For anyone who is in the Philly area, I just moved back down...I'd love to organize a small group to play OTB once month or so...anyone interested, send me a messgae and I'll try to get things going.

Matthew

Anyone with a more academic than average interest in why computers have such a difficult modeling human thought might enjoy reading "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. It doesn't particularly address the Falkbeer Counter Gambit, nor even the Blackmar-Diemer (sorry, I just love that name), but it does have a rather lengthy and--for me, at least--enlightening discussion on the problems of modeling human intuition in computer language. Be warned: the book is long and as dense as fudge.

FYI, Ed is the author of a pretty mean checkers program in addition to Vortex, and I am always interested in hearing from anyone in the know how "chess thinking", and the intuition you always here about in chess, is mimicked on computers. (preference for non-technical discussion!)

Dang...leave it to the English teacher to misspell 'Chancellor' at every opportunity!

I myself am a bit more weary of the Chancelor's late-game abilities than I am of the Archbishop's opening abilities...perhaps because the openings I favor lead to somewhat longer, stodgier games that tend to lead to endgames where having the Chancelor's rank and file solidity is an advantage. Like Whisperz, I will almost always trade my Archbishop for a Chancelor, and have not seen much opening play (against an equal opponent, Ed and Rob!) where I feel the Archbishop solidified enough of a tactical advantage to counteract the Chancelor's heavy influence in endgames.

Speaking of Archbishop piece value, Ed and I played an interesting game recently where the Archbishop was traded early on for a rook and a bishop...it led to an interesting, unbalanced position. The side that had given up the Archbishop won, but then again, it was Ed v. me.;-)

If anyone is interested in the relative merits of an enormous number of chess variants, check out:

www.chessvariants.com

(sorry, not exactly sure how to include a link in the text). Literally thousands and thousands of variants, divided nicely up into categories such as large board variants (gothic, janus, grand, and Mr. Trice's favorite, omega, among them), small board, etc, including "officially recognized variants" (gothic is among them! Yeehaw!) and variants that do not use what we could consider the standard board and pieces (i.e. many of the Asian games). The site also includes links to any official webpages of federations official and unoffical, and an occasional game engine against which you can try the variant out. Good for hours of mind-numbing rules permutations.

I'd love to enter, but I'm a lowly Brain Pawn, and stuck in the interminable BigBadWolf #3 tourney...any way to bail out of an existing tourney I've already finished my games in and have no chance of advancing through?

I'm all for it...I think being able to train either against a machine or with machine would quickly raise the level of play here. What's the cost? (sorry, I'm on a perpetually tight budget...)

In standard chess theory, it is very strongly recommended to castle, and to castle early (usually within the first ten moves, unless an especially sharp attack is possible), as a matter of king protection as well as developing and uniting the rooks. I am curious to hear if anyone has any strong opinions about castling in gothic, especially in terms of king protection and when in the game it is best to castle.

At this point I am under the impression that, with the number of heavy pieces surrounding the king at the start of the game, the king is perfectly safe for some time right where he is...castling early moves the king away from a pretty solid defense in the starting position. It has felt most natural to me and I have had more success when castling after move 15, usually somewhere between 17 and 22. In games where I castle before move 10, I struggle. (note to self: don't castle before move 10).

Anyone else with any ideas on this?

Felix--The Gothic Chess Association sells tournament-sized pieces with a board most often described as being made of mousepad material. Solid plastic pieces, standard weight for plastic tournament sets, very durable floppy board...very high quality, price around $30. www.geocities.com/bow_of_odysseus has pictures of the set and order info--mh

Certainly the online format makes the competition open to more people, which is better for the game...but I also feel that the turn-based nature of this site allows games to drag out a bit, and playing a full group's worth of games simultaneously is not my ideal way of playing a tournament...if it could be set up so that the games are played live, at a time mutually agreed by the opponents, with time limits, and so that there's only one game at a time to concentrate on, I would so go for online.

Perhaps there could be a deadline for each game...the first game must be completed by a certain date at a certain time, and if not, neither player receives points. That could keep the pace of the competetition moving along.

By the way, what are the dates for the tournament, and where in Philadelphia is it usually held?