Kipling: i thought it was a dalmatian!

pawnme: me too, it beats reading..umm..NOTHING! But GC is gone and i don't miss it now that embassy chess is here, it's just as good, but patentless!

Kasparov looks very old for his age. Ah, the burdens of genius! I still can't see the logic in anyone sponsoring a relatively unknown game like Gothic Chess, as much as I liked the game itself. I'd love to see either match, moreso the Karpov one, because FRC is closer to their specialties.

Kasparov was deconstructing Fischer's endgames when he was 13...but it's an unfair comparison. Also, FIDE may have been controlled by the Communists...but they were communists in name only, fascists in practice.

Caissus: if Ed was right about the money those guys wanted, there is probably no way the match will happen. Who would sponsor millions of dollars for such an obscure game?

yes, quite interesting!

WhiteTower: which one was that?

tedbarber: bad etiquette to point out how "bad" an opponent's position is midgame..if you're strangers. Walter has pointed it out to me in some of our games, but we've played each other about 50 times!

Fwiffo: in a sense, they are the same strength because any singular endgame combination thereof (A vs C, Q vs A) is a draw under most circumstances. But as for which is more powerful, C or A, remarkably I have found A is better than its theoretical move values as compared to a C. However, it always depends on the game :)

fariborz2: Chess is much more different from Janus than Janus is from Goth. And Leko is among the world's best in both. I don't think it would be hard for him to do well in Goth.

chessmec: Fencer is going to merge the boards soon, I was just getting a head start. They're not that different that Leko would be a novice in Goth, I imagine!

ughaibu: he has excellent combinational vision.

chessmec: Well, according to the US Patent Office, Ed Trice was the first one to place the pieces on that board in that configuration and call it Gothic Chess. I'm sure that the configuration must've been stumbled upon by someone else before, but Trice was the first to claim the patent and the name. Not only that, he formed the federation, world computer championships, etc. I know how you feel. I'm very ambivalent about the whole thing.

fariborz2: it's a new game if it has different rules and is represented as a different game under a different name. That's how other games were circumvented on this site.

In all fairness, though, Ed Trice's $1 royalty is not too much to ask.

chessmec: interesting. I wonder why he withdrew the application.

well said. schachmdmt, it was not Cerebro that started the public rumor, he was just attempting to squelch it and put it to rest.

because it was "anonymous", rendering the identity absolutely correct to anyone who speculates about it.

thank you schach! I look forward to more games, especially 3+(!!!), in the new year! Yes, it is my first ever brown xmas, i miss the snow. However, xmas here is not yet commercialized and it is a pleasant respite so far. So i don't really mind, my home is not set in stone!

best wishes to all! 圣诞快乐！ 성탄축하!

to you as well noursix, i'm finding you a very challenging opponent in our game and I will be lucky to draw!

well put. Are you considering entering your prog in the Gothic computer championships?

Sumerian, in a randomized version, even if you have setups identical to gothic chess, it won't infringe the patent because it is a different game arrived at randomly and you are not calling it or representing it as gothic chess. You could just add a rule like "if a player does not move a pawn or knight within the first 5 moves, that player loses the game."

very cleverly named game..unlike other variants here!

Freudian slip

well, i've been trying to talk about it, but no one, including you, Chesscarpenter, ever replies. Isn't that a bit hypocritical? Also, about Walter, first you said he talked too much, now not enough? I guess nothing can make your faction happy.
Lastly, people who don't play Goth have every right to say whatever they want about it. I've never been to war, but what I have to say about it is meaningful. Likewise with Goth.

Goth is still popular on this site, but I know of at least 5 people who refuse to play another game of it in protest of what they interpret as Ed's heavyhandedness. That's their choice, but surely you can see playing and analysis is more important than splintering the "community"? The gauntlet is thrown, does anyone have anything to say about that game below or am I going to have to form my own fellowship to talk about it?

Just kidding. Psyche.

yes, no matter how hard we try to talk about goth here, it seems everyone gets distracted. Ok, I'll start: i thought i would lose or draw the endgame unless I could get to the king and push him around. The acceptance of the sac is forced but that doesn't make it good necessarily. I would appreciate it if any patent holders or others from the goth pantheon would care to comment!

