Gothic Vortex is a program that is difficult to beat. My friend redsales beat gothic vortex in two occassions, but he is a strong player and he had a rating of about 2000 in tournament play. I myself was never able to beat it and my rating here is between 1600 and 1700 these days. Gothic Vortex is tough to beat because it has a strong opening book, and most of us don't know what is in the book. If we knew the openings, we might have a better chance. In general, some principles of classic chess openings apply to Gothic Chess, but gambits and sacrifices are tricky in Gothic chess and that is why the program is so difficult to beat. I have seen the program sacrifice knights in a way that at first seems to give me a huge advantage, then five or six moves later it crushes me completely. I think it is very challenging, and therefore a lot of fun. Like all programs, it has the odd bug, but it is not as bad as some people here have claimed. If you read some people complaining about the program, sometimes they are just trying to get under Ed Trice's skin.