be luring enough to afford 10$ for a Knight-Strike ...

or - as peacepickle said - revealing sensible personal data
prematurely should (if anyway) be obligatory only for pawns ... ~*~

Andersp: How would you cover all "cheatholes"? Please give me a 100% working solution and I will use it.

i have a question while on this subject , we have two paying members here me & judd on separte pcs, so with some of the comment maybe people think we cheat ??
i assure you i kick his backside as much as possible lol its the only way he can improve in his games , when he starts to win me i have achieved my goal ..... not because i let him win

Andersp: but it is Gothic Inventor's tournament.
'He who pays the piper calls the tune' - or, he who pays the winner makes the rules.

Fencer, my suggestion is that "cheatholes" should be covered in advance.
If Eds 8 family members are paying members at BK they should have every right to play in ANY TOURNAMENT.

The rules are made just to frame the context of the event, and prohibit those from abusing them. Suppose all 8 of my family members were in the tournament, wouldn't people be a little suspicious? Could not one of my children say 'Daddy what would you do in this position?'. Would I have to audit every one of the games in the tournament to make sure I was not accidentally helping one of my own kids win?

Just think about it for a minute, and I am sure the SPIRIT of the rule makes sense.

If you agree with the spirit of the rule, I can extend acceptions. Like Fencer said, it is my tournament.

I just want to close the doors on cheaters.

Andersp: I don't think it's fair but it is not me who provides the $3000 prize, I simply cannot order Ed to change his rules. It's his money, not mine. Or what do you suggest?

Fencer:
So you think its fair that non paying pawns can play but i cant if my wife signs up.
Thanks for your answer

Andersp: There are no limits for standard tournaments. However, every tournament director can define his own additional rules. If somebody doesn't like his rules, can sign up for another tournament. As a Brain Rook you can start as many tournaments of your own choice as you want to.

Even though I can not speak for GothicInventor, I would think if you discussed it with him, and he knew exactly what is going on - he may allow it - but again, you would probable have to talk to him.

He is a nice guy, but at the same time he does not want people who are trying to cheat in the tournament. :-)

Have no intention to play in the $3000 tournament but for future similar tournaments i would like to know:

My wife and i are both paying members (rooks) but only one of us is allowed to participate because we are in the same household.
This means that one of us paying members cant play while not paying pawns are welcome?
Doesnt make sense to me.

I think it was farce but they couldn't count the asterisks :)

I miss all the good stuff!

Now I'll never know what "F***" was - it will be bothering me all day!

Fork-in-line 1800+
Food-in-line 1800+
Face-in-line 1800+
Flip-in-line 1800+

.... ugh!

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF) :-)

This is not the first time Fencer has stepped in to stop that kind of thing before it got started. A lot of folks may not know but his vigilance has spared the site some very unsavory stuff. Our thanks.

thank you fencer

I've just removed the "F***" word and sent him a warning.

I can't believe a BrainRook that has been around since April would create a tournament name like that. What was he thinking?

Another place to apply my filter.

Nice name for a tournament ?
Didnt someone say we should protect underaged players?

My apologies to all who had patience for quite a while ...
But after almost a month without the required 15 players
signing up, I sadly had to close them now ... :/

The Janus Tourney will be re-opened around end of october ...

To attract a higher number of occasional players I'll create
a Crowded Backgammon Prize Tourney (Pawns only) ...

For more paying members on a site worth it. ~*~

Running out of time to sign up for my best navy boats tourny.
UK is full, 2 more needed for USA/CAN ,4 more for Europe, 5 more KM's and none yet for the rest of world. :o(

At least you will get to deduct the cost of the new server(s) from your Swreg income (LOL)

I suppose I'd have to declare it here. R i g h t, I'll do my best not to win anything :)

rabbitoid: My BrainKing income is collected on Swreg.org which is a part of Atlantic Coast [a British company]. When I ask [usually once a month], they send me the current amount via wire transfer and don't charge any taxes. It is always a subject to tax here in Czech Republic.

