September 2005

Introduction

Welcome to September here at Goldtoken!!! We are looking forward to a pick up again now that the summer is winding down, so settle in while the weather cools off and spend some time at your favorite game site! In this month's newsletter we have the regular features that you've come to know and love, and a couple of special announcements from the Game Boards! Be sure to thoroughly check out the news to find all the great ways we have to win some fantastic prizes!


Kran


Site News
Badger's Monthly Message
Goldtoken Olympic Update
Kran's Tournament News
Tessa Twisters
Games Corner
Locker-n-Rocker Room Announcement
Newsletter Picture Hunt
6x5 Announcement
Testamonials Of The Month

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Site News

September Birthdays!

-- Big Happy Birthday Wishes to Jethro on September 1st!!
-- Happy Birthday to PEEJAY on September 2nd!!
-- Many happy returns to Nitehawk celebrating on September 2nd!!!
-- Birthday wishes to Sushi Warrior on September 3!!
-- A Special shout-out to our friend BlueEyedGoddess OTWP on September 3!
-- Happy Birthday to Megababe on September 3!
-- Happy Birthday to Jesme on September 5!!
-- A wonderful Birthday to TN_Sapphire September 7!!
-- Happy Birthday to Hamsarnie September 8!!
-- Happy Birthday to everyones favorite Nargada September 10!!
-- Happy Birthday to fefelola September 10!!
-- Happy Birthday to Crazylegs4me September 11!!
-- dustmuffin's Birthday is on September 12!!
-- Happy Birthday to red_dog78 on September 12!!
-- "Don't blow out all the candles VBeginner" on September 13!!
-- Happy Birthday to Brendans Grandmom on September 13!!
-- Have a great birthday TheRichBlues on September 13!!
-- Happy Birthday to mutleybj MIA on September 14!!
-- A special Happy Birthday to Donald on September 15!!
-- Birthday wishes to Brighteyes on September 18!!
-- The Best Birthday Ever to big chuckless on September 18!!
-- Birthday wishes to maddog39503 on September 19!!
-- Happy Birthday to Blue Warrior on September 21!!
-- Happy Birthday to jgbrunelle on September 22!!
-- Happy Birthday to Nicodemus on September 25!!
-- Birthday wishes to LibraLady PAB on September 26!!
-- Have a great birthday Oh No Mr Bill on September 27!!
-- Happy Birthday to Tigger on September 27!!
-- Birthday wishes to dream_on on September 28!!
-- Birthday wishes to whoknows on September 29!!
-- Wooohooo and Happy Birthday to sweetblue on September 29!!

Special Events!

A belated Happy Anniversary to Dionysos and his wife Irene who, on August 6th, celebrated 39 years of wedded bliss!!

And Congratulations to diamonds rubys who was married on June 4th and would like to shout and tell the world!!

Congratulations to Top Gear for reaching 4000 Gold Tokens! Way to go!

Also we would like to wish Lil-Bit, who was operated on the 24th of August for carpel tunnel, a speedy recovery! Hurry back!

And a very special congratulations to Beckie B and her family on the upcoming birth of her daughters Twins!! Our prayers and thoughts have been with them and we look forward to their arrival!

Feb Fast Nack Tourney Bulletin!
Congratulations to Twakkie, SarahMills and cats4954 for a super fast bracket that ended in 2 hours with a tie for all! Very well played!


Any birthdays, anniversaries, etc. coming up for next month, feel free to send Kran a message and let her know so that we can give them a shout in next month's newsletter!

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Monthly Message from Badger

We are giving two GoldToken Travel Mugs to the two highest donations from individual players and a GoldToken Duffle Bag with pens and prizes for the GoldToken Club donating the highest amount to the Hurricane Katrina Victims Fund. Truly, GoldToken players have already done an outstanding job sending in donations this week. And I am not suprized! This gamesite is filled with warm loving people who really care! You can track the funds in our [ Club Hurricane Donations ] wiki. Don't be left out. Every dollar counts and people need our help!!

We haven't heard from all of our players who lived in the path of Hurricane Katrina yet, so if you know of someone, please message me with their player name so I can set up extra vacation time for them.

I am very excited about the new 2 variation game arriving shortly that is for 2, 3 and 4 players! Can you guess what it is? First player to send its' creator an invite wins a GoldToken Travel Mug!!