Fencer has stated he hasn't manipulated Ed's account at all, and the PW request E-mail account doesn't ignore, to my knowledge

i don't see anything except the draw, nice game tho.

Hi Uwe, I was asking if the following sacrifice was sound or can it be refuted? Gothic Vortex poo-pooed it but it's been wrong before...

this move

i had a pending question about a game for months that no one deigned to answer...so I have given up.

i'm in the only team signed up already, harley, sorry!

i wish we could've played cylinder team..that one seems so fun. Like goth, it totally belittles knights.

it happened to me too just today..! try a pw request

it is perfectly acceptable to express your opinion over the validity of a patent, even when in a conflict of interest. But you STILL think he should resign. Would that make the board any better? What about when (possibly fake) pawns call Caissus a goose stepping moron. Personal racist attack and not related to Goth at all. They don't even get a warning. Sounds like a double standard bordering on a vendetta to me.

ultimately, they'll only be meaningful after many, many games. Looking at ughaibu's stats, top in so many variants with hundreds of games in them, it's tough to dispute him as #1. I don't know if nellaf has left the site. If his rating bothers you, challenge him!

we don't lose rating points on timeout losses within the first 2 moves, I think. Ratings here are meaningless anyway!

I find the idea of carrying out lawsuits to silence critics rather than uphold the law odious. As far as I know, Walter has not defied the patent in any way by manufacturing or distributing any sets under the name Gothic Chess. The lawsuit sounds like hollow intimidation and a big waste of time and money, more for Ed Trice, whom I think would better serve the chess community by promoting Gothic Chess rather than trying to silence critics. I like CardinalFlight's post, he summed it up well. It's true Walter is in a conflict of interest by criticizing the patent of a game he is moderating, but he agreed not to make any more incendiary statements so I feel he is just fine as mod. As for one mod unbanning and the other banning, that's just ..... smart.

it seems to me he chose not to play because he DISagrees with you. I've never found Caissus slow...I have, however, heard of some people on this site deliberately waiting until the last minute to move to delay losses. Doesn't that just curl your toes?

maybe that's how Gothic Chess was invented from Bird's...

hahah..right. See Othello/Reversi for further reference.

An excellent discussion of the value of the pieces and rationale is given in Andy Soltis' book "Karl Marx Plays Chess"

personally I have found that an Archbishop is especially powerful and in many cases would rather have one than a chancellor or queen. One reason is the solo mate, the other is the incredible defensive features it offers by being able to fork attacking pieces while defending. I think that the human brain finds diagonal routed attacks more difficult to deal with than ranks or files. There are so many examples I can think of in Tal's games where he would set up an apparent rook sacrifice, then sac the bish or N as the opponent was bolstering against the open attack..and this is at the GM level!

One more thing, as public service: the word "it's" is a contraction for "it is", so the cat put it's feet in the water is WRONG, the cat put its feet in the water (possessive) is right. Further unwelcome education may be found at http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif

proof that too many cooks spoil the broth!

that sounds great, Cardinal, I'd love to try it!

Canada and the U.S. hardly qualify as international cases. Gee, maybe I'll tell Saddam Hussein that when Bush called him an evil dictator, all he had to do was sue him for defamation! No war! peace! let's all play Goth!

lawsuits are notorious for failing internationally. Especially those based on internet law. There are no extradition treaties for civil (or un-civil) cases. Local authorities are just that..authorities of their own laws and constitutions and could care less about foreign policy. Watch the families of 911 and Cantor Fitzgerald try to sue the Saudi Arabian govt. Laughable. In Korea, people still settle things like men without posturing. Luckily, the lawsuit world is still primarily a Western barbarism.

you know, there are lots of girls in Korea named Su Mi. It's a lawyer's paradise. o_O

!? who deleted the posts!? none of the mods are online!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Chess_variant


interesting discussion of the above at this site.

heh..i moved.

Did someone delete some posts between Ed's? This thread doesn't make sense at all.

Terry was a very special person. This comes as a shock..and his web pages are down too. Amazing what things we take for granted. i will play in that tourney, it's all I can do to show respect.