Chat With The Creators

Leedsman, I hope you're OK with this but I copied your file and it is in the comments section of this post. I thought that since this site is free and has a lot of room, that you wouldn't mind.

For everyone else, I will leave this site up indefinitely so you can refer back to the game. I will also leave the link to SPA where you can find links to your friends if you ever want to reconnect.

TTFN

SPA - Steinitz Puzzlers Anonymous

Post your own comments.
All addicts welcome.

Stave

Stave, you are hillarious!
Thanks for the Christmas Cheer!

The Mysterious CharlieTan

Read the comments for more info.

Slumber Mode

OK all.

After that extensive solution proposed by the vooch, I think it's time to relax and wait.

My opinion is that the contest has been over since early December, when kfloss submitted the leeds solution. I have given him my best wishes and early congratulations.

Good luck everyone else for the random drawing.

If you are still unconvinced about the rlebron site, then you might need to visit Slothmore Institute. Two weeks have passed without a better solution or even a hint at a different web site. There are 19 more days left and you'll need every minute if you're going to find something else. "Stay Home!"

To MTSM, Charlie and Marlene, thanks for the fun, excitement, and definitely the experience. It has been a real pleasure. Please let us all know how this turns out.

Cheers

FHay signing off.

No Update

After 20 hours of work, the physical did not go as well as planned. Today will be another long day to investigate variances. I might check the board twice today, so don't expect a decent report out of me.

Besides, other than Moses parting the seas, nothing new yesterday.

The Route Leads There

Two major events happened today. Dylan revealed his THE ROUTE LEADS THERE website an obvious parody to the rlebron (MPTS) website. Including a cipher haiku, references to Beale, Seville, a Mohawk haircut from Silvia the barberette, the sister city, and just other funny picks. Four thumbs up! A must not miss! Truly Hilarious. Norma & Charlotte say "A Manditory Visit Is Required For All Puzzlas".

The other event is really a non-event. Vooch did not reveal his solution. But then again, did you expect more? A few people are expressing dissatisfaction by vooch's comments now. Hey, I think it keeps the board light. They make me laugh.

Less importantly, I reached my 500th post, then I was drawn back out to post something else and messed up my counter. Now I have 501. Well, since its already messed up, I'll probably post more. Oh, and I was also accused of publishing the rlebron site. Right!

Politically Correct - Game Summary

Someone at rlebron has updated the site to PC the situation. Could this mean it was a PM or the hoaxter being very timely? In any case, it did not answer the question of finality. More To Come.

CharlieTan moved a few threads that were in the main forum to the chit chat forum supposedly because they were not directly related to the puzzle.

Several people are still looking. TheDom has never given up. He is pretty sure that the Batman picture has some relevence. Although I've looked at the other pictures associated with that blog, and have seen more evidence to the contrary than supports that theory. But that is my own HO. Keep at it Dom!

Tmtrktm is searching Pluto and in need of some little pink pills. msbriannamk78 and VonMuda are investigating NYC, while Keeper is just still looking due to Clue #1. A newbie Slim Won is rechecking the Georgia vicinity.

Still no area has come up with better ties to the clues than the Leeds site. Furthermore, I guess my Baltimore conclusion has been veto'ed by consensus neglect. So it'll be Leeds until someone finds a better 10th web site that ties in "The Music is Key".

Happy hunting puzzlers!

Follow My Leeds

For the past day, the board has been nothing more that a big chat room. We still have people posting criptic messages, rude and obnoxious comments, birthday wishes, boasts about finding the urn, and a few intelligent discussions of other paths to take.

TheDom has been keeping his nose to the grindstone searching past the Leeds site, investigating the links in the MSN site, and finding items that are making the Leeds site more credible.

There hasn't been much effort in the last two days to indicate that there are any other leads to follow. The 10th web site is either Leeds, or it is too obscure for the board members to find. the PM's have remained silent now since Friday (Correction, they have been stalking, moderating the forum, removing obnoxious posts). Not unusual, but given the direction the members have gone, it could only mean one thing.

