The online puzzle contest has ended already 2 weeks ago. Between then and now nobody has raised objections to the given solutions. Ad Rovers (NL) sent us a 4th possible win for puzzle 6, but that doesn't change the results. So, time for the final conclusions…
While putting the solutions online on Sunday, October 14, a last answer form came in (Michael Reitz is a Saint!), which brought the number of participants to 34. What to say about that number? We had hoped for minimally 30 participants. We passed that edge, but we had assumed a total of 50 to speak about a successful contest, and that we did not achieve. Well, we are satisfied just the same.
To come to the results: one third (11 participants) found up to 3 correct solutions, another third (10) found 4 correct answers, and the last third (11) came close with 5 correct answers. That leaves:
34 - 11 - 10 - 11 = 2! Indeed, just two participants succeeded in finding all 6 solutions. Puzzle 5 appeared to be the hard nut to crack. Quite a few had found a win for White in 6 moves, but there was one in 5 moves, too, and only Arne Hoffmann (D) and Stephen Tavener (GB) had seen it. Arne was the first to send us a completely correct answer form (on Tuesday, October 9, at 00:04 h), so he's the winner of the 1st online GIPF puzzle contest. Congratulations! A DVONN prototype will be on its way one of the next days.
Congratulations to Stephen, too (his solutions reached us on Wednesday, October 10 at 22:28). We wrote his name on a piece of paper and an innocent hand drew him as the winner of the second prototype.
That left us with one last prototype - the winner to be drawn from all the participants (expect the winners of the first two prototypes) who sent in at least one correct solution. That resulted in 31 names in a hat - and Boris Ammerlaan (NL) came out of it. Here you are! And this ends the contest.
I thank all the participants for their cerebral efforts. We hope that you all enjoyed it. We'll be back with another online GIPF puzzle contest next year!

DVONN without DVONN-potentials

Right, there are no free DVONN-potentials in the DVONN box. That has been mentioned in this news section before, but it hasn't been explained properly yet *why not*. Some questions reached us about it - and some think that the copy they purchased is incomplete.
Explaining why there are no free DVONN-potentials enclosed, is a complex matter. However, the first reason is a simple one: we didn't have the means. Free potentials must be *free* indeed, meaning that they may not raise the price of the game - and that is something we could not afford.
That may be the first reason, but it is not the main one. Other factors have had more influence on the decision to make the DVONN-potentials only available through a second GIPF Set. One of the many is that, so far, there has been very little interest in the potentials. Initially the free potentials were meant to give the ones who were interested the chance to *taste* them without needing to purchase them first. Meanwhile we have had the time to give that idea more thoughts and we concluded that it may have been a wrong policy. Three things have been stated clearly from the very beginning: (1) the potentials are optional, (2) don't use them if you haven't reached a certain level at playing GIPF, and (3) the standard number is 6 per player. Unfortunately, it appeared to be too difficult to get that message through. So, we thought that, from now on, it would be better to work with GIPF Sets for those who are really interested in what the potentials are all about - and not to bother those who are not interested. A bit like: protecting the Project against itself. So, if we succeed in going on with it, the next game(s) won't have free potentials either.

In the near future a section with editorials will be added to this site. Then we'll go deeper into this matter.