Older Chess Variants News
Oct. 6, 2000
Darell Ashley emailed and asked to post the following request:
SEEKING Partners in venture capital investment for a new board game...SUPERIOR-CHESS ! SUPERIOR-CHESS is the chess variant game with seven intriguing games in one package that has tons of potential for expert and beginning chess players alike. SUPERIOR-CHESS coincides with all the rules and pieces of standard chess to be acceptable by the World Chess Federation,(WCF). Research and development has been completed and we seek persons with experience in the marketing field to help set up the corportive foundation. Knowledge of international legalities and contacts a plus. ... contact Darrell Ashley ((email removed contact us for address) sm.com) or call 219 962 2314.
MSOWorld.com To Provide Live Coverage of Cambridge/Oxford Chess Rivalry
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2000-- Mind Sports Organisa
For over a century, two of the most prominent universities in the world have held a competition to determine which institution contains the best chess players. This year, new technology will make the old rivalry even more interesting. MSO Worldwide (www.msoworld.com) joins forces with the former World Computer Chess Champion program ``Fritz'' to give live coverage. Fritz will be joined in the commentary box by human chess Grandmaster Julian Hodgson who will be seen and heard by the site's visitors thanks to video and audio streaming technology.
``Live reporting on the internet is something our users have definitely wanted to see,'' said MSO CEO, David Levy, ``It is our intention to report on many more games in this fashion. We'd like to see it become a necessity rather than a trend and we fully intend to have MSO Worldwide's website lead the way.''
MSO Worldwide Ltd. is no stranger to ``leading the way'' when it comes to Mind Sports. The company is responsible for creating the Mind Sports Olympiad, a board game, puzzle, memorization & creative thinking extravaganza in London England and is attended by thousands of mind sports enthusiasts from around the world every year. The Fourth Mind Sports Olympiad will take place at the Alexandra Palace in London, August 19th to the 28th. An estimated 15,000 people will attend the 10 day event.
The Cambridge/Oxford match will be broadcast live from the MSO Worldwide web site at http://www.msoworld.com on March 4th, starting at 12:30 pm UK time, 7:30 am EST, and running for approximately 6 hours.
ABOUT MSO
Mind Sports Organisation Worldwide Ltd. of London, England, is the organiser of the Mind Sports Olympiad. This annual event encompasses more than 30 classic games including Chess, Bridge, Backgammon, Go as well as several mental skills such as Memory Skills, Creative Thinking, Intelligence and Speed Reading. Players compete for the honour of winning Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, rankings and titles, and for cash prizes. The company was founded by well known mind sports personalities, Tony Buzan, Raymond Keene and David Levy. MSO Worldwide's website at http://www.msoworld.com/ was created to help achieve their goal of spreading Mind Sports throughout the real and virtual worlds. That web site is now well on its way to becoming one of the premier mind sports sites on the web, having recently won a Netscape ``Cool Siting'' award.
GLE'X International is organizing a Z-Chess World Open Tournament to be held during the first half of the year 2000. For more information go to their web page. Also see the Z-Chess web page.
Bishops is holding a Bishops Tournament running eight (8) weeks each Sunday beginning September 5, 1999. Entrants must arrange their own games with opponents of their own choice. Entrants must use printscreen and send an email attached zipped copy of their winning position. Only screenshot .zip files that unzip to .bmp format will be acceptable. One entry per person. Our judges will determine a winner each day from the winning positions sent in. The 8 finalists (one each day) will be entered in a playoff to be completed before the end of 1999. The winner of the playoff will receive a free Bishops Game value $49.95 CAN delivered. The losers may purchase a game at half price, shipping included. Please forward this message to anyone you feel will be interested. Visit www.bishopsthegame.com for online game.
(Announcement from our Yahoo Club at: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/chessvariants.
August 6, 1999
1999 ICC/World Progressive Chess Championship is underway!!
A LIVE (via internet) championship is now taking place for progressive chess on the Internet Chess Club. The tournament is being organized by Steve Cohen and the UPSCL. The time control for the event is 45 minutes per side with 3-minute increments. Games will be transmitted live via the internet as they are played. The first round started August 5th. The URL for this tournament is http://chess.jumpsports.com.
