MSO_Admin

Ladies and gentlemen, we're very pleased and proud to have as a star guest tonight David Levy, MSO Games Director and the creator of the MSO concept. He's also the president of the ICGA and still a strong International Master at chess. He'll be very pleased to answer your questions!

Jouni

What is the latest situation in Kasparov match?

David_Levy

Anand was sent a invitation letter asking him to reply by April 21st. This was a typographical mistake by the lawyer who sent it. It was intended to say March 21st. Kasparov had insisted that acceptance be given not later than March 24th otherwise Kasparov could call off the match. Anand has now been sent another letter asking him to reply immediately. If he does not accept within the next day or so the invitation to him will be rescinded and Kramnik will be invited to be the challenger.

MSO_Admin

Bruce Birchall has asked a question by e-mail here...

What connection has MSO got with the Kasparov-Anand world chess championship match in London in October? Will there be a series of MSO-organised events as a fringe or curtain-raiser to the main attraction. If so, may we know what they will consist of?

David_Levy

Unfortunately, for contractual reasons, we are unable to answer that question at the present time.

fredkok

What kind of new events will take place at MSO 4?

David_Levy

We have a number of new events this year. We are hosting the 10x10 Draughts Olympiad at adult and junior levels in collaboration with FMJD, the world draughts federation. We are also hosting the European Shogi Championships as part of a three-year agreement with the European Federation of Shogi Associations. Our biggest bridge tournament this year will be the London heat of the MSO Worldwide Simultaneous Pairs Championship which is being organised for us by the World Bridge Federation.There are also some other events at an advanced stage of planning which we cannot speak about at the moment because they are not 100% certain. We still expect to have at least twelve thousand and maybe as many as fifteen thousand entries this year.

MSO_Admin

Another Bruce Birchall question seems appropriate at this point. Do you foresee a day when entry is not open to all, because of the sheer overload that would create and countries send a small number of their selected representatives to the Olympiad, perhaps three per discipline, as at the Olympic Games?

David_Levy

Perhaps something like this will happen but rather than have each country send a certain number of players, our idea is to allow people to qualify by taking part in tournaments on the Internet. As the Internet moves in to just about every home, we believe that more and more people will be playing mind sports on the web and this opens the possibility for players from all over the world to take part throughout the year. However, the number of players that we can afford to bring to London at our own expense will always be limited so the majority of players will always be those who can afford to come.

fredkok

Are there any regional events organised?

David_Levy

Yes. Last year we had a Korean Olympiad in July which was a huge success. It was open only to Koreans but had five thousand entries and seventeen thousand spectators. There will be another Korean Olympiad this year. There will also be an Olympiad in Singapore in September. So we are moving from one regional event last year to two this year and probably a third one in Milan in December. Next year, we are planning a Central European Olympiad in Prague in July so the number of regional events is increasing steadily.

fredkok

Impressive - I think you need a lot of staff!!

David_Levy

Yes we do, and we are already planning to increase the staff at our head office!

MSO_Admin

Another related question that Bruce Birchall sent in by e-mail here...

Splendid as the concept of MSO is, I feel you rather let yourself down in your publicity, as regards the event reaching its full potential. The typesetting of the leaflet/entry form is very crammed and doesn't lend itself to clarity and legibility therefore. Some 85% of the entries are from England and unsurprisingly England does rather well in the medals tables. Given the Scandinavian backer, could not more be done, say, to get Finns and Swedes and Norwegians aboard a specially commissioned charter flight for a 9-day break in London?

David_Levy

There are several points here. Firstly, we are aware that there are many areas in which we still have to improve; the entry form is one of them. Because of the complexity of our event and the number of different tournaments we hold at the Olympiad, we have to develop and evolve the entry form over a period of years until we get it absolutely right.

So far as foreign participants are concerned, we actually have 30% from abroad, not 15%, but certainly we would like to attract more players from outside the UK. These days, there are so many cheap flights that the effort and hassle of getting a charter is not worthwhile. I firmly believe that as the event grows from year to year and becomes established as the premier event in the Mind Sports calendar, ever-increasing numbers coming from outside the UK as more and more people decide to spend part or all of their summer holiday in London.

Jouni

What is the role of International Computer Chess Association today?