GoldToken's latest gameboard is , where you use each letter posted to make a phrase or sentence. Easy to win great prizes and easier still to play!! As always, the first Monday of each month marks a free week for guests to play on all of GoldToken's gameboards listed in the discussion board link at the top of your gamesheet. So be sure to check them out!!


--Badger

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Goldtoken Olympic Update by Aphrodite

Hello Everyone,

And still this magnificent Olympics goes on, not so much a sprint more of a marathon. The summer holidays have as expected slowed down the Tournament over the last couple of months, but get ready for a sprint for medals in the next few weeks. We now have 20 games completed and 11 games on going. The state of play is as follows:

The 3 top clubs currently stand at:

Europe 128 points
United Kingdom 91.5 points
North American Southwest Coast 47.5 points

The 3 top players with most points:

Rabbitoid 45 points Club Europe
Keops 42 points Club South America
Klaashaas 41.5 Club Europe

As you can see the points table is still to close to call; with everything to play for, so good luck to all of the teams and thank you all for your interest in this Tournament

Anna

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Tournament News by Kran

• See the tournament sign up page here: http://www.goldtoken.com/games/tournaments?toc=F

• For September, we have the continuation of the combo tourneys, if you joined one of the earlier ones, be sure to sign up for it's partner! In these tourneys, you will need to join more than one game type, and the highest average placer will win the prize! In this case the prizes are great! Duffle Bags, Koozies, Mugs, you won't want to miss these! Also, be sure to check back often as tournaments for October and November will be opening for signup!

• Goldtoken would also like to take the time to send a big congratulations out to all August Tournament winners!!! If your name is on this list, send Badger your mailing address and a link to the tournament for your prize!

4iar Madness 4iar- Jadawin
4iar Madness Giveaway 4iar- MORRIS
April Four in a Row- Jadawin
Back 'n Nack Madness Backgammon- Tlingit
Club vs Club Double Trouble- hANDYman the Rebel
Club vs Club Small Outbreak- Dawg_n_Ca
December Double Trouble- Nukhulls
December Four in a Row- Jadawin
December Reversi (for real)- Switzerland
February Fast Nack- cats4954
February Fast Salvo- Eggy
February Los Alamos Chess- dama1
February Small Chess- AndrewB
GI this!!- ThunderChild
Giveaway Backgammon- firefly
Golden Give away- dama1
Goldtoken Olympic Hotspot 4iar- keops
Goldtoken Olympic Nackgammon- rabbitoid
Goldtoken Olympic Outbreak- adrien
Goldtoken Olympic Reversi- rabbitoid
GoldtokenOlympicGiveawayChecker- Rogue Trooper
Heterodox's Go Moku- *PJ*
Hillbilly Paul's Guest Go-Moku- *PJ*
January Blackhole 4iar- coan_net
January Double Trouble 4iar- { Player: aaaa }
January Knights vs Bishops- Man of Steel
June Giveaway Four in a Row- MORRIS
June Loop Trax- keops
Late August Nackgammon- erimines
March 4iar- Jadawin
March Checkers- LostSoul
March Double Trouble 4iar- Buz
March Knights vs Bishops- AndrewB
March Outbreak- Brute
May Knights vs Bishops Chess- USS Ben
Mid August Large Reversi- klaashaas
Mid August Nackgammon- rajaz
Mististar's Fast Salvo- LittleTree
November 4iar- grade1teacher
November Large Reversi- Smaughster
October Double Trouble 4iar- coan_net
October Stealth Salvo- Beaupol
Outbreak Ataxx June 2004- firefly
Outbreak 2004- adrien
Septembers LG Outbreak- Gnahaha

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Tessa's Twisters

Hi everyone,
It's time for another TWISTER! This is a tough one!
If you are the first player to answer this riddle, Badger has a GT keychain pen for you! So put your thinking caps on and hurry on over to the poetry board with your answer!
See you there!
Tessa

He is a good friend of mine,
I've known him for years!
He makes me laugh so hard,
He brings me to tears!

My sides ache from laughing,
And my face hurts too!
He keeps me in stitches
And makes me smile when I am blue!

He use to have another nic,
but now he uses his real name!
Doesn't matter what he calls himself,
We love him just the same!

He can also help you out
With any GT business!
So now it's time for you
To tell me who you think this is!

Please post your answers on the DB.

