Don't forget to sign up for this one...winner gets a free copy of Vortex. Program is available from here:

http://www.GothicChess.org/vortex.zip

and the tournament is here:

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trg=8679&tri=41215&trnst=0

I will be posting two interesting games on here later this evening. One I playe with ChessCarpenter, but did not record all of the moves (was providing email support to some during the time I was playing) but I just reverse-engineering the missing components and i was able to create the terminal position. Just a "fun game" but it got into a major tangle that is well worth replaying.

Another game I played today with GrosPaul that contained a very sublte, sneaky mate attempt on his part this is well worth the price of admission (free)

I think GrosPaul is Spirou here on BK. More later.

I see there was a BradJr on just now, was that you?

I think some names appear even after they have left. We are checking into this.

I see andreas made it in to the site, but some names on there I do not recognize. Maybe you can post your GCL names here. I take it Luke is PinkPanter then?

So who is the mysterious PinkPather [sic] player on GothicChessLive? Anybody know?

Thanks for the game Spirou, you are deadly when playing a live game!

I see you connected, now just click on the TEXT "experts" and you will enter the expert room. There are no pictures outside the lobby area yet. You are almost there!

I am online as "GothicInventor" in the live site. Check the "Experts" room first, I tend to hang out there.

Did you get an email from the responder? DON'T CHANGE the password it issues you, this has not been implented yet.

Send an email to GothicChessInfo@aol.com if you still have problems

A great game!

Glad you liked it. Claude is working on that chat bug that popped up, should be a little better implemented by tomorrow night.

Make sure you check your emails for the password that is sent to you. Some people are reporting not seeing it, when their spam filters are set too aggressively.

Gothic Chess Live Is Open

http://www.gothicchesslive.com

Gothic Chess live will offer another test demo. We only have 3 board up and running (6 people) so if you want to test out the new site, let me know by sending a personal message.

This is what Dan Heisman sent to me in an email:


=====


Ed,



FYI, someone asked me on my www.chess.fm show if I thought that Fischer Random Chess was the wave of the chess future and I said if you were going to change the game, why not go to Gothic Chess instead?



Regards,
Dan H

Gothic Chess was mentioned on chess.fm last night, did anyone listen to the broadcast over the web?

I like this mate the best, I actually saw this once:

1. Nh3 d5 2. Cf3 Bxh3 3. Axh3 Nh6 4. Ae6#

Yes there are 3 move mates with the Archbishop, and many permutations.

1. Af3 h6 2. Ah5 f6 3. Ag6#

I think this instructive miniature game is the perfect example of why the King and Chancellor in Gothic Chess are placed in the ideal starting positions. The attractive checkmate from the final position would have been impossible otherwise.

http://brainking.com/en/ArchivedGame?g=745920

On a board with 100 squares, pawns rules get even more complicated.

Should they be allowed 3 steps on one move?
If so, are there now two tiers of en passant captures (one with a 3-move bypass, and one with a 2-move bypass)?

Gothic 100 would be interesting, but the "pawn pollution" problem takes some of the enjoyment out of the game.

Try this one:

White Janus j3
White King a1
Black Bishop e4
Black King c1

White to move mates in 72, very hard problem! This is part of the 4-piece database, if you order that version.

Speaking of Vortex... I finally got around to PGN import. Also has the complete 3-piece tablebases, which are the same for Janus Chess.

Longest mate is 21 moves for King + Janus vs. King, and it is not easy to solve! There is a new menu in Vortex, SPECIAL, with RANDOM 3-PIECE CHECKMATE as an item. This has some of the longest mates setup randomly.

http://www.GothicChess.org/vortex.zip

Also better graphics than the old program.

It is being uploaded to GothicChess.org right now as a .zip file. It will expand to fill 24 MB when unzipped.

This is the PGN loading version of Vortex that also has the 3-piece databases, and much better graphics.

At about 4 PM Eastern Time you should be able to get it from:

http://www.GothicChess.org/vortex.zip

Let me know if you have any problems with the download.

It should be ready 2 hours after the time of this message.

I just downloaded and tested SMIRF 0.50 tonight. It has a pretty cool interface! I like the way the principle variation is displayed now, pouring into a scrolling text area.

