Wanted: Chess Variant Expert

As you know, you can play a large number of chess variants and related games using an online version of the Zillions-of-Games software at our new site at msoworld.com . However, as you've probably found, the chance of finding someone to play against - let alone someone who wants to play the same variant as you do - can sometimes be small.

One of the things that we aim to do over the coming months is to build up a program of "club nights" whereby we encourage all the chess players to meet on our site at a particular time and date, all the draughts players to meet at a different at time and so forth. We hope to get this started in the next month or two. The plan is that there will be an expert there to lead the session.

One of the strengths of our web site is the number of different games and variants we offer - accordingly, we want to offer a series of events where people can come and "learn a new game every week" at the MSO site. This would involve selection of a new game, or a new game variant, every week and someone providing instruction in that game. We had you in mind as being ideal for this job. As you are all interested in chess variants, I wonder if any of you would be interested in acting as the expert in this, or if any of you would know someone who would be interested in acting as expert? This could be a paid position, the rate subject to negotiation.

Here is a mail I sent to David Levy some time ago proposing a formal specification for the job:

Something we talked about some time ago was establishing clubs for the various mind sports we feature on the site and club nights where we focus upon a different mind sport each day of the week (and/or morning or evening for the benefit of people who aren't on GMT). We then hire an expert in that mind sport to act as resident expert and lead the club night each week. Here is, as requested, a fuller description of what a club night expert might be required to do.

With current technology, a club night might consist of the club night expert giving a lecture or conduct a question of answer session - for perhaps half an hour or an hour - followed by taking on all-comers at the mind sport of their choice for two to four hours. They would also be required to write an article or two for their column every week.

With the technology coming in Stage Two and the Jillions Universal Game Viewer, a club night might consist of the expert giving a lecture, giving group tuition where people follow a series of moves which are made on Jillions, giving a question-and-answer session - for perhaps half an hour or an hour - before taking on all-comers, giving a simultaneous display or organising a tournament in the mind sport of their choice for two to four hours. They would also be required to write an article or two for their column every week.

In return for perhaps five or so hours' work per week and their publicising our site throughout the world of their mind sport, we would build up a small web site for them, which is part of the greater MSO web site, full of their columns and publicity about them. We could extend this by sending them to major tournaments in their mind sport from which they could report, even if they are not taking part themselves.

We would ideally seek a player or a correspondent from each mind sport with a large reputation who currently has no web site but does have some basic technical skills to conduct a chat session, input games and so forth. Anyone who uses a computer to help them when they are playing their own mind sport should be OK, basically.

The current state of play is that the Jillions game viewer is only in a rough-and-ready state, so giving a lecture using it may be tricky. Furthermore, we don't have a way so that people can watch other people playing a game in our game rooms - else one way we could have set up a lecture would be to have the lecturer start a game and have all the students come and watch it. Improvements that we intend to add in the near future are the facility to watch other people playing games on our server (so the expert could demonstrate how the pieces move rather than just lecturing about it) and the facility to automatically manage (ie matchmake for) a Swiss or Elimination tournament.

While there are still lots of details to be worked out (and we would welcome your input in doing so), would any of you be interested in theory in being our "Learn a new game every week" club night expert?

All best wishes,
Chris

-- 
   Chris M. Dickson; MSO Worldwide webmaster; Bringing Brains Together
   Mind Sports Olympiad IV: 12-15,000 entrants, the biggest games ever
   London, UK, 19-28 August 2000; visit us at http://www.msoworld.com/