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Games Corner

Trax by dgb

Hello again Trax players. This is the second article on how to play better Trax. In the first article we looked at "What should I be doing?" when playing Trax. To recap, we covered:

forced plays, and how they arise
the need to think of all the tiles played in a turn as a unit
how making loop attacks can actually weaken your position
introduced the concept of potential
and measured potential by counting corners or the possible attacks you could make.
I’ll assume that you have been practising and are now familiar with these basic concepts. In case you missed out, the first article appeared in the July GoldToken newsletter, and can be found republished at http://www.traxgame.com/community_gold.php.

In this article, we will look in more detail at corners, and when is the right time to attack. The tips here are applicable to all 3 Trax variations found on GoldToken: 8x8Trax, Trax, and LoopTrax. As Trax is quite a visual game, rather than just describe some of the positions in this article, I give reference to positions taken from actual games.

A corner is defined as any section of track that may be made into a loop attack in one turn. The simplest corner is a single curve, which can easily be made into an attack by turning either end around to make a half loop. Corners do not have to consist only of a single tile. Consider game #2450599, at move 4 a wide attack is made using a multi-tile corner. See how the use of forced plays can enable the path to be extended further than if the path was simply turned. In a similar way, the forced tiles allow the attack to be closed off with move B0+ unless white defends.

A corner is therefore only 2 turns away from a win – the first turn extends one end of the track, and the second turn closes the loop (if the attack is not defended). Note that either of the 2 turns could be played first, giving 2 different ways that the attack could be made. In fact, any corner may be made into an attack in at least 2 ways, by bending either end. This is important, as we shall see shortly, as not all attacks are equal, and often attacking one way is better or stronger than attacking the other way.

In spite of their name, not all corners are necessarily found on the corner of the playing area. In the same game (#2450599), at move 13, Black has what is known as a "flat corner". In the @ column (adjacent to the A column), the ends of the black path are too far apart to be closed off in a single turn. However they are close enough to link with 2 turns. Therefore the first turn is going to make an attack. This means that a flat corner fits our definition of a corner. In move 14, I turn one of the ends to make an attack. As before either end of the track could be turned to make the attack.

A third formation closely related to corners is the "connectable pair". A connectable pair consists of two paths that may be linked together at either end. In linking them, they too are made into an attack. Like corners, there are two ways to make the attack, by linking either end. Therefore, in terms of evaluating potential, connectable pairs can be considered as equivalent to corners.

So, why is all this important? Well, as we saw in the previous article, the ability to attack is strongly correlated with the strength of a position. Multiple stage threats make use of 1, 2, 3, or even more corners in particular configurations or patterns. To play Trax well, one needs to focus not on making attacks, which can usually be defended easily, but on setting up more complex threats. These are positions where you can make a sequence of attacks, ending up either with two independent attacks (only one can be defended), or a single undefendable attack. The more corners you have, the more likely your opponent is going to be restricted in what they can play without setting up a threat for you. Remember though, actually making attacks is generally weak because you lose attacking potential, and your opponent gains attacking potential.

You might ask, "If attacking is not good for my position, when should I attack?" The key is in the timing. At some stage, if you are going to win the game you must attack. If you go onto the attack too early, you can weaken your position and end up losing. If you leave it too late, your opponent gets in and wins before you. Recognising the right timing is the key to winning. In general, there are 4 situations when it is right to attack:

1) If your opponent has left you with a multistage threat. In this situation, you are able to make a sequence of attacks that will result in you winning. Much of Trax experience is in recognising the patterns that make up such multi-stage threats, and knowing how to capitalise on them to force a win. If you misjudge the position, and realise that the threat is not going to work, it is important to stop attacking as soon as possible. I have lost many games by trying to use a complex threat only to realise that my opponent has a key move that makes the whole threat faulty. After making several attacks my position had deteriorated to the extent where my opponent had built several threats while defending my attacks. By that stage, it is often too late, and the game is over. This brings us to the second situation:

2) If your opponent has multiple independent threats. In this situation, when your opponent gets their turn, they can use one of their threats to win. To do this they need the initiative. The only way you can prevent an immediate loss is to retain the initiative by making an attack. They are then forced to defend your attack rather than activate one of their threats. As long as you can keep the initiative by making attacks, you can avoid losing. Unfortunately, in an actual game, it is not as simple as this – attacking usually weakens your position and further strengthens your opponent. The key is to make the right attacks – those where the forced plays destroy one or more of your opponent’s threats, where your opponent cannot counter-attack, and where you limit the damage done to your position (in particular where your opponent cannot simply make another threat). I mentioned earlier that not all attacks are the same. Every corner can attack at least 2 ways, and one way is often better than another.