Reinhard has done a real nice job with it.

rabbitoid:

The total number of positions we resolve will always be less than the entire state space. For example, in a pawnless database, you only have to place one king on 20 of the 80 squares. This is because any position can be "rotated" to get the king onto one of those squares, either by a horizontal flip, vertical flip, or diagonal flip. You rotate the other pieces along with it, and where they end up is the position you look up in the database. Then you likewise translate that move to the unrotated move on the board.

Once you have one pawn on the board, you lose this 75% reduction symmetry. You can still cut the db in half, by constraining the pawn to the files a through e. If it is on files f through j, you can just flip the position horizontally, and look up that result.

Our tables are truly "distance to mate" and not "distance to conversion". That means the first thing we do in any new database is first generate ALL cpatures into smaller databases, and ADD those "distance to mate" to our positions prior to the capture.

This way, every move in the database is the quickest way to get to the final mate, and not just the quickest way to get to the next subdatabase.

I have seen such "distance to conversion" database play extremely strange moves at times, especially when each side has a pawn.

There could be a mate in N moves, but the pawn can promote in N - k, so the program would make the pawn promoting move (faster conversion than a mate in N), which could allow the game to drag on for many, many more moves.

rabbitoid: what makes such a difference to regular chess?

The contribution from the extra squares is not too bad, but in Gothic Chess we have 7 piece types other than the king, whereas chess only has 5. So, in order to solve a "complete set", we have more permutations per database.

With 7 pieces x 2 sides to move, we have 14 database slices to solve to get the 3-piece database.

This grows to (7 x (7 - 1)) x 2 = 84 for the 4-piece database set. The "7 - 1" reflects that there are some databases that are their own "colors reversed" database, suck as King + Queen vs. King + Queen, King + Chancellor vs. King + Chancellor, etc. A black to move position can be looked up even if we solve the database with only having white to move.

Compunding this with the long mating distances, such as some of the ones shown at http://www.gothicchess.org/databases.html and now we need to use 2 bytes per position, instead of one byte per position.

So we have more positions per slice, more slices, and need more storage per position.

Put another way, if I had 49 machines going at once, I would be able to solve the 6-piece db for Gothic Chess in about a year.

Oh, the expansion rate? The (N + 1) piece is at least 7 times the size of the N piece in terms of nuber of database slices, but for the 6-piece Gothic Chess db, each slice will also be at least twice the size as well, since we need 16 bits per position. The other bloating factor is the number of positions, which will be at least 4o times the number of the 5 piece.

So the 6 piece will be about 7 x 2 x 40 = 560 times the size of the 5-piece.

Chessmaster1000: It depends George.

King + N + N vs. King + N is only a few K since it compresses most of the draws. The longest mate is just 8 moves.

K + N + N vs. King + B is also very small.

But King + B + N vs. King + Archbishop is 3.2 GB since there is a mate in 202!

King + Q + P vs. King + Q is over 5 GB because the pawn reduces symmetry and the mate goes out to 268.

I don't play every chess variant. I play Gothic Chess mostly. I played Janus Chess as an experiment, and I found it "too diagonal" for my tastes.

As I have stated before, prodigious calculation has little to do with excellence in board games. Pattern recognition, having been there before and understanding the road map of what lies ahead -- this is what makes a player better.

Trying a new variant for the first time will not produce any results that relate to performance level that I have already demonstrated.

So no, I decline to participate, for the fourth time.

This has nothing to do with "courage." I hate lima beans. So, I don't eat lima beans. I don't think I would be courageous if I tried them. I would probably just puke, like I did the last time I tried them.

For practical purposes, the 3-piece db version is what you download though. If you want the 4-piece db, I would have to send it on CD. The 4-piece db has roughly 1 billion positions solved, a little too much for a download. The 3-piece is about 1.5 million, and the 5-piece is 300 billion.

Nasmichael: This Nigel Davies was from California, according to his driver's license. I don't believe we had any Grandmasters in tournament at all.

Why dont you guys play a non-rated game where you just agree to play the moves up to the part where the conclusion opinions differ, then fight it out, and let who is right come back for bragging rights?

The person who paid the entrance fee was named Nigel Davies, that is all I know. I don't think he was a local player, I knew all of them.

