Regarding comments by M. Winther, Mark Thompson & Graeme Neatham – There
have been some very interesting comments recently about the future of
(western) chess particularly in connection with what is being termed the
problem of “scrabblization” and the possible solution by the use of
randomisation. I am not myself keen on the idea of randomisation and I do
not think this is the long-term future of chess, at least as far as being
the standard form of the game. There is another way to overcome this
problem, however, and it was partly with this problem in mind that I wrote
the game of TigerChess. In this game there are in all probability many
billions of viable opening lines and possibly many more than this and
together with the greater possibilities of middlegame tactics and
strategies the problem of scrabblization should be permanently solved.
The game also keeps alive something of the game of checkers.
G. Nicholls