You want my opinon? The contest is over. Now for the Sweepstakes. The board might be better off to maintain their odds by proclaiming the solution has been found and discouraging others from finding out about the sweepstakes. The more people that register, the worse their odds get. Mine included.

I'll probably keep monitoring the boards to pick up any new information, but it's probably just going to get dull from here on out. If I don't post daily, then you will know why.

More to seek

Plenty of theories floating out there today. I spent most of my day back at work. Seems i have neglected a few things that now need more attention.

There has been discussions trying to dispute the 02270, CHIVY ON, and some posters are now throwing around Maryland. Maybe Keeper's submission is not wrong after all.

Only time will tell.

AntiClimax

If ever a solution was concrete, then the Leeds is pea soup.

Fact or Fiction:

There are many reasons to believe that the site is fact. Foremost is that the PM's have not come on to dispute it. Despite what everyone thinks, the PM's in one form or another have come on during a weekend to re-direct. This weekend was silent.

Then there are many reasons to shout HOAX! Where do all the other clues fit? Why is a Cannon employee posting the site? Why are the pictures made with a Sony?

Looks like this story is not over until Sharp anounces the winner or another web site is found.

MORE TO COME->>>>

A solution is proposed

Curse you MTSM. Leave work early and then someone finds a web site about Leeds, NY.

It has many answers to the clues such as "URN IS HERE", 02270 (see picture), two names not in alphabetical order, Green Co., Between Athens and Cairo, a gift shop for Marlene, and more.

Could this be the solution?

Another Web Site?

If its not Steinitzfutures, then what? Towards the end, and not a financial consultant? Tax advisor? Or the solution. Another directional push: we must use between Athens and Cairo, only need 5 or 6 of the know clues to solve this. MTSM claims not to know the answer but is pushing everyone in a certain direction. Why? MTSM lies? Hypocracy! This is getting out of hand. Why doesn't he just tell everyone where it is while I am away from the computer!

Where is everyone else?

I just am having fun now. No more long nights. I'm free.

Looks like everyone is all out in different directions. I see Tennessee, Charleston, Ohio, Idaho (although I posted that to see if anyone could support it), New York, Crete, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Oregon.

There are some that think they have it, I can't see their reasoning. If they are right, then good for them.

I've resigned myself to just being in the drawing now. Keeper is sure to win if our answer is correct. Even if it is wrong, I'm still in the drawing.

Paul is writing a book about the search, but I might beat him to the punch with this blog. Good Luck Paul!

Finished

Well, I finally posted my answer.

I am confident in the location, no matter what is being discussed on the forum. Keeper actually posted the same answer days ago. He said that I directed him there. He showed me the monument but since it was from a distance, there were no names visible.

I did more research in the area and am sure that they are there. Everything is coming together now. 02270, The Music is Key, Mike's drawing, The Route Leads There, Hideous, Between A&C, Hail England, the wires on the spectrocraniomenter, Letter squares, Heigh-Ho, Rossini, Chess, Hoffman, sound files, and more.

What's more is that I found www.steinitzfutures.com web site where the guy actually has a radio show too. MTSM said its legit, so I must leave them alone. I just cant get over how those pictures on that site are of the same caliber as those on the other steinitz sites. If it's a legit site, poor guy is getting a lot of e-mail and phone calls from us.

A Hideous Answer (AHA!)

I don't know if congratulations are in order yet, but Badger did come up with a very good solution to HIDEOUS. Quote (Badger @ Nov 26 2004, 11:57 AM) THE URN SITE HONORS THE DEAD.

Monuments, memorials, plaques. Graves are out because they don't really honor the dead. They just mark them.

Trying to tie it all together

Trying something new to tie in Mike's Picture today. Could the symbols be from MQoS code?

Different track

Wait, I had a thought. Many people are mentioning that the green wire is to be ignored. So what is left? Red, Yellow, Black, and White. There is only one state flag with those colors and it's Maryland. Time to start using a new search engine. Google is not being kind.

