Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My Strange Conversation With Zed

I noticed from the referrer log on my sitemeter that this little blog is now listed on the French-language link page Nouveaux liens and discovered a whole world of new (to me) chess sites there.

While I haven't had time to really explore this extensive list, I randomly clicked a few including Zed the Chessbot, which sounded like a hoot. From the entry on Nouveaux liens page:

Est un robot d'échecs hébergé, qui est capable de communiquer sur les échecs. J'ai posé la question provocatrice "nulle?" à Zed, qui a répondu "ce que vous avez dit était trop complexe ou trop simple pour moi", une réponse presque digne de l'oracle de Delphes.

Ha, that's a good one! My experience was similar, and here's a bit of give and take that just cracked me up:

You: What is V. Kramnik's current rating?
Zed: Do you have any conditions I should know about?

You: I have an aversion to the Open Game as black.
Zed: Where did you get it ?

You: I caught it from Fischer.
Zed: I hope it is not contagious. Also I hope you get well soon.

You: I will, with a steady diet of the Sicilian Defense.
Zed: I lost my train of thought.

You: Your train of thought seems to have left the tracks a long time ago.
Zed: it left the station with out me.

Note to programmer--BACK TO THE DRAWING(KEY)BOARD!

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