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Hey, lay off the early-20th century Indiana Legislature! The bill in question wasn't their own idea and it wasn't worded as flagrantly as 'pi shall be 3.2', it was the work of a crank mathematician who produced a long, turgid manuscript of bad results, some of them indeed implying that pi would have a value other than the true one. He sent it to his local state rep, describing it as a set of wonderful new discoveries, which he would graciously allow Indiana to use -- for free! -- if only they passed this bill. The legislators moved the bill along because it was appeared to be more trouble than it would be worth to read it, which it doubtless would have been. A visitor who knew something about math clued them in on it and they spiked it. But even if the visitor hadn't done so and the thing had been enacted, no harm would have been done, other than embarrassment to my fair state's reputation -- which has evidently not been avoided in any case.
Vukcevich's speech is about year 2002 in Hawaii, with his newest ideas before he died; I shall post or quote the hard copy filed once located. He says that, likely, Chess players will want to change the Rules systematically (on of course 8x8) and intermittently, and that it should be done democratically within a tournament or else from one tournament to another for preferred 'Mutators'. Not having read talk for five years, I think that part keys off Fischer Random Chess, which we know to be unoriginal. The 'democratic' process Vukcevich proposes is in error, because that would be like voting on validity of Fermat's Last Theorem, or the value of pi (as incredibly Indiana Legislature know-nothings were on verge of passing bill 100 years ago that henceforth pi shall have value of 3.2 or so for convenience, before the 'educated' intervened -- heiring Bush and Climate)
The Doctor stated that in the future teenagers would play chess in Minkowski space (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minkowski_space);
He also writes of merging computers and people into a unified entity.
I used google to search for the speech about rule changes [i.e., rule changes suggested by Dr. Vukcevich] - but could not find it.
In closing I will mention that I interviewed Dr. Vukcevich on 23 Jan. 1982 for WKSR Radio) when he attempted to break the World Record for a chess simul [this was at Kent State]. Due to a blizzard only 56 people made it. During the interview, Milan gave no hint of a desire to change chess rules; but that doesn't mean they weren't there. In response to one of my questions, 'What separates you from Karpov in regard to being Wold Champion?' he stated that he could be world champion if it wasn't for the fact that he devoted time to his career and to his family. He would need that time for chess.
Best regards to all... g
Happy New Year to All.
Dr. Milan R. Vukcevich, USA scientist and Chess Grandmaster 1937-2003 proposed this idea to USCF-types as the Future of Chess. Someone should find his speech, the topic being Rules Changes, I think from Hawaii convention. Considered for Nobel Prize in science of incandescence and having lamp-related patents, Vukcevich earns GM title for composition, like the great Sam Loyd. Now the subject matter of Chess' evolution seems more taboo in OrthoChess circles than only 6-10 years ago, when Vukcevich suggested ongoing Mutators, though he did not call them that, since 'Mutators' originates here with Neto in 2000. Secondly, of course in 1920's Capablanca solicited from UK open discussion of the best 'Mutators', as Pritchard's 'ECV' recounts under Capablanca Chess, and probably CVPage has produced in ten years no better ones than those eighty years ago Capablanca found.
Richard Hutnik suggested the idea of a CV that allows players to add mutators as the game is played. It's an interesting idea, but very mind-boggling, and as CVers, we wouldn't want the game to become a cross between Cosmic Encounter [TM] and Magic: the Gathering [also TM]. So this means some serious limiting of allowed mutators and careful thinking about what mutators would work well together. The easiest way would be to pick mutators that cannot interact with each other. For example, using the board mutator 'Grow', which adds [rows of] squares to the board, and the 'Fission', 'Fusion, 'Fluid' family, which allow pieces to merge, split, or move through one another, would fit the bill, and should make for an interesting, if limited [in imagination], game. But this is only 2 mutators, not a lot of action there. What else could we add? There are 2 ways to go, the first being to continue picking non-interacting mutators, like 'Range', which would change the ranges of pieces, or 'Jump', which would give pieces leaping abilities. You could probably carry this on for a while, but at some point, you'd run into the need or the desire to use interacting mutators. As this post is getting lengthy, and the idea is getting complicated, I'll end here, asking for comments and suggestions. Hope you had a happy Chanukah, are having a great Eid, and will have a merry Christmas. Enjoy!
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