andreas: Yes there is Andreas. We need to reorganize the database a bit to handle this, but it can be done. Essentially we will just set the "timer" to 2880 minutes per move (instead of time per game) and keep your "table" open, just not visible to others until you log in.

It won't be ready for a while, but it is planned.

Grim Reaper: Yes, maybe in CowPlay you were right, but you see, in both cases, the owner of the site removed it because you somehow leveraged them to do so, not because they didn't like Gothic Chess or something... Whatever the reason in each case, you don't make friends like that... Surely there could be a compromise somehow...

Grim Reaper: Any plans to introduce turn-based option on GothicChessLive?

WhiteTower:

I took Gothic Chess off of CowPlay after they did not pay their licensing fee.

The situation here is different.

If you fail to see the difference, talk to someone who is interested in explaining it to you.

WhiteTower: which one was that?

tedbarber: The answer is no. There was another site with this setup that was proud to introduce Gothic Chess to its members, but [coughs and stares at Ed] it was also removed by the site owner...

You need java to play at http://www.GothicChessLive.com

I mean sites with a set up like this one.

Grim Reaper:Is there some other site I can go to to play Gothic Chess since I am unable to continue playing here;or to create new games.

So Java parses out the pages after making a database layer connection, then generates an indexed list of straight html pages?

Grim Reaper: It doesn't. But under the hood, BrainKing uses Java to generate all these nice pages we love so much :)

I didnt know WebTV could access java.

Grim Reaper: Errr... yes, it does.

BrainKing does not use Java.

Fencer: BTW can "soon" become a bit less vague, please? Isn't it like a patch of the BrainKing Java code for FRC on the Gothic Chess setup?

Yes, I know it's never THAT easy, but...

Sumerian:

Reinhard, that is truly very, very funny :) I will tell Alexis you said that :)

Grim Reaper:

Ed, I have thought a while of the reason you have selected that lady to represent Gothic Chess. Finally I found out, that both, Alexis and GC, seems to be 25% oversized ;-) compared to traditional 'versions'.

Reinhard.

Somebody has won a game in the "win a date with Alexis" tournament...

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?tri=54818#1

ColonelCrockett: Subtlety is something that I'm not often accused of, that's for sure.

redsales: Considering that with the exception of Dark Chess you've handily defeated me in every game we've played, I'm kind of curious as to when I might have said as much about your poor position during a game. As for Dark Chess, I rarely talk about an opponent's position during a game as it might tip him off as to where my pieces are or what my plans are. About the only time in Dark Chess that I might even say something would be after a move is made and it is obvious to both players that the game is about to end. I generally will type to my opponent during a game if said opponent types back and we have a conversation going. Backgammon in a lot of ways seems to be a game more conductive to conversation while its going on, but I'll chat in any game. I do agree with you about the playing with someone new, and will normally not comment on a Chess type game while it is progress unless my opponent initiates it or something extraordinary has happened during the game.

So, please, no 30 days/move silliness, OK? :)

redsales: then again I've never known Walter to be subtle. :)

tedbarber:

Just so you (and everyone else) knows, it is purely up to Fencer. I have not called for Gothic Chess to be removed, nor suggested it in any way.

tedbarber: bad etiquette to point out how "bad" an opponent's position is midgame..if you're strangers. Walter has pointed it out to me in some of our games, but we've played each other about 50 times!

tedbarber: You'll be sorely missed. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Whatever the deal is between them, I have asked to get a game added that is almost identical to Gothic Chess. It's called Embassy Chess. The only difference of the two games is the starting position of the Chancellors and Kings and names of the Chancellor and Archbishop, which are Marshall and Cardinal as in Grand Chess. Would you stay to play that game if the Gothic Chess is eliminated? Or even play it if Gothic Chess by some chance stays on the site? In the meantime, you ought to try Grand Chess. It is very similair to both games. The pieces are identical, but the Rooks start out with lots more mobility. From the few games of Grand Chess that I've started it seems to be a fast paced game with lots of traps and trouble from the very beginning of the game.

One of my opponants said Gothic Chess is being dropped; if this is so I intend to leave this site as soon as my present games are completed. Gothic Chess is my one and only reason for playing anything on this site. Sure I play other games;but Gothic is my one and reason for coming to and staying on any Site.

ColonelCrockett: I apologized for that; plus I did not demand your Resignation. I just pointed out that I had a won game and asked if you wanted to resign. I apologized,not because I thought I was rude;but because you thought I was. I see nothing wrong with pointing out a won game and giving my opponant a chance to resign. I consider it polite.

andreas: I agree with the assessment of my move 15 (part of the opening mistakes I was talking about). I would like to point out that tedbarber was rather rude in demanding my resignation in the later portion of this game and thus my comments (which he quotes accurately) were in response to his rudeness. He failed, however, to quote my praise of his taking advantage of my mistakes. As a side note it is gratifying to hear better players than myself ( and more experienced) agree with my assessment.

tedbarber: Mistake was 15....g5? The move 14...Cg7 was also not especially good. Why move chancellor away from a nice opened line?

