The Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess
Written by Claude Chaunier and João Pedro Neto
Edited by Fergus Duniho
The King's security is more important than the King himself.
[HG2C, page 1]
[Silence! A lot of it. Two characters playing somewhere out there]
Turn tried to push his brain into a maximum state of attention. No way! There was no chance that the strange looking piece could be saved. That meant bad news... He moved the cylindrical piece to the edge of the board.
Zork was quiet, very quiet. After his friend's move, he smiled. He moved the white Pawn almost instantly and said:
- Mate in three! I win.
- Win? How?
- I will capture your Queen, and the Knight will cut the King way out through rank 4.
- Oh! - Turn was upset, he hated to lose - Anyway, these rules are kind of stupid for a chess game...
- For a chess game??? - Zork said - This is Chess! There are no other rules!
- Of course there are! - Turn answered.
- But Chess is played by millions on Earth!
- And so? Even if millions believe in something, that doesn't mean it is true. It doesn't work for religions, why should it work for a simple game? For instance, the Fartink Chess is played by 2 billion in the Orion Sector. And it is not even the most famous one!
- Fartink chess?
- Each player puts his King on top of his head. Then, they use the other pieces to hit the opposite King. The first to do it wins. If they run out of pieces, it is a draw!
- But that is not a game!!! - Zork said, horrified.
- Of course it is! And a very tactical one, I must say! The FART federation organizes a multiworld tournament every 0.1 galactic second.
- And?
- Well, since the size of the pieces varies, the hospitals get very busy those days...
- Impressive, people playing the fool every 8 years or so... But anyway, you are saying that there are more games called chess?
- Not quite that simple... Look - Turn said while taking a holobook from his pocket - This is the well-known HG2C!
- The what?
- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess," it tells everything you wanted to know about chess, but were afraid to play! Let's see... Here it is:
Chess is a class of games that comply with the following restriction: There must be at least one special piece, called King. Each player must protect his own King and loses if it is captured or checkmated.
[HG2C, page 2]
- So you are saying that the game we played is just one type of Chess? - Zork asked.
- Precisely! To be exact, it is called a CV or chess variant. One among many, many others.
- How many are there in the Universe?
- The Guide talks about it too:
On some planets, the variantists (the people who invent chess variants) are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. However, their number increases steadily across all sectors, except perhaps in the Orion Sector, where Fartink is considered to be the ultimate variant. The actual number of chess variants cannot be stated, since new ones appear almost at every instant. The last statistic points to a number in the order of a Zillion.
[HG2C, page 21]
- A Zillion? How much is it?
- Much! - Turn answered with a grin.
- I didn't know ... And what about those variantists?
- What about them?
- Why do they insist on creating games, if they get busted for it?
- Let's check the Guide:
Many variantists believe that Chess is not just a type of game. They believe Chess forms the foundations of the known universe, and what we see is what is possible to be defined by a possible variation. So, the creation of CVs would mean the creation of new doors to knowledge. For instance, "hyperspace chess" implies the physical possibility of hyperspace traveling. There is an old lemma that says that the worst enemy of a variantist is another variantist. Variations like Inflation Chess and Unemployment Chess get a very nasty popularity in some parts of the Universe. Impotence Chess is not well seen either. Their inventors are outcasts, game terrorists that enable and define the worst fears of other people.
[HG2C, page 28]
- Uau! - Zork said - So, the Universe is a Chess game?
- To be more precise, Chess is the foundation of the Universe and Everything.
- The Universe and Everything?
- The Universe and Everything!
- What is Everything?
- Well... It is Everything!
- Even Nothing?
- I suppose...
- Ok, I see! And what about the King? Why must Chess have a King?
- Kind of the definition, I guess... For instance, the guide defines Checkers as all games where the winning condition is achieved by capturing a certain number of pieces. Some people say that the King is the Universe, and the rest (the board, the pieces) is the Everything.
- Or is it the opposite?! - Zork asked.
- Well, it doesn't matter... does it?
- Not to me, anyway! I don't want to go to jail for it! So, according to your holobook all features of Reality are described by some game?
- Yes - Turn agreed - but it is more subtle than that. Every feature is possible because a variant is possible. If something we think of as impossible can be stated in a chess variant, then the impossible is just something we don't know how to do, yet!
