OK, to help you guys out, here is the position again, this time with a little hint:

Juan vs. Ed

After 38. Ng5!! I will play 38...Ng6 and I claim white to move can draw.

If Caissas can win this, I would like to play the black pieces against his upcoming moves just to prove black has no worries at all :)

But, white should still be able to draw this line, and the first to do so wins the mug :)

The problem is if you are missing the "www" from the start of that, and your cookies have the "www" in it, you get the logon screen. So try this:

http://www.brainking.com/game/ArchivedGame?g=99916&i=74

BBW (BIG BAD WOLF)

Try pasting this into your browser then

http://brainking.com/game/ArchivedGame?g=99916&i=74

Hi GCP ... tried the link to the game and it throws me out to the login screen. i then tried the game id from querying the tag and came up with a game not found, probably deleted ... so can you post the actual game number please (I thought it used to be here but that post seems to have been deleted?) Cheers W.

CaissasDream is on the right track, but there is no win for white as black can dispose of the Queen since the white Rook is already sac-exchanged.

I give 38. Ng5!! as it is the only way to draw. Black basically has only four moves to consider at this point: 38...Qe8, 38...Ng6, 38...Nc6, or 38...Nd5, so tell me which one you think leads to the draw.

65, go to my original post, and you will see a link at the very top, Juan vs. Ed, and this will take you directly to the move.

Hello Ed, congratulations for your win against juan! I observed this game and thought (without analysis)after juans ´s brave 35.move that he has the possibility of a win because his very mobile AB and your offside standing rook.
Instead 38.h7+? I saw 38.Ng5!? Nd5 39.h7+ with four variants :
a)39...Kj8? 40.Ah6+ Bi7 41.Ni6++
b)39...Kj7? 40.Ah5+ Kj8 41.Ni6+ Kj7 42.Nxh8+ +-
c)39...Qxh7?! 41.Nxh7 Kxh7 41.Ai5+ unclear,perhaps += because of the very mobile AB
d)39...Ki7! 40.Ah5+ Kh6 (40...Kj8? Ni6+ etc +-)41.Aj7+ Ki7 (41..Kg6 41 Ag5+ Kh5
(41..Kf6?42.Bxd4+ 42.Ke7 Ag6+ 43.Kd6 +-)42.Aj7+ =)42.Ag5+ Kh6 =
What do you think about these variants?
Wow, it is now my job to win the first game against you? :)

I am not very clear about this. White to move and draw, starting from which move in the game? I suppose that this would be the alternative move to juangrande's 36. h7+. Is that right?

It was a strange ending, typical of the punishment I deserved for underestimating the resolve of my opponent!

The only way to win was to allow the Bishop to be captured, a very risky ordeal since it was parked in the h-file where not one but two passed pawns were heading down the pike!

Once the Archbishop expended the energy to capture the Bishop, I could exhaust all of the checks. This was a very lengthy exercise in running an Archbishop out of gas -- The Battle of The Bulge brought to Gothic Chess.

I love the ending to your game! A good combination of piece placement to take the heart out of your opponent, as well as, the game!

Juan vs. Ed

In the game above, played from round 1 of the finals between Juan Grande and myself, I had miscued and Juan fought back with a brilliant strategy.

I overexposed the King and Juan's Archbishop + minor were better than my cramped Queen and Rook.

At this point in the game, with White to move, I found a long sequence that forced a draw. When Juan played 38. h7+ next, I was able to announce a win.

The first person to show the entire line of the correct play for white to move and draw will win a FREE Gothic Chess stainless steel mug.

Start your engines!

That, my friend, is what we used to refer to as "a zinger!" Nice one! :)

After a shakey start, this game, #114689, proved to have a very interesting ending. Of the final 4 moves, 2 were knight forks & one was actually an archbishop "fork", which also administered the coup de grace.

Why I was not invited? I am very angry about it!:)

Don't be surprised if the turnout is much better than you would expect based on the survey...

Yesterday, I went to Ed's Patent party/Ellie(his wife) birthday party. There was Gothic Chess playing and talk of our current tournament, as well as, the Gothic Chess Championship that we all have been trying to figure out here on this discussion board.