(Thanks to Doug Hyatt for informing us about this tournament.)
FIRST SATURDAY organizes a 3 days 9 rounds Swiss system event with $250 U.S. prize fund $100-$50-$40-$30-$20-$10.The prize fund will be valid with a minimal of 20 players, if less, proportionally decreases. Games start every day at 12:00 a.m. Registration until 11:45 a.m. 9th of July
Register personally or by a phone or written contact with the organizer. Thinking times: 2 x 25 min. per game. Venue: Hungarian Chess Federation, Budapest, Falk Miksa Str.10. Omega Chess sets will be provided.
Monthly Omega Chess tournaments are planned the year round with regular chess tournaments.
(Communicated by Daniel MacDonald, inventor of Omega Chess. Follow this link for more information on Omega Chess.
June 5, 1999
From Chris Dickson, we received the following announcement:
3rd MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD
Olympia, London, August 21-29 1999
Preliminary Announcement We are delighted to announce that the venue for the 3rd Mind Sports Olympiad will be the Conference Centre at Olympia, one of London's premier exhibition and conference sites.
The dates, as announced at the end of last year's event, are August 21st-29th. By extending the event to nine days we have made it possible to accommodate more players and to organize more tournaments.
We plan to have events for most games throughout the Olympiad. Typically, for each game, there will be some tournaments on the first weekend, then some 5-day events on the middle Monday-Friday (August 23-27) and finally some more tournaments on the final weekend. But every game will have its own requirements and at this stage we are still flexible in our tournament planning. For example, we are organizing a very strong chess tournament with 9 rounds, extending thhroughout the Olympiad, in which players will be able to obtain norms towards international titles. This tournament is in addition to the quickplay and 5-minute chess tournaments which we have held in the past.
This year there will be a substantial prize fund. We will be dramatically upgrading our web site over the next few months. We are also opening a full time central London office on May 14th.
(The website of this Olympiad is http://www.mindsports.co.uk/.)
New "Lotus" Chess Book Now Available
Lotus-39, a chess variant game invented for the 1998 worldwide chess variants contest, is now a book. Invented by longtime chess editor and organizer D. Moeser, Lotus-39 is chess played on a board of 39 "squares" arranged in a pattern of interconnected lotuslike circles."Lotus Chess: The Book" collects more than 56 pages of articles dealing with the theory and practice of playing chess on the lotus- patterned board. As future artceles are published on this subject they will be added to this compilation.
The articles currently included provide all the rules and instructions needed for playing chess on the lotus board. (A regular chess set can be used.) With 50 diagrams, the book explains and profusely illustraties the lotus board's directional concepts and provides examples of movements for 26 different chess pieces. Included are descriptions of all the regular chess pieces as well as other pieces invented by people in the chess variants field.
The book is spiral-bound in 8.5x11-inch size, and includes a full-sized, pull-out board printed in color that can be used for playing the game. Copies are available for US $14.95 each (includes postage and handling to USA addresses only). Payments may be sent to the author at 6255 Beechmont Avenue, #22, Cincinnati, OH 45230-1927. E-mail inquiries may be addressed to: erasmus at iglou dot com.
Copies are also still available for US $5 of "Neue Chess: The Book," a compilation of more than 50 pages published in Cincinnati chess periodicals on the subject of chess variants. (Interested chessplayers outside the U.S. should contact the author for quotes on shipping costs for these items.)
(News release, sent by David Moeser.)
THE WORLD CIRCULAR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 1999 SPONSORED BY LINDUM GROUP
The Circular Chess Society based in Lincoln UK is pleased to announce the forthcoming World Championships. The competition, with a top prize of £200, will be held on Sunday 16 May 1999 in Lincoln Castle.
Circular Chess is great fun. Anyone with a basic knowledge of chess can play. As there has been little analysis of openings each game is different from the start and newcomers are at less of a disadvantage than normal. The same principles apply but the battleground is different. At the championship there will be a complete range of players from highly rated normal boarders, to complete novices. The emphasis, as ever with Circular Chess Competitions, is that everyone has an enjoyable relaxed time, free liquid refreshments for competitors will no doubt assist.
