Not really a flaw: if the king is not on the home square in a legal position in chess, castling rights have been lost.
Admittedly, 960 goes beyond legal positions, with a different castling rule, so your wish could be another variant option.
Not really a flaw: if the king is not on the home square in a legal position in chess, castling rights have been lost.
Admittedly, 960 goes beyond legal positions, with a different castling rule, so your wish could be another variant option.
Even MAR, in a brief moment of semi-clarity, agreed with me that you're fundamentally wrong. Many others, seemingly intelligent people, have disagreed with you here.
I don't get this.....by your own admission, he is agreeing with you and yet you gratuitously insult him. Why would you do that? Do you actually think you're providing some kind of service to the community?
I have no intention of getting into a protracted debate over this. I likely won't post again....but hoped you would give it some thought.
Merci, I appreciate all inputs! This setup is part of a new variant, enigma chess. But yes, I believe that chess has been solved and also hasn't been solved. The extent to which a human can comprehend and replicate the solution is limited, and so is the computer's. Chess has a solution, for sure. But brute computation whether by a human or computer is, in my opinion, not powerful enough to bring that infinitely perfect solution to the fore. Thus, the solution to chess, relative to a human, is simply: “The strongest computer is the solution.” Nobody can argue with the best computer, and that computer will just keep improving until every possible chess position is accounted for and analyzed in every possible way, and the best move forward is determined under every possible circumstance. That could take quite some time, 😄 In that regard, chess has not been solved. The computer has not solved chess relative to the infinitely perfect solution to chess which is out there. (These are just my personal thoughts.)
I believe that matter, mathematics itself, and time are all relative. Call it the theory of general relativity of everything. :peaceful
@5892
"whether the game you're offering to solve includes it"
++ The same weak solution without the 50-moves rule also applies with the 50-moves rule.
"what do you mean by "chess" when you offer to solve it?"
++ The game as described in the Laws of Chess. https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012018
"my games here" ++ Your games are not of interest. ICCF WC draws are of interest.
"What rules are you going to assume?" ++ The Laws of Chess.
"Will it take more than 5 years?" ++ Weakly solving chess takes 5 years.
*almost everything. I believe also in the one thing that has always existed and is thus infinitely above everything else; that which can define everything else.
Even MAR, in a brief moment of semi-clarity, agreed with me that you're fundamentally wrong. Many others, seemingly intelligent people, have disagreed with you here.
I don't get this.....by your own admission, he is agreeing with you and yet you gratuitously insult him. Why would you do that? Do you actually think you're providing some kind of service to the community?
I have no intention of getting into a protracted debate over this. I likely won't post again....but hoped you would give it some thought.
I gratuitously insult HIM?
I don't pretend to know what's in your heart, but if I made that reference to someone..."a brief moment of semi-clarity".... I would definitely mean it as an insult.
Game theory unquestionably does apply to all the forms of chess we are discussing here ...
Can you point to any game theory texts that discuss games with no well defined yield?
According to @tygxc
We are talking about solving chess, i.e. the game with all its Laws of Chess.
Those would allow for simultaneous resignation, or resignation simultaneously with making a move into a checkmate or dead position. They don't order the results in those cases in terms of yield to the players.
The players are also not made aware of the mood of the arbiter and since TCEC chess is also being discussed here the players are not made aware of when the server will crash and the TCEC win rule comes into force, so it's not a game of perfect information.
I would say game theory doesn't apply to all forms of chess we are discussing here.
All the papers on combinatorial games, several of which have been linked in discussions here.
Bear in mind that only the order of the results (win > draw > loss) is relevant for the analysis of the value of positions with optimal play. I feel you have in mind a different branch of game theory that deals with uncertainty if you think of this not being so.
I have ignored all the petty aspects of human chess and much else that is irrelevant to the theoretical analysis (as typical in game theory). Resignation and agreed draws are irrelevancies to evaluating optimal results. To the analysis it does not matter an iota whether a draw is agreed or another thousand moves are played to determine the same result. The only role of such actions in a theoretical treatment would be to acknowledge the correct result.
@5892
"whether the game you're offering to solve includes it"
++ The same weak solution without the 50-moves rule also applies with the 50-moves rule.
Nalimov is a weak solution (indeed strong solution) of the following position without the 50 move rule.
The position is theoretically won with or without the 50 move rule.
If Nalimov (White) plays Syzygy (Black) without the 50 move rule from this position it wins. If Nalimov (White) plays Syzygy (Black) with the 50 move rule from this position it only draws.
Is that what you mean by your above statement?
"what do you mean by "chess" when you offer to solve it?"
++ The game as described in the Laws of Chess. https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012018
There are at least five games described in your link. Which one? Or is it all five at the same time? And why then are you bringing ICCF and TCEC into it when they have different rules?
"my games here" ++ Your games are not of interest. ICCF WC draws are of interest.
The games I posted are interest to me and no doubt many people here because I don't believe you can get anything close to results you claim for your calculations in those games, so if you acknowledge that we can discontinue discussing your proposed solution and concentrate on the topic.
I believe my games are also of great interest to you and I'm fairly certain you will have already tried applying your calculations to them and convinced yourself that your calculations simply don't work.
The only reason you say they're not of interest is you want to dishonestly continue posting your calculations as valid when you're perfectly aware the're not.
What you get out of that I don't know.
"What rules are you going to assume?" ++ The Laws of Chess.
What all of them?
You're including both
8.1.1 In the course of play each player is required to record his own moves and those of his opponent ...
and
A.2 Players do not need to record the moves ...
are you?
"Will it take more than 5 years?" ++ Weakly solving chess takes 5 years.
