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Gary Gifford wrote on Thu, Oct 25, 2007 11:07 PM UTC:

This is in response to the recent 'Chess with Inverse Capture' comment (by George Duke).

I am putting my reply here, in the POM category because that is where Mr. Duke's remarks once again lead me.

Mr. Duke's comment is informative and tells of the Ralph Betza Medusa concept.

Duke mentions, quote: '... a 1997 pamphlet 'How To Play Medusa Chess', precisely the lead-in for 'PoM', Gary Gifford calls 'Medusa' an equivalent to 1960's Ultima Immobilizer(one-, two- or three-stepping) plus normal captures. Gifford must have been aware of Ultima if not web-based Chess Variants.'

That last statement is a logical assumption, but it is incorrect. I was not aware of Ultima and I was not aware of web-based Chess Variants. I had never heard of Ralph Betza at that point in time and I had no external inspiration for my Medusa or Morph. I thought of them on my own. It is possible for people to come up with the same or similar ideas. History is abundant with examples.

The original name for PoM was Medusa Chess. That was the name I used when I submitted it to CV. I submitted it at the request of a friend. His mention of CV to me was the first time I ever heard of the impressive site.

After submission and acceptance of my Medusa Chess I discovered that there was already an earlier Medusa Chess. So, I asked one of the editors to change the name of my version to Pillars of Medusa.

Why a Medusa piece? Because in a novel of mine, I have a Medusa [she is beautiful, but is based on the ugly one from mythology]. She is feared and the chess game on that world has a piece to represent the lady. This may seem fatuous to some, but it is true.

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Comments

Pillars of Medusa. A variation of Turkish Great Chess plus two additional pieces, the Morph and the Medusa. (11x11, Cells: 121)

George Duke wrote on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 07:51 PM UTC:

In context of the same year 1997, Ralph Betza has piece Medusa, or Gorgon, from 1997 at ''Chess Variants with Inverse Capture.''

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2009 08:50 PM UTC:

(zzo38) A. Black - Yes, a very good catch! You are 100% correct. I do not recall who played that game, but White thought he had checkmate, announced it, and Black missed the save that you found. I must admit that I did not notice the save either, but now that Medusa move can certainly be seen as the saving move. You are the first person I know to catch that! Many thanks.

(zzo38) A. Black wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2009 08:36 PM UTC:

In the example game, can you move D11 to F9 to stop checkmate?

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2009 02:44 PM UTC:

Mr. Smith. You stated, 'I meant that your Bishops are on the same colour.' Reply: I look at the rules setup and see 4 bishops (2 for each side) and on different colors. I look at this preset (/play/pbm/play.php) and see the same setup. However, I found that another pre-set was setup wrong. So your Bishop criticism it seems, was to one of two pre-sets, not to the true setup as seen in the rules. I fixed the error.

Regarding your White advantage and asymmetry equalizing statements you also say,'I don't need examples.' Reply: But an example (if it existed and if it was not an exception to the rule) would clarify and tend to validate your statements.

In your most recent comment you give me credit for a little equation that I have nothing to do with and as I see it, has nothing much to do with the game. You go as far as to give another persons' different answer to the equation. An example of a game position would be relevant. Showing us a zero and a 1/2 tells us nothing about the game.

Yesterday you mentioned,'... and I didn't say that the Morph was powerful.' But it seems you did, indirectly. Because there are really only 2 new pieces in that game (the Morph and the Medusa) when compared with Turkish Great Chess. So, with simple logic we see:(a) your statement that new pieces are ridiculously powerful and (b)we understand that the Morph is one of two new pieces then (c) we conclude the Morph is ridiculously powerful.

On a final note from me this time around, you implied that perhaps you would not play the game against me using White pieces because I would have an advantage due to playing strength. So that brings us to another point... the point that playing strength actually influences the outcome of a game. I would go as far as saying that the stronger player will generally win at Pillars of Medusa, regardless of color... with the occasional exceptions due to an oversight, but not due to game mechanics.

John Smith wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2009 06:07 AM UTC:

I meant that your Bishops are on the same colour. I don't need examples. What you're saying is that 1-1+1-1+1... != 0. (Then again, George Duke would probably say that it's 1/2! ;-D) For every Black favoring position, there exists a White favoring position.

Number of ratings: 3, Average rating: Excellent, Number of comments: 29

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