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From	Message
mikekelly666 16-Mar-08, 04:23	Gameknot Easter Eggs SInce there isn't much about chess going in the club forum, I thought we can try something different. If you haven't noticed yet there is a lot more to Gameknot than is shown in the Help or FAQ. Unless you know the right sequence of mouse click or where to go then its pretty much hidden to you. These are called "Easter Eggs". So if you know any good "Easter Eggs" then post them here. They do not have to be helpful but can show some bizarre behaivor like the player with no screenname. The only rule is that you have to describe in detail enough that they can be reproduce by other people.
mikekelly666 16-Mar-08, 04:27	Gameknot's back door If you have been to Gameknot enough you know the site goes down once in a while. Regardless if its a DOS attack or the web site is busy you can still get online through another web site chesscolony.com Unlike RHP's satellite web sites, chess colony is independent of gameknot. So if you have problems logging into Gameknot then try chess colony web site.
mikekelly666 16-Mar-08, 04:37	Who needs Google Bookmarks Did you know that Gameknot has its own bookmark system. You can bookmark places on gameknot by clicking "Bookmark this page" at the bottom of every Gameknot web page. Then when you hover your mouse over More Options you will see your bookmarks. What is generally not known that Gameknot bookmarks are not limited to Gameknot. 1.) copy the URL for the web page you want to bookmark 2.) hover your mouse over More Options and then click Edit Bookmarks. 3.) click "Add New Bookmark" 4.) Paste the URL in the URL/Location box 5.) Give your bookmark a name in the description box 6.) Click Add and your done I use the bookmarks feature now to keep track of chess web sites outside of Gameknot.
mikekelly666 16-Mar-08, 04:45	The Ghost of Gameknot Anybody notice anything strange about this game? game Get the effect more with this link gameknot.com More stange that White won the game   This guy is so paranoid about hiding his online status that his profile is hidden
buddyrevell 19-Mar-08, 14:14	Endless game? I was browsing the Game DB the other day and came across a sequence of repeated moves that apparently doesn't end. It's strange, because GK does detect threefold repetition. I wanted to give a direct link to the 8th move, right before the repetitions start, but the link didn't work when I previewed here (another odd thing!). So, here's the position after White played 5.Nd2. Keep clicking on the first move of the Game DB, when there are more than one. gameknot.com Does it ever end? I didn't want to find out, had better things to do. =P Notice that it's not exactly a loop. As you make the moves in the Game DB, it keeps adding up to the game score below the board.
mikekelly666 19-Mar-08, 19:57	Deleted by mikekelly666 on 19-Mar-08, 19:58.
mikekelly666 19-Mar-08, 19:59	WoW Nice catch I went to move #65 and still doing the endless loop. So the 50 move rule didn't kick in. If you notice the end of the URL its the moves played so far SO if you look at the URL for the end of move #9 we have //gameknot.com/chess-games.pl?n=2930808&bd=9208125&h=0&fb=1&pm=1&m=d2d4g8f6c1g5f6e4h2h4c7c5d4d5d8a5b1d2e7e6d5e6d7e6g1f3b8c6e2e3a5b4f1d3b4a5 I took out the http so it wouldn't be converted to a link. What we are interested in is everything after &m= d2d4g8f6c1g5f6e4h2h4c7c5d4d5d8a5b1d2e7e6d5e6d7e6g1f3b8c6e2e3a5b4f1d3b4a5 Which if you convert to human readable form is 1. d2d4 g8f6 2. c1g5 f6e4 3. h2h4 c7c5 4. d4d5 d8a5 5. b1d2 e7e6 6. d5e6 d7e6 7. g1f3 b8c6 8. e2e3 a5b4 9. f1d3 b4a5 So if you go from this position our sequence of repeated moves is d3f1 a4b5 f1d3 b4a5 Which translates to d3f1a4b5f1d3b4a5 So if you get to the end of move #9 you can paste d3f1a5b4f1d3b4a5 to end of the URL to skip ahead two moves. If you paste a lot you can skip a lot further ahead. You can flip the board easy enough by changing &fb=1 to &fb=0 or vice versa in the URL Not quite sure what the other codes mean: n= bd= h= pm= The & symbols just mean AND so the URL consists of different conditions pasted together to tell the server what you want. bd= looks like a code for a board number. I'll play with the other conditions to see what happens. But getting back here. It is strange how loops like that. Definitely a bug in the database retrevial. I imagine at some point your web browser will crash due to the URL being too long. Not something I recomend especially for Internet Explorer. I'll set this game up in a virtual machine later and see what really happens Good catch Raul on finding this one
mikekelly666 20-Mar-08, 04:23	Hmmm Well this is really interesting. I went back later and tried my little copy and paste the moves to the URL and it doesn't work anymore   But did notice something interesting. You notice the "back to game" link? Ever wonder how the Gameknot server knows how which game to bring up when you click it? If you look at the number following bd= in the URL, it is the game number of the game. I'm up to move #89 and still in the loop.
