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the author refuses to further explain his reason for choosing such a number. 

You obviously have not read "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe"...

But, no panic!

A game with a pretentious title that adds nothing to chess.

The title is borrowed from the Douglas Adams book.

I don't care how famous the author was.

The book is from a widely beloved trilogy that serves as the gold standard for sci-fi comedy, and this series is in fact the author's main claim to fame. If not for this series, he might not be any better known than other Doctor Who script writers, such as Terry Nation.

If "the answer to everything is 42", the author refuses to further explain his reason for choosing such a number.

It was for comedic effect, and given that he is dead, he is not really refusing to explain anything.

If not for this series, he might not be any better known than other Doctor Who script writers, such as Terry Nation.

It's worth noting that he wrote one of the best Fourth Doctor stories (City of Death) as well as one of the worst (Pirate Planet). :)

(Or maybe it isn't worth noting. If so, my apologies.)

If "the answer to everything is 42", the author refuses to further explain his reason for choosing such a number.

It was for comedic effect, and given that he is dead, he is not really refusing to explain anything.

He had the chance to do it in his book, but he didn't. And it wasn't for "comedic effect". He choose that exact number for a reason, and that particular reason can be found in a certain book written some 2000 years ago. These people know what they are doing. 

I, myself, wanted to be a science-fiction writer at a certain point, and I understand pretty well the reason behind these seemingly random symbols. 

He had the chance to do it in his book, but he didn't. And it wasn't for "comedic effect". He choose that exact number for a reason, and that particular reason can be found in a certain book written some 2000 years ago. These people know what they are doing.

The joke was that after using the whole planet earth as a computer to calculate the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything, which turned out to be 42, they didn't know what the question was. So the answer would remain useless until they could also calculate what the question was.

I, myself, wanted to be a science-fiction writer at a certain point, and I understand pretty well the reason behind these seemingly random symbols.

Once being a wannabe doesn't make you an expert on how people in a field think, and when a field has as wide a variety of creative people as science fiction writing has, it's not even going to be easy for people steeped in the field to understand what's going on in each other's minds. Even among those of us who create Chess variants, we don't all easily understand each other or think the same way.

There is also more than one mention of the use of 42 in the scriptures, not just the most terrifying instance towards the end, to further complicate the number of possibilities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(number)#:~:text=There%20are%2042%20generations%20(names,)%3B%20God%2C%20because%20of%20a%20%22

42 is the age Adams was when his first and only child was born, though he was 30 when he published Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Maybe the age he wanted to have a child was his (inside) joke. It seems his wife and the Lord may have gone along with it quite happily - the latter is thought to have a good sense of humour.

According to what I've been able to find, Adams chose 42 as a completely arbitrary whim.

He more or less said so, though he said he wanted to pick a 'smallish number' as he was having his whim:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-math-fans-a-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-number-42/

Note that Adams had his only child at age 42, and Bobby Fischer died at age 64. Carl Jung said to pay attention to coincidences. Question is, what do they mean?

Note that Adams had his only child at age 42, and Bobby Fischer died at age 64. Carl Jung said to pay attention to coincidences. Question is, what do they mean?

And Stephen King was hit by a van and nearly killed on the 19th of June (1999).

But as far as I know, the number 17 has never done anythingspecial to Steven Brust, nor 27 to "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Well, we can see what happens with me in 2052 (the year I turn 91).

But, probably nothing. Sometimes coincidences do have meaning, but sometimes too they're nothing more than coincidences.

How about this one, then: "it would be a miracle if there weren't any genuine coincidences".

While we're at it, a coincidence quote I've been saying for a couple of decades: "Coincidences not only happen, but they're necessary. Among other things, every lottery game in history depends on them, and cannot function without them."