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| victord 2/24/2004 11:20:10 [ report this post ] |
 Subject: The History of GKMessage: I hope i'm not 'off topic', it is GK related IMO No offense or disrespect intended Mike. If it's wrong of me, please just delete the thread. This thread was in the old Social Chat Forum 'til deleated in the purge. It was (I thought) one of the most interesting threads as several of the original members of the site came in and posted about the roots and how the site got off the ground. I've been here a while, but at least several hundred came before me and I hope again to entice those original members to post there memories here. Help me out someone. I'll start it off with a few questions ... who won the 1st game? Mike? How about the 1st Tournament. Who is the most senior active member today? I think the thread would give new members get a general idea about the site and the community of GK Start it off spymaster or anyone who was here at the beginning. victord |
| victord 2/24/2004 11:27:46 [ report this post ] | If possible ... Mike Message: What was the date you began the site? Who were some of the 1st members? Who was the 1st PAYING MEMBER? Any words from you Mike would be of interest to many. Did you think it would get this big or was it just a hobby gone wild. As I remember Mike did not start it for the $$$ |
| brobishkin 2/24/2004 12:58:56 [ report this post ] | Vic... Message: I can almost guarentee that the first win here on Gameknot was played players that no longer log in here on this site... When I first started back in 2001, there were a few genuine wood pushers with a love for the game... As time went on, the corruption set in and many just disapeared and faded into the nothing... Gameknot is one of the few chess sites that has the most registrered players on-line... ICC has about 25,000 which is par for the course... Yahoo has litterally a couple million registered ID's that play in it's chess rooms and has grown over the few years... World wide I think the amount of chess players on a professional level rates around 50,000, but not quite sure of the numbers in Russia... I remember one character named Grandpatzer that often posted views on the game in the threads, but he doesn't appear here anymore... Brunette (who's still here) doesn't update is web site addition (e4 e6) anymore... People seem to come and go, or just get bored with thier current ID and change to another... Some simply piss people off and iritate with outlandish comments, then change thier ID's to protect the guilty... Mikes site I think was built out of love for the game... But after having to deal with the petty squables and the no answers to the corruptions, he decided his time was worth more and started charging for his services... Bro... |
| brobishkin 2/24/2004 13:06:58 [ report this post ] | Correction... Message: Take back the things I said about the (e4 e6) site... It has recently been updated... It stayed the same for a year or so... And I simply got tired of going there and seeing nothing new... But I just went there to find out it's been updated... Good work Brunette... My apologies... Bro... |
| baseline 2/24/2004 13:39:24 [ report this post ] | brobishkin Message: I didn't think you could change your nic here? or delete an account and start over. That was one of the reasons I ended up here, less multi-nic abuse. |
| johnstar 2/24/2004 14:03:31 [ report this post ] | paying member Message: hey victord, i can answer one of your questions. i was the first paying member. mike put it in the forum here a few months ago. john(star) |
| chessahoy 2/24/2004 14:21:17 [ report this post ] | Victord Message: I started playing here in Jan. of 2001. My first game was against Doncan. When i joined this site the highest rating was in the 1400's, and the most games completed was in the 20's. Back then it was hilarious because every week we had a new hot shot sign on and proclaim he was the next Fisher, he always ended up running away with his tail between his legs. Another favorite thing to do then was play under one account, make a new account and play against ones self. This tactic never worked as we always found out and would bring the culprit out in the open. OAP joined the same time as i did, and was loved by all. He is truly missed here on GK. It was a common practice back then to only have around 10 games and when you signed on it wasn't uncommon to play a game all the way to the end. I hope this helps refresh the memories of what the old GK was like. Best regards Larry |
| brobishkin 2/24/2004 21:12:43 [ report this post ] | Baseline... Message: Can you say the word "naive"?... It's a french word meaning foolishly simple minded, almost childlike, artless, and unsophisticated... And I suppose not one player here on Gameknot has ever used a chess program to calculate his or her next move?... And very single multiple account is due to a school linked internet access or some remote chess cafe that just so happens to have these miltiple Gameknot players?... This site has grown to almost 100,000 more players in just 1 year... Last year at this time Gameknot was just over 40,000... We're at 132,000+ at this present time... But I find it funny how the amount of games being played hasn't increased... I know the amount of registered players currently on-line has increased a bit... But it hasn't quite kept up with the increase of new registered players... Bro... |
| baseline 2/24/2004 23:05:11 [ report this post ] | brobishkin Message: lol... "foolishly simple minded, almost childlike, artless, and unsophisticated." Yes, I see your point! I was under the impression that Mike had put an end to the multipe nic problem by suspending these accounts. I assumed that 130,000 of the 132,000 registered users were inactive accounts. As far as fritz users are concerned ... I have my suspecions. |