The standard of chess played by those entering continues to rise with more serious exponents of the normal game becoming involved. Last years champion Francis Bowers from Spalding is a former normal board county champion. He successfully defended his title, winning a tight final game against Dutch representative and former Amsterdam champion Herman Kok. He looks forward to claiming the title for a third year.
Entry forms and information packs are available from the Society (contact (email removed contact us for address) .com or write to: The Circular Chess Society 11 North Parade, Lincoln UK LN1 1LB tel 01522 887666, for how to obtain these). The closing date for entries will be 1 May 1999; late entries can be accepted depending upon available space. Further details will be sent to entrants. The entry fee is £5 for non members. There will be a first prize of £200, a trophy to keep and the title of World Circular Chess Champion 1999.
(Text by the Circular Chess Society.)
March 11, 1999
Wednesday, March 17, 1999,
THE FIRST OFFICIAL WORLD EMAIL OMEGA CHESS TOURNMENT
will take place on Richard's PBeM Server. For those interested in
playing they need to get a free userID from the server and then contact
(email removed contact us for address) siah.edu with the subject Omega Chess Entry with their
userID in the message part before March 17, 1999. The tournament will be
played in pools with each player playing everyone else in their pool.
The winner will receive a free Omega Chess set.
(Based upon email of Omega Chess inventor Daniel C. Macdonald.)
February 9, 1999
As of Feb 3/99 Omega Chess can be played by E-mail for free.
Goto Richard's Play-By-E-mail Server -
http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/.
Join up and you are in the game.
Playing Omega Chess by E-mail is easier then you think, a 45 move game can happen in less then 50 min. This is a very fast server, hit send and the board comes back in 12 seconds!
Communicated by Daniel MacDonald. Omega Chess is a commercial chess variant. For more information, you can also visit the website of Omega Chess.
January 25, 1999
Doubles Chess, a commercial chess variant for four players, can now be
played online. A file of 7MB size can be downloaded from the Doubles Chess website. Playing
online is free.
Communicated by Rick Gillespie from Doubles Chess Inc.
January 4, 1999
The 1999 Fischer Random Progressive Chess Championship
is now accepting registrations! This is a free email tournament
for Fischer Random Scottish Progressive Chess. To sign up,
send an email to (email removed contact us for address) utk.edu before January 31, 1999.
Information on Scottish progressive chess
and on Fischer
Random progressive chess can be found within these pages.
Hans Bodlaender has generously agreed to donate a copy
of the Chess Variant Pages Offline CD-rom as a prize. Come play
one of the most popular chess variants in the world the
way it should be played -- FISCHER RANDOM!
Communicated by Doug Hyatt.
January 4, 1999
The first round of the 1998 World Internet Progressive
Chess Championship has finished! The following 21
players are semifinalists:
Zoltan Blazsik, Hugh Brodie, Roberto Cassano, Norbert Fogarasi, Norbert Geissler, Doug Hyatt, Marek Kowalczyk, Kevin Leeds, Ville Leppanen, Russell Linnemann, Liong Sauw Ming, Janne Nuopponen, Jori Ostrovskij, Alfred Pfeiffer, Kostas Prentos, Juha Saukkola, Rolf Sicker, Daniel Tilkin, Jouni Tolonen, Ottavio Vargiu, Brian Williams.Congratulations to the semifinalists! It looks like this will be one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, progressive chess tournaments ever held! Follow all the excitement at http://www.cs.utk.edu/~hyatt/wipcc98/.
The semifinal round begins January 20, 1999. For the latest games and results, visit the WIPCC 98 web site.
Communicated by Doug Hyatt.
December 10, 1998
A newsgroup, devoted to chess variants has been started by Richard Hutnik:
dejanews.comm.chessvariants.
If you cannot receive this newsgroup reading the Usenet news, instead you can access it at the World Wide Web: Richards ChessVariants Newsgroup Group is at http://www.dejanews.com/~chess/j.xp?j=chessvariants (Written by Hans Bodlaender, based on posting on rec.games.chess.misc, and information by Stephen Chafe.)
