Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Hi Fergus,

Interesting that this discussion is still rolling on after sixteen years ;-)

SRC is real... some of the flowery discussion around it is the product of various hyperactive imaginations, but the game itself is most certainly real.

I am the game's inventor (Topov has written extensively about SRC, but he didn't invent it), and I wrote the software which runs behind SchemingMind.com... so I can attest to it's authenticity with some authority.

I have sent you a challenge; I hope you accept... it's a fun game, you might enjoy it.

Sure, you can argue that the occult nature of the rules mean that it doesn't belong on this website... if that is the case, then please just go ahead and delete the article rather than describing it as a hoax... because it isn't.

Cheers, Austin

I have updated the notice to a warning that says this game is a hoax.

My understanding is that the description of the game is a hoax, but the game itself is not.

I will quote some excerpts from the linked document that suggest it is a hoax:

The precise rules are far too numerous to list here, and the above rules merely introduce some of the unique aspects of SR Chess.

Even the page linked to does not describe the full rules of the game.

A good grasp of the more comprehensive laws that govern legal and winning patterns and sequences is essential for expert play, but these are amply documented and explained in Samuel Worthington's fourth edition of Stanley Random Chess: The Official Player's Guide - Vol. 1, The Rules (Vol. 2, The Players and Vol. 3, Developing Winning Strategy are also worthwhile).

A Google search for this book did not turn up any links to it. It apparently does not exist. All that turned up were the page linked here and copies of it.

Over 535 such variations have been documented by the ISRCA, and the appendix of their 2004 Official Stanley Random Chess Handbook summarizes the 32 more popular international variations.

When I searched Google for "Official Stanley Random Chess Handbook", I did not find any link to this document.

But I did find an Uncyclopedia article on Stanley Random Chess. Uncyclopedia is a parody of Wikipedia, which is full of falsehoods written as humor. Checking who wrote the first version of the Wikipedia article, it is in fact Gregory Topov, the author of this page. I consider this an admission that Stanley Random Chess is a hoax.

Playing Online

This section talks about playing it on schemingmind.com, the very site the article is hosted on, but it does not include a link for actually playing it online.

Given that full documentation for the game exists only in fictional documents, the author of this page wrote an Uncyclopedia article on this game, and I cannot find anyplace to actually play it online despite claims that it can be played online, I conclude that this game is a hoax.

My understanding is that the description of the game is a hoax, but the game itself is not. It's normal chess where, with each move you make, there's a 50% chance of your move being replaced with a move chosen at random from all legal moves.

It's an improvement, but the linked page doesn't contain the rules either - because the "game" is almost certainly a hoax.

I just noticed that this is a link page, and one of the links provided on the page did go to a page with more information. I fixed up the HTML, added a notice to the top, and removed all but one link. Some were Geocities links that no longer worked, and some were general links that didn't go to information on this particular game.

I think it should be removed. As I recall, it was a joke that the author stubbornly insisted was not a joke, making it basically an act of trolling.

Should I remove this page? The rules section does not describe the rules, and this page does not make it clear how to play this game.