It's a shame Nigel lost in round 1, I did not get paired with him and he went undefeated after that. His wins were rather impressive, though some of his opening moves were a little off balance.

Was it forced? There are some on my digital cam somewhere.

At each Gothic Chess tournament, when there is a surplus in advance entries, we have two additional prizes offered. One is the "Brillancy Prize", the other, less stringently applied rules is for the "Wildest Game" Prize.

While the "Brillancy" Prize is voted by a panel on site, the "Wildest" game is voted for by all of the participants after the tournament has ended.

Here is this year's "Wildest Game" winner.

[Event "2005 Philadelphia Open"]
[Site "Phialdelphia, PA"]
[Date "2005.02.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Nigel Davies"]
[Black "J.D. Austin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rnbqckabnr/pppppppppp/10/10/10/10/PPPPPPPPPP/RNB
QCKABNR w KQkq - 0 1"]


1. Nh3 Nc6
2. d4 Nh6
3. d5 Ne5
4. Nc3 d6
5. f3 g6
6. g4 Bd7
7. Af2 Ni4
8. Cg2 Bg7
9. i3 h5
10. gxh5 gxh5
11. Bi2 Aj5
12. O-O O-O
13. Be3 Bh6
14. Qd2 Qc8
15. Ch4 Axh4
16. Axh4 Bxh3
17. Bxh6 Bxi2
18. Bxi7 Bxh1
19. Bxh8 Cxh8
20. Rxh1 Qd7
21. h3 Nh6
22. Aj6+ Kj8
23. Ai5 Ki7
24. Ah4 Kh7
25. Aj6+ Ki6
26. Ah4+ Kh7
27. Aj6+ Kg6
28. Qg5+ Kxg5
29. Ah4+ Kf4
30. e3+ Kxe3
31. Re1+ Kd2
32. Rd1+ Kxc2
33. Ae1+ Kxb2
34. Rb1+ Ka3
35. Ac2#

This Friday, "Gothic Chess Live" will debut. It is a separate site with real time play between participants.

Those who wish to give it a test run, send me a PM, I will respond with the link.

To all of those who have the 4-piece database version of Gothic Vortex, there is a .bat file with verification code in place. I discovered one position in the B + N vs. K slice of the database that needed to be recalibrated. There were about 16,000 errors in the Q vs. R database.

I narrowed it down to a post-computation, db compression error.

Therefore, it may or may not have effected others who have generated their own databases.

Send me an email and I will enclose the .bat with instructions on how to verify your dbs.

Thanks to BBW for acting like a responsible Global Moderator and effecting positive change.

Thad, I removed my posts regarding your incident. You are welcome to continue the conversation via PM with me.

If the off-topic post was by somebody who cared about the game, that is different. You don't see me lurking on the Pente board waiting for someone to make an off-topic post, it just does not make sense.

Now I was attacked unprovoked.

Here is something a little more on topic. Bumble's last game of Gothic Chess, from November 22, 2004.

http://brainking.com/game/ArchivedGame?g=507118

And of his 188 active games, how many are Gothic Chess games?

0.

But thanks for telling us we were off topic.

You look like you need some blood wine.

I don't know what you guys are talking about, I have made use of the "hide" feature with that individual for over a year now. It's like that person does not exist, which is fine with me.

Glad you like it

ha ha ha

I think this is the game everyone was asking about. It was in Round 6 of 7, both players were 5-0 up until that point. It was one of the highlights of the tournament, a game I felt I should have lost several times over. Here it is in all its imperfection.

[Event "2005 Philadelphia Open"]
[Site "Phialdelphia, PA"]
[Date "2005.02.18"]
[Round "6"]
[White "David Stoddard"]
[Black "Ed Trice"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "Ed Trice"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rnbqckabnr/pppppppppp/10/10/10/10/PPPPPPPPPP/RNB

QCKABNR w KQkq - 0 1"]

1. g4 Nc6

{This looks like a curious way to begin,
but in playing black you have to watch out
for things like 1...d5 2. Nh3 Bxg4??
which loses The Exchange in Gothic Chess
due to 3. Bxb7!! The early ...Nc6 here
extinguishes all of this.}