...my salary, which is being taxed like hell...

mine is as well. this is one area where France is not far behind the US...

however, I have no idea how anything on the internet is taxed, and by whom.

All I know when I am on travel ouside the US, my salary, which is being taxed like hell, is not subject to tax, so the more often I am away, the more I get back on my tax return.

On the other hand I am not sure if it is applicable for anything else than "art royalties". Maybe Ed could bring some light to this dark area :-)

If you are outside the USA, you are earning your money beyond the boundaries of our tax jurisdiction, and you are not liable for any tax.

sorry, I posted before I saw fencer's answer.

I sympathise with your tax law, but again, what about us non-gringos? we don't have an american SS number.

Here it is:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf

rabbitoid: About SSN, I used to have this problems two years ago when MP3.com wanted to send me a check for my music because we also don't have anything like social security number. It was solved by sending a filled W-8BEN form for taxing purposes. I don't know all background of these things but what I am sure about is that I never had any more problems with that.

I would be LIABLE for paying the taxes of the winners if they do not pay it. I have given out my ssn# to casinoes, chess tournaments, poker tournaments, and I have never had a problem.

If you don't like the US Tax Law, join the club. But nobody is getting a check without their SSN being reported on a standard 1099 form.

I think that a note about "any suspicious IDs will be removed from the tournament with no explanation" should be sufficient. Especially in today's situation when anybody can have any number of free e-mail addresses and can use anonymizers and proxy servers to mask his IP address.

... Before you win any money, you will also be required to submit your social security number for tax purposes ...

Ed, I have a serious problem with this for several reasons.

I have nothing against giving you my name and email address to check against cheating; I consider that a least precaution.

but I, for one, am an extreme paranoid in anything concerning transmitting any personal information to anyone. such as physical address, ID numbers, bank account, whatever. much more so transmitting such information to someone on the world wide sieve...

and by the way, non US citizens (there are some around, me for example) don't have a US social security number.

this is really putting the cart before the horse, since I probably stand very little chance of winning anything. but the principle bothers me.

I was talking about prior to the start. The concern is that people have multiple IDs to try and increase their chances of winning.

After the tournament is started, nobody can be removed. It would require deleting all generated tournament games, recreating all sections [without deleted players] and starting the tournament again.

Maybe all pawns who suddenly became incarnate the day after the tournament started can be removed. This way, pre-existing pawn at least have the benefit of the doubt

Perhaps require the tournament information from pawns only since that is where the potential problem could surface. Banning them from your tourney will only make it smaller...unless of course that's what you want...

it would help brainking ... I second ... ~*~

Currently about 20 pawns in the tournament. About 30 paid Knights & Rooks in the tournament.

.... and if someone want to cheat so bad, at least make them pay a little money to BrainKing for a membership! :-)

You know that is not a bad idea.

If someone really want to play in the $3,000 tournament, they should at least support BrainKing with a Knight membership!

I've been thinking a long time to start having some small $$ tournaments - and I would probable have them in my Fellowship - to reward people who support this site!

So should we just ban pawns?

Well my thinking is getting a persons information before the tournament will not help much.

If I wanted, I could make 1 ID and put my brother-in-law's name and address (and let him know if I win, I get the check) - I could then use my friends address, etc... etc... Along with other tricks, I could probable find 10 different ID and information to send in.

Also, for the "pawn" accounts - you could just send if fake information anyway - and just purposly lose with those accounts so you already know you are not going to get money sent to them!

Even though I understand trying to get rid of cheaters, I do not really see this helping much.

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

and what address would I give for these other Id's for payment?
I will save you the trouble...I just removed myself from the tourny.

if Fencer knows bwildman's addy and name he just cannot use
the same name and addy for other IDs, and if I'd invoke friends
any control-sense should volatilize at the latest ... ~*~