I've just read an interesting article about the game of checkers (or draughts) having been 'Solved' - i.e with perfect play the game should always be drawn. Here's an extract below;
'After roughly 1,000 years of total computing time (50 computers working for last 20 years), the game of checkers is no longer a game: it is simply a puzzle. Professor Jonathan Schaeffer has proven that with perfect play from both sides, checkers is a draw. What this means is that if you can store all 50 billion billion (yes, double billion as in 5x1020) possible positions in your head, then you will never lose a game of checkers again!'
Fantastic stuff, solved in 2007 it's the most complex game to be solved to date. I wonder if the same computers are working on chess as I type? The theory on whether chess can be solved is controversial. It appears to have been 'partially solved'. Solved on all three to six piece (and some seven piece) endgames and completely solved on a 3x3 board. The numbers invloved for a complete solution for the full game are mind boggling...
Yes, completely mind-boggling with chess. I feel I've read the hoary old, 'more moves than there are atoms in the universe' analogy attached to it - though I could be mistaken; and perhaps that may only apply to the random junk moves with which I usually litter my games. But chess is a closed, finite system and must be ultimately solveable. From the initial position is it a win for White? White in Zugzwang? Like draughts (checkers) a forced draw? Perhaps the latter is the most likely but... we'll never know, sadly. Future 5 year old GMs will.
What pieces do they actually use to solve chess with on a 3x3 board? How do they line up? I'll have King, Queen and knight, please. Maybe a balaclava for the time scramble.
There's no clearly defined starting positions for 3x3 chess;
Check out this interesting site;
http://kirr.homeunix.org/chess/3x3-chess/
Good fun even though its a solved game!
I'm getting worried by your obsession with balaclavas, if I receive a blow to the head whilst playing this season, I'll know where to look for the culprit...
There would probably be more likely culprits than me playing in the league But yes, time to drop that obsession...
Interesting site, thanks for the link. I solved the first few easy problems but I can see they will start getting pretty complex, pretty soon. Funny enough, my ignorant desire for a knight was made a mockery of as early as problem 2 when I saw that a knight in the centre has no moves - ever. Being captured is the height of its ambitions, while in 3x3 knights on the rim are... well, they can move at least.
I'll build up slowly to Mate in 11 and such head-wreckers. I don't know which is worse, this site or the Arbiter's Test.
But yes, time to drop that obsession...