Little Golem meetup in Cairo

On October 31, 2012, Nagy Fathy and I are going to have a Little Golem meetup in Cairo, Egypt (godwilling). Any other LG player who can make it is invited, too. This will be my first trip to Africa. Hex is on the agenda.

I hope someone else can make it, but I doubt. You are the most welcome to Cairo, and I can't wait to meet you :)

Well, you two have fun!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - games are sociable, so we whould be more sociable!

If only you could persuade Mahmoud Saad to turn up too, there would be nearly 30 of you!

Well done on meeting up transcontinentally, I suspect I'll not be leaving Europe for a very long time. :-(

30?? or 3?

One should never explain a joke...

I think it's an allusion to Mahmoud Saad registering multiple accounts at LG. I don't personally know the guy did, but FatPhil, LG's de facto house detective, would know.

Well, I know Mahmoud personally, I used to play chess with him, I am the one who introduced LG to him. I did not see him or play with him in real for more than four years now. I know his brother Mohammed too, both of them went to KSA long time ago, and since that we have not meet.

But if Mahmoud has 30 accounts or more, how can he bring all these copies with him in real :P

Mirrors, lots of mirrors!

Then we have to arrange for that, we are the event organizers :)

Nagy and I have met in Cairo, Egypt (El Qahira, Masr)! We played chess and hex. In this picture you see, from left to right, Nagy Fathy and MarleysGhost:

Very nice!

Here is another pic of our event, in this photo from right to left Nagy Fathy and MarleysGhost:

!https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/of/108358399039567486148!

Here is another pic of our event, in this photo from right to left Nagy Fathy and MarleysGhost:

!https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-uGlGo9kv1nk/UJJVeEKOlDI/AAAAAAAAAeM/oFtRL4v353E/s675/IMG_2015.JPG!

I have some other photos I will post them later.

The folks in the background appear spiritish in my opinion. Hope everything's going superbly :)

The "folks in the background" are on a large poster inside the glass wall of the building we're standing in front of (or maybe they're the spirits of Christmas past?). The balconies above Nagy's head are a reflection of the apartment building across the street.

My sister always recommended Egypt to me - I hope you're enjoying yourself.
Shouldn't the photo have been of you poring over a board? ;-)

A reflection of a pyramid would be nice, too.

Here is a photo while playing chess:
!https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AbP4infpcz4/UJJW4LD3D4I/AAAAAAAAAcg/uGPmdV_MNdM/w418-h313-n-k/IMG_2021.JPG!

Another photo on chess board:
!https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9pE_HX6iYmI/UJJWJoSbHdI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/JYEq3u7mFFg/w419-h313-n-k/IMG_2018.JPG!

Here is a photo on the HEX board, and Mick has to explain why we play with marked paper pieces not with HEX stones :)
!https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SRpjoDeRcrg/UJJX-8qSo7I/AAAAAAAAAc8/NXdI1Mnlkyk/w419-h313-n-k/IMG_2027.JPG!

Can someone discover what is wrong with this HEX board?
!https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6iAVskUuNcU/UJJXYhcHbRI/AAAAAAAAAcw/VbM0xgqRqt4/w418-h313-n-k/IMG_2024.JPG!

Final one on the HEX board:
!https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L9DfzJ2yu4g/UJJYk1HNasI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/fv8aeVCFl50/w428-h321-n-k/IMG_2029.JPG!

;) !!

I see it is the rare 12 x 13 board.

Eagle eye Nathan has solved it. Several years ago, a web site recommended making a Hex board from the vinyl sheets printed with hexagons sold by a company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose name eludes me. I have some cousins there, and the next time I was in town I bought some and cut out some hex boards. On the very first one I somehow miscounted and made a 12x13. I brought it along to the meetup as a joke. IIRC, on an n x n+1 board, the player whose goal edges are closer together has a (known) winning strategy regardless of who goes first.

It's not a bug, it's a feature - an instand, but quite coarse-grained, handicap.

MarleysGhost and Nagy Fathy, with Khufu's WYPS board in the background:

Great pic!

I thought it was established that the thing in the back is The Square Hex
Board of the Gods, but I might be rong.

awesome pic!

MarleysGhost and Nagy Fathy. Nagy won all our chess games except the very last one where I somehow managed to squeeze out a draw.

The chess pieces appear quite similar.

Yes, white is clear glass and black is frosted glass.

My incipient nerditude compels me to mention 12x13 hex is a proven win for the player with less distance to cross, even if the other player moves first without swap. Perhaps that is why it was called a "coarse grained" handicap. Ah, I see you already mentioned this, so I continue with a sketch of the proof. First, partition the grid into two regions, each shaped like an equilateral triangle 12 cells on a side. Then for each cell X in one triangular region, there is a unique cell X' in the other region. The mapping is like a mirror image reflected along the dividing line between the two regions, shifted slightly. The winning strategy is very simple. The player with less distance to cross always answers a move in X by playing at X', unless he has already occupied X', in which case he may play anywhere else. This way, the player with more distance to cross can never occupy both X and X' for any cell X. This implies a win for the player with less distance to cross.

Cool trip!

PS: The vinyl hex grids you mention are probably from the company Chessex. :)

nice pictures