Is pente solved? I didn´t know that...

Geometry is a subject studied often, with the goal of understanding; although the "proofs" stand--the idea is to spread the knowledge amongst masses of people. The essence of the process hold innovative ideas, even if they are old, and a few know the solution.

Our games have such depth we play, and most don't know the "solution", or they would fall into disuse. Our games are not yet "past their time", because those few who do "know the solution" haven't transmitted it to the rest of us by osmosis.

So there is plenty left to see in these games. And even when they are solved, there will be plenty to see....

pente and 5 in line have been solved, but i still play em!

Fencer: Yes, you're right. It's Connect4 (7x8) that is solved.

But still, "having been solved" doesn't mean the game can't be enjoyable. Or not be a challenge. Certain chess end-games are solved as well - but will still be huge challenge for a human to play. And there are still people out there that enjoy playing tic-tac-toe.

fungame: It's solved in the sense that there's a lookup table for each position and die role to see what the best move is. In fact, for any position one can calculate the winning chance.

Fencer: I thought classic line4 was 7x6.

AbigailII: There cannot be solution for dice-dependent games, solution in meaning one side always wins or draws in all variants. Of course in gammons best probability for each move can be counted, but probability and reality are quite different.

AbigailII: I think only the classic 8x7 Line4 is solved, 8x8 is not.

AbigailII: line4? really? do you have a link for the proof?

fungame: Hyper bg solved? That must be a joke.

http://www.bkgm.com/variants/HyperBackgammon.html claims it is. Considering the relatively low number of positions, this isn't at all surprising.

AbigailII: Line4 solved? I thougt 8x8 wasn't solved yet. Hyper bg solved? That must be a joke.

Fencer: I've no idea whether it's solved. But is that a problem? Line4 and Hyper Backgammon are solved as well, but people still play it. And in PakTum, with perfect play, black cannot win. But people still play it.

AbigailII: Isn't this game already solved?
On the other hand, it still seems to be better balanced than Horde or Maharajah Chess.

Hyper backgammon, as regular backgammons smaller brother, is a huge success. Perhaps Los Alamos Chess can be successful too. It's played on a 6x6 board. There are no bishops, there's no en passant taking, no initial 2 step move for pawns, and no castling. It was the first chess game that computer played - way back in the 50s. Next year, it's 50 years ago that computers first tried playing chess - and it was Los Alamos Chess they first tried.

"Lost Pawns Chess" looks interesting.
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chessvariants/message/1668

And doesn't seem to be patented...

Fencer: O yes I see....What a pity!

Caissus: No more patents, please.
http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/falconpatent.html

is an interesting chessvariant played on a 10x8 board: http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/falcon.html

Perhaps we can have it as third 10x8 variant anytime?

Probably I am not the first one to see it, but chessvariants.com is back online - seems just a little slower than it used to be.

Here is a Xiang Qi (Chinese chess) tournament with a prize of a one-year Brain Rook membership. Everyone is welcome to participate.

http://brainking.com/es/Tournaments?trg=10680&trnst=0&tp=68

Fencer: maybe a strategic alliance is in order?

Nasmichael: Too much resources for the comments script? It cannot consume more resources than BK's discussion board system :-)

BIG BAD WOLF: From chessfriend Hans--

(an email to me today)--

"Dear Michael,

Thanks for the mail. Yes, there is a problem - the hosting firm thought we
use too much resources with the script that gets the comments at the bottoms
of the webpages. I've forwarded your email to David Howe (and cc him with this
email), who is currently one of the chief editors of the website.

Best regards,
Hans"

I offer a Shogi tournament for those who love "drop chess" games, this is the Father of them all.

Come and play.

Paul, this one's for you!

I also think so. It would be too much an invaluable loss if this site didn't reappear in one way or another.

People that wrote this huge site with all their great efforts, it is sure they will come back........!

that's a shame, that site was so popular, but I do get the same message.

Fencer: I would guess the site went over it's limit for something where it is hosted.

I know where I'm hosted at will suspend my site if I go over bandwidth or possible a DOS attack against the domain name, etc.

If it was "closed" or "expired", I'm sure the hosting company (ipowerweb) would not replace it with a note saying to contact them.

Fencer: Yes, I misspelled his name, --Bodlaender-- and I just emailed him.

Just waiting for response.

Fencer: Yes, 99.99% chances he is the founder of chessvariants.org . I remember that he was from Utrecht.

Nasmichael: I guess we are talking about this guy, right?

nabla: Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Fencer: Oh I've got another one : chessvar@yahoo.com with the owner described as "The Chess Variants Pages"

Fencer: Somewhere in my mailbox I have got the editors@chessvariants.org address, but I guess it would not work either :-(

Fencer: I will be sure to do that.

Nasmichael: Please let me know if you get some info from Hans Boedlander.

Fencer: Yeah, I got the same thing. Unsure of what is going on....

I hope it is very temporary.

Nasmichael: Still the same error message.

Fencer: the address should read:

www.chessvariants.org and currently I am playing several games there at their Game Courier. I logged on yesterday, 00:15 hrs GMT, but I have not logged on today.

I will try again, but try my link and see if it works for you.

I hope it is there.

I have Hans Boedlander's address in my files--give me some time to send him a note, and maybe we can find out more about it.

Spirou: That's a pity. Does anybody have a contact of chessvariants.org owners? They could move the site to our servers.

Fencer: Me too. Probably the server is done.

When I try to open http://chessvariants.org it is redirected to a different page with this text:
----------
account suspended

Your account has been suspended. We have sent you an email explaining why. This email should also contain information on how you can unsuspend your account.
----------

Does anybody know what's going on there?

Fencer: Oh, and by the way, I recently played some Recycle Chess games with the author in the Berlin Bug Gathering, and since he wrote the rules I linked, he has switched back to allowing promotions, which is more lively.

Fencer: Hostage *and* Recycle, that is just great news. You rule !

Does anybody know this variant? Is it playable and well balanced?

nabla: I consider both variations.

By the way, I fully support / am looking forward to the implementation of Hostage Chess, which is an excellent game.
Sorry to be on the "user always want more" side, but Recycle Chess (http://www.chessvariants.org/difftaking.dir/recy
clechess.html) is a close and simpler relative that definitely deserves the same consideration !

Fencer: I read Hostage Chess games commented by the author and yes, this seems to be the correct interepretation.
But there is one more point in this rule (probably it was stated later and you know it) : if no piece is in the opponent's prison, then the pawn cannot move onto the last rank. It means that in this case, a pawn on the seventh rank is not even checking a king on the last rank.

Fencer: No problem. Abigail gave you the correct answer, I just offered something more for you or for those who may want an example. Thank you for asking about the game.

Nasmichael: Thanks but this strategy is too complicated for me. I was only asking for a clarificarion of pawn promotes in this variant, with a simple example. I don't have time to study anything longer.