Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Douglas, that's a problem that can't be solved easily.  The best answer I
can give is simply to enjoy each game for what you get from it, and know
that those who rely on a computer to win are cheating themselves.

Also, playing variants helps (yes, I know that you're still new to regular
chess), because many of the programs available are a lot weaker.

Next, don't always trust everything you hear over IM--I've seen my share
of false accusations in my time.

Finally, over time you can find opponents you can trust.

Good luck to you!

Glenn Overby
CVP Competitions Editor

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Regards

Nigel Phillips

This is for Douglas.
How to tell when a computer is being used:
Average, weak, or new players to the game should not be making great
moves.
I have seen it also.  Several Yahoo! and POGO players, probably mostly
kids admitted they were using a computer against me.  I know of two games
I lost to computers.
I also know of several others where I beat the computers.

It is against USCF Postal or email rules to use a computer during a game.
It is also against FICS.  EWCCF,and CCLA rules to use a computer.

To play a game when neither player can use any help go to FICS.   A free
site.

EWCCF:  I do not know how the games work but I think it is similar to
FICS.
(I am a tournament director for  EWCCF).  But I do not play with EWCCF.

USCF and CCLA use email to play games.

It is not against USCF rules to use a book for a postal, email game.
Normally a book is for the opening moves.   Chessbase.de has an online
Opening book also.
Or rather games.   I do know of players using a database program for
Opening help also.
I do also.
But Midgame and endgame I depend solely on my learning and training.
Remember that most of these games mean nothing.   I did not play chess in
nearly 30 years and wanted to get back into 'shape.'
Playing with a computer would have set me back.   The reason, the computer
would have been doing the thinking for me.
All those players using a computer to play their games are cheating
themselves.   They will never learn how to play good chess.

I have been imagining possible original Chess,
programmes of which are listed in the home page:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Denei/2251/
Please, visit the home page.

A good way to assure e-mail games are played without the aid of a computer
is for each player to create a text file where they will put down the
reasoning behind each move.  Each turn this file is placed in a
password-protected/encrypted ZIP file and sent with the move.  (The name
of the ZIP file can actually be the move.)  At the end of the game, the
player sends the passwords to open these ZIP files.

This is also helpful with creating commentary for the recorded game.

I don't believe it would work, even if the player on the other side isn't
using a computer, what's to say he/she isn't getting advice from other
people?  If they were doing that, it would be easy to put commentary in on
how and why a move is a good one.

I wouldn't agree to such a game, for the reasons that John Lawson and
Michael Howe wrote below.  A game is just that, a game.  It's meant to be
fun, not to be a chore.

And would anyone really want to give their opponent an opportunity to view
the thinking behind each move?  You cannot be 100% certain that your
encrypted ZIP file is unbreakable.  If you're concerned that your
opponent is using a computer, would you not also worry they could crack
your password/encryption?

Encryption is plenty strong enough to keep the move-explanation secure --
after all, we even use it to send credit card numbers over the internet,
and there are more people willing to spend more time to get credit card
numbers than there are people who want to find out why you made a certain
move in a game. The objection you and other players have to recording
their reasoning is more potent. Personally I'd be glad to write
explanations of my moves, even for the sake of making sure I remember why
I made them when I return to an e-mail game, sometimes several days later;
and I often wish the great players in tournaments would make such notes
and share them after the game is finished.

But it still wouldn't prevent cheating: I've seen programs that will
provide reasoning behind the moves they make. It would be very good for
new and exotic games to have some system that would prevent this kind of
cheating, because it would make it possible to hold a 'high-stakes'
tournament with a cash prize (maybe $100) and attract larger numbers of
serious players, and so getting more games that worthy of serious study.
But tournaments with prizes would also encourage cheaters to Zillionize
the game in hope of winning through brute-force computation rather than by
gaining a real understanding of how the game should be played.

So I applaud the effort to find such a cheat-proof e-play system, but I
don't see much hope for it myself.

'Encryption is plenty strong enough to keep the move-explanation secure --
after all, we even use it to send credit card numbers over the internet'

Actually, the encryption for .zip files is terrible and can be broken. 
You'd have to use a better program to encrypt and then zip the result, or
some such.

Right, I'm not talking about simply ZIPping the files and sending them,
which I wouldn't call encryption at all. I mean using the kind of tools
they have on secure servers, which I believe use RSA encryption. I've
never needed to get software to do this on my own, but I've heard
there's a tool called PGP (for Pretty Good Privacy) that does RSA for
you.

RSA is the algorithm based on Fermat's Little Theorem, and on the
difficulty of factoring huge numbers that are products of two huge primes.
It was written up in a Scientific American column in the 1970's, and the
Dept. of Defense got all bothered and tried to suppress it on the grounds
that it described for a mass audience an encryption technique that would
be impossible for their biggest brains to crack. If RSA were not secure,
there would be profound implications to the security of online purchasing.
If any mathematician found a way to break it, he would make a name for
himself by publishing it. No one has.

OK, These pages are great.

I want to ask a question. Some time ago I read a variant on these pages.
It had pieces that were geometrical figures, and the board was a sort of
interweaving stripes and there was a prison, or something like that. I
don't remember it too well. The fact is that I wanted to look at that
variant again, but since I don't remember its name I can't find it
anymore. Does anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Game with 'interweaving stripes' about a year ago is Weave and Dungeon.
GW Duke

Hi.

In Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series, there is mention of a
chess-like game called 'Sha'rah.' A cursory web search reveals no
attempt at devising rules for the game.

The info I have is from the series' ninth book 'Path of Daggers,' in
which a villain contemplates a Sha'rah board and pieces as an allegory
for the world situation.

The scene gives us the following game details:

1) The board is 13x13
2) 33 red, 33 green and 1 black-and-white shared piece - the 'Fisher'.
3) The game is complex.
4) The board is checkered black and white, but a green and red checkered
'goal row' surrounds the playing area.
5) Only the black-and-white 'Fisher' piece can move onto the goal row.
6) The 'Fisher' starts on the central square of the board.
7) Any piece can threaten the goal row, however.
8) Players attempt to capture the Fisher.
9) Capture of the Fisher makes it 'yours' to move until it is captured
by the enemy.
10) Three ways to win:
     1) Move the Fisher onto a square of your color on your opponent's
end of the board.
     2) Force your opponent to move the Fisher onto any 'goal row'
square of your color.
     3) (of the third object) '...victory coming only with complete
annihilation of your enemy.'
11) Several pieces have 'varying moves.'
12) The Fisher's attributes alter according to the color square it stands
on: 
     1) On a white square, 'weak in attack yet agile and far-ranging in
escape.'
     2) On a black square, 'strong in attack yet slow and vulnerable.'
13) The Fisher is always rendered as a 'man, a bandage blinding his eyes
and one hand pressed to his side, a few drops of blood dripping through
his fingers.'

That's all the information I can glean from the book's prologue. Perhaps
there is more rule-revealing info later in the book or in subsequent
books...I haven't gotten there yet. But from the rules already presented,
it seems like it could make for a fascinating game.

-Roger

That game looks interesting. Rules question I can get: Can red (resp
green)
move a fisher onto a red (resp green) square anywhere else than in the
opponent's home row? What would the fisher's abilities be there?

I hope you find more info!