THE RACE IS ON

Spent most of the morning waiting for the registration page to update. Then when it does, everyone is having trouble registering. MTSM gets involved and works on solving the page problems. I'm in. An easy matching problem then it lets you submit an answer. "The Music is Key." NOW what does that mean?! So we are looking for two names not in alphabetical order. This could be a marquee, a grave, a monument, or a landmark.

I started in Ohio. I went through Crete and Cypus. I found Apollo temple on Cyprus. The god of Music. Several Apollo personalities are from Ohio. Armstrong is from a town between A&C, OH. Search Search Search. Nothing.

Except This:

Is that it?

MNP post their final blog today. All have differnet pictures of them holding the Urn. Not a word about what was won. That was a total let down. The solve was too easy for them and did not fully explain everything. I guess what is left will partain to the third urn. The hunt starts Monday.

Congratulations to Varin for posting the solve to the letter squares first. FameTrunks headed us in the right direction using both the opera game and "remember where they came from" it was spelled out for us. Some questions are left about the remaining letters though. There were several people on the verge of solving that clue at the same time, including myself.

And in the immortal words of KMS today, "Something like 'the path runs through it' or 'remember where it was played' or 'remember where they came from' or one of those clues?"

And FameTrunks: "Okay, I've been busting my head open about this opera game/chess board thing and I started crawling through the archives verifying VonMuda's list of clues when I stumbled across this clue, which has been left out of recent lists, including my own!

KEEP TRACK OF WHERE THEY CAME FROM"

HIEGH-HO URN #2 A GO

Way to Go FameTrunks! THE GAME REACHED OPERATIC HEIGHTS. is the solve for Heigh-Ho. PMN find Urn #2. No mention of its contents. We will have to wait till Friday.
The opera game must have something to do with solving the letter squares.

What a drag

These past few days have been slow. The players are on their way to the two rivers and we have seen very little. Dr. Harvey showed up to tell us to take a day off. I've been hammering HIDEOUS with my own anagram program, to no avail. That program will take 20 billion years to complete the entire computation. The registration announcement page opened today. So we will have to sign up and post an answer. Hmmm, not what I was expecting, but OK.

STRATEGY

The players didn't update their blogs until late. I was getting ready to leave work. I found a KEY image and link at the bottom of Natalie's blog. The link directed me to a secure page. I had just looked into that type of security recently. I had just begun working with four other players in a team effort to see if we could solve this before everyone else. I set up another blog and researched security measures so that it wouldn't pop up in the search engines. CHMOD was one of the comands I investigated, along with this security device Natalie had. I just thought that it was a production error and they had something left over when the blog got published.

EBay Away

Norman Dean Norman put the Authentic Skulls up on EBay today. This is going to be interesting since Norman stated that these would NOT include any clues to the third urn. NMP dug up a red herring purse, a PI coin and a note telling them to go to where the two rivers meet and to bring scuba gear. Strange. No 2nd urn yet!

Activity. Finally.

The past few days have been agonizing. The trio have not posted much useful information and otherwise have been relatively quiet. The same cannot be said for the forum. Like kudzoo in Georigia, the ideas and thoughts have expanded at exponential rates. Membership also seems to be growing at the same pace.

Mike posted a new puzzle piece today. New colors. Interesting. Now the pieces can only fit together in a handful of ways. This narrows things down.

Gathering Thoughts

Today I decided it was time someone put all those "clues" into a list so that everyone could tear them apart. Bang away people. "PRIMARY CLUES" is now up for pot shots.

Oops

Moretosee made a production error. Someone posted a picture of Mike and Peter and then quickly removed it. They were standing outside, from what I can recall. The shot was from the waist up, and neither looked like they had clothes on. Could have had swim trunks though.

Spent more time analyzing the letter squares and running my Knights Tour program.
Two new items; 1) a new piece to the letter squares, 2) morewasseen.com

Vacaton off of the computer helped

Same ole thing, unhappy pollsters, incomplete election . Another Bush term for four more years? Continuation. Job losses. Lower incomes. Isolation. Divided country. Must move on.

Oh, and passed the century mark for posts. But nothing new happened.

The woodworks

watch out. The meanies are coming out of the woodworks. Boy, the last two days have brought in some new members who are very rude and offensive to the forum. I was called out as well as some of the veterans there. Keep your composure. Calm. Toned down. Unified. That's it! HAUD.