mikekelly666 20-Mar-08, 05:37	Came to a end Here is the maximum number of moves for the game at least in Internet Explorer That game went on until 247 movses Here is the link for the game up to 246 moves tinyurl.com I had to use tinyurl to make the link work because the normal URL for the game up to that point is 2034 characters. Really weird stuff happen when I try to post a URL that big here Hey Raul I think thats what happen when you first try to post the link. The URL was broken by going over more than one line If you keep going in Internet Explorer from this position. The web browser came up with bad request on black's 247th move. While on Firefox weird stuff happened. Sometime on black's 247th move it would not display anything except a error message. But the alternative was better. In the alternative, on blacks 247th move it would treat me as a non member and display ads. While on white's 248th move the ads would disappear then on black's move the ads would reappear. But finally dies on Whites 249th move. With a more helpful error message "Requested URL is too long". I'll agree with Firefox here   Also discover more interesting stuff. My copy and paste only works when what is after m= works with the number after n=. I think the number n= is a index into the game database that shows you the moves you can make. This is where I think it goes into the loop. Look at the numbers after n= while making the moves in the loop Bf1 n=2930805 Qb4 n=2930806 Bd3 n=2930807 Qa5 n=2930808 Bf1 n=2930805 So if the number after n= is the index into the games database then when we get back to Bf1 we are in the same spot again. Looks like someone needs to do some database maintenance. Time to go to sleep now
mikekelly666 20-Mar-08, 15:20	Oldest forum post Here is the oldest forum post I could find: gameknot.com
mikekelly666 21-Mar-08, 04:21	The easy way to get the board number One nice feature in the forums is the ability to put a link to a chess game on GK using the notation bd=board_number But what the hell is the board number of the chess game I want to provide a link for? Thats a question I ask a lot. GK does not provide it on the web page for the game. So a nice feature is useless because you cannot get the board number. Well actually like a lot on GK, you just need to know where to look. There are two ways. The hard and easy way. First the hard way. If your a seasoned GK player you know about game settings. If your not so seasoned then look under "Analyze the board". Clicking that brings up the settings for the game. Here they list the board number as the game number. As a sidenote here, your opponent may change the game settings without you being informed of them being changed. The game settings do not affect the actual play of the game, just what the public sees when viewing the game. So you may never know they had been changed. Ok the easy way. Bring up the game in your web browser. Look at the URL in the address bar and you will see something similar to this ://gameknot.com/chess.pl?bd=8672048&r=456 I removed the http from the URL. If you look, you will notice bd= followed by a number The number is the board number. To make it even more easier to post the link in a forum post, copy everything between the question mark and the ampersand. Then paste that into your forum post. Now you have a link to the game in your forum post and all you had to do was cut and paste
mikekelly666 21-Mar-08, 04:34	How to get the FEN without chess software Another nice feature of forum posts is the ability to post chess diagrams into the post. But like links to games it may be hard to use. If you look at the web page for a game, you will notice a link to give the PGN for the game. If you have chess software installed, you can use it to convert the PGN to FEN so you can post the chess diagram. Make it easier by using the chess software built into GK. When your on the web page for the game, click on "Analyze the board". A popup window will come up, now click the FEN link and now copy and paste the FEN notation into your forum post. If you not interested in the current position of the game, you can use the controls on "Analyze the board" to get to the spot you want for the chess diagram and then click FEN. The FEN link displays the FEN notation for the current position in the analyze board. Make sure you follow these steps when pasting the FEN notation for the diagram Type fen=" Paste the FEN notation Type " If the quotes are not around the FEN notation you will end up with something besides a chess diagram
