he whisperzQ . thnx for the info. i am new to the site , didnt know there had been soooo many discussions before about the game but in any case after playing just a few games i know for a fact that if i play the way i do , as black , i dont lose a single piece guaranteed and white never gets a shot at my king and i can checkmate the maharaja withing 30 moves evry time. its not that i dont like the game i do infact and that is the reason for my input. i just played a couple of games as white and won too but that was because the opponents were novices. in one game which i set as a 2 win match and started as black , my opponent used the exact same strategy i did as black and i could do nothing but lose the second game. lucky for me ill win the third but even though i know i cant lose any game playing as black , i was just hoping that htere be a way to even the game out so that i could play white with a chance of winning. i checked the ratings and the top players of maharaja only play as black. none of them excepts any invitations to play white and i guess all of them ( im about to be included in that list too ) are just lame enough to wait for an amateur to accept their games in the waiting room as white.