David_Levy

Last year we decided to broaden our scope; we are changing the name of the organisation to the International Computer Games Association and the journal is also changing its name to the International Computer Games Journal. This year, we are reviving the Computer Olympiad which was popular when we organised it from 1989 to 1992. Nowadays there are far more programmers in the world writing programs for mind sports than there were in those days, so we are expecting a lot more entries for this year's Computer Olympiad than we had previously. I believe that all these factors mean that the ICGA as it now is will be able to offer its members much more because there are things which can be learned from one game that can help programmers working on another game.

fredkok

I count the days, see you!

Jouni

What if chess or bridge would be an IOC olympic sport?

David_Levy

The IOC has already decided, in principle, to introduce chess and bridge as what they call exhibition sports. This is possibly going to happen as early as 2002 at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, although this is not yet 100% certain. It is a logical step for the IOC, partly because the Winter Olympics do not have as many events as the Summer Olympics and partly because it is nowadays recognised that chess and bridge as mind sports are genuinely sporting occupations. It may be the case that one day, many many years from now, the Mind Sports Olympiad might have a close association with the IOC, but that will be their decision to invite us. Right now, we have absolutely no connection with the IOC.

MSO_Admin

This leads us into Bruce Birchall's last question by e-mail:

Does he (David Levy) foresee a time when a wide range of Mind Sports are part of the Olympic Games? And if so will the idea of a separate Mind Sports Olympiad have had it day and served its purpose? What is our ultimate destiny and our strategy towards achieving it? Are we aspiring to apartheid/separate development of Mind Sports, gradual entrism into the IOC or amalgamation between MSO and IOC?

I ask because there was a healthy women's Olympics (athletics) movement in the 20s and 30s which held five quadrennial games (necessary because of the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. the founder of the modern Games to exclude women from it) which eventually voted to throw its lot in with the IOC, when finally offered an enlarged number of women's events within it - though many women viewed this as a sell-out on unfavourable terms. (A chapter in the book Sporting Females is devoted to that history). There are perhaps lessons and parallels that can be drawn from that history.

MaxTL

Hello and good evening... not many fans here it seems?

David_Levy

Your question is very interesting and very broad. In general, I think there is one basic philosophical difference between the MSO and the aims of the IOC. It has always been our philosophy that at the Mind Sports Olympiad, anyone may enter; I would like to see this philosophy continued. If there does come a time when the IOC invites us to form a close relationship with them, I would like to see us organising an Olympiad where everybody may enter and then maybe the leading players in every mind sport could perhaps progress or qualify for an Olympic event. But again I must stress that at the moment we have absolutely no connection with the IOC.

MSO_Admin

Hi, Max! Thanks for joining us.

MaxTL

I'd like to ask, rumor has it that Kasparov plans to play a computer again soon. Do you know more about it?

David_Levy

This is a distinct possibility. I met with Kasparov in London on November 17th and discussed this very question with him. We are interested in organising a world title match between Kasparov and a computer. In my view, there is no point in organising any computer match with Kasparov unless it is for the World Championship. By making the match a title match, we would give a huge incentive to the computer manufacturer.

For example, although IBM beat Kasparov with their Deep Blue machine, Deep Blue did not win the World Championship. By putting his title at stake, Kasparov could create huge interest in the computer world and the publicity for the match would be enormous. The prize money would also be enormous. However, Kasparov first wants to defend his title against a human player. This is because he has not done so since he crushed Anand in 1995. As a result, Kasparov's next title match is planned for this October with a human opponent. All being well, there will be a title defence against a computer next year, presuming of course that Kasparov is successful this year.

MaxTL

Breathtaking news for the computer chess community, but do you think Kasparov will really take the risk (of losing the title)?

David_Levy

I believe that he will for two reasons. Firstly, he very much wants to show the world that in a longer match than the one he played in New York he can win against any computer program. Remember, the match in New York was only six games. Because Kasparov had not been able to see any previous games by his opponent, he was unable to prepare properly for that match. In a 16-game match or a 20-game match, he could use the first few games to learn a great deal about his opponent's style and abilities and then he could use this knowledge in the later games of the match. This would make the contest more interesting.

The other reason, of course, is that for a world title challenge, a computer manufacturer would have to put up a huge prize fund. In the New York match in 1997, IBM achieved publicity which has been estimated at $200 million or more in value; as a result, one can reasonably expect that for Kasparov's world title defence against a computer, the prize fund could easily reach $10 million or more. From the professional point of view, this is very appealing for Kasparov.