Back to the puzzle. The letter squares. I've been looking for various "Knights Tours" childishly thinking that there are only a few solutions to the Knights Tour. I found a few and have also begun programming a script that will input various Knights Tours and compare them with the various layout options of the know pieces. No luck so far, but I might come up with something that will put me ahead of the others. Keep plugging. Diving. Searching. Googling.

A Knights Tour

Sorry for the delayed post. The last two days I have been swallowed up trying to get a head start on the letter squares. The pieces fit together in only 9-12 different ways, so the choices can be narrowed down. I don't think this is an anagram. My hunch is that I am going to have to follow moves from a particular game. Which game, you might ask. Right now there is only one known important game. Steinitz v. Bardeleben. I've tried following all moves, white only moves, black only moves, and knight only moves. There are hundreds of combinations and since there are so many missing squares, there isn't a definable way to tell if any of them are valid. Of course, some can be eliminated due to letter sequence, but others cannot. I posted some of my results to the forum for feedback. I need a rest.

Letter Squares

It's time to start putting the letter squares together. "Casual Observer" pointed out that some of the letters are forward and some are backward. Dylan created a grid using only the forward letters as one option of fitting the pieces together. Good job. The whole forum is now anagraming those letters, including me. Still, I think that my time might be better spent figuring out all the options for laying out the chessboard. The options are few, considering the size, color, and shapes of the known pieces. Must anagram this before anyone else does!

"Its off to work we go"!

What about this HEIGH-HO? I wonder if Heigh-Ho refers to the 7 dwarfs, I AM THE GREATEST refers to Ali, and SPACE CADET? Hey, I found that phrase used by an old TV show character Tom Corbet.

Xavier is mysterious. He seems to be monitoring activity in the chateau somehow. I bet he has a hidden room in the basement that he has access to without Peter knowing. Could it be that the person who met Natalie was not Xavier. How did we miss that. I for one thought the one in the warehouse was another mysterious person. Wrong. The one who met Natalie was the newbie. The one in the warehouse was Xavier. I hope I'm not the only one who was confused by Natalie's blog.

I need a hair cut

Cheers to bruttium! The clip provided has the exact rift that is contained in the tooth. Rossini will roll over if he saw our discussions. Vooch is adamant that "Un petit train de plaisir comicque-imitatif" is the rift. Is he joking? The menu came out today. Still working HIDEOUS and HEIGH-HO.

Thanks to Keeper for getting an anagram solve to HIDEOUS that tied to the roated Nude In Red. Maybe this is it?...

Hearts a Fire

Someone put a hex on me this weekend, and they did'nt have any magical powers. Marlene. Sound funny? Well you had better not 'listen' to Mike. I spent my whole weekend reading the forums and looking at what had already been found. Marlene posted a criptic hex message with an anagram in it that sent the board haywire with hex and octal coding. Vooch.com was the number one poster up to this point. He seemed to have it in the bag. Had better read his posts carefully.

New Forum Member!

Today I joined the forum. I tried to show some skill in my first post. Ha. But what I would later learn is that I did find something. It would be very useful later in the solution to the letter squares. But I would not be the one who would use it. "Keep track of where they came from" on the dentist's wall was crucial, but more on that later. More sites, what about those sites? SteinitzSkulls, SteinitzPress, SteinitzDDS? Anagrams, Ciphers, this is going to be tough.

Research

Thursday. I read through some of the pages on the moretosee site and followed the links to SteinitzPuzzlers, Mike, Natalie, and Peter. What was this thing? Was the mysterious puzzle real? Who in the world was Dogabert Steinitz? Little did I realize that just about all newcomers would be asking the same questions, as evidenced in dozens of posts on the puzzlers forum that would appear over the next few months.

It Begins

Today I ran across an ad while reviewing the news on one of the major network's web sites. I was courious so I followed the link. Now I don't normally follow ad links and have gone to extreme measures to block internet ads on my computer. I have a great fear of spyware and other malicious programs that track user information.