Chess will never be solved, here's why

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Elroch
tygxc wrote:

@5940

"You are certain that two tempi provides a win for black in the following position?"
++ No, that is still a draw. White is up 1 tempo in the initial position, which is a draw.
If white loses 2 tempi, then white is 1 tempo down.

But you can see this has got the wrong answer. After 1. Nf3 d5 2. Ng1, black is clearly better off than white in the opening position! Black gets two good moves in while white has moved nothing (net).

The problem is that the terminology "one tempo up" is slightly misleading. You could really say white is 0.5 tempi up at the start because, as the game progresses, white alternates between having made 1 more move and 0 more moves, averaging 0.5 more moves.

By this better quantification,  black has 1.5 tempi advantage after the moves above. This comes from 0.5 - 2.

Likewise what is called "3 tempi" really means 2.5 tempi advantage (alternating between 3 tempi ahead and 2 tempi ahead).

 

tygxc

@5944

"After 1. Nf3 d5 2. Ng1, black is clearly better off than white"
++ Black has gained 2 tempi, thus 1 tempo versus 1 d4. That is not enough to win.
For example 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd8 is playable despite the lost tempo.
IM Basman has often played 1 h3 d5 2 a3 like in the British Championship, which is like 1 Nf3 d5 2 Ng1. You could argue if the moves a3 and h3 are assets or liabilities.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1026336 

"You could really say white is 0.5 tempi up at the start because, as the game progresses, white alternates between having made 1 more move and 0 more moves, averaging 0.5 more moves."
++ White is 1 tempo up, than after black plays 0, then 1, then 0. It averages 0.5, but white has an extra punch of 1 move. Like 1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nb8? 4 Qxf7#

"Likewise what is called "3 tempi" really means 2.5 tempi advantage (alternating between 3 tempi ahead and 2 tempi ahead)." ++ 3 tempi is 2.5 tempi average, but 3 tempi punch

MARattigan
tygxc wrote:

...

People keep confusing weakly solved and strongly solved.

You're right.

Some people keep saying Syzygy is a strong solution of 7 man chess under competition rules.

tygxc

@5946
"Syzygy is a strong solution of 7 man chess"
++ Syzygy or Nalimov, do not care. 7-men chess is strongly solved.
You seem really obsessed with the 50-moves rule.
The 50-moves rule plays no role in solving chess.
It is just a practical rule to prevent games to last too long.

MARattigan
tygxc  wrote:

...

"The games I posted are interest to me" ++ Not to me. All 7-men positions are strongly solved. Weakly solving chess is from 32 to 7 men. I await your drawn KRPP vs. KRP.

...

Why the games should be of interest to you is precisely that the positions are weakly (btw not strongly) solved. You can therefore veryify or disprove the correctness of the method used in your calculations using the solution.

You have claimed that your calculations show the theoretical result of the starting position just from the results of a set of games played from that position. Your calculations should not therefore require that a position is drawn to work.

You also say that the occurrence of blunders in a game is a poisson process so independent of position. It should not therefore apply to only KRPPvKRP positions. Indeed you yourself apply it to a KQRRBBNNPPPPPPPPvKQRRBBNNPPPPPPPP position.

Your requirement that I produce a set of games from a drawn KRPPvKRP position is obviously just prevarication. You declined to produce any yourself on spurious grounds. 

Nevertheless I have produced a set. It's included in the following. 

 

All sets of games run from 1 second to 2048 seconds per ply doubling from one game to the next (except for the KNNvKP where I mislaid the 512 second game). All adjudicated by tablebase if the number of men reduces.

I await your calculations proving the theoretical result of the starting position and number of errors in each game.

Once you have done that we can drop the pointless discussions about your proposals to solve chess and discuss the topic instead.

tygxc

@5948
"the games should be of interest to you"
++ None of these 4 positions is of interest in relation to weakly solving chess.

1st position counts 5 men only.
Weakly solving chess stops when the 7-men endgame table base is reached.

2nd position is a forced win for black,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

3rd position is a forced win for white,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

4th position is a forced win for white,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

I await your drawn KRPP vs. KRP.

Elroch

tygxcian logic is most amusing.

  1. Here is a position where one side is winning.
  2. Chess is a draw, therefore this position cannot be reached with optimal play.
  3. Therefore, we don't have to consider this position in the proof that chess is a draw.
  4. Hence chess is a draw

MARattigan
tygxc wrote:

@5948
"the games should be of interest to you"
++ None of these 4 positions is of interest in relation to weakly solving chess.

1st position counts 5 men only.
Weakly solving chess stops when the 7-men endgame table base is reached.

2nd position is a forced win for black,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

3rd position is a forced win for white,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

4th position is a forced win for white,
cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides.

I await your drawn KRPP vs. KRP.

All of the positions are of interest in relation to whether your calculations are correct.

