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BACKGROUND:  The word "pun" simply means "play on words". Chessgames has a long-standing tradition of giving our Game of the Day a title, which almost always involves some type of wordplay. The Chessgames Pun Submission Page allows you to suggest a game to be used as an upcoming Game of the Day.

General Overview

1. This is not a contest. You do not win anything if your entry is selected. We do not even promise that you will be recognized as the member who sumbitted the pun. If you participate in this system, please do it purely out of the joy of chess and a love for wordplay.
2. You may enter puns at our Submit Pun page.
3. Entries are judged on the quality of the pun, as well as the merits of the game itself. In order to have a suggestion accepted, you'll want to find an interesting game and then suggest a clever title for it.
4. You should take great care when selecting the game to use, because you will not be allowed to submit another pun for the same game. Likewise, you will not be allowed to submit the same pun for a different game. Carefully type your pun submission, proofreading before you enter it. Once you make a pun submission, you may not retract it, modify it, or submit another pun for the same game.
5. Entries are not accepted for any game which has been used as the Game of the Day since April 27th, 2004.
6. You must have a Chessgames account in order to submit puns. (Registration is quick and free--sign up now!)
7. You may judge puns at our Pun Voting Booth. It is not necessary to judge puns in order have an entry selected.
8. Entries are subject to deletion by Chessgames administrators in a number of scenarios, including but not limited to:
   1. The pun is, or closely resembles, a pun that was used as the Game of the Day on or after April 27th, 2004.
   2. The pun is, or closely resembles, a pun entry which has already been submitted. (You should take great care when selecting the game to use, because you will not be allowed to submit the same pun for a different game.)
   3. The game has already been used as the "Game of the Day" since April 27th, 2004.
   4. The pun is obscene, profane, racist, or otherwise distasteful, as judged by the Chessgames administrators. Repeated violations of this clause may ban an account from participation.
   5. The entry is judged by the Chessgames administrators to not be a serious entry. For example, the pun "dasdafssdf" would be a candidate for deletion under this clause.
   6. The pun makes a reference to a specific Chessgames user who is not otherwise notable in the chess world. (However, grandmasters and other famous people who post to Chessgames are exempt from this clause and are permitted targets for puns.)

• A good pun can be read literally and make sense, while at the same time implying a different meaning which is usually an idiom, person, event, or pop culture reference.
• Economy of words is crucial--if you can make a pun shorter and still convey the meaning, you probably should.
• Obvious and tired puns like "Tall" for "Tal" are rarely funny.
• Don't emphasize words by using ALL CAPITALS, as this distracts from the humor.
• It's OK if a pun is obscure, but it should not be so obscure that virtually nobody understands the reference.
• Some of the most ingenious puns contain two or or even three cross-references. For example, "A Long Walk off a Short Peer" is a great pun for Nigel Short's famous game against Jan Timman. It is a reference to the idiomatic "long walk off a short pier". GM Timman is a peer of GM Short (a "Short peer"), and the game itself contains an outstanding king walk (a "long walk").

• To judge entries that others have submitted, see our Pun Voting Booth.
• To view all of your entries, visit your Pun Submission List.
• To see puns that Chessgames.com has used in the past, see our Game of the Day Archive.
• To select a game at random to pun (usually a good one), use our random game search.
• To locate games to use as puns, you may want to use the search forms on the Chessgames Homepage. Premium Chessgames Members can use the Sacrifice Explorer to unearth some rare jewels.