- And what concept is described by Fartink Chess?
- Don't look at me! I don't know! I'm a lousy player anyway!
- It's an interesting subject, despite those less noble facts...
- They even have a city! Variantstown!
- What does the Guide say about it? - Zork was getting very curious about the theme.
- A moment - Turn clicked in the virtual index.
Variantstown is the home of variantists. Built two centuries ago by the Akron Federation to win the next Omni-democratic elections. All the chess activists were summoned to this place with high hopes of a better future. There is no other place in the Galaxy where variantist religion is more profound and accepted. Their money is the Zorkmid, an obscure currency almost useless anywhere else. Even Time is defined by turns on a hypothetical galactic board. The Faculty of Chess aggregates hundreds of scholars trying to reach Unification, a mathematical tool to unify all chess and non-chess games that would give military and golf supremacy to variantists.
[HG2C, page 65]
- Ok! I'm getting intrigued! Can you lend me the Guide? -Zork asked.
- Hmmm.... It's kind of personal! I don't like to lend things... - Turn grabbed the holobook between his arms. Chess was a serious matter to him.
- I understand, don't worry! At least tell me the GISBN.
- Sure!
Turn looked for the galactic number and beamed the data to Zork's metaquantum computer. The order was sent to Gamazon. Two point eight seconds later, the new holobook was in Zork's quasi-digital memory. The holobook materialized in front of him. Zork read the index closely and found an enormous quantity of information. He noticed chapter 3 - "The Universe".
- Hey! This sounds promising! - Zork said to his friend.
- Let's check what is in there?
- Yeah!
They linked both holobooks in synchrony and projected the pages into the black background full of ancient and shining stars.
The Universe
The Universe didn't start in a virtual point. That sounds foolish to an honest and discriminating mind . The Universe and Everything started in a white and black square Chess board. The main task for modern science is to find its initial size.
[HG2C, page 103]
Big BANG! Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- At each set of 19 moves, the board expands with 2 new rows and columns. These new squares are inserted in the center, just like on the next figure.
In the 1st expansion (100-64=36 new empty squares):
a . . . x x . . . .
a . . . . . . . . b . . x x . . . .
. b . . . . . . . . c . x x . . . .
. . c . . . . . . . . d x x e . . .
. . . d e . . . x x x x x x x x x x
. . . f g . . . x x x x x x x x x x
. . . . . . . . . . . f x x g . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . x x . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . x x . . . .
. . . . x x . . . .
Right after move 19, the board turns into a 12x12 board, at move 38, 14x14, and so on...
- Wait a minute! - Zork cried.
- What?
- The Universe is expanding, that's all right. But in this variant, the piece density is getting lower every 19 moves!
- But that is what is supposed to happen! - Turn said.
- Do you know the Hoyle-Me'tterkaan Theory?
- No...
- It says the universe density remains the same, since there are always new particles created at each instant that compensate for the expansion. It has never been verified, but it's a possibility...
- Did you see the next page in the Guide?
- No!
- I see...
Hoyle Chess
- The Big BANG! rules apply, except:
- The central 2x2 square - instead of being empty - duplicates the exact
board position of the previous move, as in the next figure:
a . . . x x . . . .
a . . . . . . . . b . . x x . . . .
. b . . . . . . . . c . x x . . . .
. . c . . . . . . . . d x x e . . .
. . . d e . . . x x x x d e x x x x
. . . f g . . . x x x x f g x x x x
. . . . . . . . . . . f x x g . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . x x . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . x x . . . .
. . . . x x . . . . - If there are many Kings with the same color, they are allowed to stay in check, and the opponent must capture them all in order to win.
- That's better!
- The Guide has it all!
- Great! And what about the final Implosion?
- The Big Crunch?
Big CRUNCH! Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- At each set of 19 moves, the central 2 rows and columns are eliminated together with all pieces.
- A player loses if his King is caught in the implosion (it's a draw if both Kings are imploded)
- Fascinating! - Zork said.
- It is terrifying to think of the end of the Universe - Turn looked with sad eyes to the edge of infinity. His blo'kursh eyes saw myriad's of red galaxies accelerating towards the big nothing.
- Peanuts! - was Zork's unexpected response - It is just like playing. Everything starts over and over again in a brand new game!
