Cassius, the GCA was founded in 1998, long before this site. We played tournaments face to face before playing online.

I played IM Larry Kaufmann in Washington DC in Spring 2001 at the Law Offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. I was there on business, he lives not far from the area, he met me for a 90 minute lunch session. He brought his Gothic Chess set, and we played two games.

His son is a 2100+ player who also plays Gothic Chess. They subscribed to the magazine, Gothic Chess Review, which I used to publish myself personally.

Other players with Gothic Chess sets: You must know the name of Bruce Pandolfini. He was the teacher of Joshua Waitzkins from "Searching for Bobby Fischer" fame. Bruce is our representative to QVC, and was supposed to appear in our commercial this past October before we both had to make changes.

Greg Shahade and I are both from Drexel University. Last time I checked he was 2502.

Gothic Chess has already been apart of some big tournaments. At the Supernationals II in April of 2001, kids competing for the crown of national high school chess champion were surrounding our booth non-stop. Some parents even had to drag them away as their clocks had already been started.

This happened round after round, and it was at this event with 5000+ people that I met Bruce. We had known of each other for different reasons (my 'Sniper' chess program was popular in the late 1980's and early 90's) but had never formally been introduced prior to that.

Other players have specifically asked not to be a part of any endorsement or promotion, and I will respect their wishes.