bwildman: I understand your attitude. If I had a chance, I would have restored all missing games [including the ones from the mentioned tournament] and everything could continue with no problems. Unfortunatelly, it is not possible.
Aragon: Hmmm, not a bad idea. But I would like to finish some more urgent things first :-)

Dano: Please don't write about "coincidences", I'm starting to be allergic to this word. And nobody except me and Liquid is granted to upload anything to BrainKing.com site. And I'm not going to write more details about the structure and security of our servers.

I know only one person who would have also economic interests in
a server-crash to blur the verbal traces left by weeks of his execrable
notoriousness, awww and what a nice co-incidence, probably the only
one too, who's granted to upload scripts to brainking, because the
gothic homepage is hosted there ... now that is a speculation ...

documented then that I already had won my tourney-group,
but easy speculation again who was not pleased by right that ... blah ~*~

Our there any BrainKing tourny's such as this planned Fencer? I mean im sure if you were to host a twice yearly one with price money (entry fee ofcourse) it may generate some revenue for BK?

Well Fencer...since you asked...I'm not complaining...nor am I speculating.Gothic Inventer asked and I asked him in return.Maybe I was confused at 1st...but I was under the impression that tourny would be resumed..heck...I'm still confused.But last time I checked....none of the other Tourny's had $3000.00 price tags on them...and only one has been reposted. If Gothic doesn't appreciate my concern or that of others...perhaps he shouldn't ask for our opinions.

Okay, let's finish this topic. The final result is that the 2003 Gothic Chess Championship is cancelled and there is nothing else to do with it. No further discussion can change it.

I found only one vote on the Gothic Board, it was Chesscarpenter

bwildman, how can we possibly resume it without the complete restoration? Look at chesscarpenter, he already aced his way in and won his section. Does he have to win again?

I called for a vote, and everyone who voted said to kill the 2003 event

If you have a complaint, lodge it with the voters in private and ask them why they wanted it removed.

The 2003 event is gone.

if you don't want to play in 2004, then just don't enter it. There will be no event in 2003, it is mid November already.

Hey guys,
what's the problem anyway? Prize tournaments are only an addition to BrainKing features and all of them are created on volunteer basis. The tournament director can define his own rules. Who does not like it, does not have to participate in the tournament.
That's the general rule. There are lots of other tournaments that had disappeared after the crash. Why don't you complain about them too?

And "Will future Tournaments fall victum if there is another unfortunate experience,such as a crash...or someone"hacks"your account?'

danoschek, my previous post was directed to bwildman.

I'm asking you....."Are we going to resume the Original Tournament that was canceled due to the unfortunate crash?"

documenting was always my first choice btw.
that is why I'm particulary picky about manipulated documents. ~*~

So you are speculating? How nice.

Pattern? The site crashed and there was no backup.

I am asking people if they want to play for even more money or if they want to play for no money.

So what is your problem with that?

will there ever be something else than just promises ?

gothic tournaments seem to be canceled randomly when cheats
that the creator offered publically don't show the desired impact. ~*~

will Bwild be the next enemy ? LMAO 2 already in 2 days aint bad

thats my point exacty ...the tourny has changed from its original format....whos to say this is not a pattern??

If you read the posts, bwildmanm you will see that I intend to run one in 2004. The question was $10,000 prize with an entrance fee, or no fee and just the title.

Read before you post.

Go to Google.com and type in "gothic chess" using the quotes. Here is just some of what you will find:

http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/chess/chessvari.html

This next one is a German website that displayed how to hack into the old Gothic Chess website! We were so popular people in your country hacked us!

http://www.serialzhackzserialz.de/rippen_03.htm

http://xor.ma.cx/ichess/index.php?go=variants

And even at GameKnot.com players from other countries acknowledge the game and playing me (Cal is calling me "World Champion" although I personally have never used this title)

http://gameknot.com/fmsg/chess/2588.shtml

And here is a link from 1998 when I was still playing Capablanca Chess, which was confused by the webmaster as being Gothic Chess...

http://www.nostgames.com/notes_379.htm

And in Japan even...

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~mu6k-ski/chess/variants.html

Well, there are still 20 more pages on the Google search, and I am not going to wade through them all.

You get the point.

I guess,Gothic...I was the only one to think it would resume in 2004...but hey,its your money..

First of all, the money had to be earned. I was not just handing it out. There would be 4 finalists, and I was going to be one of those finalists. Before anyone got $3000, they would have to get past me.

I offered the money, of course, but I am not using the crash of the site to not dispense of it. Let's just say you were winning 3 games and one of your opponents, once he saw your attack, now avoided his weak move and gets a draw with you? Furthermore, suppose he resigns a game he had a draw in previously, an the person he resigned to now advances to the finals and you do not?

You would be the first to complain.

The only fair thing to do was put the decision to a vote, which I did do, any everybody voted to cancel the tournament as you can see if you read the posts.

I vote b

Yes Fencer,it was not his fault that the tournement disappeared.But he had offered and promised a $ 3000 prize to us.Nobody has asked him for it.He had the prize offered voluntarily.And now he withdraws only because of the crash? We can repeat and continue the tournement. This is not okay!