- And someone is loosing over and over again... Oh well, some Universes last longer. Look:
Fluctuating Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- Every 11 moves, the board contracts or expands as in Big CRUNCH! and Hoyle Chess, repeating the following pattern: expanding, contracting, contracting, expanding.
As a result the board is of size 8x8 during the moves 1-11, 23-33, 45-55, ...
- Anyway the Universe is much bigger than a chess board - Zork added .
- Nothing that Hyperspace cannot solve!
Hyperspace Chess
- The FIDE rules apply except in the following:
- When a piece is not moved to an adjacent square, the moved piece enters hyperspace (i.e., it is removed from the board) and travels one square per turn until it reaches the destination (and then it is dropped). The intermediate squares can be empty or not, it does not matter (since the piece is traveling in hyperspace).
- First the player makes the regular move, then the hyperspace moves (i.e., the drop moves).
- There may be several pieces in hyperspace at the same time, and more than one can be dropped at the same time.
- If two pieces are dropped at the same time in the same square (or a piece is dropped in a square occupied by a piece of the same color), they both explode and destroy all the immediate neighbors (including diagonals).
- If a piece is dropped in a square occupied by an enemy piece, this one is captured.
- The Knight jump takes one turn in hyperspace.
- A player loses by checkmate or if his King is destroyed by an explosion (if both Kings are destroyed in the same explosion, the game is a draw)
variant : The hyperspace jumps are optional. This means a faster and less tactical game .
- Ok, ok, so the Guide provides the big picture - Zork conceded. - But does it present concepts for smaller things?
- Of course. Remember: the Universe and Everything! How do you think particles and the fundamental forces were born?
Cooling Down Chess ( or Symmetry Breaking Chess)
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- At the beginning, the 32 pieces are undifferentiated. The players will gradually settle their normal color and nature while moving them.
- A player can move a piece whose color isn't fixed yet, wherever it is - including on the enemy rank. It immediately gets the player's color and keeps it until the end of the game.
- There cannot be more than 16 pieces with each color.
- The way a player moves a piece also determines part or all of its nature for the rest of the game. A piece that has already moved like a Pawn isn't completely known, because it could also be a Queen for example. But it cannot be a Knight and cannot move like a Knight anymore. On the other hand, a piece that has moved like a Knight is undoubtedly a Knight and cannot move like anything else anymore.
- A player cannot get more than the normal number of each kind of piece, except through the normal process of promoting a Pawn on the last rank.
- A player can capture a piece whose color isn't known yet, wherever it is. It gets the opponent's color while it is removed from the board. Any indeterminacy about its nature usually remains.
- Rules 4 and 6 can get some piece's color or nature suddenly logically determined.
- There is no checking or mating rule. The goal is to capture the opponent's King. If a player is moving two pieces like a King and they both can be the King or the Queen, she can let her enemy threaten them both or capture one without losing. Her going on playing proves the King wasn't captured.
- A player must keep the possibility for his King to be among the pieces on the board, or he loses.
- That's small, alright! But about things closer to us - like Planets?
Turn smiled. In silence, the ship took them to the nearest planetary system. The inner planets, small and colorful were in a rare and beautiful alignment. Then, and only then, they entered the next chapter.
Planets
People usually think great things about Planets. The fact is planets are just small and rocky or big and foggy gravity modeled spheres, where complex biological cells try to grab to its surface as hard as they can, in order to invent cable television.
[HG2C, page 241]
- Well, in this chapter, the general principle is that the board is a planet, or part of it - Turn said in a scholarly voice - That's why things likely to happen on a planet are going to happen on the board. Or to the board, hehe. What we see of the planet is a projected map with latitude and meridian lines, without the poles, complete from east to west, or sometimes just a partial grid map.
- Right! Let's check some of them:
Don't Cross Midnight !
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- The board is a planet which spins under the sun. Between every move, the board rotates an 8th of a day, which is a column. Hence the right column is moved to the left of the board. It's always midnight on the left and right edges and you're never allowed to cross midnight while you are moving.
- And what about North and South notions? Seasons? - Turn said.
- Hmmm... Well, on the planets I lived on, there are at least 4 seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter). We have 8 rows in the board. Perhaps each season implies a different mutator, and of course the seasons are shifted from 1 to 8 in a cyclic way like the hours (in these planets, 8 hours = 1 day = 1 year = 4 seasons).
