It has been a few days without enough votes to change consensus

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

1. Nf3     d5
2. c4      e6
3. g3      Nf6
4. Bg2    dxc4
5. Qa4+  Nbd7
6. Qxc4   c5
7. 0-0     a6
8. d3      b5
9. Qc2    Bb7
10.Nc3    Be7
11.Bf4     0-0
12.Rfd1   Qb6
13.a4      Rfd8
14.a5      Qa7
15.e4      Rac8
16.h3      Nb8
17.Be3     Nc6

Chess problem time!

This was the position after you played 15. e4



If instead of 15....Rac8 I had played 15....Nb8 How should white proceed?

Some of you will see the answer immediately. Please give others some time to think before responding.  I can make more difficult puzzles on another occasion.

Yes, seeing the plans of your opponent discussed in plain text will offer an advantage.

I don't take the time to study all the comments before I decide what to do. I generally just return and make a move once it appears team bitcointalk has reached a consensus.  I even asked for community volunteers to help count votes to save me the time of carefully looking at all the posts myself.

If you want to surprise an opponent you don't necessary need to know what they are thinking. If there are two moves of approximately equal strength it sometimes makes sense to play the more unusual looking one (more likely to be a surprise). This is especially true if the unusual looking move complicates the position and your opponent is in time trouble. Referring to our current game, I can see that many people expected me to play 16....c4 after 15....Rac8. I could have guessed that without reading the thread because 16....c4 was a natural looking move and follow up to 15....Rac8.

Please don't interpret this as an insult because I think team bitcointalk does has some good chess players participating. Most of the logical plans I saw discussed in the thread I had already considered and at a greater depth than what was written. Some of the proposed moves I did not think about but those were generally moves with no clear purpose or leading to an instant loss of material.  GMs do not consider all possible moves. They will automatically reject moves that seem illogical. Pattern recognition is important in chess. The more experience you have the easier time you will have in narrowing your list of plausible plans in any given position.

Move recommendations with no analysis offer me nothing (I already consider most reasonable looking moves)

Recommendations with in depth analysis could potentially help me (if I am reading them). However I believe the benefit of such analysis to team bitcoin would far outweigh any marginal advantage it might provide me. We are playing for fun. Team bitcoin should be focused on learning not on keeping their plans secret.

It is good to see more people playing chess. I just visited the thread but will not be participating in the game. I will plan to stop back from time to time to observe the technical discussions. Privacy is important to me.

Who has seen Pawn Sacrifice? Any reviews?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596345/releaseinfo

I will not be playing chess for either side in this game (visit https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1148538 for that).  I am here because happy to see more people interested in chess and because of my interest in privacy.

My primary goal is to promote the adoption of bitcoin. I do not own any Monero or Boolberry.
 
I am interested in hearing some technical debate on the advantages and disadvantages of CryptoNote versus some of the alternatives mentioned and what BTC could potentially implement.  Please remain as unbiased as possible. If I can acknowledge that bitcoin has some potential weaknesses you should be able to do the same.

If you can provide sources to support your arguments that would be ideal. The more technical the better.

Has anyone seen Pawn Sacrifice yet? What did you think?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596345/releaseinfo

Parts of it are not accurate but I expect that with most movies.  

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

1. Nf3     d5
2. c4      e6
3. g3      Nf6
4. Bg2    dxc4
5. Qa4+  Nbd7
6. Qxc4   c5
7. 0-0     a6
8. d3      b5
9. Qc2    Bb7
10.Nc3    Be7
11.Bf4     0-0
12.Rfd1   Qb6
13.a4      Rfd8
14.a5      Qa7
15.e4      Rac8
16.h3      Nb8

Many people feel that bitcoin can have the largest impact in developing economies with weak fiat currencies. Most of the world does not even have a bank account. Bitcoin can help

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

1. Nf3     d5
2. c4      e6
3. g3      Nf6
4. Bg2    dxc4
5. Qa4+  Nbd7
6. Qxc4   c5
7. 0-0     a6
8. d3      b5
9. Qc2    Bb7
10.Nc3    Be7
11.Bf4     0-0
12.Rfd1   Qb6
13.a4      Rfd8
14.a5      Qa7
15.e4      Rac8

I am sure the price will gradually come down. Anything that increases usage and the potential for more decentralization sounds like a step in the right direction.