December 4, 1998
Zillions of Games has just
been released. This is a program for the PC, that plays hundreds of games,
including many chess variants: chess, shogi, xiangqi, small variants, Ultima,
and many others. In addition, the program allows the user to
expand it by adding new games to it, by describing them, after which the
program analyses the rules and then plays the just-defined game against you.
Read more on this exiting program on the website of Zillions of Games:
-
Zillions of Games
(Written by Hans Bodlaender, based on information of Jeff Mallett.)
November 23, 1998
Chessapeak Games Co. has just opened their Secure On-Line Shopping "Chessapeak Store" with "Secure" Credit Card transactions On-Line for all International, Canada and USA customers. Customers on-line will receive immediate confirmation that their credit card (Master Card, Visa, Discovery and American Express) on a secure site has been processed through secure internet protocol. A very short time later the customer will receive an E-mail invoice.
Chess Mazes Online Competition
Schedule
Chess Mazes Online Competition is held from the 1st of December, 1998 to the 31st of January, 1999. During that period you can join in with the Competition in any time.Chess Mazes Program
All participant need to have a Chess Mazes program and know just how chess pieces move. Chess Mazes program can be downloaded form the site http://www.bartsoft.com/chesspuzzles/compet.htm. Chess Mazes is a chess puzzle game which trains the ability to manoeuvre and calculate accurately, logical thinking and concentration.Participants
------------- Competition is opened for all paticipants from 5 to 99 and conducted for 4 age groups:1 group - 5 - 8-years old kids
2 group - 9 - 11-years old children
3 group - 12 - 14-years old children
4 group - 15 - adultsWinners will be awarded in each age group. As you see all your family can participate in that Competition!
About prizes and other details of the Competition see web site:
http://www.bartsoft.com/chesspuzzles/compet.htm
or write to: (email removed contact us for address) ada.com
August 11, 1998
The First International Losing Chess meeting will take place in Geneva, on the weekend of September 12-13, 1998. Almost all top players and a lot of beginners are expected. The program includes e.g: simultaneous display by best players, open tourney with prizes, short talks by 'experts', humans vs computers contest.More information can be found at the Events section of Stan Goldovski's Losing Chess website.
(Information provided by Stan Goldovski.)
June 15, 1998
The Chess Variant Pages, a large non-commercial website on chess variants, organizes for the second time a contest to design a chess variant. To participate, design a chess variant on a board with exactly 39 squares (or cells of another type), and send description and rules of it to Hans Bodlaender before November 30, 1998. First prize is a set of Heraldic Chess. See http://www.chessvariants.com/d.chessvar/39.dir/index.html for more information.(Please spread this message!)
June 3, 1998
In September 1998, AISE will start the 2nd English Progressive Chess Championship, played by email. Information in http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/2900/tornenpr.htm Among the participants, there will be Alessandro Castelli (Winner of first Campionship) and Tony Gardner (the International Campion!)Information provided by Fabio Forzoni.
2nd MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD The 2nd Mind Sports Olympiad will be held August 24th-30th 1998, in the Royal Festival Hall, London, England. This is a large meeting of `mind sports' enthousiasts, where many games, inclusing several chess variants will be played. Read below what the organizers wrote in an announcement:Royal Festival Hall, London, England
August 24th-30th 1998ANYONE MAY ENTER !!
New events
This year we will be repeating almost all of the tournaments which took place last year and we are adding some new events. The provisional list of games and mental skills for 1998 is:Abalone, Backgammon, Bridge, Business Game, Chess, Chess Problems, Chinese Chess (Xiang Qi), Continuo, Creative Thinking, Cribbage (6 card), "The Times" Crossword Puzzle Championship, Diplomacy, Decamentathlon, Draughts (Checkers) 8x8, Draughts 10x10, Entropy (7x7), Learn New Games, Go 19x19, Go 13x13, Go 9x9, HexDame, I.Q. (set and marked by Mensa), Japanese Chess (Shogi), Lines of Action (LOA), Magic - the Gathering, Mastermind, Memory Skills, Mental Calculations, Mind Mapping, Mini-Bridge (also known as "Taste Bridge", which is an easy way to learn the game in 15 minutes), Othello, Owari, Pentamind, Poker (played without money), Puzzle Design, Puzzle Solving, Role Playing Games, Rummikub, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan (card game version), Skat, Speed Reading, Stratego, Trivial Pursuit, Twixt, War Games, Zatre.
