Wow. I go away for Shabbat, and find the game has been resumed. Some times the twists of fate in a good MC match make double fanucci look straightforward.
So to follow up Bricker’s and Dead Cat’s bold moves: Wimbledon Park, trebled, collect a yellow token, and good luck getting back inside Fare Zones 1 or 2!
Aside @Dead Cat: I remember the Triangulation Rule, but could you please provide a page reference? My copy of MCE (1982 revision) is missing a few key passages. I was storing it in a packing box for too long, and my lady’s cat might have gotten to it. (But there’s no way to be sure.)
I thought it was the other way round? I thought the three misplays had to be on the Circle Line. It’s the circularity that allows the third mis-play to validate the first. At least, that’s the way we used to play it at my club.
And as an aside: did anyone follow the monoscript in last quarter’s MC Mathematically on the theoretical possibility of a “Woodford Loop?” As far as I could gather, the author proposed some ridiculously complicated set of plays that would duplicate the Dollis Hill Loop at the North End of the Central line, in the actual, physical Hainault Loop. There was something about prime numbers and dates and I’m afraid it passed my limited understanding.
I’m thoroughly at a loss now. I have no useful replies to Bricker’s last move.
I’ll review the commentaries of Rashi and Ibn Ezra tonight. Admittedly, they were writing for a predecessor of MC (powered rail travel not having been invented yet), but the basics should be the same.
Meanwhile, I’ve lost track (pun not intended) whether the DLR stations are permitted. I know we used to allow them, but is that according to Hoyle, to E&C, or indeed to the Greater London MC Friendly guides?
If both the month and the date can be represented as Fermat prime numbers,
and if the last two of the three plays were on the Central Line, with the remainder on the District Line, moving in a northward direction,
and if the player whose turn it is has two red tokens,
then the Woodford Loop move may be be executed by a play on the Central Line, south of one the three preceding plays and with the following two plays in rate zone 4.
Hmmm. Sagacious play abounds…but that is to be expected here on the Dope.
I feel an End Of The Line play is called for. I’ll pay homage to Afflewyc and McSmithe, the great turn of the century Welsh pairing, and choose the Metropolitan Zone 5 Gambit with
Harrow and Wealdstone.
This lets me remove all flags from the Jubilee, Metropolitan, AND Northern Lines, declare South of the Thames Out of Bounds, take a green exchange token, increase the ridership to 13, and optionally, impose Tudor Court Rules for the next 11 plays. Which I shall, as I love the viciousness inherent in Tudor Court Rules.
So, with the mid-Mid-Game thrown all higgledy-piggledy, I wait your responses with ill-concealed glee. (on Tuesdays, it will be ill-concealed Glee, but tomorrow, as they say, is another day.)
I thought the whole Woodford Loop thing was submitted as a hoax just to see if the MCQ people would print it. The MC equivalent, if you will, of the Alan Sokal hoax. Maus seems to think not, but I confess the ‘analysis’ of this ‘theoretical possibility’ looked faintly ridiculous to me.
Wargamer really mixed it up. Pimlico, however, not only starts doubles again but allows me to revoke his green token. Unfortunately, Tudor Court Rules remain in play, and in light of the earlier confusion I think we ought to explicitly state what the count for that is - nine, as of this move. I realize this is considered gauche and patronizing but we are as a group hardly in a position to be high-handed, are we?
So: Pimlico, Wargamer’s green token revoked, and doubling declared.
TCR Count is indeed 9 - but will be 7 after this play due to Doubling. So, I will Undouble, just to extend the TCR section, with a Dividend Declaration at
This is why most of use MCoogle. It’s much better for MC trivia. Just go to any of the standard rules pages and follow the links.
Not sure about the ‘no surface buildings’ thing, unless it was Yukawa. He was quite prominent around that time (given his strong showing in the World QF the previous year) and wasn’t afraid to tie a game up in adjudications if he felt it was to his advantage. This didn’t win him many friends, obviously. That having been said, I met him a couple of times away from the Board and he seemed terribly nice and polite. I guess he felt that he was taking part to win, and if he could gain a mild advantage via knowledge of rather obscure rules, so be it. And he did know the rules exceptionally well.
These mathematicians do enjoy their flights of fancy. I’ve no idea whether the analysis was actually correct or not, but the work did specifically assume that stations were configured into a Monster Group topology. (Discussion of this restriction was relegated to the end-notes.) The London Underground will need to expand quite a bit before it has enough stations to populate the Monster Group.
As you can see from his wiki page, Thorold Gosset led the way in solving MC for special topologies. He went undefeated for 219 games (a record which, AFAIK, still stands) during that era when the Underground had exactly 120 stations and was instrumental in the expansion to 240 stations (an expansion which of course overshot to lamentable consequences).
As to the game presently in progress here, I must say some of the gambits and ploys have been quite impressive. There are several of you who would feel quite at home in our Tuesday games at Bethlem Hospital.
OK, technically, Dagenham Heathway, but I’m duplicating the 1933 Chiltonhead Fallows Surprise, and that moveset lists the station name merely as Heathway. I assume it changed at some point between then and now.
Clearly we’re into End Game, and this is getting very tricky. I now have a five-time-Paddington, and must be able to convert that to an MC, surely. But I’ve hit a snag.
I know, I know: “MCoogle is your friend” and I did a search, given Dagenham Heathway, Nibs and the current Token status. Coffey 2003 (the analysis of the Stockholm Nationals) indicated that I must avoid any further calls on the District Line or I’ll strike Julian dimensions (for obvious reasons, I don’t want to risk that!). But Levy, Jameson & Smithers (1997 report on the Orkney Majors, Round II, Grade A) indicates very strongly that I have MC in two by playing Barons Court.
OK, I’m going to risk it and stay with the District Line:** Barons Court**.
That was so amazing! I’d forgotten all about it. I remember Feigenbaum adding a bit of bifurcation and led the whole topology into chaos. One of my fondest memories of any MC play. The images hit the front pages of every newspaper worldwide!
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