Hello everyone, Ed has asked me, as an old GCA member, to say a few words about Gothic Chess. I was a member of the old GCA (Gothic Chess Association) back a few years ago. Even though I never played any rated games, I do have some Gothic experience under my belt. Schaakhamster, while I appreciate the compliment, I would hardly consider myself to be a "Big Fish". Basically I know some of the what not to do's sprung from lessons of hard-knocks. Those lessons were handed to me by some of the other old GCA players who I used to battle with on a java applet site that was developed by the GCA. Sadly, the site was only in existence for a short period of time. These are the first Gothic games I've played since the GCA went into legal term-oil a few years back. It feels good to get back into it. I hope Ed can revive his old quarterly magazine "Gothic Chess Review". There was many a pearl to be plucked from those pages. Ed and a dozen or so other players whom seemed to be the core of the GCA contributed often and passionately. Unfortunately for me the GCA was in Philadelphia and I live in the Los Angeles area thus games were hard to find. Hopefully with Brian King, Gothic Chess will have a new home and a strong, solid future.