Well, there are new players on the horizon and I think we all should take a look behind us or below us:) The next generation of Gothic players has arrived! Ed's daughter Brittany is a player! We played a Blitz game and she gave me all I could handle. She played an unusual opening and had tactical vision which I was surprised and was caught off guard with! I just managed to pull out a win after a great Queenside castle move she made! I was in time trouble and after I lost my Queen which was pinned to my king by her Rook, I pulled out a tough victory with an ArchBishop mate.

Brittany is 7 1/2 years old....and don't forget the 1/2!! I wish I was Brittany's age learning Gothic Chess...maybe I would have a fighting chance against all of these young upstarts!
Anyway, I think Brittany deserves a round of applause for her nicely played game against me!!

Using Rob's numbers, here is what we would announce for the winners based on 100 entrants:

$50: 1st = $3500; 2nd = $750; BK=$250

This would strongly encourage the last two finalists to really duke it out!!

The winner should get more money...after all you are going to be the Gothic World Champion!!

Winner: 70% of the pot
2nd Place: 15% of the pot
Brainking: 5% of the pot
GCF: The rest

Also, a $50 entrance fee seems very fair!!

I think the ArchBishop is one of the most valueable pieces in Gothic Chess. My game seems to thrive on the complexities that this piece introduces to Gothic. Although, there comes a time in the game when one is forced to swap or win a Queen for a ArchBishop + Minor piece.

Sooooo...I say look at the position before making these exchanges. Overall though, I like my ArchBishop...I guess its the Catholic in me:)

I would keep Archbishop + Knight(or Bishop) without doubt. They seem stronger than a lone Queen!
In the begininng, in the middlegame and in the final too :)

Rarely. The new pieces are what give problems to the inexperienced Gothic Player [including me at times]. I prefer to keep all the new pieces haphazardly on the board as people usually miss the possibles arising from these 'new' pieces.

To answer your Q. Yes and No.

YES if other factors mitigate that I remove wood from the board quickly [like me being subject to a massive attack], and NO if I am already dominant in material or position. In the long run, the Q is USUALLY more damaging [IMHO] due to its multi-directional range compared with the AB and would most likely get another pawn or two before being removed from the board.

An example is the game which I just sent to Ed. It being a tough game, I was playing with AB-B-R vs N-N-B-R and found it difficult to do anything about the N pair. I think the K has got to go nearer [and risk getting attacked] for an AB to take out 2N in the endgame.

I am for the last option! :-))
No, just kidding. I am going to support this event as much as I can.

Question to the group:

Would you trade your Queen for an Archbishop and Knight? How about an Archbishop and Bishop?

Just trying to get a sense for what people think about this exchange.

I like this idea! Now, what to set down as an entrance fee? Let's assume we get 100 people, like as in our current tournament.

Then for $X entrance fee, the payouts would be:

$10: 1st = $600; 2nd = $250; BK=$50
$20: 1st = $1200; 2nd = $500; BK=$100
$30: 1st = $1800; 2nd = $750; BK=$150
$40: 1st = $2400; 2nd = $1000; BK=$200
$50: 1st = $3000; 2nd = $1250; BK=$250
$100: 1st = $6000; 2nd = $2500; BK=$500

Now, based on those projections, how much would everyone want to pay to play?

Prize Fund Idea: How about a small percentage going to BrainKing for hosting the tournament? (5% or something?) I know they have made some money by people comming here and buying memberships already, so...???
Winner: 60% of pot
2nd: 25% of pot
BrainKing: 5% of pot
GC Fed.: the rest

I am thinking about starting the World Championship online here in September. I woud like to know if "the masses" would be interested it making it a money event?

The prestige of a World Championship for other events always includes a nice purse for the winner, a trophy worthy of display, and of course a title that means something.

If we have an event played for money, there will have to be an entrance fee.

So, you guys vote on it here. Entrance fee or no entrance fee?

I am thinking of the following for prize fund:

1. Winner gets 60% of the pot, 2nd place gets 30%, Gothic Chess Federation holds the remainder for running the tournament.

2. Winner gets 80% of the pot, 2nd place gets 10%, Gothic Chess Federation holds the remainder for running the tournament.

3. Something else??

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by Rob! I know you had about a 90 minute drive to get here, so I appreciate you making the trip.

I enjoyed playing the games and, of course, any excuse to prepare a feast and have a party is perfectly fine with me!

As summer approaches I will try again to get listed in the Pennsylvania State Chess booklet as a Gothic Chess club and promote weekly evenings of Gothic and partying.

