B5Q chess challenge: “Live” “sports” are “back”

You want sports? YOU WANT SPORTS????? I KNOW YOU WANT SPORTS!!!!!!!!!

Well there is one sport that’s certainly safe to play right now, and that’s good old-fashioned internet chess. Just don’t play over-the-board without the proper PPE.

::Whispers:: We are not going to get into a fight over whether or not chess is a sport. If you want sports back, we can either wait or broaden our definitions a bit.

I, Bob Wiedenhoeft, challenge our colleagues at our sister B1G sites to an epic chess chess event:

• The Daily Gopher
• Black Heart Gold Pants
• Black Shoe Diaries
• Corn Nation
• The Champaign Room
• Inside NU
• The Crimson Quarry
• Hammer and Rails
• On the Banks
• Testudo Times
• The Only Colors
• Maize n Brew
• Land-Grand Holy Land

In the coming weeks, we will see who has the GUTS to face Wisconsin Lutheran High School chess legend, Bob Wiedenhoeft. And, we will see which blogs cower to my might.

::Whispers:: Yeah, I had a good run at Wisco on the chess team, but don’t tell the other blogs that I’m out of practice. If I recall correctly, my USCF rating is a bit above 1800, but I haven’t trained in a few years.

::Whispers even softer:: Please don’t let there be any masters in these blogs.

Challenge format

Our fearless leader, Mr. Drew Hamm, is going to reach out to our colleagues at the other B1G SBN sites and gather a challenger from their staff. If not, we will see if someone in their readership can join in the fun.

I will (do my best to) live stream each match, maybe twice per week. Afterwards, I will post some analysis.

The match will be two rapid games played on chess.com; each player will play each side of the board. The rapid time control will be game in 15 minutes with a 10 second increment. Each game is worth one point; a draw is worth 0.5 points. If one player gets 1.5 or more points, they win. If the match is tied after two games, we will move into overtime.

• Overtime 1: two games at 3/2 time control; 1.5 points wins
• Overtime 2: two games at 1/1 time control; 1.5 points wins
• Overtime 3: two games a 1/0 time control; 1.5 points wins. Repeat overtime 3 format until a winner is decided.

Your predictions

Should we hold a tournament or two, too?

I would love to have a chess tournament with B5Q staff and readers, but I also worry that too few people would participate. If you’re interested (or if you are NOT interested), please let us know in the poll below. If we get enough interest, I will look into setting up a tournament.