| brobishkin 2/25/2004 00:47:15 [ report this post ] | Baseline... Message: I would think 130,000 inactive players is a little much... |
| baseline 2/25/2004 01:55:32 [ report this post ] | brobishkin Message: perhaps, but certainly a very large number. |
| aqeel 2/25/2004 04:08:50 [ report this post ] | Interesting Message: keep it on! |
| worldmaster 2/25/2004 04:45:57 [ report this post ] | Interesting Message: I haven�t been playing here for so long yet. But after having been around on other chesssites, I must say that GK is absolutely the best and I�m now a lifetime paying member. And I find it interesting to learn about the history of GK. How it has developed over time. So to all of you that has been here for a long time, just keep on writing about your experiences with GK. And yes: It would be interesting if Mike could find the time to put out reports about his own feelings and experiences with building up this site. But I assume that he is just too busy with making it even more better :-). Best wishes to your all worldmaster |
| calmrolfe 2/25/2004 06:41:49 [ report this post ] | recollections Message: I would think there is a pretty good chance that one of the first two participants would be Mike himself, he used to play under a Russian child's nickname but seemed to derive more enjoyment out of developing the site rather than actually playing.... Apart from the ever delightful spymaster, other early players I remember were kaczor, mishkin, fatale and dasmi Kind regards, Cal |
| cairo 2/25/2004 07:03:11 [ report this post ] | I Message: joined this wonderful site late July 2001 and I signed up as a lifetime member in December 2001. When I first came here, I especially remember a very strong player from Brazil, he had a nick called tartakower. I know there is a "new" tartakower here today, but it is, by all due respect, not the originally one. Also players like onlyapawn, grandpatcher and kaczor was great sports and players. I remember when dj222 came in on the scene, she created quite a fuss and disturbans, not only because she is a strong player, but maybe even more because of her other advantage :-)) edmaster was another carachter I'm missing, he always had an opinion of the most and he was always ready to "crush some sculls" look at his stats :-)) The two players I'm missing most are: bishop_vlad and schacfruend, both great players and personalities. I'm glad that one of the great personalities and strong player, my very good friend/amigo carlosmart, decided to return to the site, after a year of absence, the site wouldn't have been the same without him. I think over the past almost 3 years, there has come a lot of nice people and good players to the site and I'm looking forward to the years to come. Best wishes Cairo |
| victord 2/25/2004 11:16:36 [ report this post ] | Thanks everyone ... Message: for getting the thread started off. I too miss schacfruend (Mimi) and onlyapawn ... they were the soul of the site IMO OAP (Mark) would always come in when a flame got too hot with his tagline .... "Everybody take a deep breath .. ooooooooooooommmmmmmmmm" Mimi always had a calming effect and words of great wisdom. BOTH were outstanding chessplayers. I miss edmaster too, although I often gave him a hard time for yelling at me (HE ALWAYS TYPED EXCLUSIVLY IN CAPS) I still wonder if he had a broken keyboard or JUST LIKED TO YELL AT PEOPLE. He was ( still is I hope) the biggest promoter/defender of Bobby Fisher and started many threads on the subject. Come back Mimi and bring your son Ed Mark ... your spirit still dwells in these pages for me ... and it always will. |
| ccmcacollister 2/25/2004 20:11:57 [ report this post ] | this thread... Message: Seems very topical to me, and interesting too. I haven't been here long enough to add any commentary to the GK history. Nov.2003 I joined & thought it looked good enough to "pay-up" more or less immediately. But I'd like to offer a comparison that is not unfavorable to GK. ..... I did play much Chess on a network much older than this, in the 1980's. It was started as "Leisure Linc", which later became "USA Today Sports Center". At 8 cents per minute ($5.00 per hour), it was a lot more reasonable than some. Such as Compu-serve being 25 cents per minute. Even so, I had one player tell me he had used over $2500.00 one month ! The blitz games there were 5 or 10 minutes I think. Can't recall which. But with transmissions times would actually take over a 1/2 hour. On 1200 & 2400 baud modems. Tho that time did not come off your clock. If you pre-typed a move, "e4-e5", and punched "Enter" immediately, it would give you credit as only using one second. The site also offered Corr.-like play of its own. And later got APCT "Electro" games there. Which were APCT rated Corr. play. ....Isn't this so much nicer though! To play for nearly Free; at least in comparison to $2500.00 !! And that the site keeps on improving, from what I've seen & heard in my short time. I'm pleased to find out for sure, that Mike IS a Chess player, even tho I've seen his (one of his?) Profiles showing 1200 & no games....Had a wager to myself that he had to be a player, to do all he's done, and the way he has set some things up just seemed like it Had to be by someone into the game. .....Also, it pleases me that the site went ELO. I joined another network too, just a couple months ago. And got started at some kind of strange averaging of my other Master ratings apparently. But is WAS rather disappointing to see the highest rated player to be over 3100, which seemed a bit ridiculous to me, even if it were "earned" over time. For it to be so apparently out of line with other organizations. I do wish very much that GK would honor initial ratings from other legitimate Corr.Organizations