2. Nh3 d5
3. f3 g6
4. c3 d4

{Baiting 5. cxd4 Bxd4, which white steers clear of.}

5. Af2 i6
6. d3 Bi7
7. Bxi7 Axi7

{Black played a little too cavalier in setting up this
"Archbishop fianchetto". White becomes strong on the
dark squares with a few well-placed pawns, haunting
Black for the rest of the game.}

8. Bg2 Ng7
9. O-O O-O
10. f4 Cf6

{White has achieved poise in the center, and Black
is trying to force his way into the game with this
premature Chancellor engagement.}

11. g5 Cd6
12. cxd4 Nxd4
13. Nc3 c6
14. e3 Ndf5

{White's moves seem natural and intuitive, and Black
plays like a fox being hunted.}

15. e4 Nd4

{But how quickly small shifts in the position can occur.
Black has deliberately conditioned White to react with
pawn pushes, and White responds in this fashion again.
The result leaves White with an over-extended pawn region
on the queenside, where Black can stake a claim with
a Knight that cannot be ousted. White then is able to cause
this minor positional gain to evaporate in a few moves.}

16. e5 Ce8
17. Ce4 Ngf5

{White still has a nice chunk of real estate in the center,
and the pawn cluster in the e-f-g files resembles a
sturdy Stonewall type of formation.}

18. Ne2 Nxe2
19. Qxe2 Be6

{The trades have left Black with only 2 minor pieces in play,
unsupported in any way by the fianchettoed Archbishop. White,
on the other hand, has a superior development profile with
every non-Rook piece in an active setting. Black's last move
makes the idle threat against the pawn on a2, which White decides
to cover with the Chancellor.}

20. Cb4 Qc8

{The White Chancellor was hitting on b7, so Black dedicates
the Queen to its defense while compounding a potential
diagonal strike against h3 since the Bishop is on e6 as well.}

21. Rac1 Cc7
22. Be4 Rd8
23. Qd2 Bd5
24. Qc2 Be6

{Both sides are dancing around a bit, groping for the thread of
the game as half of the allotted time control has been used up
by each player.}

25. Qc5 Nd4
26. Ca4 Bxa2!

{Black strikes with a little "flash in the pan" combination.
It was interesting to watch White's reaction, after having
been lulled to sleep a little by moves 21 to 24.}

27. Cxa2 Nb3
28. Qb4 Nxc1
29. Cxc1 Rd7?!

{Black exchanged his two lethargic minors for a Rook and the
important a-pawn. This is still a pawn-heavy game, not exactly
favorable for Black's army comprised entirely of major pieces.
The idea is to try to thin out the pawns and keep the battle
raging on the queenside where the candidate passed pawns could
become deadly and decisive.}

30. Ai5! Qh8!

{White wastes no time exploiting the checking opportunity
on g7 now that Black's free-roaming Rook pulled itself off
of the back rank. At first, 30...Qg8 looks like an obvious
choice to prevent 31. Ag7+, but Black wants to leave g8 open
for the Archbishop. While 30...Qh8 was good, Black's absorbing
of 10 minutes of clock time to make this move was not.}

31. Ag4 Rad8
32. Rd1 Rd4?!

{It is safe to say that the battle will be waged starting
in the d-file. Punch and counter-punch soon follow.}

33. Qc5 Cb5
34. Qxe7 Ag8!

{The move I had been waiting to play has molded itself
into a trap where the White Queen must be exchanged off
of the board.}

35. Qc5 Cxc5
36. Cxc5 Rb4

37. Cc2 Rb5

{Pressure points seem to be the theme as we each poke at the
b-pawns, probing for other weaknesses.}

38. Ra1 a6
39. Nf2 Qg7
40. h4 Ai7
41. Af6! Qf8

{White is continuing to manuever as if he is the one who
tricked me into "winning" his Queen for my Chancellor and pawn.
I am, once again, forced to place my strongest pieces in
passive positions on the back rank. Inspiration strikes
as I see a way for White to "set a trap" by dangling the
h-pawn as bait, but, in actuality, when the fireworks
have fizzled, Black has better chances. }

