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Subject: Re: On avoiding Gothic Chess licensing problems

Author: Ed Trice

Date: 18:26:10 06/18/04

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>But this is exactly the point we have been arguing over and over with
>programming a capablanca chess engine.


Incorrect.

Selling a Capablanca Chess set is not the same as designing a program. You have
to DESCRIBE THE METHOD OF PLAY when you sell the game.

They cannot ship with the Capa set the text "Oh, by the way, put the chancellor
on e1, th Archbishop on g1, etc...' and then let the players play the game of
Gothic Chess.

They cannot  discuss playing the game of Capablanca Chess.

>It seems you've been saying such an engine with a position setup feature would
>be illegal, or did I misunderstand that?

There is more to a chess engine than a setup feature. The king safety code in
Capablanca Chess is very, very different from Gothic Chess.

If the program has internal heuristics to deal with Gothic patterns, it is in
violation of the patent. The whole point of the CapaGNU Modified match was to
demonstrate that a Capa program, designed only to play Capa's chess, would get
pulverized by one with Gothic-specific algorithms.

If a program has been written to allow for playing the game of Gothic Chess,
then it has infringed upon the patent if there is no license.

>>>If it is, then how come Gothic isn't infringing on Capablanca in the same way?

1. Because Capablanca's chess is public domain.
2. Because the METHOD OF PLAYING Gothic Chess is not even close to Capa's chess.


>
>It is the same game, just with different initial positions.
>

The playability of the game is very sensitive to the initial position. I think
Capa's Chess is a forced white win. I won my first 32 games of Capa chess I
played with white.

The i-pawn is undefended and there are 3 diagonal pieces in a row gunning at it:
Archbishop on c1, Bishop on d1, Queen on e1.

That changes everything.

>
>Your subgame is also reachable under capablanca chess, capablanca chess
>pre-existed gothic so your subgame cannot be patented, just the opening
>position.

My subgame is not patented. It is reachable from my patented starting position.
You cannot claim a superset of intellectual property from a subset.



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