Hi all
,
I got an email that the introduction to the Mystery Chess Tour like all what I am doing is hardly understandable.
<<Hi Heinz,
Thanks for the Mystic Chess introduction, very funny! I didn't understand some parts like witch and the woman from down under but I was laughing out loud with your referrence to Uri and the Spike team! Of course Uri commented in the CCC that one of Spike's advantages is having two programmers. There was also something about Big Lion's "inner voice" who is tactically stronger.
Of course the actual game itself and the comments were funny. I'm now eagerly waiting for Big Lion and Toga (who ate some fruit)!
still LOL,>>
So here is a short explanation to the text.....
fine that you have fun. Uschi will be happy when you could give some comment in the forum. She is a very fanciful woman. I give you some hints only understandable for insiders.
Once upon a time in the realm of elves and fairies big chess events were celebrated in the court of the Crimson Queen (or was it the Crimson King
) But soon the Queen felt bored with all those serious matches and tournaments and demanded:
---King Crimson is a favourite rock music band from Uschi and me. One album is called "In the Court of the Crimson King". Maybe one of the songs refers to me "21st century Schizoid Man".---
"Just take away all those people from AEGT, CEGT, Infinite Loops and Reels, and no Chess Wars for some time. I want to see something amusing. So let us see who is best here. The winner will be allowed to bath in the sea of enlightenment, which will make him invincible, so he will not have to fear any hydras or be shreddered anymore. Tell me, who wants to participate?"
Loud heavy metal music interrupted the usual harmonic sounds. A long haired guy in a metal dress stepped forward.and shouted:
"I heard the Call of Kthulu (Lovecraft), I will participate. I have support from fans and and will be a real gladiator.
---The name Kthulu refers to a book by Lovecraft and to a song from Metallica (Call of Kthulu), I also like this kind of music.---
A witch with tousled hair and warts where they are usually not liked by women pushed him aside.
"Take me in, I learnt a lot of hechizos over the past months"
"What are hechizos?" asked the Queen.
"Ah, sorry, I am a bit confused since my broom was crushed into this oak. I meant spells".
---witch in Spanish, my favourite language, is Bruja and hechizos means spells, there are threads as well in the old as in the new Winboard Forum where Dan and many others exchanged some jokes in Spanish language---
A woman dressed in a more elegant way approaches the scene.
"Who is she?" a boy asked his father.
"I'm not quite sure. She is from down under and has had some weird confrontations with the witch in the past in Leo?s tournaments".
---The engine Trace from Ross Boyd from Australia is named after his wife. The result in Leo?s tournament was 4-0 in favour of Trace although at that time and probably also today both are at about the same level---
Again there was a deep voice and then the spectators saw a real giant, measuring more than seven feet tall. He was dressed in fine clothes:
"Call me The Baron. I dislike all those players who know a lot about theory. Let us play with the pieces in random alignment".
---The Baron like some others supports Fischer Random Chess and therefore the game in the magic tournament from Uschi will be against another one supporting FRC, maybe we take the beta from Reinhard Scharnagel---
Suddenly, from a diffuse green light a wizard appeared and answered:
"Perhaps I won't challenge you, but this other huge guy".
---Green Light Chess, was easy----
Another colossus showed up, the ground beneath him trembling.
"They call me Slow", he said in a friendly way, "but I am a master in deceiving my opponents and for most I am much too fast".
---SlowChess, also easy----
More and more wanted to play. There was the king of the animals, cross-eyed, but honest. However this animal seemed to behave like Hesse?s Steppenwolf, showing a multiple personality. An inner voice always urging, "Let me play?I am tactically stronger".
---Matthias has two engines Big Lion and Tactix. Once he wrote something like "Big Lion is positionally weak and tactically catastrophical, Tactix is tactically weak and positionally catastrophical".---
A small bird wanted to challenge a huge ugly dragon.
But the dragon, usually a very modest and helpful creature, seemed to be in bad mood and answered in a contemptuous way:
"You can?t even fly. I will give you double the amount of time and will even remove my bishop pawns. Although I would prefer to fight against my favourite opponent Gandalf, but it seems that he fell asleep after our last fight".
--Gandalf was attacked by Glaurung in "Lord of the Rings" and lost the fight (wrong, see correction by Greg, thanks---
A confused smiling chap from the distant planet Terra claimed that he would be the king of the Visigoths, as soon as time travelling was invented. But no one could understand his strange language code and he confessed that from time to time he had even lost some parts of it.
---Peter also has two engines Terra and Alaric (historical king of the Visigoths) and some time ago confessed that he lost the code for a Terra version, making it difficult for him to give a bugfix---
A talkative man started to grumble: "I do not claim that Mov?.".
"Oh, shut up" two other guys exclaimed. "No IceSpells and Cheetah?s are needed to crush you. Now that we have combined our efforts".
---Well, Uri whom we all like a lot, begins a lot of his sentences with "I do not ... that Movei...". IceSpell is the former engine by Volker B?hm and Cheetah the one by Ralf Sch?fer. Most will know that they are now creating a monster called Spike (known from comic TV)---
Finally a dwarf appeared. His face camouflaged by a black hood.
"Who are you?" asked the Queen, "A thief.?"
"No, you can?t call me a thief. Nowadays valuable things can be found unwatched along the streets" he answered.
"And why are you staggering, are you drunk?" the Queen continued.
"No, although I am feeling a bit doped and confused", the enano replied. "I just ate some fruit from the bushes, which were delicious. I think I ate so many that they must be 95% of my weight, but there is something unique in me. But maybe I will keep this private now."
The spectators were divided in their opinions: "Do not let him participate" some cried indignantly.
"We want to see him play, he seems to be strong" others applauded.
---Toga-Fruit allusion of course, Enano what in Spanish language means dwarf, was a TSCP clone---
"Who else wants to participate?" asked the Queen. The usual silence of the court followed. Or?
---asking engine authors who are still not mentioned if they do not want to participate in the Mystic Chess Tour, what so far was answered in the usual way ---
Most players seemed to be deaf, some were too lazy to utter a single word, others were already fed up with all the tournaments. Some others were far away including the Pharaon who was too busy watching all his pyramids. Frank was composing weird music with obscene texts on some moon.
---Frank Zappa who died many years ago composed fantastic rock music with partly obscene songtexts. A moon is also named Zappa---
The first challenges were made. Spectators sat down in their chairs. The well-known organizers of fine standard tournaments. But not all. Some had to stand.
"Why those people are not allowed to sit, mum?" a small child asked.
"Shhh, ignore them, these strange people using awkward conditions and boards are not welcome in the court. No one is really interested in them. Luckily most have already gone."
---there are infamous people in AEGT for example playing under Fritz GUI. I am offering my excuses---
The big dragon now set up his pieces for the first game and kicked away his bishop pawns, while the Kiwi was busy sheltering his wings from the flames that were already shooting out of the muzzle of Glaurung and almost getting squashed by one of those enormous feet. So let us see the game of the humble bird against the big dragon:
---some other hints followed, so for example in the preview to Big Lion versus Toga, Napoleon is from George Orwell?s famous book against racism "Animal Farm", but as no allusion is intended to similarities to living beings, it is just Napoleon and no one else, so it is of no use to google ---
Anyone understood all the hints? Maybe Guenther, Olivier and other ardent readers of the forum? By the way only the matches BigLion vs. Toga and Trace vs. Bruja are fix. So proposals are welcome. No prob for Uschi to write something fanciful to the games of any engine.
When the Mystic Tour is finished Uschi will give either an adventure game or a quiz with more difficult questions about engines.
Best Regards
Heinz
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