- That's nice! So, the four seasons are all going to be present on the board at the same time , and rotate vertically (up to down). And what should be the mutators?
- Two possibilities:
- [Zorglub] Chess : spring = AntiGrav (spring gives you wings, and things go up) / summer = Magnetic (just thinking summer is an appealing, moving season) / fall = Gravity (leaves, end of life) / winter = AntiMag (anti-appealing, -moving). [ the effect has all its origin in the moving piece .]
- [Seasonal War] Chess : spring = FIDE / summer = limited move for B, R and Q (just 4 squares) / fall = FIDE / winter = cannot move
- There are millions of them - Zork was amazed - If you think of it, that agrees with the immense variety of planet climates.
- Oh yes! Once, I lived on a planet where the rain drops talked and were anarchists!
- You would need a good umbrella for it!
- You can say that again!
- You... Ah!
- What? - Turn said.
- What what?
- Oh... Never mind! Look! The sun is getting behind that planet.
In fact, the star's extreme intensity diminished until it showed an invisible and admirable white ring holding the planet's surface.
Eclipse Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- The board represents a planet with a satellite that produces a constant eclipse on the board, with an area of 2 rows.
- This eclipse translates through time in the following way. At turn 1, the area (a8,b8,a7,b7) is affected. After that, the eclipse shifts one square southeast, i.e., at turn 2 the area is (b7,c7,b6,c6), and so on in a cyclic way, so at turn 8, the area is (h1,a1,h8,a8).
- All pieces inside the eclipsed area cannot move.
- It's possible to change the eclipse dynamics of rule 3, and the implicit mutator of rule 4. In mutator notation this would be:
[Eclipse({eclipse-sequence, ...}, mutator)]
- That's all fine! But planets are not so quiet, they too gather disasters inside of them.
- Like an Earthquake or a Tornado?
Tectonic Chess
The FIDE rules apply, except: The planet can be subject to a landslide whenever a player feels like instead of moving normally. A landslide always happens along a single straight line that is an extension of some square edge. All the board on a side of the line slides parallel to the line at a distance of one square width. After a few landslides the board may well get unconnected, isolated continents being created, but the squares that are slid always keep their distance to each other while sliding. The moving player can choose the sliding line and direction she wants, unless it would undo the last landslide that occurred (even if it's been a long time since the landslide occurred).
Tornado Chess
The FIDE rules apply, except: The planet can be subject to a sudden local tornado whenever a player feels like instead of moving normally. A tornado always happens on a square area made of 2x2 board squares. The result is a 90° rotation of the pieces in the area. The moving player chooses the tornado position and its direction of rotation, with the exclusion of the same position but opposite direction of the last tornado played.
In the Eye of the Cyclone
The same idea as Tornado Chess. But the area is a 3x3 board squares. A tornado is legal if and only if the central square is occupied by a players piece. This square does not move (it is the eye of the Cyclone, where there is calm weather)
- Not every destruction is made out of wrath! - commented Turn.
- No?
Erosion Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- Every piece has 8 moves, then it erodes and disappears (8 is good, since there's no need to track Pawn moves).
- An eroded King is a loss.
- So we are moving mountains! - Zork said - I answer with species, then...
They approached the 3rd planet of the system. It was blue and seemed very quiet. Zork looked at the index. They were observing the Universe at smaller and smaller scales. He searched for the next logical chapter.
Any one that appreciates chess variants tries, after some time, to devise new ones. Some variantists describe a special belief (or maturing stage?) where to be God by creating or moving Universes, to explore our Universe's Laws and some variants of them, to seek inspiration from a Creation, it's not enough. More exactly, it hasn't been exploited in its full extent. They believe their productions are limited until they've found a chess variant where life would not only be there but where sentient beings would invent chess variants on their own, with radically new ideas. They claim that opening new possibilities of getting answers is the logical consequence of any true variantist's quest for original variants as well as of any sentient being's quest for the meaning of life. Of course, some varianists debate on whether we are part of an infinite hierarchy of chess variants embedded in each other, or part of a finite circle possibly reduced to one universal chess variant that would be enough to express our Universe and Everything. Whatever the truth is, there must be Life to express Chess, and there must be Chess to define Life.