Maybe you could so something similar in New Jersey, who knows! This is how great things get started.

--Ed

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of entering the inner-sanctum of Gothic Chess. Since I live in the Philadelphia area I was invited to Ed Trice's home to play some(of course) Gothic Chess. After upon arriving there, with some well written directions, I was greeted by Ed who was a great host!

After Ed had his late breakfast which was toast and tea he showed me to his Chess Room. We talked about the future of Gothic Chess, as far as, "What will it take for Gothic to over power chess as the mainstream game?" Then we played a game with time controls of G/60. To my dismay I only lasted 12 moves before blundering away the game, but Ed still came up with a Queen sac to end the game as he left me there after the move to prepare lunch. After some review the game could have been good, and maybe worth even posting on this board :) Ed doesn't know, but I just didn't have the heart to go to his own home and beat him in a regulation game :)

After the game, I had the pleasure of meeting his wife and daughter who were both sociable and entertaining. A barbecue lunch was next! Not hamburgers and hotdogs, but steak, sausage and shrimp! I never thought I could feel that at home after going to someone's home for the first time and only the second time meeting him personally.

Lunch was over and Ed asked if would play some Gothic Blitz Chess. I said, "Of course", and he asked if time controls of 6 minutes for me and 3 minutes for him were okay? I said, "How about 5 minutes apiece?". He agreed, and I redeemed myself by winning 2 of 3 games! I surprised myself...not by winning, but that I really didn't know what to expect because of never playing Gothic Blitz before. I know Ed will have something ready at our next meeting though, so I guess I'll have to prepare as well :)

Ed then showed me to his office with all the Gothic games in a database, and of course how he does everything to the website. I was amazed by how much work he accomplishes! He showed me what went into writing the Gothic Chess Review which I can not wait for the return of. Also, the lines and lines of programming just to make that K+N+B vs. K ending which of course he is still in the process of finishing!

I think I was there around 9 hrs. which for me seemed about 3 hrs. I enjoyed the whole day and I'm glad Ed was able to put up with me for that long! I look forward to our next meeting and hope to return the hospitality that I was shown!

If I didn't say it before Ed..."Thanks for a Great Day!"

Oh, now that PUTS pressure on me!

There are 13 sections, and each one will send one winner into the next round. So, 13 players make it to round 2. The section with the highest rated player will have 6 people in it. The section with the 2nd highest rated person will have 7 people. One winner from each of these 2 sections will advance to the finals. These 2 people will play a "3 wins match" which means the first to record a 3rd victory will win.

For each round how many players will pass to second stage ?

despite travelling around drunk, I shall do my utmost to come away with some points. You guys did some good advertising. There are a lot of unrated players in the tournament. I wonder if I got seeded during the draw.

Anyway, I thought Spiderman from UK was someone I has heard of. Might be a different person. The one I know doesn't usually drop three games in a row.

The thought had occurred to me to hold the first official World Championship online here at BrainKing. Previously we have only had National Tournaments, held in Philadelphia. But with the convenience of being able to play online, we might as well test the format and see if players would like to do this.

The play would be for the title of Gothic Chess World Champion, a trophy, and money; all things a World Champion should have!

the current brainking tourney, I mean...oops

Oh Ed....

Does the Gothic carry official world ranking points?

I will put it to server news. With a reference to this board :-)

Attention to All Brain Pawns: Make sure you have 8 slots open in your game list so that you will be able to play for the $$$$$!!

That is, if you have 12 or more games going, you will not be able to enter the tournament, unless you UPGRADE to become a BrainRook or otherwise decrease your game count (offer draw, resign, or checkmate your opponent).

There is only 1 day left to sign up, so please check your current game load!

Good luck, I hope everybody wins :)

It seems in my own games when I elect to remain uncastled, not moving both the e- and f-pawns is a large positional plus. It secures the king and virtually eliminates the chances of being placed in check.

In games where I enjoy the luxury of castling, I do constantly look for endgame themes that can be dangerous. In my endgame with nstre, which went all the way down to Rook and Pawns, I managed to win by just one tempo! In this game we both castled, and I was also forced onto j1 at one point, a tempo I needed to recover desparately.

Here is the game which is worth reviewing. I fast forwarded the game to the point where we were both castled.


