First I’ve heard of or never heard of … it? Either or.

Never heard of this before Dave

Well, there is this:

http://vote-nv.org/intro.aspx?state=nv&id=nvvaughanstan

and this.

https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com … an-vaughn/

When I mentioned this to a former Georgia Champion, originally from Kentucky, he recalled, “Stan was involved in a terrible auto accident that affected his brain.” The word “colorful” is usually reserved for people like Stan.

If he was a chess expert, then maybe he used something according to his abilty. ie: a chessboard cipher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grille_%28 … is_ciphers

Some interesting stuff here about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AWor … Federation

This is a bogus, non-existent organization. It has no members, conducts no meetings, holds no tournaments or events. It’s claim to have had Bobby Fischer as its champion is pure fiction.

Basically, during the period 1995-1999 Stan Vaughan repeatedly used a trick of forming a corporation in Nevada with the same name as a well established and well known organization. He would then claim that he WAS that other organization. In this way, Vaughan formed the "World Chess Federation, Inc.", the "Nevada State Chess Association, Inc." and the "American Chess Association, Inc." He also formed the "Nevada Libertarian Party, Inc." Vaughan became president of all these corporations. He claimed the right to declare himself World Chess Champion, American Chess Champion and Nevada Chess Champion. He also threatened suit against the real World Chess Federation ("FIDE") when it scheduled a tournament for the real World Chess Championship in Las Vegas in 1999.

If he was a chess expert, then maybe he used something according to his abilty. ie: a chessboard cipher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grille_%28 … is_ciphers

Interesting, thank you.

I followed up on the grille idea and generated a few thousand variants of the 340 this way. Interpreted as having a split message, one part on uneven squares and the other on even squares with independent directions. Quickly processed with AZdecrypt but nothing came out of it.

EDIT: Just also did the same w/o splitting the cipher thus only changing the directions of the even/uneven squares. Nothing.

As a test I transposed a 340 part of the 408 in such a way and was able to recover multiple instances of it.

408 grille:

¼µ/LºX¥R°ÌJIDÐÆZV
AP¼B£XJF¸M^yµºOHÃ
º¼u¾ÐNyQÅTQRu+FV¾
Ì/·¥LGVyANyA°ÐÔXW
ZÆRBÅMÑEÔPRÒHÑLB
ÃOu+V‚ÌTKOµÒ°IG£
ËEVÅKWÑNPHÄM£ÄѼÑ
XW/¹°½BAJ¥I¾¾ÅXD
BÑP¼Ë½·+Z£KGOR¹/Ñ
¼HWIº¼DMV¼ZÌÒBuK¹
¼BuÑ/ºL¤DTE¢·IZÔM
Ä^º¢¸^ZGGyÔPPÂLº
yySOËFÑÆIº/OˤµJ+
Z£ÑET+·ÔAĺRP¾uRË
µÅѸ¹µN¾LPRI‚^DТ
TÌGy^RRBÃ^·ÑMP¥NË
Ry¾y¢S·uu+WBBNSH
·ÅASKSÑMã¹·V°ËuÒ
WL¤¼QEHWI+¼¼¥ÐE£F
¸µÔTºE¸ÐVÒ¸ÊAÅÅËS

Great work, Jarlve. I am glad to hear you are still working on ruling out different encipherment schemes. My talk will be about this topic, so I’m wondering if I should pay closer attention to your progress.

It occurs to me that maybe we should track your progress on this very neglected section of my wiki: http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind … variations

Would you be interested in cataloging your attempts there, and possibly posting links to your test ciphers? I could create a wiki account for you.

Great work, Jarlve. I am glad to hear you are still working on ruling out different encipherment schemes. My talk will be about this topic, so I’m wondering if I should pay closer attention to your progress.

It occurs to me that maybe we should track your progress on this very neglected section of my wiki: http://zodiackillerciphers.com/wiki/ind … variations

Would you be interested in cataloging your attempts there, and possibly posting links to your test ciphers? I could create a wiki account for you.

Certainly, sounds like a wonderful opportunity and looking forward to it.

OK – I sent an email with the login info.

Thanks!!

I asked doranchak to remove my wiki account. It didn’t feel right to me.

However, cataloguing my work on the Zodiac 340 cipher is a great idea and I will make a thread here, serving as a catalogue. Presenting my work in a new format, including clear descriptions and details about the tests done. An update on my solver AZdecrypt is also in the works, I hope to improve results for some of the ciphers it has been struggling with.

Thanks, Jarlve. I am looking forward to your catalog of test results.

But this cipher has been conclusively solved? The blurb on the World Chess Federation site includes a blurb that says conclusively, that you solved it. Then when I read your thread you say, "well, I am not an expert, this is what I came up with and its NOT CONCLUSIVE." I understand wanting to have a concise body of information to back it up, but making that claim without coming forward immediately with a solved cipher- well, loads of people have done the same and came up with nothing. If you claim something, I would expect it to be backed up immediately, and the information already ready to present. A claim without proof is just a claim, yes? Why would anyone claim such a thing without their sources and work already in order? I don’t get it. Its the claim that it has been solved that rankles me. I would at least suggest not flying that flag til you earned that territory.

Having said that, if anyone would solve something like this, I would expect someone like a chess master to be able to do it. Its just that the word "solved" in the context of this case is, well, pretty freaking huge, not to be taken lightly.