mikekelly666 22-Mar-08, 03:46	Chess tools for your website Gameknot provides two useful tools if your building your website or for your blog. 1.) Daily Puzzle: This has the code to have the gameknot daily puzzle appear on your website. When a person visits your web site they see the latest puzzle. 2.) Game viewer: This nice tools generates the java code to generate a game viewer on yor web site. So if you want to post your games from GK, openings, or any other chess game you can use this tool to generate the code to display it. Go have a look at gameknot.com to see the tools NOTE: There is a options link in the game viewer but the options there are very limited. The real power comes in after you generate the code by clicking Web/HTML. Underneath the code look for the customize/preview button. Click that and now you have some serious options plus the ability to preview what you chess game will look like
mikekelly666 22-Mar-08, 03:56	Shortcut for publishing games on GK on your website In my last post I went through the steps to publish chess games on your web site. If your only publishing games from GK on your website then your only a few mouse clicks away from having the web code. 1.) Go to the game on GK you want to publish 2.) Click the "Analyze the Board" link 3.) Click the "Web/HTML" link Now you have the code
mikekelly666 22-Mar-08, 04:20	Who needs the enevelope for the club forum One of the nice things about PM's and team forums is that nice enevelope that flashes when there is a new message. But GK in its infinite wisdom decided that a social place like a club forum didn't need its own flashing enevelope. So the club forums have become social waste lands filled with zombies. After all who wants to click through all the links to get to the club forum to find out there is no new posts. Well GK did put a enevelope of sorts just not where you expect it. What your doing in the forum decides where to go to get the enevelope to flash. If your a poster in a thread, then just check the box next to "notify me when someone posts a reply". NOTE this option only appears when previewing your post and only takes affect after posting your messages. If your a lurker in a thread, then click on "thread options" link. Then check the box next to watching and click Update. NOTE: If you haven't notice you can read the forums of other clubs. You will notice a "thread options" link on the other clubs thread. But when you click the link you will notice a serious problem. You have to be a member of the club to access the thread options. So there is no "watching" other club forums       By forcing you to decide which club threads you will receive notifications about seems lie a lot of work. Actually makes it better than the enevelopes for the messages and team forums. You can limit club forum notifications to the threads your interested in.
mikekelly666 22-Mar-08, 04:27	More interesting forums Lets face it the general forums, if you can find them, can be a cure for a sleepless night. If you want to see more interesting and active forum threads then go to the following link gameknot.com This is a list of club forum threads with active threads. With the thread with most recent post at the top.
buddyrevell 26-Mar-08, 15:38	Hey, Mike! Have you been hired as Public Relations for Gameknot? LOL =P Just kidding. That's what I like about this site: on the surface, it's very easy to use, but if one wants some advanced features, he'll have them! About the Easter Egg I found, indeed, anything after the 5th move in the Game DB can't be viewed as a link in the forum, which kinda sucks, because I'm sure there are other interesting things in the Game DB, waiting to be found. Next time I'll use tinyurl.com as well. =) Anyway, you have the patience of a monk: I don't think I've gone past the move 60 or so in the Game DB. =P What I found real interesting was GK treating us like non members near the end of the line. That was pretty crazy! It would be interesting to see how other browsers would behave, such as Opera or Safari. =/ On another subject, I wonder how hard it would be to implement the GK Game Viewer in the forums. I mean, it would be nice to post a PGN and see it displayed as the Game Viewer. I've posted games in PGN before but I'm sure almost no one bothered to copy and paste it to the Notepad, for instance. Some people might not even have a PGN viewer! I've also posted www.chessgames.com links, but some people might not have Java installed and so on. Therefore, a built-in game viewer would be a useful addition, especially for a club like this one.