Endgame win by one tempo

To all Januschessplayer: If you have played a beautiful game,please send it to me,perhaps with a small comment of your ideas during the game.I will collect these games and publish the best of them in a German chessnewspaper.My E-Mail is
caissus2000@yahoo.de.Thank you

My first Gothic game was here on BK a few months ago, and I already am losing my sense for an urgency to castle. It has come on gradually, for my initial instinct was that a castled position is safer. With the 10 file board, however, when it comes to the endgame, the central position of the King seems to be stronger, if for no other reason that when he's on one side or the other, the opponent knows how long it will take him to get to the opposite corner, and can use that against him. With a central King, the opponent can make threats on both flanks, but the central King can counter-threaten to go one way or the other, and so long as the opponent does not know which way he's going, there is some power in the fact of the option remaining open. In my recent win against Matthewhall, I was forced to abandon castling early, but that did not seem to hamper my game later, much to my relief. In other games, I have moved the Bishop Pawns up one square early in the game, which tends to block the Knights moving out, but it prevents the enemy Bishops from attacking my Rooks, and it provides a somewhat unexpected strength in the center flanks early on. In my current game with Kevin, my King Bishop Pawn, having been advanced to h6, gave support to my Chancellor Pawn, which was able to move 7.g5, with exposed attack on Kevin's Archbishop, follwed by my pawn fork, 9.g4, winning the Knight on h3. It now appears that Kevin may lose his Rook as well, for my Archbishop is forking his King and Rook. My only concern with leaving the two center pawns back at f7 and e7 (f2 and e2 for White) is that it seems to confine my King, especially in the event of leaving him uncastled, or if he gets castled, the advanced Bishop Pawns tend to leave him exposed. I'm still not sure of how important that is. However, keeping the center Pawns unmoved allows for freedom of movement of my pieces in the center, especially the Chancellor, which has a miserable time around lots of pawns, and is quite awesome with an open file and a rank or two to terrorize. /Fx/

In case nobody saw yet, I am giving away $250 as the First Prize in the new Gothic Chess tournament. There is no entrance fee. Second prize is a free Gothic Chess set. A "brilliancy prize" will be awarded to the best game, judged by me. That person will receive a free Gothic Chess mug.

Check it out under the TOURNAMENTS section, so hurry up and sign up!

And if you are already playing in one tournament and are a BrainPawn, upgrade your membership and play in this tournament too! Why not, you have a chance to win $250!!

Thanks for the information I will take a look at them later on...nice hearing from you. Again thanks for the referrence! How is El Salvador doing these days?

Had a quick look but haven't reviewed the game in detail yet but my preferrence would actually be for white's castled postion.

Personally, if I were white, I would have avoided castling as it seems as though it would have been apparent that black was heading this way. Instead, I would have looked to be ready to swing my pieces over to this side and launch an attack down the flank along the rook file as I think the J pawn can prove difficult to defend ... this has sometimes worked for me :)

Thanks for the support...of course I'll 3rd the motion!! As for castling, I know what Whisperz is saying but the same can be said of chess. Gothic does have the advantage of having the extra pieces over chess, but the other player still has those same pieces to defend with. Look at Bobby Fischer's games and you will see that he castled almost as early as you possibly can...I know this is Gothic Chess but the fact remains that there are only a couple of openings discovered. I think all of our future games will decide the issue, but everyone wants an answer now and not later....so castle when you feel it is the right time!

It does have that Dragon serpentine look to the pawn structure. Hmmm.

The Colanzi Dragon would be nice! Then, you might be able to maneuver a Double-Dragon with the other Bishop going to f4-h2 in the case of White.

I think that Colanzi's Indian is the best example of the safest setup I have seen with the black pieces. Any comments?

Maybe we should name this opening after him! Any votes for this? :)

<>Personally, I have not made up my mind about this as of yet. Castling too early can be deadly. Not castling at all can be deadly, and castling too late can be deadly!

The best solution is to checkmate your opponent before you castle so you don't have to worry about castling!

Hear, hear!!!

I think that I don't castle in most of my games [especially those with Matthewhall :)]. I don't know, but it seems to me that I have two extra pieces to develop [AB and C] that I'd rather save the castling move unless I absolutely need it.

It doesn't help that both the new pieces are extremely suited to corner mating. The only castled position I've seen so far that is proving quite difficult to break down is Robert's [chesscarpenter] Indian-type dragon-bishop setup.

I would say hide your tail before playing, then they can't whip it :)