MaxTL

Will it be a mainframe, or parallel machine again (or a PC)?

David_Levy

This question is impossible to answer at the moment. There are a number of good programs in the world and deciding on the computer challenger will not be easy. I would favour a qualifying contest for example a match between the reigning Computer World Champion Shredder and the previous Computer World Champion Fritz.

There is also the possibility that Feng Hsu who designed the hardware for Deep Blue might soon be in possession of a very strong new program. He has left IBM but rumour has it that he has a new chip of his own and he would certainly like to play a match with Kasparov. However, since his new hardware has not yet taken part in any serious chess event, it is not possible to say for certain how strong it might be.

Nevertheless, whichever program is chosen, there is still the question of what type of computer will be used. I think it most likely in fact almost certain that it will be a multi-processor machine. But this could be a PC with a multi-processor board or it could be something much bigger.

MaxTL

Thank you very much for the answers.

David_Levy

You're welcome!

MSO_Admin

Do you think there is a logical sequel to Kasparov vs. the World as held on the Microsoft Gaming Zone?

David_Levy

I would like to see this type of event repeated regularly. I believe that it is wonderful promotion for the game; it is the ambition of almost every chess player to play against Kasparov but unfortunately it is not possible for everyone to do so, so this is the next best thing. However, there are various improvements one can imagine. For example, players could be awarded prizes according to how often they pick the right move and players could also guess Kasparov's moves and there could be competitions for whoever gets the most of Kasparov's moves correct.

In fact, I think there are many, many ways to create even more interest for the public. The Kasparov game has now served as a model for similar contests in other midn sports and I am pleased to say that the idea looks as though it is here to stay.

Jouni

What is the most surprising computer games achievement in the history?

David_Levy

This is a difficult question to answer.

On the one hand, I suppose the obvious answer is Kasparov losing in 1997 to Deep Blue. This was a very big surprise for me and for many other serious chess players, but there are some other remarkable feats in the history of computer mind sports.

One of these is the enormous success of the Chinook program which plays 8x8 draughts at World Championship level. The remarkable thing about Chinook is twofold: firstly, it has a massive database of endgame positions so that when the number of pieces on the board is reduced sufficiently it plays absolutely perfectly and instantaneously. The other remarkable thing about Chinook is that sometimes it can search to a depth of 40 ply or thereabouts; this means that in some openings, as early as black's second move, the program is able to search to the end of the game. In other words, it has almost but not quite solved the game of draughts on an 8x8 board.

A more recent triumph in the world of computerised mind sports has been Fred Ginsberg's program which plays bridge. For many years it was assumed that playing bridge at a world class level would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a program to achieve because of the fact that many of the cards are hidden; in other words, the program does not know the location of all the cards. But Ginsberg's program is able to play the cards at a very very high level indeed. For example, at the last Olympiad in Lille, there was what is called a par competition in which the world's best players have to decide how to play a number of hands. Ginsberg's program took part in the competition and showed itself to be world calibre. I consider this to be an outstanding feat.

Chessparov

Mr. Levy do you think the use of chess playing programs,online, will adversely effect the game?

David_Levy

Could you possibly be a bit more explicit in your question?

Chessparov

I play chess online & find that many more of my opponents are using programs ie Chessmaster 7000 to play their games for them.

David_Levy

This, of course, is very silly of them; what do they hope to achieve by this? Maybe they hope to get a good rating so that they can boast to their friends that they are strong players when they are not. Of course, this type of cheating is possible nowadays because of the strength of the best programs.

For example, there was a scandal last year at an open chess tournament in Germany. A club player who was a very average player and had never had a good result in his life suddenly won a strong open tournament ahead of several Grandmasters. In the last round, he was playing a very strong Grandmaster and smashed him off the board. When the Grandmaster resigned, the club player told him that it was checkmate eight moves later. The Grandmaster said "How do you know?" and the club player replied "Just analyse the position and you'll see it's mate in eight."

Of course, it was soon discovered that he had been cheating. He had long hair which concealed an earphone in his ear and on his lap he had held a small keyboard. He had a friend in a hotel room nearby and his friend had Fritz running on a PC. It was Fritz, and not the club player, who was responsible for all the moves and it was Fritz who announced mate in eight.