[HG2C, page 56]
Life
Life has many forms. Everybody knows that! Ignorant civilizations think that they are unique and alone in the big and cold dark sky. These civilizations tend to think that their own creations are unique and logical. The Korsh culture, for example, believes that God has six legs and eight eyes just like their infants, and that the worldwide 16.5 x (32/16) Gamma Chess is the only one there is. Many worlds tried to communicate with them, but all endeavors have failed. The Korshes insist on using the olfactory perception to find other civilizations.
[HG2C, page 319]
Zork looked for a nice place on top of a big mountain. They sat in silence and felt the pure fresh air surrounding them.
- Look, Turn, can you see those animals over there?
- Over there? They are very far away, I don't have your zoom eyes! And it's cold out here! Why did you choose this spot?
- Ecological reasons. Let's not contaminate the local species! And it is good to avoid the gray plague!
Turn opened his eyes wide.
- WHAT?
- Just kidding, mate! - said Zork's sincere smile.
Mating Chess
Every piece can procreate whenever it can move onto a piece of the same kind having the opposite color ( a mate ). In that case, instead of making a normal move, as capturing the mate for example, the player can choose to have something happen and immediately put one newborn piece of the same kind near her piece, onto an empty square sharing an edge or a corner with the piece's square. Kings are of course unable to approach each other and procreate. They are only mated in the old normal way. But any other kind of piece is allowed to fill the planet with its offspring.
- You can combine it with erosion - Turn said.
- Huh? How?
Living Chess
That's Erosion + Mating Chess. A piece can give birth at any age. When doing so it gets older all the same, as if it had moved (it moved indeed but you didn't see it). Its mate on the opposite side is fortunate enough and does not get older.
- Great idea!!! - Zork said - And what about cloning? It is known that if you clone yourself, you also inherit your age!
- Yeah, I know... So a 5 turnold Queen just spawns another 5 turnold Queen! Nobody else would be needed for that!
- A what Queen?
- Oh... Turnold is turn + old, the chess unit of time - Turn answered.
- I heard that word before...
Cloning Chess ( or What t'hell happened to Dolly?)
- The Erosion Chess rules apply, except:
- A piece, instead of moving, can produce a clone of itself. This clone is dropped into an empty adjacent square. The age of the clone is the same of the cloned piece.
- Mating could also happen when two pieces of the same color enter in the same square, then two offspring are created in adjacent empty squares. Perhaps the less powerful parent should be eaten by the stronger one to stop a great proliferation of pieces. And also in this case, the mating zone should be on the enemy area (rows 5-8 for white, 1-4 for black).
- This sounds strange...
- Perhaps we could imagine two species that for some historical reason occupied the mating zone of each other. That's why there is a war!
Mating Wars
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- Two pieces of the same army can mate if one of them goes to the other's square. When this happens, two new pieces (just like their parents) are created and dropped into adjacent empty squares. One of the parents (the minor piece) is destroyed (it is eaten by the rest of the family); if both are equal, one of them is destroyed.
- The mating zones for White are rows 5-8, and for Black, rows 1-4.
- Is there something about mating in the Guide? - Turn wondered
- Hmm... - Zork looked in the Life chapter - Holy Hoyle! That variant is there!
- What? You are kidding again! We just invented it!
- I am serious. Damn, I suppose we have rediscovered it... - suddenly an intense noise from a distant big explosion.
- What was that? - Turn said, scared. He couldn't see anything.
- Evolution convergence, I guess... There are bombs everywhere!
Convergence Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- A piece that captures another is transformed into the captured piece type.
- A piece that moves adjacent (rookwise or diagonally) to two pieces of the same type (color does not matter), is transformed into that type (if there are more than one piece type (e.g., two pawns and two rooks) the player chooses between types). E.g., 1.Nf3 becomes a Pawn.
- Listen... You are talking about life and related stuff, right? - Turn asked.
- Right!
- Can you explain this variant to me?
Mutation Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- All Queens produce radiation to the squares they can go to. White (black) queens produce white (black) radiation.
- A piece that moves to a square where black and white radiation intersects, suffers a mutation and changes into a new piece, according to the next sequence: Pawn becomes Knight, N becomes B, B becomes R, R becomes Q, and Q is destroyed.
- That is strange, all right! - Zork agreed.
- How can Queens emit radiation?