Post your calculations applied to the games I posted.
...
Bear in mind that only the order of the results (win > draw > loss) is relevant for the analysis of the value of positions with optimal play....
I am bearing that in mind.
The problem is that the possible results are not just win. draw, loss under FIDE rules.
If a player (a) checkmates and simultaneously resigns under FIDE laws he wins and so does his opponent. If he (b) checkmates and simultaneously accepts a draw offer he wins but the game is drawn. If he (c) checkmates and does neither, he wins (and presumably his opponent loses, though it doesn't explicitly say that - given the first two cases are allowed, it's not obvious).
Some players might feel (a)>(c), others (c)>(a). There's no order given in the FIDE laws. Indeed some players might find (a) <draw, so long as opponent doesn't win in the latter.
This is easy enough to resolve by a simple change in the rules (several possibilities, but none so far suggested in the thread), but the change needs to be made before game theory can be usefully applied I think.
As I said, I (and anyone else dealing with the abstract game) couldn't care less about ridiculous things like someone resigning when they checkmate.
Game theory (and solving games) is only concerned with moves being alternately played on the board and results being reached. Hope that is clear enough.
As I said, I (and anyone else dealing with the abstract game) couldn't care less about ridiculous things like someone resigning when they checkmate.
Game theory (and solving games) is only concerned with moves being alternately played on the board and results being reached. Hope that is clear enough.
Yes, I'm more or less in perfect agreement with that. (More or less because I think game theory could also be concerned with Bridge for example.)
But you can't carry on to conclude, "Game theory unquestionably does apply to all the forms of chess we are discussing here ... ".
The result of some of the forms of chess being discussed can be affected by flags falling or arbiters throwing a wobbler. Before you start applying game theory I think you need to modify the rules to discount such possibilities and the things you call ridiculous (how do you define that?), at which point the game will not be a form of the game that we are discussing here, except in the posts that are discussing chess in the context of game theory.
(By the way you talk about moves being alternately played on the board. If you're taking "move" to mean a transition between consecutive game states as you implied in an earlier response, these needn't be effected by alternate players.)
I would say that none of the games described in the FIDE handbook has a solution. Full stop. They can be simply modified to admit of a solution and that would be a first requirement before any useful game theory could be applied.
To tone down the classic confusing depth of discussion
I have not seen anyone (except for in this discussion) refer to strong solutions of states. But it would be reasonable to define it as "strong solution of the game like chess but with specified starting state". I think we can agree on that.
A basic chess tablebase plus "ply to exit equivalence class" provides every winning strategy that avoids increasing the ply to exit equivalence class.
You can't have a (deterministic) winning strategy with a loop in basic chess. However, the above paragraph seems clearly not to be all winning strategies. I assert that there are some other winning basic chess strategies that in some positions unnecessarily increase the ply to exit the equivalence class but do so in a way that does not change the result (because the new position has a forced exit that never returns to the position where the ply was increased).
So I am not disagreeing with you (using the reasonable definition of strong solution of a state), but pointing out that the basic-chess-tablebase-with-ply-count-to-irreversible-move (for winning or losing moves) provides something which is very substantial for versions of chess with additional drawing rules, and shows they are very closely related games.
Question: is ply to mate good enough for this purpose instead of the apparently superior ply to irreversible move?
Well, I obviously failed to grasp the point of your original post. My apologies. I need to have another go at that, but I won't respond immediately; I think I need a little time to consider if it implies that a strong solution of competition rules chess would fit in 10^44 classical bits.
So far as my use of strong solution of game states is concerned, I have seen it stated that n-man (basic rules) chess is strongly solved by the Nalimov tablebases, which I take to mean each n-man position is strongly solved (under basic rules most people would identify "position" and "game state").
I spend probably more time on endgame problems than actually playing chess; they generally assume basic rules and they usually call for the solution (unqualified) of specific positions, by which they mean weak solution of the games starting with the positions, which is a similar use.
!) In my opinion, in chess the pieces speak louder than words. If someone says "I resign" when giving checkmate, the checkmate would carry the day, although I think an arbiter would be within his rights to cross examine the perpetrator and if it was deliberate the player could possibly be warned or even subject to sanctions.
My point is the laws don't say that.
They do say:
12.1 The arbiter shall see that the Laws of Chess are observed.
If the laws of chess are observed in that case, both players win.
5.1.1 The game is won by the player who has checkmated his opponent’s king. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the checkmate position was in accordance with Article 3 and Articles 4.2 – 4.7.
5.1.2 The game is won by the player whose opponent declares he resigns. This immediately ends the game.
[snip]
So far as my use of strong solution of game states is concerned, I have seen it stated that n-man (basic rules) chess is strongly solved by the Nalimov tablebases, which I take to mean each n-man position is strongly solved (under basic rules most people would identify "position" and "game state").
It does, in a very straightforward manner. For each position, if there is a winning move, play one with the lowest moves to mate. Otherwise if there is a drawing move play one. Otherwise any move satisfies the needs of a strong solution.
Of course this is only true for the positions in the tablebase...
I spend probably more time on endgame problems than actually playing chess; they generally assume basic rules and they usually call for the solution (unqualified) of specific positions, by which they mean weak solution of the games starting with the positions, which is a similar use.
Almost. But note that such problems generally don't accept slower solutions, so a weak solution may not suffice.
Also btw, If any of you can get chess.com to please enable white to castle even when one plays under custom setup with kings facing queens, and you're white, that would be cool. I maintain it is a flaw in the system for white to not be able to do so under this specific custom setup. (I tried contacting support, but did not receive any finality on the validity of my request.)