Cassius, more people play Gothic Chess in "heartland" USA than where I started it all in Philadelphia. We sold over 400 sets in only 3 days when we were in Kansas City.

The reason why you see Gothic Chess in only one place is because of the patent. This is what we want!

I have postcards from players from all over the world who play Gothic Chess. One of the scientists in Anarctica has a Gothic Chess set with him. A solidier in Iraq wrote to me and said his supply chief showed him a Gothic Chess board and he wants one when his tour of duty is up.

Gothic Chess was going to be a recurring monthly article in Chess Life before they cut the page count back to under 40 per month when it was discovered that some widespread misuse of funds had left them nearly bankrupt.

Gothic chess is played all over the world, whether you elect to notice it or not.

It is not a small organization, it is one constantly being revamped to accommodate its growth.

Look how many people on this site have Janus chess ratings, and look how many have Gothic ratings. Start a new game of Janus and one of Gothic, then look at the stats showing the counts of how many of each have been played.

This is just a small subset of the entire Gothic Chess community.

One teacher in Canada wrote to me and said he assigned an extra credit project to the computer science students to write a Gothic Chess program. Anything like that happening in Germany??

Caissus: You know that it was not Ed's fault that the tournament had disappeared. It's up to him if he wants to resurrect it or not. And if he decides to start another big prize tournament, why not? It's everyone's right to create any tournament he wants. If you have better idea [and money for prizes], you can do it yourself, there are no limitations.

any loop chess players out there?

As you most players here are thinking BBW,the most players here are funplayers and not profiplayers,who want earn money with their games.If you want to see a professional site -with professional players too- look at www.playchess.com (client available),where sometimes 2000 players are online ( 100000 registered users- only chess) and Kramnik ,Judith Polgar and others are live playing.
Once again:For a big event you need famous names from the chessworld, and these players play for free and than many standard players are signing in (with fee) because they want play against the masters.

Okay may be 1998, but now which events are now,this year and where can I now these players see playing GC? Here in Europe nobody knows this game.In Germany we have the strongest first league of the world with many grand- and international masters from everywhere. But they play chess and only chess and they play for money in the tournements.(The only event is the JanusChess Championchips in Saarbrücken one time in the year, Kortschnoi was here and others).We have also here many newspapers of chess and correspondence chess and there are many good websites.And nowhere was mentioned Gothic Chess except your own site.I like this game, I like some other variants too, but it will be always a small minority of the chessplayers who are playing something other than chess.That`s the fact! What is the future of chess (I have heard here often)It is only ...chess.

Our last event has had only fifty participants without entrance fee.
But okay,try to organize a big tournement with 500 players and entrance fee,if you have success certainly you are right!
But better would it be first to restart and to finish our last championships! We all have waited and played here and now... nothing?

The KM Tanks A Lot tournament is open for sign ups. Enjoy.

Speaking for myself (a not very good Gothic Chess Player), I would not pay a fee to enter the tournament (Basicly because I stick at the game, and have no way of winning anything). But if it was with no entrance fee, I would probable join just for the very slim chance I might actually make some good moves. (And I believe many others feel the same way I do)

So the question would be if you would want a lot of players in your tournament (no entrance fee), or less players in your tournamanet (with entrance fee)

Or as mentioned once before, maybe the player will need to be a paying member of BrainKing to play in the tournament (which will get a few more players in your tournament, plus help out BrainKing)

--------
Prizes - If there were more prizes, that might also get more people to join. Lets say the entrance fee is $50, maybe some of the "lower" prizes could be cheaper "Gothic Chess" shirts, coffee mugs, etc... Even if a player can win something, it's a good thing (even if it is not worth the same as the cost to enter the tournament).

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

Cassius, the GCA was founded in 1998, long before this site. We played tournaments face to face before playing online.

I played IM Larry Kaufmann in Washington DC in Spring 2001 at the Law Offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. I was there on business, he lives not far from the area, he met me for a 90 minute lunch session. He brought his Gothic Chess set, and we played two games.

His son is a 2100+ player who also plays Gothic Chess. They subscribed to the magazine, Gothic Chess Review, which I used to publish myself personally.

Other players with Gothic Chess sets: You must know the name of Bruce Pandolfini. He was the teacher of Joshua Waitzkins from "Searching for Bobby Fischer" fame. Bruce is our representative to QVC, and was supposed to appear in our commercial this past October before we both had to make changes.

Greg Shahade and I are both from Drexel University. Last time I checked he was 2502.

Gothic Chess has already been apart of some big tournaments. At the Supernationals II in April of 2001, kids competing for the crown of national high school chess champion were surrounding our booth non-stop. Some parents even had to drag them away as their clocks had already been started.

This happened round after round, and it was at this event with 5000+ people that I met Bruce. We had known of each other for different reasons (my 'Sniper' chess program was popular in the late 1980's and early 90's) but had never formally been introduced prior to that.

Other players have specifically asked not to be a part of any endorsement or promotion, and I will respect their wishes.