(None of your posts are  of interest in relation to weakly solving chess.)

You presumably base the fact that that some of the positions I've given cannot be reached from the starting position on the claim that the starting position is drawn. You claim your calculations prove that. Are you saying they prove it only if the starting position is drawn? If so I can give you a much simpler proof of the proposition "if the starting position is drawn then the starting position is drawn".

The fact is there is nothing in your calculations that assumes either the number of men in the starting position or the theoretical result. All the positions are relevant. You're just prevaricating.

Your evaluations above are also inaccurate, I've given you a drawn KRPP vs. KRP already in that set. Apply your calculations to find out which, why don't you?

I await your post of the detailed calculations.

Elroch
tygxc wrote:

@5944

"After 1. Nf3 d5 2. Ng1, black is clearly better off than white"

Misrepresentation.

I said "After 1. Nf3 d5 2. Ng1, black is clearly better off than white in the opening position", because you had stated (incorrectly) that black was "one tempo up" in that position, like white is traditionally (and misleadingly) said to be in the opening position.

tygxc

@5952
"After 1. Nf3 d5 2. Ng1, black is clearly better off than white in the opening position"
++ No, it is a draw just the same. A draw is no better than a draw.

White is a tempo up in the initial position.
If white checkmates black and black can checkmate in return, then it is no draw, but white wins.

tygxc

@5950
"Therefore, we don't have to consider this position in the proof that chess is a draw."
++ You misrepresent my arguments.
1. Chess is a draw because:
a) Expert opinions of all World Champions
b) TCEC: needs 50 imposed slightly unbalanced openings to prevent all draws
c) ICCF: 136 draws, 6 white wins, 3 black wins
d) AlphaZero self play 97.7% draws, more with more time/move, even if stalemate = draw
e) Human top matches and tournaments: more draws with time and with higher ratings
f) White is up 1 tempo = 1/3 pawn, not enough to win. A pawn can queen, but a tempo cannot.

2. Thus weakly solving chess is hopping from the initial drawn position to other drawn positions until a drawn 7-men endgame table base position or a prior 3-fold repetition.

3. Therefore a position where one side is winning cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides and thus is not relevant in weakly solving chess.

MARattigan
tygxc  wrote:

1. Chess is a draw because: ...

You've missed out the bit where you say your calculations prove it's a draw. Is that conceding that your calculations don't actually work?

...

3. Therefore a position where one side is winning cannot be reached from the initial position by optimal play from both sides and thus is not relevant in weakly solving chess.

Non sequitur.

Whatever we assume about the starting position, nothing you've posted so far about your proposed procedure for weakly solving chess indicates you will be considering only games with optimal play. 

I'm still awaiting your post of the detailed calculations applied to the positions I posted. Once you've done that you don't need to keep posting this crap and everyone can get on with discussing the topic.

Elroch
Optimissed wrote:


I always used to think that white is half a tempo up, in the opening position.

You were right. The arithmetic works that way. It doesn't with the usual claim that white is one tempo up (unless a "tempo" is half a ply, which is not what anyone thinks happy.png ).

 

chessisNOTez884

blah blah

Elroch

1 (b) has also already been pointed out to be false (I can't recall by whom) both because:

  • it was not true that there were no wins without forced openings - rather there were not many
  • there are still many draws with forced openings
tygxc

@5963
About 1b TCEC: of the 50 imposed slightly unbalanced openings:
19 worked as intended: a win and a draw
22 lead to two draws: not unbalanced enough
9 lead to a win and a loss: too unbalanced

If they would not impose unbalanced openings, they would have all draws.

Mike_Kalish

It isn't circular logic, because the logic is exactly identical to "how do you know you will hurt yourself by jumping off a 300 foot cliff onto sharp rocks below?"

 

This isn't logic....it's instinct. Even animals have it. They don't have to apply logic to sense danger, and if you're looking 300' down at sharp rocks, it's not logic that's scaring you....it's the self preservation instinct, in a different part of your brain. 

On the other hand, even a non-logician like me could prove that chess is a draw if one of the givens is "Chess is a draw". 

tygxc

@5966
"prove that chess is a draw if one of the givens is "Chess is a draw". "
++ No. Chess is a draw follows from 6 pieces of evidence:

  1. Expert opinions of World Champions.
  2. TCEC: 63 draws in 100 games despite imposed slightly unbalanced openings
  3. ICCF WC: 136 games = 127 draws + 6 white wins + 3 black wins
  4. AlphaZero autoplay: 97.7% draws, more with more time / move, even if stalemate = win
  5. Human top matches and tournaments with more draws and more at higher ratings
  6. A tempo up in the initial position is not enough to win. A pawn can queen, a tempo cannot.
Elroch

This is clearly some new meaning of the word "follows" with which I am not familiar.  Is it a synonym of "transubstantiates"?

tygxc

@5968
to follow = to result from