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Subject: Re: Gothic Chess Openings

Author: Bob Durrett

Date: 08:51:16 01/07/04

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On January 07, 2004 at 11:35:05, Ed Trice wrote:

>Hi Bob,
>
>You underestimate the SIZE of Gothic Chess. I have been playing the game almost
>every day since the year 2000, and the opening permutations for pawn
>displacements alone can keep Gothic Chess books from saturating the play for
>perhaps 100 years.
>
>Just take a look at...
>
>http://www.GothicChess.org/openings.html
>
>On January 07, 2004 at 11:06:27, Bob Durrett wrote:
>>
>>That will only give you a temporary respite.  Soon, the bookmakers will have
>>opening books for Gothic Chess too.  Then you will have to dream up a new
>>variant.  The wolves will always be snapping at your heels.
>>
>>: )
>>
>>Bob D.

Perhaps it is true that I underestimate the SIZE of Gothic Chess.  But it may
also be true that you underestimate the skills and innovativeness of the serious
bookmakers.  : )

Generally, if many games are recorded and published then the bookmakers will
then have the materials they need to create books.  The maximum possible quality
of such books will depend on the quality of the game collections.  [Garbage in,
garbage out.]  Unfortunately, the inability of the bookmakers to obtain credible
published ratings of the players would be a disadvantage.  The absence of
credible published ratings would force the bookmakers to analyze the games to
obtain estimates of the playing strengths of the players.  This might take
awhile, but it seems do-able at least in principle.  The games of strong players
would be given more credibility than the games of the weaker players, so the
pre-set probabilities for play of the opening moves would be adjusted
accordingly.

If extremely strong gothic chess-playing programs were to ever become available,
then there would be the possibility of using those strong machines to create
some new good openings.  The quality of the openings from those games, and hence
the quality of opening books made from those games, would depend on the quality
of the programming of the engines.  One of the positive traits of humans is
their innovativeness.  A resolute determined high-class programmer may be able
to find a way to make an engine which played Gothic chess well in the opening.

Bob D.



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