There are several possible capturing sequences if we trade. I have already posted the correct one. I do not understand why you then posted an obviously incorrect sequence as though it were an argument against trading. It doesn't make sense.

Huh? This ain't checkers. You know in chess you always have the option of not capturing if doing so would be bad, right?

What are you talking about? The queen is on b3.

Both of what? We have one bishop, after trading the other for Black's knight.

I don't understand. 19. Bxd4 cxd4 20. Ne2 and we've opened the c-file with slight pressure on Black's d-pawn. Isn't that an improvement on our current position? What am I missing?

We don't have many good options. 18. Qb3 is as good as any, I guess. Our stupidly advanced a-pawn is proving to be a crippling weakness (which is why I was against advancing it in the first place) and we'll probably have to let it go at some point. I just don't see how we can maintain it in the long run.

17. Be3.

To conceal razor burn. Uh, not that I would know anything about that...

It's allowed if there's an [NSFW] tag.

You may.

No, my insults are based on bullying. My arguments are based on the logic of the game, specifically the logic that a knight is worth more than a pawn (especially at this stage of the game), and a rook and knight combined are worth far more than a bishop. Do you really not see that?

Irregardless, nobody else thinks your plan is sensible, and the majority vote is all that matters. We have five votes for h3 (Taras, scruffy scruffington, ErisDiscordia, boolberry, and myself), four votes for b3 (languagehasmeaning, dre1982, actmyname, and XMRpromotions), one vote for Nd2 (gotmilk_), one vote for e5 (abacus), one vote for Ng5 (jjacob), and one vote for Nxb5 (Timelord2067).

No, no, no. You're not "thinking ahead". 16. Nxb5 axb5 is a cunning sacrifice to allow 17. a6 Bxa6 18. Rxa6 Qxa6. Losing the rook and knight for a bishop is a good idea because it "leaves the queen exposed on her own". Timelord2067 is either a troll or doesn't know actually how to play chess.

Bitcoin is not a company, it has no owners, there are no accounts to close, no account owners, and no information to turn over. Either you have been misinformed, or you're not informed at all and you're just looking for someone to sue (and failing at it).

The bishop will just take the pawn. The rook can't recapture because then the queen will take it.

No can do. This is the second time in the row you've voted for a move that loses material on the spot (third if you count a6).

That's what I'm doing now. It would be better if my backup wasn't nearly two months out of date.

Then pawn takes knight on b5. Please try to think at least one move ahead.

I like 16. h3. Keeps the Black knight away from g4 for 17. Be3.

My node just crashed with "ERROR: ReadBlockFromDisk: Deserialize or I/O error - CAutoFile::read: end of file at CBlockDiskPos(nFile=5, nPos=1605429077)". Sure enough, blocks/block00005.dat is only 1.4 GB in size. It used to be 2.0 GB. It appears to have been truncated. The timestamp shows it was modified at 2015-09-09 3:00:35 UTC, but nothing unusual happened at that time. How did this happen? It's a new hard drive so my first thought was I got a bad one, but surely that wouldn't affect the timestamp? I'm currently running a full virus scan. If that turns up nothing, should I just copy that block file from my backup or will that screw up the block index or have other weird side effects?

ETA: Virus scan was clean. I've copied in a good blk00005.dat and am currently running it with -checkblocks=0 -reindex, which is probably overkill but I want to make sure nothing else has gone wrong, since I still have no idea how it happened.

ETA: Well that was unexpected. After it finished with no errors, it blew away all my blk*.dat files for no obvious reason and started synchronising from scratch. I can see this is going to be a fun night.

I'd advise against that, to avoid embarrassing yourself further. Only a person can be prosecuted for criminal acts. Bitcoin is not a person. Bitcoin is a currency. If the ransom were demanded in dollars, would you claim the U.S. Dollar is an accomplice? That would make just as much sense. In fact, Bitcoin may serve as a useful tool for investigators, as Bitcoin transactions are traceable and converting bitcoins to legal tender without leaving a paper trail is harder than most people imagine (but not impossible). You should immediately contact the police and a lawyer for advice on how to proceed if you have not done so already.

15. e4. Better late than never.

I was just about to say that.

Man, I suck at counting votes. Okay, four votes for a5, three for axb5, one for e4.

I much prefer axb5 over a5, so that's my vote if e4 isn't popular. Which I believe gives us three votes for axb5 (jjacob, Timelord2067, and myself), three votes for a5 (Taras, abacus, and ErisDiscordia), and one vote for e4 (gotmilk_). Greenlion voted for Rf2, but that is not a legal move.