3) If your opponent is using a multistage threat, and you can counter-attack to regain the initiative. While your opponent is using a threat, there is often nothing you can do – you have to defend each attack that your opponent makes. If you can make a counter-attack (defend your opponent’s attack with one of your own) you can regain the initiative and destroy the rest of the threat. This is another reason why corners are important. Corners in key positions can prevent your opponent from completing their threats. A corollary of this is that if you are using a multiple stage threat, and you have a choice of which attack to make to complete the threat, be careful not to let your opponent steal your win from you. On the other hand, if you are facing a threat, don’t give up or resign too early, especially if you have corners near those that your opponent is using in their threat. I have won many games that I should have lost where my opponent let me off the hook by allowing me to counter-attack.

4) If, by attacking, you manage to maintain your potential. Having said earlier that you should not attack, I’ll now moderate that by saying that not all attacks are bad. There are some situations where you can attack, and use forced plays to give yourself another corner, and when your opponent defends, you do not lose the corner you attacked with. Often wide attacks (for example game #2450599 after move 4) are stronger than narrow attacks (for example after move 10) because in defending, you are still left with a corner. Another situation is an attack with a hollow (the attack is in a 2 sided space, see move 14) because the defence possibilities are limited. In the example here, there are only 2 possible defences for 15: A4/ and A5/, and both of these leave the corner used to make the attack intact. Therefore, if you must attack, attacking into the hollow is usually stronger than attacking away from the hollow. These situations imply that some corners (and connectable pairs) are stronger than others.

Indeed, corners adjacent to a hollow are usually stronger than corners that are not, because you can attack into the hollow, where your opponent’s defence options are more limited. Single tile deep hollows are stronger deeper hollows. Some corners adjacent to a hollow are not as strong. The most commonly occurring exception is where both players have a corner adjacent to a hollow. See game #2450599 after move 6. Black has a corner at A2 and white as one at B1. Neither of these corners is particularly strong because if one player attacks into the hollow, the other can counter-attack.

These factors mean that in counting corners, you should give a little more weight to corners and connectable pairs beside single deep hollows. Flat corners are also more valuable because when you make the attack, you create the hollow at the same time. Flat corners are also harder to destroy; doing so often leaves you with another corner.

To summarise, we have looked in more detail at corners and connectable pairs. With these, attacks can always be made at least two ways (although not always safely!). Do not actually make unnecessary attacks, because that will weaken your position. We looked at the situations when it is correct to attack, and the key element is timing. Finally, we saw that some attacks and corners are stronger than others, and have modified our simple corner counting evaluation introduced in the previous article. I hope that you are able to make use of these tips to improve your game. Remember that it is only with practise that you will master these techniques.

Until next time, happy Traxing!
Donald Bailey

If you think you´ve got what it takes to impart some unknown game skills to other players out there, send your submissions for Games Corner to Kran

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Big News for September in { Board: The Locker-n-Rocker Room }

Once again, The Locker Room Crew broke open their piggy banks, so that we can adopt a guest! Of course, you will have to work hard for it!

THE GUEST WITH THE MOST POINTS AT THE END OF THE MONTH WILL RECEIVE A 6 MONTH SILVER MEMBERSHIP FROM THE Locker Room Crew!.

Don't miss out on the fun and the prizes! First Time Players with the highest score for the day will receive a GOLDTOKEN PEN!

And 1st, 2nd and 3rd place monthly winners receive a special gift from Badger!
So Come join us!

Rules and Game Times are posted on The Locker Room Crew profile!

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Newsletter Picture Hunt

Hooray! to August's Logo winners!! They are:
1) dawn1968
2) Judy
3) Aphrodite
4) Trist
5) pepperbeach
6) Honeybear
7) { Player: mom*of*4*GO YANKEES* }
8) Nancy
9) Nan54
10) Nargada

This months treasure hunt is Autumn/Gardening. Be among the first ten players to find all 12 GoldToken Logos, each featuring the Goldtoken Horse.

The first treasure hunt player to find all 12 wins a Black GoldToken TriLiter!! The next nine players to correctly find the 12 logos will win one of the new GoldToken Squiggly Pens!!

