100 Square Contest Rules

Before you look at the rules, bear in mind that they are a bit draconian, and I will be strict in enforcing them. The rules are designed this way mainly to save me time for finishing up my dissertation. If I had more time, I would be more lenient.

• Submission Requirements
• Format Requirements
• Game Requirements
• Content Requirements
• Voting
• Prizes
• Recommendations
• Tips
• Timeline

Submission Requirements

1. Submit your games to Fergus Duniho by the deadline of June 30, 2000. Go to the Feedback page for my email address.
2. Each contestant may enter only one game.
3. The total submissions for the contest are limited to twenty. No entries will be accepted after the twentieth.
4. The organizers, (so far only Fergus Duniho), are barred from entering competing entries.
5. You may not change the rules to your game after you submit it. Do any required playtesting and finetuning before you submit it to the contest.
6. You may submit a game only if you are its creator.
7. Pre-existing variants may be submitted.
8. Games from the 1999 Large Chess variant contest may not be submitted to this contest.
9. By submitting a game, you allow us to publish what you send (or in edited form) on The Chess Variant Pages website and on the Chess Variant Pages CD-ROM. You also allow us to create and publish a Zillions implementation of your game on the same site and its offline versions. Copyright on the game remains with the author, and you keep the right for publication elsewhere.

Format Requirements

1. Submitted documents must be in English, and they should be spell-checked and proof-read.
2. Submissions should be written in HTML. If you're reading this on the Web, you probably have something which will let you write HTML.
3. Graphic images should be in GIF or JPEG(JPG) format.

Game Requirements

1. All entries must be Chess variants. If I judge that it isn't truly a Chess variant, it won't be accepted.
2. Each game must use exactly 100 squares. By squares, I mean distinct locations for a piece to go on a board. Squares do not have to be square shaped. Nor do squares have to be of any uniform shape. The intersections between squares will count as squares if they are used as places for pieces to go, as they are in Intergrid Chess or Chinese Chess.
3. Avoid making your game overly complicated. If you can fully implement your game with Zillions of Games, that will satisfy this requirement. Otherwise, it will be a judgment call on my part.

Content Requirements

1. Avoid hyping your game.
2. Avoid unfavorable comments about other games.
3. Avoid any content that would make it unacceptable to put your game on the Chess Variant pages.
4. State your rules clearly, completely, and unambiguously.
5. Say something about the history and inspiration for the game.

These rules apply only to submissions, not to your freedom of speech elsewhere. You can hype your game all you want on your web site, and you may make unfavorable comments about other games anyplace else. Just don't do it in your submission to the contest.

Voting

The contest winners will be decided by one round of voting. Visitors to Chessvariants.com are asked to rate the entries, and the top four entries will be the first, second, third, and fourth place winners. To rate an entry in the contest, go to its page on this site and follow the link at the top of the page that says "Rate Name_of_game" for the 100 Squares Contest. How votes are used to determine the winner is described at How Games are Ranked in the 100 Squares Contest

All voters' identities are kept hidden from the public, though I keep records of who makes each vote for the sake of letting you review and change your votes and for enforcing the following rules:

1. All votes of A or F (i.e. F, F+, A-, A & A+) require comments.
2. If a voter never provides comments on any votes, none of his votes will count.
3. Comments count only when they demonstrate some familiarity with the game. Vague comments, such as "This is a great game," will not suffice.
4. No contestant's vote for his own game will count in any way.
5. If any of the preceding rules disqualify all but one vote from someone, his remaining vote will not count.
6. If a person votes for only one game, his vote will not count.
7. Any contestant who fails to vote, or whose votes are all disqualified by any of the preceding rules, will be disqualified from winning the contest.

Prizes

Winners will get the opportunity to choose one of four prizes in order of their ranking in the contest. These are:

• An Omega Chess set
• Knightmare Chess I
• Knightmare Chess II
• The book Popular Chess Variants by David Pritchard

Recommendations

I highly recommend getting your game implemented for Zillions of Games before submitting it. This will give you the opportunity to playtest it, and it will provide you with graphic images you can use in a web page describing your game.

Playtest your game before sending it in. This will help you confirm that you are sending in a good game, and it will help you iron out any kinks which may be in your original version of the game. Zillions of Games is good for this, and so is a friend. And playing with someone by email is always an option.

Write the description of your game using an HTML editor that includes a spelling checker, and use it to spell check what you write up for the contest. If you're using Windows, some very good freeware HTML editors include HTML-Kit and Arachnophilia.

If you would prefer to use a word processor, convert your file to HTML before sending it. Wordperfect can import a file to HTML, and others may be able to do so too.

Tips

To win, you need people to play your game and like it. Here are some tips on how to make that happen.

1. Keep your game simple enough for people to easily understand, set-up, and play.
2. Keep your game simple enough to be played by email.
3. Playtest your game before submitting it.
4. Avoid overhyping your game. It may just turn people off who would otherwise like your game.
5. Use Zillions of Games to develop and playtest your game before submitting it. This is a Windows program which plays any board game you give it rules and images for. You may order it through their web site. It is an invaluable tool for developing a game, because it let's you playtest different ideas on the spot, and it will usually provide you with a challenging opponent. When you're finished developing your game with it, those of us with Zillions will be able to playtest your game on our own computers. We'll also be able to use images from Zillions to play your game by email with people who don't have Zillions yet.

Timeline