The Business Game is primarily intended for company teams but anyone can enter either as an a individual or in a team. A qualifying series will begin in early June and and the leading qualifiers will participate in the finals at the Royal Festival Hall on August 30.
To compete for the Pentamind medals contestants must enter tournaments for five or more different games or mental skills. AT LEAST ONE OF THESE MUST BE A 3- DAY, 4-DAY OR 5-DAY TOURNAMENT.
Playing times
We are retaining the popular playing schedule from last year, with sessions from 10:00-14:00 and 16:00-20:00 each day. In addition we are introducing extra evening tournaments for some of the most popular games from 18:30 to 21:30 on the weekdays. Although these evening sessions are designed to cater for games enthusiasts who work in the London area but who are unable to get time off work to play during the day, anyone may enter.Virtual tournaments
For those unable to come to London in August we shall be offering virtual tournaments for some of the games. These tournaments are played via the Internet using one of the existing games servers.The two most popular virtual tournaments last year were Chess and Bridge. In addition we will be organizing virtual tournaments for Backgammon, Chinese Chess (Xiang Qi), 10x10 Draughts, Go, Japanese Chess (Shogi) and Othello.
Prizes
Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the leading players in every tournament. In addition there will be trophies for the best school teams. Cash and other prizes will be announced later, including a number of Round-the-World air tickets courtesy of British Airways.Our web site
Our web site has been updated to include details of playing times and dates for each tournament as well as entry fee information etc.For more information about the 2nd Mind Sports Olympiad please send a large self-addressed envelope to:
Mind Sports Olympiad,
P.O. Box 13388,
London NW3 2ZF,
England.Telephone: +44 171 485 9146
Fax: +44 171 482 0672.
e-mail: (email removed contact us for address) elligent-group.com
web site: http://www.mindsports.co.uk/
Information sent by David Levy.
World Internet Progressive Chess Championship 1998
Come play in the 1998 World Internet Progressive Chess Championship, the largest email tournament for Scottish progressive chess in the world! The 1996 championship had 60 participants. We expect over 100 participants this year! Registration ends June 30, 1998. See http://www.cs.utk.edu/~hyatt/wipcc98/ for more information or email (email removed contact us for address) utk.edu.
The Beaver Design World Circular Chess Championship 1998
The Circular Chess Society is pleased to announce the forthcoming World Championship is to be held on Sunday 17 May 1998. The competition, the third World Championship, will be held in the historic Lincoln Castle.Circular Chess dates back to the 11th century and is rumoured to have been enjoyed by monks. It was rediscovered some years ago by a Lincoln historian who thought it worth trying out. Local competitions followed and in 1996 we held the first World Championship, attracting world wide interest.
The moves are essentially the same as on the normal square board. The difference, as the name suggests, is that it is played on a circular ring. This strengthens certain pieces and weakening others. The rooks and queen can move six feet in one go, and so players have to be constantly wary of innocent looking pieces on the other side of the board. The board^Rs shape distorts diagonals and distance so the moves of the bishops and knights can be deceiving.
It is great fun and appeals to chess players from novices to experts. Most of the players are not chess boffins or anoraks but folk who enjoy something a little different. Anyone with a basic knowledge of chess can play and as there has been little analysis of openings each game is different from the word go.
Last year's champion Francis Bowers from Spalding is a former normal board county champion and looks forward to defending his crown against all comers.
Entry forms and information packs are available from the Society (send an A4 sae to the address below). The initial closing date for entries will be 1 May 1998. Further details will be sent to entrants. There will be a first prize of #200, a trophy to keep and the title of World Circular Chess Champion.
THE CIRCULAR CHESS SOCIETY
11 North Parade, Lincoln, LN1 1LB, England.(Information sent to me by Andrew Brewster, a.brewster@diamond.co.uk on behalf of the CCS.)
Wanted: human opponents for e-mail games against Dabbaba!