Thanks for the graph. I posted it on Twitter

https://twitter.com/ChessBTC/status/646172999905841152

I like competition as it drives innovation. Some of the coins mentioned in this thread are indeed interesting.

The reason I voted no is because of the language in the OP:

"Is there even a 10% chance that anything could replace bitcoin in the next few years"

Smart contracts and privacy are important. A "few years" is a short time frame.

Eventually some competitor could surpass bitcoin in value because they better address these issues. Maybe bitcoin can utilize sidechains to subvert this threat. I think it will take more than a "few years" to find out.  I think there will end up being multiple competitors who end up being very successful even if they never "replace" bitcoin as the market leader.

There are much more than 600 coins already

"A few years" is a short period of time. My guess is that no existing coins have a greater than 10% chance of passing Bitcoin in the next few years.


Both of those aim to do something that bitcoin cannot do currently (but sidechains could potentially change this at least for some functions).  I am a professional chess player. Many chess players have at least heard of bitcoin. I have yet to meet one who has ever mentioned Ethereum or Monero to me.

Most people still think money is the main purpose of blockchain technology. Ethereum wants to do a lot more but it will take a lot of continued development (years) before many of those applications are available for common users.

Monero addresses privacy concerns some have about blockchain technology. The general public still thinks bitcoin is anonymous by design.  Once they realize that bitcoin has privacy issues will they suddenly want to switch? A very small percentage of the public uses a VPN or Tor. Privacy is important but I doubt enough people will agree that it is so important that a privacy focused coin will pass bitcoin in market cap within "a few years".

Change your timeframe from "a few years" to "5-10" years and I would reconsider my answer. Your 10% chance criteria sounds much more realistic over a slightly longer timeframe

Here is another question:

Do you think there is a greater than 10% chance the bitcointalk community will beat me in our current chess game?  I have been pretty impressed with the quality of play by #teambitcoin so far
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1148538

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

1. Nf3     d5
2. c4      e6
3. g3      Nf6
4. Bg2    dxc4
5. Qa4+  Nbd7
6. Qxc4   c5
7. 0-0     a6
8. d3      b5
9. Qc2    Bb7
10.Nc3    Be7
11.Bf4     0-0
12.Rfd1   Qb6
13.a4      Rfd8
14.a5      Qa7

I agree. It is an issue organizers are dealing with at major live tournaments:

http://www.chess.com/news/unprecedented-anti-cheating-measures-at-baku-world-cup-9609?page=4

Cheating online is extremely trivial and the incentive to do so would increase exponentially when btc is at stake

That is an impossible question to answer. It will vary greatly from player to player based on their age, how long they have been playing, current level and natural ability.

I do not know this coach but I wanted to post in this thread to that receiving lessons for bitcoin is a perfect way to learn chess at a reasonable price.  Not everyone is lucky enough to have quality coaching available locally and those that do generally will pay a large premium compared to online rates.

Many of the bitcointalk threads I found discussing chess related to gambling which is a horrible idea for online chess because of the strength of computers. 

I agree. You will never build critical mass with a site like this. The more players that join the more engines that will appear to cheat. Building a business based on the idea of playing chess for money online is a dead end.

That is not true

There are many chess engines that will work for Chess960. Those that don't work (because the starting position is illegal for a regular chess game) will begin to work as soon as a position that could be legally reached in a regular chess game is reached

Chess should be played for fun, not against strangers online for money. Cheating is an issue in chess even at high level tournaments. It is absolutely a serious issue online.

Your move bitcointalk. You have the white pieces

The current position is updated below:

1. Nf3     d5
2. c4      e6
3. g3      Nf6
4. Bg2    dxc4
5. Qa4+  Nbd7
6. Qxc4   c5
7. 0-0     a6
8. d3      b5
9. Qc2    Bb7
10.Nc3    Be7
11.Bf4     0-0
12.Rfd1   Qb6
13.a4      Rfd8

My goal is to promote bitcoin among the chess community. Eventually I will reveal myself.  If you want to help attract more attention, follow me here:
https://twitter.com/ChessBTC

No need to draw any conclusions about who I am or am not following. I just selected "chess" as an interest and followed many of the recommended accounts. I registered with an IP address different from my home country.