Seven players.... call their names, they have played one time Gothic Chess, or two times?
Where do they play now and where is it published?
The young generation? Okay perhaps in the future,perhaps not.It is fact if you want to organize a big tournement you need sponsors and sponsors need famous names.Look at your invitation, no one wanted to sign in for $ 50,- except four persons, most here are funplayers.And you speak about 500 players...?
Let us finish the interrupted event and look if somebody receives something and than we go to the next step.

There are now 7 Gothic Chess players who are in the top 50 of the US Chess Federation's October 2003 rating list.

Most of the members of the older organization (GCA) were under the age of 16. Our goal was not to skim Grandmasters from the USCF and get them to convert. What good what that do us, since there are only 36 Grandmasters in the USA??

The goal is to appeal to the young, who will one day be older and be able to support the organization as they are more financially independent.

There is one 17 year old player from Pennsylvania who will beat any FIDE 2100 player in Gothic Chess game after game. He is an incredible talent and I know his interest and enthusiasm will probably surpass me on the way to the 2500 mark. He is that good.

Players such as this are a tribute to our success, not Grandmasters who are already established. GMs have too much invested in the 8x8 game to play Gothic more than just casually.

My aim is to create a member-based organization equivalent to the USCF. Imagine with 50,000 members the kind of tournament we could have every year for the national title!

This is where I would like to take Gothic Chess.

it seems to me...if one has 50.00 to enter this contest...then one should be able to afford a rook membership....I take it,that the tourny will be for paying members only?

I bet Spirou gets moderated LMAO

You say "Keep it for your self" !! ?? I think we are yet in a democratic environment.
About "elevating the quality", as I know there is not yet a computer program for playing golf.
Who are are you for trying me to shut down my mouth! Though I am not so surprised. I have already read your preceding querellingsome, childlike literature.
Good bye illmannered young fellow !!

Perhaps you should first repeat the interrupted event and disburse the promised money before you are planing a new,much bigger event.Btw you cannot compare Gothic Chess with big chessevents,if no one famous grandmaster plays this game.

$50?

I simply don't understand the negative posts of Spirou and that other person. Here I offer thousands of dollars with no entrance fee, and I get this negative feedback. A horrible crash occurred, so to be fair, we had to cancel the tournament.

Playing for money has always elevated the quality of play. Look what large corporate sponsorship has done for golf. Even mediocre pros can make about $250,000 a year and never finish in the top prizes!

Why cannot the same happen for chess and Gothic Chess?

If you have something negative you want to express about the tournaments and prizes, do us all a favor, keep it to yourself.

I am asking those who want to participate in the event what would be a reasonable amount to pay in order to enter?

promises promises - I am a prophet ... ~*~

In my opinion, playing for money, mainly exacerbate greediness and consequently encourage the use of programs. Those programs killing the fun of play. In other words sleepying the imagination. How a sad future.
Chess and its variants are rare plays the fun is self-sufficient for enjoy and yet meaningless ratings points already could pertubate the fair-play of someone. Imagine when golden calf come in.

It would be nice to be able to offer prizes for a great many players, but the point of tournament play is to encourage you to strive hard to make it to the top tier. The top 20 finishers of an event like the World Open do get prize money, but they also have 500+ players per section paying $250 to enter.

By annoucing a larger prize fund at different internet sites, we could attract more players here, which is the objective.

I tried a $20 tournament here once with the winnings being a function of the players who register, and there was little interest.

So, I think I will offer prizes as follows:

$10,000
$5,000
$2,500
$1,000
$500
$200
$200
$200
$200
$200

For places 1 through 10.

The question is, what should the entrance fee be?

You would do better to offer more prizes, perhaps to the top ten finishers or even top twenty. After all, most of us stand little chance of winning the whole thing, so you could offer $1, $1,000, or even $1,000,000 and it wouldn't matter to 90% of the players (including me).

Also, I vote to scrap the 2003 tourney. Even if you started it today, the bulk of it would take place in 2004 and could even extend so long that it would make getting next year's played during the year and after the 2003 tourney is finished quite difficult. (sorry for the run-on sentence).

Thad

Would the entreance fee be still $50 or higher?

I am for a $ 50.000,- prize tournement!

Would players prefer a $10,000 first prize with an entrance fee, or would you prefer no entrace fee and just win the "title" of World Champion?

The reason I ask is because I have been talking to some seasoned chess players who would be interested in playing Gothic, and they were wondering what all of you think about it.

Thanks Fencer - looks better now. :-)

OK Here goes again.

We had a superb 28 people signed for this the first time around, lets see if we can get the same? Prize Tourney One Year Rook Membership

It would be nice if the winner was already a member that they donate to a pawn somewhere, but this is only a suggestion :O)

Aragon's Checkered Past II

Still a good bit down from last time :)

If like me you have scrapped all games and started from scratch your Main Page will look quite bare LOL

Sign up here for ALL Checker Variations and get some games going again :o)

Oh, and have fun!!

Checkers, Checkers and More Checkers

~~Aragon KM~~

I need the tournament ID.