Jens Baek Nielsen, programmer of the program Dabbaba: a chess program that can also play some variants wrote the following:I don't know if the variants that my Dabbaba-program can play are played very much. I have a feeling that most people wants to try variants that differ more from orthodox chess than those Dabbaba can play. I have never heard from anyone who has played a variant with Dabbaba.
But I want it to be tried out, so I have selected 4 of the variants to be played by e-mail against a human opponent. I will receive the human moves, give Dabbaba the current position and let it think up to an hour (on a Pentium 233 Mhz) and send Dabbabas move to the opponent. It is VERY important, that the human does NOT use a computer with Dabbaba or another program to help him.
Are YOU an opponent, that wants to accept this challenge? Dabbabas rating is ca. 1700, and I don't want the opponents to be weaker unless they really want to try this challenge. I assume a human rating as close as possible to 1800-1900 would be best.
The variants:
- Stationary chess (king cannot move)
- Chancellor chess (Queen=rook+knight). David Paulowich has accepted this challenge.
- Nightrider chess (knight may make long moves fx g1e5)
- Dabbaba Chess (knight=knight+dabbaba. A dabbaba jumps (2,0); fx g1g3)
I look forward to receive your accept to this challenge.
Greetings Jens
Infinite Chess accepted by the U.S. Chess Federation
INFINITE CHESS is pleased to announce our acceptance by the U.S. Chess Federation.The first chess variant game in several years to pass the stringent test of their evaluation committee. We are very proud of the honor bestowed upon INFINITE CHESS and would like to share the news with everyone.
(Information provided by Ed Bishop from Infinite Chess. See the website of Infinite Chess for more information on this game.)
August 12, 1997
In the August issue of Chess Life, the magazine of the U.S. Chess Federation, there is an article on 10 by 10 chess by Burt Hochberg, who was the editor of the magazine back in the 1960s and 1970s. A commentator observed that it was the first major article on a chess variation in that magazine in almost 25 years, when the magazine featured for a short time Pre-chess (a variant where players choose how to set up the pieces on the last row).The article, titled Don't be Scared, It's Still Chess describes both Capablanca's chess, and Christian Freeling's Grand Chess, the latter in detail with several sample games from the Yerevan Olympiad.
You can participate with an email Marseilles chess tournament. The closing date for signing up is now August 20, 1997; the tournament starts on September 1, 1997. Entrance is free: send an email to Fabio Forzoni, (email removed contact us for address) .it. The home page of the tournament is: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/2900/torneien.htm.
August 11, 1997
The price of Cardinal Super Chess & Super Checkers was recently lowered to $19.95 + shipping and handling.
(Information provided by Maureen Jones from Cardinal Super Chess Co. More information can be found on the home page of Cardinals Super Chess.)
June 9, 1997
The following press release was sent to me by David Levy.100,000 POUNDS IN PRIZES AT THE MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD!!
It has just been announced that the insurance and financial services giant, Skandia, is sponsoring the 1st Mind Sports Olympiad in London (August 18th-24th 1997), where there will be tournaments for more than 30 different games and mental skills.
The total prize fund is worth 100,000 pounds (approximately US$ 163,000). There are 4 prizes of return Concorde tickets from London to New York. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the leading players in all tournaments and to the leading juniors (under 16).
There will also be a Virtual Mind Sports Olympiad (without cash prizes) played over the Internet for some of the games: Backgammon, Bridge, Chess, Chinese Chess, Go, Othello and Shogi. Medals will be awarded to the three leading players in each of the virtual tournaments.
For more information please visit our web site:
or write to us at:
Mind Sports Olympiad,
P.O. Box 13388,
London NW3 2ZF,
England.Fax: +44 171 482 0672
e-mail: (email removed contact us for address) rsrch.demon.co.uk
June 5, 1997
THE F & J CYCLES WORLD CIRCULAR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 1997
The Championship, held in the Higg Inns Odd fellows Hall, Lincoln UK, received great praise from competitors who came from around the country to take part, both for the superb venue and the occasion itself. The Mayor and Sheriff of Lincoln attended the opening and made the first round draw. The array of furrowed brows poring over circular boards was a sight to behold. TV cameras were present again and we hope for further international coverage to promote the game and the City of Lincoln UK, the home of Circular Chess.The winner and 1997 World Circular Chess Champion is Francis Bowers from Spalding. He beat Chairman and defending World Champion Rob Stevens in a to the death play off to take the title. Ousted Champ said I drew against Francis earlier in the day but he capitalised upon an early error in the play off to destroy my game plan. Against a lesser player there would have been hope of recovery but Francis was too accomplished. He relentlessly attacked to leave no way of escape and the end result was inevitable. It is encouraging that players of such pedigree are involved and the game can only blossom from here. We are delighted that the Champion is a Lincolnshire lad. Francis will be a credit to the Society and the game. Next year we expect even stronger competition from within the UK and abroad.
