Within the last few days, I've played several games here on Little Golem, for the first time almost 4 years!

As we approach the 5th anniversary of my strongly solving 5x5, it feels like time to figure out what my role should be:

1. How much do people value being able to play against the shark on LG? If there is high interest, Bill will try harder to keep me responsive.

2. There is a java application that allows to you play against the shark with arbitrary positions (kind of like trmph, but with evaluations of each position). I am concerned that this may lead to people being tempted to cheat and/or people being suspicious that others are cheating. Should I make this program available to the general public? (Like LG, this program only works when I am connected to the internet from Bill's house.)

3. Do people want The_Shark_c to compete in tournaments? If so, which ones?

4. One final question is, “When will that lazy good-for-nothing William Fraser actually write a paper about me?” Answer, don't hold your breath. He's hoping to get started by the end of the summer and to finish it by the end of 2023, but dates like that have a habit of drifting ever onward….

Moreover, there are several parts to this paper:

Evaluation of the strength of various moves in the opening. I think it's okay for this information to become public, as long as it is widely available and doesn't go too far into the game. Thoughts?

The nuts and bolts of the problem-space for 5x5 and what it took to reduce it to something tractable.

Results of some specific positions, such as Scandinavian and Icelandic starting positions.

If any of this interests you, let him know. That'd probably help motivate him.

a couple of months ago a few great players joined here and I've been having a hard time playing them! I realized I really can't play without making mistakes but on the other hand, I'm guessing most of the time that these player go first, they seem to be playing perfectly! So there are about 6 or 7 players that I just wanna resign when they're playing red. that's why I think shark should keep playing on here so those like me who haven't still figured out the game completely get a chance to do so. The analysis part is also really important! Last time I had to ask William Fraser to tell me which move was my losing one and he told me “you were winning until move 19” which is pretty useful although I'd probably appreciate the java application (that shark mentioned above) even more but I'm not really sure everyone would agree on that. Anyways shark is awesome!

An alternative would be, instead of allowing anyone to analyze any position, I could probably figure out how to make The Shark give an in-game comment when the opponent loses a won position. I'm guessing Lazy_Bear would find that helpful.

Would anyone else find that useful? Would anyone object?

I don't object.
I would be interested in you or lazy good-for-nothing William Fraser to write that final paper on dots 5x5…