HW: Hawk help / OFF Mornington Crescent

[M Holmes]

Richard Lockwood writes:

> > > BTW - if anyone fancies playing a bit of online Mornington Crescent,
> >
> > Does it do both Standard Rules and the Chiswick Rules (Amended) Game?
>
> > Yep - and takes the Finsbury Option as Standard.  There's also built in
> > functionality for the Holland Park 2000 ruleset.
>
> I've always wondered: how does this treat the Eurotunnel link?
>
> Ignored, unless overground lines - including Silverlink - are specifically
> allowed or brought into play.  Then it counts as a standard line in quadrant
> 4 until the actual tunnel, which is the extent of the allowable moves.  A
> standard token weighting of two red applies, and a Becks coefficient of at
> least three is generally regarded as the safest minimum to avoid the
> possibility of putting yourself in spoon or wrench.

That's most interesting. However Garden, in his 1998 exposition of the
Paddington Gambit, argued that the downside risk could be mitigated by a
blocking move at Camden South supported by a feint at the Angel. It's
undoubtedly true that even limited availability of the Chunnel Link in
overground games (and to a certain extent Docklands Light Railway) has
destabilised conventional approaches to aggressive strategy to the
extent where a whole new approach may be required. What's needed is an
experienced attacker with a theoretical bent to provide the basics of
this. Unfortunately there seems to be no player of Garden's reknown
who's willing to make a start at such a worthy endeavour. It's quite
criminal that no National Lottery funds have been allocated to supported
local clubs playing the Great Game.

If this drift continues, mark my words, we'll be overtaken by some
bastardised American variation based on the "Subway" and it'll be
Rounders all over again.

> Rich.

FoFP