The club player, of course, got a lot of publicity at first for what everyone thought was a sensational result - but when some people started to analyse his games they found that Fritz would make the same move that he would in almost every case and that is how he was discovered. So the German Chess Federation have banned him and he had to give back his prize money and he may even have to go to court. I suppose it is impossible to prevent people from doing this kind of thing but clearly they should be punished if they do it in a real tournament.

Chessparov

Thank you!

chuck

Do you think that "assisted" chess matches are the wave of the future?

David_Levy

I think they are a very interesting idea. There are all sorts of variations on this theme. For example, there could be a form of assisted chess in which each player is allowed to use the computer only a fixed number of times during each game - for example, five times. This would create all sorts of interesting psychological possibilities: a player might deliberately might try to create a complicated position so that his opponent would be tempted to use his computer early in the game and would later not have access to it because he would have used all his allowance. It would always be a question in the mind of each player: "Should I use this program on this move, or work it out for myself?" So I think that there are a number of very interesting possibilities for this form of chess.

maiko

Is there any chance to have a game Levy against deep blue?

David_Levy

Unfortunately Deep Blue is so strong that the game would not be interesting for anybody to watch. I did play against an earlier version which was called Deep Thought and it crushed me 4-0. That was just over 21 years after I made a bet that I would not lose a match to a computer program within ten years. Now the difference in strength is so enormous that I would stand no chance at all.

MSO_Admin

When was the first time you lost a game, not a match, of chess to a computer?

David_Levy

The first time was in 1978 in Toronto when I played the match to determine the result of my ten-year bet. I got ahead in the match quite comfortably by playing very carefully and avoiding tactics as much as possible, but then in the fourth game of the match, I became over-confident and thought I would try to beat the computer tactically. I played very sharply and was destroyed. In the next game, I went back to my original style and I killed it and that won the match.

MaxTL

What do you think what FIDE's reaction would be, if the Kasparov-Computer match takes place and the Computer wins?

David_Levy

If this is a world title match, then FIDE of course will be very unhappy for two reasons: firstly because FIDE does not control Kasparov's matches and so they pretend that Kasparov's matches are not the World Championship. But of course, every serious chess player knows that Kasparov is certainly the world's strongest player by far so therefore Kasparov's matches are the only ones which can in all honesty be considered to be World Championship matches. Secondly, it would be another blow to FIDE because unfortunately they have not seen fit to embrace all the benefits of computer chess. They do not realise, for example, the vast amount of money which they could have attracted to chess if they had been more receptive to the idea of computers competing at the very top level.

Of course they would then say it was not the World Chess Championship. But in my view, anyone or anything which wins a long match against Kasparov has the right to call itself World Champion. If my cat won a 20-game match against Kasparov, then who could deny that my cat was the world's strongest chess player?

Jouni

Is it possibe to get caught of doping at MSO or is any 'drug' allowed?

David_Levy

A very interesting question. At MSO, we have not yet introduced a drug code. However, because bridge is being considered by the IOC as a exhibition sport for the Winter Olympics, the World Bridge Federation was compelled to do drug testing at the recent World Team Championships (Bermuda Bowl) in January. Urine samples were taken at random from a number of the players but none tested positive. But that isn't the end of the story. It seems that coffee has been determined to be a drug for the purposes of the IOC and there is going to be a limit on the number of cups of coffee that bridge players may consume within a specified period.

Of course, these are the very early days of the question of drugs in mind sports and I believe that it will be some years before any generally-agreed regulations come into force which are accepted by the players and by the federations. I do know of one chess player who used to smoke grass before important games. He was a very talented Canadian International Master. This was in the days when we used to play a five-hour session in major chess tournaments; this guy told me that for the first four hours he would have the most brilliant and original ideas at the chess board - really beautiful ideas - but then in the final hour he was completely unable to think properly, with disastrous results, so he gave up smoking grass before chess games.

chuck

Which mind sports are being considered by the IOC for the Winter Olympics, and what is the general public's response to this?

David_Levy

So far as I know, only bridge and chess at the moment, although I have heard reliable rumours that Go is the next one on the list. I believe that the international bridge and chess federations are very happy about this because the recognition of chess and bridge as sports will help national federations in many countries to get government funding. This is because in many countries the government will fund sports but might not fund mind sports otherwise. Therefore I believe there will be general public support for this idea.

MSO_Admin

If we test for physical stimulants when we're testing physical competitors, should we be testing mental athletes for the use of smart drugs?

