Well, the good news is, Zillions is weak at Gothic Chess. The branching factor is still too high. It plays maybe at the 1600 or 1700 level overall, but I have yet to see it play an endgame over the 1500 level.

The best way to defeat these programs is with your mind. When I play games on here, I set up two Gothic Chess boards. One with the parent position, and another as an analysis board. For every move for every game I take it down as far as I can, usually 20 or 30 moves ahead. Then I look at the other board, set the position up again, then play down the line in the same fashion. Eventually you get the sense for the type of ending you can force, and the kind your opponent may be able to steer clear of. Knowing this, you can make strategic moves to get even masters in trouble.

That way I can play well beyond the scope of any program, and I have yet to have any problems.

Of course, the hypothetical engine we were talking about is just that -- hypothetical. It may be here one day though.

Maybe we will look for some beta testers in the near future. I am not sure if anyone would be interested in doing this.