In position after 14. Nc3 black should think about how to develop knight b8. Immediate 14...Nc6 doesn't work because of 15. Ad7. I would first check move 14.... Nf5 with idea 15...Ne3. Looks like 15. e4 dxe4 16. fxe4 Qxd4 17. Cd3 Qxd3 18. Qxd3 Ce5 fine for black. After 15. Cd3 Nc6 position of black also seems to be fine.

http://brainking.com/en/ArchivedGame?g=950868

I would like to believe, as white, I could win every time after black played 2..e5?

When a game is lost, the losing player may make any excuse, as all are equally valid

I used to tell people I lost because I had a sore thumb. :)

Check out this game between Colonel Crockett and myself. He says he lost because he made opening mistakes;I contend his mistake was in the Middle game. He also said that I did not beat him;but he beat himself. I say this is not totally true; that my moves were fairly good ones;this is a opening system I invented myself long before I ever heard of Brainking.com. I have had very good success with it.

fungame: unfortunatly....bad press, is still press.
I will be glad to see the bad press,finally come to an end.

Grim Reaper: Descriptions? plural? I cannot see a word ALL in front of the word DESCRIPTIONS in the contract. Some descriptions honor that, afaik at least once = some = descriptions

I bet this site added a lot to the popularity of your game, you make a lot of advertisements about your sites, programs, tournaments here. In your place I would give Fencer ultimate licence forever and send him at least $1000 (edited to be realistic) every year

at first: it is sadly that gothic chess will be removed here.

however you have to look at two things in my opinion.
1) Gothic Chess will be replaced by Capablanca Random Chess
2) The problems which caused the removal are not the game itself, but the inventor.

So I can understand Filips decision (he is right in my opinion) and I myself will not prolong gothicchess.at after the one-year period. If somebody wants to take the domain earlier please contact me.

Vortex VI

A new version of Gothic Vortex is being prepared. I am including a PGN archive of games played on BrainKing.

If you would like your games to be made available on CD, download all of your games, and send them to me at GothicChessInfo@aol.com

Please make a zip archive of your games.

Thanks to all who participate!

Anyone who has won their sections in this tournament should contact me for their prizes:

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trg=6703&tri=25674&trnst=2&tp=41

I am up for suggestions on how to determine a winner. Perhaps on http://www.GothicChessLive.com one evening?

Grim Reaper: I agree that there is no need for any further public discussion. It is an issue between you and Fencer.

Like I said, the legal term is Ipse Idem, which translates as "the terms are the same" or "the meanings are equal" depending on the application. There should really be no further public discussion of this, do you not agree?

Grim Reaper: Hum... well I don't see those as "descriptions of the rules". Well, good luck with that.

If you do a new game, you will see ". (read all rules)" next to every description.

This implies what you are reading are rules, or a subset of the rules.

Ipse idem, in legal terms.

"...following text in the descriptions of the rules.."

Where else are the RULES of Gothic Chess at?

"descriptions" is plural -- everywhere rules are described, the description is required.

I asked Filip to make this change to be in full compliance, and he has elected to challenge it.

It is no longer up to me to help him, he has to help himself, or abide by a ruling by a 3rd party arbitrator.

Since this involves nobody other than Filip and myself, no other comments will be given on this matter.

BuilderQ: Yup, it looks like it is in the game description. Does not say that exact thing in the game overview, but in the description of the game, I see it.

Grim Reaper: The text you want is here, is it not?

I have a contract with Filip's signature on it. Paragraph 6 states:

6. ADDITIONAL STIPULATIONS - In addition, the Licensee will host the domain of GothicChess.org at no cost to the Licenser for the same duration. The Licensee will also include the following text in the descriptions of the rules of the game as they appear on BrainKing.com:

Gothic Chess is an 80-square variation of chess that adds two ne pieces to the board: an Archbishop, and a Chancellor. This game is most closely related to Capablanca's Chess and Bird's Chess, invented by Ed Trice in the year 2000.


You can see that the current description does not come close to matching this:

Gothic Chess is a variant of Bird's or Capablanca's Chess that has the Archbishop (Knight + Bishop) and Chancellor (Knight + Rook) set up slightly different. It is played on an 8 x 10 chessboard.

This license is also in effect until March 31, 2007.

I have given Filip every opportunity to honor the contract.

It will take some time, but BrainKing.com will honor the contract.

Quite brave of Fencer to go that far. At least Ed's live site might get more traffic this way :)

Yeah I need to publish the spec for the automated play. I have it maybe 98% done.

Grim Reaper:

Well I remember that there seems to be a concept for that move exchange between computers. I neither have the latest information on that useful concept nor a working counterpart for testing. Using SMIRF with a second SMIRF would merely test the compatibility to itself.

If that concept would be working, the live playing online server could act as an in between information broker.

But having a program play online there, this will of course be andvantageous for the GC live server and the GC site, but hardly for the always there accessible programs.

Maybe we can have the programs play on GothicChessLive.com and have an interface for them to send moves to it?

What do you think?

Grim Reaper:

Well, I have no comparable hardware at hands. Thus I am only able to compete by brain. If such an event would that way mutating you will simply find out, that better hardware mostly would have better results.

By the way, Gothic Vortex now has the SMP code turned on, so it takes advantage of multiprocessor machines. I have also finished the code to have it probe the 5-piece tablebases in RAM. And I converted it to 64-bit native code.

On a 4x Opteron, it searches at 3.5 million positions per second.

The Vortex in the next World Championship will be very, very different :)