though. Because more of the Very Best players would have more interest in coming here, & bringing others with them. For myself, I simply do not believe I will have the time to ever "work-up" here at GK, to a rating where I can play Masters & Experts. Tho I play vs any rating level of players when I'm established, I miss those higher level games very much. But so many here seem not to want to play vs those less than 100 pts of their own rating. That I've not asked any to play. Because of that perhaps I've been unfair to myself and them. As there seem to be some who will do so, as Bogg found. So I am going to make a few specific challenges and see if I've been unfair in my thoughts upon this. This is my major, and in fact my ONLY point of contention with GK, that I & starting players cannot play whomever they wish. If I wanted to build a high rating now, I would have to tell some of my present oppoonents "sorry wont play you anymore, now I must play only players over 1600...then only those over 1800, then only over 2000, etc till my "Provisional" wears off." And I won't do that. ....But my comment of bringing up ratings was to say, even tho I am not the happiest with the GK way with that. Still, it seems better to me than the kind of site that has players rated 4200 or such! ....Hope to see the site bring up some titles of its own. There are ways to legitimize such, if that's a concern. But if it goes with "GKGM" or such, hope that does not get confused with the USA Open Corr. Championship which is called Golden Knights - another GK. It does not award any GK titles though. ....Also like to say, the games I've started or analyzed of other players, I don't get a sense of Computers playing them. And surprised but delighted at that. Nothing would be worse to me, win or lose, than thinking/feeling I'd wasted months to play some computer unknowingly. (Even tho I would not mind trying it knowingly against perhaps the 2 or 3 best Chess Computers/Programs. ) That's another plus for GK, to me. And all in all, I like it as much or better so far, than any other online site I've seen for Chess. And will probably rank it above all, when/if ever getting some Exp/Master games. Also to join a team, since I like Team play by whatever set-up. Just seems more fun. Good Chess to everyone. Craig A.C. |
| baseline 2/25/2004 21:34:13 [ report this post ] | ccmcacollister Message: unfortunately as victord pointed out, many of the long time members left the site a few months ago. They were very disappointed that the social forums were closed, and a large number of them were against converting to the elo rating system. Some of the people that left were strong players, witty intellengent people but they seemed to have little exposure to chess culture in general. I started playing chess regularly when I was in the Air Force, at the Airmans Club, a lovely young lady from the USO came by one day and gave me a copy of "Kings Korner" the newletter of the USO sponsored postal chess club. Robert Knarch was editor and tournament director at that time. My best chess lessons came from a WW I war vetran named Sven Svenson we continued to play postal chess for many years until he pasted away in the late 70's well into his 90's. We never met in person but I will always consider him one of the dearest friends I've ever known. The most impressive thing about GameKnot is the regular improvements that are clearly designed to make your "chess" experience better! It's a great site. |
| victord 2/26/2004 10:39:39 [ report this post ] | Forums Message: It's true that the end of the Social/Flame Forums brought about the departure of many longtime members. Sadly ... I would rank myself as the #1 problem for Mike. Maybe just my ego speaks here ... I was not alone, but for sure, one of, if not THE #1 abuser of the Forum privilage. For this I apologise to the entire GK community. It remains a great loss. I've searched for a reason (ie:excuse) for what I did ... I was new to the internet (my 1st Forum experence); i'm very opinionated and not shy to express it, I was provoked often; the Forums were (are) very exciting, with many, many diverse peoples and opinions ... peoples and opinions I had not encountered before. I'm a veteran, a patriot and had a hard time with those that attacked my Country. Now the truth ... I'm 62 yrs old and was still not mature enough to control my emotions. Today, I would gladly (maybe not gladly, but i'd accept it) accept a permanet lifetime ban from the Forums if they could somehow be reinstated. I believe they were THAT IMPORTANT to the community feeling at GK. victord |
| mormel12 2/26/2004 14:54:34 [ report this post ] | Victord Message: thanks for the offer, but i don't think it'll help:) (sigh) i've been around here myself for a while already (started playing here at august or september 2001) and indeed one of the things most missed is the socials. then again, in time they turned into less social again and again. i've had my own experiences with that, but always managed to clean up the mess i made (except maybe once) ah well, i guess we must take that loss as a gentle(wo)man and be glad with what's left and let's be honnest, this is still the best chess site there is, with or without the socials. that why i keep playing here. i came here to play chess in the first place, so.... i've seen a lot of people come and go. with some of them who're gone, i still correspondate through email. for me GK is a place where i meet friends to play a game of chess. i even know a couple, who met here and now live together:) greetings |
| baseline 2/26/2004 15:20:30 [ report this post ] | victord Message: I think you are being overly hard on yourself, mike gave is reasons and doesn't seem inclined to reconsider. What's done is done. |
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