Francis plays orthodox chess to a high standard, being a former County Champion, and is highly graded. He runs a chess supplies business and is deeply involved in the game. He was pre tournament favourite and whilst perhaps fortunate that the player he beat in the last scheduled round refused Franciss offer of a draw, he won in style with an overall points tally of 5.5/6.
(Written by and communicated by Robin Stevens, World Champion Circular Chess 1996.)
June 4, 1997
AISE, the Italian Chess Variant Organization, organizes a world-wide Email championship on Marseillais Chess (the variant where you make two moves per turn). Participation is free; if you want to participate, send an email to Fabio Forzoni, (email removed contact us for address) .it before July 31, 1997. The tournament starts September 1, 1997.(Information provided by Fabio Forzoni.)
June 2, 1997
M. K. Snyder found in the June issue of Inquest magazine an advertisement with the following text:No board. No boundaries. No limits.
There is no further information on the game; no address was given with the advertisement. Anyone who has more information on this game, please inform me.Express Chess is a great new card game. It springs from the traditions of chess and flows with the excitemnt and flexibility of cards. But, Express Chess is not a typical collectible card game:
- You can afford it--the Starter Decks are inexpensive, and each Starter includes everything that two players need for a game.
- You can complete your collection--two unique Starter decks include every card int he set--there are no booster packs.
- You will enjoy it--the rules are easy, but the play is challenging.
Speaking of challenges, go challenge the top chess player you know to an Express Chess match. Play your cards right, and you will win!
Express Chess and Blackbox TM 1966 BlackBox Hc. All rights reserved.
May 27, 1997
There is a Xiangqi tournament named Lions Cup that will be played in Braunschweig (Germany) on June 28 and 29, 1997.It is a tournament open for players of all strengths, especially for players with no or little experience in Xiangqi tournaments. At the same time some of the best players in Germany will participate in another tournament, so they won't play in the lions cup. For this reason nobody should be afraid to be to weak for the Lions Cup.
Contact Claus Tempelmann (email removed contact us for address) -magdeburg.de for information, entry forms, etc.
(Information provided by Claus Tempelmann.)
May 13, 1997
Alfred Pfeiffer wrote me:Do you know the following book (in English and Hungarian):
Polgar Laszlo: "Minichess - Minisakk, 777+1 Positions.", (a hungarian publishing house) 1994, ISBN 963 450 805 7
It is related to the variant "Quickchess" from Joseph Miccio. The author is the father of the Polgar sisters. The book seller
"Schachzentrale Caissa - Kurt Rattmann"
offers remainders of this book for 6,90 DM + porto. (Art.-Nr.: POL0805)
Weidenbaumsweg 80, D-21035 Hamburg,
Tel. +49 40 7244282, Fax +49 40 7214647
April 10, 1997
In the homour colomn at April 1, 1997, in the Russian written newspaper Vesti, printed in Israel, there was a joke, featuring a chess variant: a picture of three-player chess with the title "Great chess tournament in Chernobyl". (You may decide yourself whether you think it is funny.)Contributed by: E. Bachmutsky. Edited by Hans Bodlaender.
April 10, 1997
Space chess is a three-dimensional chess variant, which is sold for US $39.95, and produced by Chessex. I bought a copy of the game from an online gameshop called Riders. Building the game from the materials requires a drill that enlarges some of the holes in the wood, as otherwise the screws do not fit it; the rules are quite bad (but other better rules have been designed by others); but the set looks quite nice.By: Hans Bodlaender.
Collected and maintained by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: April 10, 1997. Last update: see last news item added.