Everyone can play! Guests included! Once you have found all 12, message Badger and the first 10 correct will win a prize! Good luck!!

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Big News for the September 6x5 Tournament

To get things started, for the entire month of September the 6x5 tournament will be open to Goldtoken guests. Guests who decide to play will compete for their own prize listed below. To join in the tournament please read the complete rules that can be found on the 6x5 player profile. Then to join the fun go to { Board: 6x5 Trivia Addicts } board, read the questions, and just PM me 6x5 your answers. No signups, no call ahead seating or reservations needed. Once you have PM´d me your first set of answers to the questions posted, you´re in! Keep in mind that the 6x5 board is very competitive and you will need as many points as possible so get in on the first round to maximize your chances to win.

Because of September´s special prize you can expect a BIG difference in the tournament play. The questions are going to be harder, the pictures on the MSN site a lot harder to identify and you guessed it, the logic puzzle. You can bet it is going to be there and not just any puzzle. I have come up with a monster 5 part puzzle that will be integrated in to the 6x5 tournament that will challenge even the most experienced logic players. You will need to keep your own notes because the answers to the logic puzzles in the first four rounds will be needed to complete the 5th and final puzzle in the last round. The answers to previous rounds will be removed from the boards soon after posting and that is just for the first tournament of the month! For those of you who are groaning in agony at the the phrase "logic puzzle", PM me and I will send you last month's copy of the newsletter with some helpful tips for solving them.

Rules for the September 6x5 Tournament

This tournament the scoring and rules will be the same as all the normal tournaments but with a lot more points to be had. Please see the 6x5 player profile for the complete set of rules.

Big Prizes at Stake for the month of September

For Goldtoken members the prizes are as follows:

1st place: Goldtoken Duffle Bag
2nd place: Goldtoken T-shirt
3rd place: Goldtoken Squiggle Pen
4th place: Goldtoken Color Shirt Pen

For the Goldtoken guests who decide to give the 6x5 Tournament a try, they will be competing for one single prize. To the highest scoring Goldtoken guest member in the month of September will go a one month Gold membership

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Testamonials Of The Month

Ode to GoldToken.com

Let's hear for us at GT,
we're all one big family.
No worries or cares (or splitting hairs)
GT's the place to be.

On this site I often play chess,
and sometimes my games end in a mess,
But I love my fun when my work is done
and my pleasure is in excess.

When I'm down or feeling blue,
I log on for an hour or two.
For some games or debate,
GT's really first rate,
There's nothing I'd rather do.

So if you're looking for fun or a game,
of a recreational name,
Check out GT,it's the fun place to be.
Puts other game websites to shame.

Dark Angel

Thanks!
Just thought I'd drop you a note to tell you how much I enjoy your site. pepperbeach invited me to your site a few weeks back and I've got about 50 games going already. The people here are very friendly, and very willing to help a newcomer with the "wiki" boards and getting challenges and/or tournaments started. I've played backgammon for 30+ years and like I said was invited to your site before I discovered it. I love my games already, have a few friendships going and chatting back and forth to different people. Gold Token has that unique small town feeling with all it's great players.

Connecting to people is sometimes hard for me at times due to my disability. People judge too easily when you have depression and/or anxiety. I've just started getting Social Security for my disability and it makes my depression sooooooooo much better when I can connect with others and have a good time doing it. So your site has been good for me!

Just thought you'd like to hear that I enjoy your site!

TN-T

WOOHOO!! Thanks!
I received my package today for the prizes that I won! Thanks so much!
I love them all. My hubby already took ownership of the KeyChain Pen! LOL
I figured he earned it, watching me sit here all day! LOL!

I LOVE the Jewel Mug. It's really nice! And hubby is especially thrilled with the post-its! He said he is tired of me leaving him messages on paper napkins! :o)

Thanks again for all the great GT Stuff! I love playing the DB games even when I don't win, but winning, well, hey, it's GREAT!!!

Tessa



Would you like to make your affection for GoldToken known? Please send your testamonials (or any other material submissions) to Kran for possible inclusion in future editions -- thank you!

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Wanted

• If you are a guest and would be interested in earning your membership on a monthly basis, helping out with Joggle Jungle or Game Crew might be your ticket to do so! You must have good language skills and spelling, the ability to have several windows open at once, and be a fast learner with a willingness to learn how to edit wikis. If this sounds like it's a tailor made oppurtunity for you, send your application to Kran for consideration!