- Just metaphors! Each piece can be used to define a concept inside a larger concept. I think the inventor would have seen Queens, with their almost circular range, as the closest movement type to define such behavior. Also, the idea of the Q destruction can mean that too much changes in the genetic pool of a certain being might be disastrous.
- So, you are interpreting the rules into moral and ethical concerns? - Turn asked.
- Hmm... - Zork thought - I see what you mean! Perhaps it is I who am seeing those ideas in the rules.
- The interpretation is personal, we just read what we are.
- "Tell me what you read, and I tell you who you are"?
- Perhaps... - Turn agreed. He had a strange look in his face.
- What is it? - Zork had noticed Turn's concern .
- I agree that some things are morally neutral, like technology. It is the one who uses it, who gives a moral significance to it. But that happens with written ideas? Are they really neutral?
- No, at least, not completely. But the interpretation is always biased, even for mathematics. There may be some moral context that motivates the writer, but that context may no longer make sense for the reader. He uses the words, or the rules in this case, as a positive or negative argument for his beliefs. Read this next variant:
Evolution Chess
- The FIDE rules apply, except:
- All pieces in the initial board position are pawns, except for the King.
- At the end of each turn, each player promotes one of his pieces, using the following sequence: P>N=B>R>Q (i.e., a Pawn may be promoted to a Bishop or a Knight).
- What are you saying? - Turn asked.
- Evolution, in this case, is not used as the scientific idea that describes Life's trajectory. It is used as a description of a specific war problem: arms racing.
- You mean: that's your interpretation!
- Right! - Zork agreed.
Exobiology states that Life occupies all environments. Variantists had contributed to this conjectural belief, creating and rediscovering many possible worlds with their sets of rules. Rational Life is a much harder case. It seems that there is a 0.98 correlation between intelligent beings and soda water. Wherever it's possible to produce soda water, Rational Life appears sooner or later. Social Life, however, is almost inevitable. The recent advent of totalitarian regimes inside public toilets in the Gemini Sector seems to support this theory.
[HG2C, page 381]
- Anyway - said Zork shifting the subject - We were talking about Life, let's return to it. Did you know that this Planet has some great social insects?
- I didn't know...
- One of the most fascinating species are ants!
- Never heard of them...
- Never? Well, they have the ability to lay one kind of offsprings and make them evolve differently by feeding them differently.
- If that was true for my species, it would be a horror story to imagine what the Mk'Gonard's company might have done on my home planet!
Breeding Chess
by Claude Chaunier
Instead of moving normally,
- a Queen on the first rank can lay a new Pawn onto the square immediately above, provided the square is empty.
- any piece adjacent to a Pawn still on the 2nd rank can promote the Pawn to the last kind of piece it has eaten.
- That's great - Turn said.
- But there is more. As we speak of social insects, here is another invention based on them:
Pheromone Chess
by Claude Chaunier
The Chess pieces are normally moving carefully, always worrying about the danger. Every kind of piece has its usual way to move so. But now any moving piece drops a temporary reconnaissance mark on the square it is leaving. The mark can then be used by the same player in his next turn if he wants, as the instant destination square for any of his pieces, wherever it is, instead of a normal careful move. A mark is specific to the color but not to the kind of piece that dropped it. It lasts until the player's next turn, either he uses it or not, when its location automatically changes to the new square that got left. It allows pieces to walk in procession from move to move, a new piece always able to follow the footsteps of the piece that moved last.
- Those little guys are great!
- Hey, they are not so little - Zork said - Ants usually have twice our size.
- Oh... For some reason I thought they were small!
- Have you already seen a Human?
- No!
- I could have guessed it! - Zork said with a grin.
The night was taking the day's turn, as if an eternal and cyclical chess game was moving forward, following the arrow of time. The temperature dropped. They left the mountain and the pure silence of its icy rocks. Zork programmed the journey to another specific place on the Planet's surface. The new place seemed deserted at first glance. But a strange electric haze was hanging in the air, making the horizon uncertain, open to the wildest imagination. Their story was only starting.
End of part I
See also:
- Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess - Part II. Several chess variants in the context of a Socratic dialog. By João Pedro Neto with help of Claude Chaunier.
Contact
Written by Claude Chaunier and João Pedro Neto
WWW page created: May 20, 2000.