mikekelly666 27-Mar-08, 04:28	Just a curious person Well you present with a abnormal game and I just had to explore it and other features until I reached a dead end. The game was insightful because with its predctable nature you could see the patterns in the URL's that GK generated. Yeah the way that GK uses URL's to post information about the position in the game is a big problem. Probably noone ever notice before the maximum limit. One time where tinyurl comes in handy. Do you know if tiny url's expire or go dead? That was funny being treated as a non member there toward the end. A sign that something was going to happen soon. Opera would probably handle it gracefully. Seeing how Safari is tied in now with iTunes and the iPhone, if I put that long URL in Safari I would have more problems than a crashed browser. My iPhone would lose network coverage and all my songs on iTnes would disappear   Just kidding. I have both borwsers istalled. I'll put the URL's in and see what happens. It would be nice to have a PGN tag in the forums. That would bring up a mini version of the PGN viewer they use. Hmm makes me wonder if there is a way around that. Watch outt you have me thinking again
mikekelly666 27-Mar-08, 04:30	Works really good Hey by the way, my suggestion up there titled "Who needs the enevelope for the club forum" works really good. Got that flashing envelope next to messages when you posted your reply. Be nicer to have next to clubs, but for now I'm happy with the workaround.
mikekelly666 27-Mar-08, 06:31	PGN Viewer GK forums allow you to post FEN positions into forum posts and have a nice diagram show up. But as of now there is no PGN tag. Which would be nice if there was one so a poster could PGN and the people viewing the posts would see a PGN viewer where they could go through the moves and stay in the forum post. Until that idea is implemented you can do the following to use GK's built in PGN viewer. Before you use this shortcut, you need set up a bookmark. 1.) Right click on this link and choose "Copy Shortcut" gameknot.com 2.) Go to edit your bookmarks and paste the URL and call the shortcut "PGN Viewer" Now when someone posts PGN notation into a forum post you can view it this way 1.) Highlight and copy the PGN notation 2.) Hover your mouse over "More Options" when your bookmarks appear, right click the "PGN Viewer" link. Choose "Open in New Tab" or "Open in New Window" depending on your prefence or web browser you are using. 3.) In the new tab or window that appears click "Import PGN" 4.) Paste the PGN notation 5.) Click Import and you can use the controls to move through the game
mikekelly666 27-Mar-08, 06:37	Disappearing Bookmarks A great feature is bookmarks. You hover the mouse over "More Options" and they appear. But it doesn't always work that way   Click "More Options" then go to the forums. Now hover your mouse over "More Options" YIKES   Your bookmarks are gone. Not really gone, just that someone at GK made the "More Options" there a regular link. Actually based on some quick testing at the forums, it doesn't matter where your at the forums, you cannot access your bookmarks. This only applies in the GK forums. Club and team forums are not affected. I guess thats the price we pay for having a forums link on the left side
mikekelly666 05-Jul-08, 18:27	Wanting something to do while waiting For those of you who hang out at Gameknot waiting for your opponent to make a move, there are several things you can do to make the time go faster. 1.) Click on My Games 2.) Click on "Wait for your turn" A new popup window will appear. This window will inform you when there is a game or PM that needs your attention. Even has volume control so it makes a audible sound when there is a alert. You don't have to keep this window in the foreground, you can minimize it. When there is something that requires your attention the window will popup back in the foreground. What to do while your waiting. If you get tired of lurking in the forums or playing solitaire on the computer, GK has a couple of games you can try. Just click on the Java image on the left side of the screen. From there you can play Lines or Reversi against the computer. Just think of it as GK's waiting room
eqj2 06-Jul-08, 12:51	Me When I am not working I am playing chess and setting up challenges for my almost 100 team mates also I am a moderator in two other clubs. When I am not busy with all I am watching sports. With all of that I am busy but I do get itchy for a game but I resist I got in to too many tourneys.
mikekelly666 30-Aug-08, 03:12	MOD THIS!!! Have you ever visited GK's forums? If you have you will notice on each thread that there is a link named "mod this thread". When you click on the link a new browser window comes up where you can vote on what to do with the thread. There is one catch to voting this way. DON"T TRY TO VOTE MORE THAN ONE TIME ON A THREAD. If you vote more than one time, GK will subtract your previous vote away. A good way to keep people from voting more than once. But it kinda sucks if you forget that you already voted. There is no indication that you already voted. Be nice to warn you or just not record your vote if you have already voted. Its even more interesting behavior if you vote more than twice. On the third and subsequent votes, GK will subtract the vote again. But if you close the window and then go back its like nothing happen. The original totals are there. Just another quirk in Gk's website

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