David_Levy

I suppose that if we are going to test at all then we should test for anything which might enhance a player's performance

Jouni

What is the most physical mind sport at MSO?

David_Levy

I have to think hard about that one. I suppose poker may be the most physical but I can't really think of any that are really physical.

MSO_Admin

What about the Pentamind?

David_Levy

One could say that the Pentamind is the most physical because it requires the largest number of hours play because you have to take part in at least five events to have a chance of winning.

chuck

Why do you think there is a lack of team mind sports?

David_Levy

There is not really a great lack of team mind sports for the major mind sports such as bridge, chess and 10x10 draughts; there are already Olympiads for all three of these games which have been running for many years in which countries send teams. As I mentioned earlier this evening, we are hosting this year's 10x10 draughts Olympiad, in which perhaps 25-30 countries will send teams or maybe even more.

There is also a possibility - but at the moment, it is only a slim possibility - that we may host this year's chess Olympiad at MSO. This is because the intended venue, Istanbul, is pulling out and FIDE needs some other country to organise it. We are exploring this possibility at the moment. In addition to these three games, there is quite a lot of team competition in the UK - at least in dominoes and cribbage - and I am sure there are team competitions in the far east for Chinese Chess, Shogi, Go etc.

Jouni

I would like to note that chess Olympiad is not really a team event, even the points counted are not team points, which is silly. In a true team mental sport there is only one board for all.

David_Levy

I understand your idea here and you can certainly argue that the scoring system in the Chess Olympiad means that it is not a team event. However, there are certain team aspects; for example, sometimes a player must try very hard to win a game in order for his team to avoid losing a match against a close rival, so although I agree with you that in a sense it is less of a team event than many other sports, I still believe that there is a strong team aspect to the Chess Olympiads. In bridge, it is clearly the case that the Olympiads are team events.

MaxTL

Once more about the recognition issue: did you ever meet official of organisations like IOC etc., who apply other criteria than to be "physical", to judge what is a sport?

David_Levy

No, I have never really discussed this issue with any officials. Our policy in the Mind Sports Olympiad is that in principle we accept any activity in which the mind is the part of the body which determines your success or failure, rather than your physical attributes or physical performance.

chuck

How many do you hope will attend the next MSO?

David_Levy

I hope that we will achieve our target of 12,000 to 15,000. When we started the Olympiad in 1997, my ambition was that by the year 2000, we would have more entries than the Olympic Games. This year the Olympic Games has announced 10,200 entries expected. We might well exceed that.

MSO_Admin

Thanks for that question! I invite you all to ask another question for the discussion.

David_Levy

Does anyone have any bright ideas for new games we could add to the next Olympiad?

Jouni

Is rock,paper and scissors already there?

David_Levy

It isn't, but somebody has suggested putting in a rock, scissors and paper tournament in the Computer Olympiad this year and I think we are probably going to do that.

chuck

Are you familiar with the game Set?

David_Levy

Yes, I am; I played it with some American friends last year and I think it's a great game. However, I have to say that both of my children trounced me at it! I actually met the woman who invented it last year at the New York toy fair and when I told her how much I had enjoyed the game, she said that she was amazed it had spread to England. I think it's an excellent game for people of all ages and can probably be used to train people in sharpening up their mental skills.

MSO_Admin

Do you keep in touch with many new modern proprietary games?

David_Levy

I make no attempt to do so because there are some 2,000 new proprietary games launched every year. However, I often get approaches from individuals or companies about new games and our answer is always the same: if you can guarantee enough players and provide some prize money, then we will host a tournament for you at MSO. This is because we like to have people promote games, not for any financial reward on our part, but because we want to do whatever we can to promote mind sports and their growth.

MaxTL

Thanks to Mr. Levy and the MSO team, good night everyone.

chuck

How was Settlers of Catan decided to be added to the event this year? I was very happy about that because I was third place in the World Boardgaming Championships this year out of 94 players. =)

David_Levy

It was decided by recommendation; someone recommended it to me. We want to encourage any game which is popular, so we decided to give it a try again.

chuck

Well, I believe it is the best selling game of this decade - according to Greg Costikyan, selling 3 million copies in Germany alone! =)

MSO_Admin

Why wasn't there a Magic: the Gathering tournament at MSO III?