42. Bf3 Aj6!
43. Ng4 Axh4!

{In moves to come, Ng4 looks to deserve a "strong move" annotation
since it gives White a good attack in exchange for losing the h-pawn.
But, as will be shown, this was just the tip of an inverted iceberg.}

44. Ch2 Ag3!
45. Axh7+ Ki7

{Even though pinned, the White Chancellor is still able to
extend the shield of protection to the Archbishop as it drills into Black's
position.}

46. Axf8 Rxf8
47. Kj1! Axh2+

{White finds the correct unpinning move, which would normally have
been a suicidal move into checkmate without the Knight there to
reel in the Archbishop. Very accurate play on behalf of White,
featuring a high degree of tactical sharpness. The question remains,
was Black's strategic play capable of delivering a won ending?}

48. Nxh2 Rxb2

{The endgame is purely chess on the wider board. We have Bishop, Knight,
Rook, and 6 pawns versus a pair of Rooks and 7 pawns. The scales
sometimes tip to the side down a pawn, as Rooks view pawns as landmines
in such scenarios.}

49. Ng4 Rh8
50. Nh6 Rh7

{With two short hops, the Knight has reached its square of maximum
efficiency. One Black Rook is already tied down to passive defense.
This is not the type of ending I want to be playing with only 15 minutes
left on my clock!}

51. Be4 Rf2
52. Rb1 Rxf4

{It is here that White realizes Rxb7 is not possible as ...Rf1+
will lead to a back rank mate.}

53. Ki1 c5?!

{Again, White had pressure against my only regional asset, so that
even 53...b5 would lead to a pawn lost with 54. Bxc6.
I decided to play for unclear positions in time pressure,
an old motiff that has served me well on more than one occasion.}

54. Bxb7 Rb4!

{The point of it all was to send White into a Rookless ending.}

55. Rxb4 cxb4
56. Bxa6 b3

{Let him worry about the passed pawn. My position may be dubious
if you have all day to work out the details, but I can see by the
nervous hand moving the White pieces that the pressure must be
getting to him.}

57. d4 b2
58. Bd3 Rh8!

{Dropping a pawn purely to activate the Rook, a must in the
position.}

59. Nxf7 Rh4
60. Bxg6 Rxd4
61. e6 Rd1+
62. Kh2 b1=Q
63. Bxb1 Rxb1

{I was expecting 64. e7 Re1, so I had to stop my reach and think a moment.}

64. Ne5 Rb5
65. Ng6+ Kh7
66. e7 Rb8

{There were at least 20 people watching at this point.
Don't you just love pressure? About 5 minutes for each player
remains.}

67. Ni5+ Kg7
68. Nxj7 Kg6
69. Ni5+ Kxg5
70. i3 Re8

{I would like to thank Josh Kendall for recording
the rest of these moves as we both scrambled without
writing them down.}

71. Nh3+ Kg4!
72. Ni5+ Kh5
73. j4? Rxe7

{The natural looking j4 push proves to be the final undoing
of White's game after 5 perfect round of play.}

74. Kh3 Re3+
75. Ki2 Ki4
76. Ng4 Re2+
77. Nh2+ Kj5

{The move to get out of check delivers check. My
opponent offers a draw. I saw him slump and relax into
his chair, so I think he must have believed I was going
to accept it. When I played 77...Kj5 I hit the clock with
some additional force, as if shouting "No!" The psychology
of this bore fruit, as he was very indecisive in making
moves 78-80, reaching his hand out, then retracting, then
reaching out, then retracting. He must have seen losses
staring back at him, finally tripping him up.}

78. Kh3 Re3+
79. Kh4 Re8
80. Ng4? Rh8+

{The very unintuitive 80. Kh3 seemed to hold the draw as we
performed the post mortem.}

81. Kg5 Ki4
82. Kf6 Rh3
83. Kg5 Rg3
84. Kf4 Rxg4+
85. Kxg4 Kxi3
86. Kg3 Kxj4

{Playing out the time scramble a little, but
even 1 minute is plenty of time.}

87. Kh3 i5
88. Ki2 Ki4
89. Kj2 Kh3
90. Kj3 i4+
91. Kj2 Kh2
92. Kj1 Ki3
93. Ki1 Kj3
94. Kh2 i3+
1-0