I've talked to plenty of them I shouldn't name names, but trust me it's true. I've xferred quite a few of them money on Stars and even Party back in the day.

Very interesting.
Can you tell if the majority of them lurked 2p2 strat forums and studied the game as thoroughly as would study a critical opening line? Or did they just gamble? Also, did some of them fail because of an arrogant "I'm a chess master, these donkeys compare to 1500s in chess, it is natural that I must beat them even without proper bankroll management" attitude?

Honestly from what I know it varied greatly.

Ouch. Seriously?

I checked, it was the plaque handed out to every team and I received it as team captain! The circumstances were pretty complicated.

A short summary would be that our team managed to score 1/36. That is not a high score.

Edit: Oh! I found the scores.

29 Shijiazhuang
27.5 Tashkent, Palembang
20 Tehran Padang
19.5 Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Talesh
19 Yangon
18.5 Beirut, Doha, Singapore, Mandalay
18 Chrompet, Sydney, Shah Alam, Karachi
17.5 Dubai, Auckland
17 Johor Bahru
16 Abu Dhabi, Penang
15.5 Pontianak
11 Macau
9.5 Bandar Seri Begawan
1 Hong Kong

Also, I looked back at the games and there were several that were clearly drawn or winning endgames that I managed to lose. I am not proud of those matches.

Good news though, I went to the local chess club yesterday to check it out. A new rated tournament starts in two weeks and I will play in that one! 90 min/30 moves, 30/G, +30 seconds per move.

Very nice garcia, ship that tournament! IMO this forum has already done at least one good thing, brought garcia back to chess maybe Dynasty will get back to chess/organizing too!

Curtains is slightly higher rated than me, but id destroy his rusty *** OTB....

I'm not rusty and I'd crush you

Blitz you would probably win but it's been awhile since you've played slow chess!

Let's not get another one of these debates started. Blitz or slow chess I'm a favorite, sorry!

Are you sure curtains? Sadly I don't know how strong of an IM are you, but.. Those years when I was scared of IM's and GM's are loooong ago.

huh?

Lmao, now thats funny. He's either levelling or very serious.

I am not sure what don't you guys understand. Curtains is claiming, that he is one of the strongest guys around here (understandably, cause he is an IM) , so I am just curious how strong of an IM he is.

I am a lowly fide master, peak elo around 2320 as of now. Pretty confident I'll still improve it

but just like everyone else here, i'd still bash curtains because he is so rusty

He's stronger at chess then any regular poster. How much clearer can it be?

I bet I could beat curtains with rook odds imo

I am asking about his rating. ELO rating. As simple as that! Being an IM these days doesn't mean that much anymore - if I play in a tournament in Germany and have to play some IM in low 2400, I consider him an opponent that I have to beat, with both colors.. I am sure curtains is not one of "those" IM's, but I am interested in his ELO or some results (highlights if you wish), if that is not a secret.

So are you an IM?

No, I am not. However, I am still pretty young (19) and started working on chess pretty hard again, after a year of just playing and pretty much no training (school and stuff, was hard to find time for it). My ratings and peak ratings are written in the first post of this thread. Of course I might never become an IM, but I choose to be optimistic

Curtains is very far from a weak IM.

You can find out who it is if you don't know, with a little googling. hint, look on the PokerStars blog.

Hmm thats pretty interesting. What i meant was that dsquared actually plays poker for a living (and hes v v strong).

Oh god what have I started.. Ok yeah Curtains is the highest rated known 2+2er, being as high as 2550 USCF at one point.. I assume there are other higher rated 2+2ers than me, but I don't know of anyone else.

I've seen GM Ildar Ibragimov down at Foxwoods, I hear he's doing it for a living (or atleast attempting to).. It's not too hard to beat live games though so I'm not sure how good he is.. Also I played in this home game during the World Open with GM Zviad Izoria, he played pretty decent.

FIDE rating is like 2450.

I'm only 1703 USCF, but I bet me and chesskid1 are hands down the best bughouse players here.