David_Levy

We would certainly have liked to have had one and we tried very hard to convince Wizards of the Coast to organise one, but I think they had some internal reorganisation, possibly connected with the fact that the company was bought by Hasbro. Nevertheless, I hope very much that we will have a Magic tournament in the future. I was invited two years ago by the Head Office of Wizards of the Coast to attend a Magic tournament in Rio de Janiero; there were something like 1500 players almost all of whom were from Brazil. This shows just how possible it is to organise really big Magic tournaments; I don't see why we shouldn't be able to do something similar at MSO if Wizards want us to.

Jouni

What is your most favourite mind and physical sport?

David_Levy

My favourite mind sport is poker; I play whenever I can in a school we have going in London. Ideally, I would like to play once a week, but some of the people I play with travel a lot on business so we can't always get enough players for a game. The difference between the way I play poker and the way we play at MSO is that I play for money - but at MSO, we are not allowed to play for money because of the laws in England. Despite this, poker is becoming one of our most popular events, even without money prizes.

As to physical sports, I hate taking part in all physical sports and always did so. My worst experience with physical sport was when my bridge partner at university persuaded me to enter a bridge-golf tournament. On the first tee of the golf course, I missed the ball 24 times before I hit it and was disgusted to discover that each time I missed, it counted as one stroke! On the first hole, I scored 69. This would have been an outstanding score for a beginner on the whole course, but not on the first hole - fortunately, it started to rain on the third hole and I have never played golf since!

chuck

Which mind sports are considered too random by the government to be allowed to be played for money?

David_Levy

Any mind sport involving cards, except for bridge and cribbage. The reason why cribbage can be played for prizes is that there is an exception in the Gaming Act which allows cribbage and dominoes, both of which have the luck element, to be played for money provided they are played on premises licensed to serve alcohol. The reason for this is that both games are widely played in pubs where people often play for money, so the Gaming Act respects this tradition.

Fortunately for us, the venue for this year's Olympiad, Alexandra Palace, has a number of bar areas and is licensed to serve alcohol, therefore we can have cribbage and domino tournaments this year with nice prizes. In fact we are working with the official British organisation for cribbage and domino championships and we expect to have a few hundred players for each tournament this year.

chuck

When was the Gaming Act accepted? Since I live in the US, I'm not familiar with England's laws...

David_Levy

1968 is the current version, but I believe there was an earlier act as well.

MSO_Admin

Would you like to be able to offer prizes for poker and backgammon?

David_Levy

Yes, I would; they are both games of great skill. Unfortunately, the judges who made the law do not realise that games that have a luck element can still be games where skill is the determining factor. For example, if you look at the results of the most important backgammon tournaments, the same players tend to be at the top of the list every time. The same is true, to a large extent, in poker. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, which is like the World Championship, the top players tend to end up near the top of the tournament more often than not. This is because poker is a game of great skill.

chuck

Are there any other laws of England that would be interesting for foreigners to know who are planning to compete in the MSO?

David_Levy

Yes. If you win a large cash prize - I think the limit may be 3,000 pounds or more, but I'm not sure about that - then you have to pay income tax on your prize

MSO_Admin

When is the next major event in which a chess program will take part alongside humans?

David_Levy

In this year's Dutch Chess Championship, the program Fritz is taking part. This, in itself, is not so remarkable - but what is remarkable is the fact that Fritz is eligible for the title. This is the first time in history that a computer program has been eligible to win a national chess championship in one of the leading chess countries.

Jouni

what has been the most popular and least popular sport at MSO?

David_Levy

The most popular is chess, followed closely by Bridge and Stratego. The least popular was jigsaw puzzles which we abandoned after the first year.

David_Levy

Thank you for visiting us.

MSO_Admin

Thank you all very much for turning up to the chat session.

Jouni

Thank you all.

MSO_Admin

It has been very interesting.

chuck

Thanks

MSO_Admin

We thank you all for your incisive and interesting questions and hope that you enjoyed finding out the answers as much as I did. Our next star guest chat session will feature Will Shortz on the evening of Sunday 23rd April.

Between now and then there are lots of exciting features coming up on the MSO web site: contests of three natures: programming, trivia and creativity, our IQ tests, our message boards (please sign the petition to show support for the Century of the Brain and the Millennium of the Mind) and not least our online gameplay. We look forward to your company then!

For MSO Worldwide, this is Chris Dickson signing off!