Chess will never be solved, here's why

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ThePersonAboveYou

this is just for me to understand but what exactly does it mean for something to be solved and what exactly makes a move more solved than another? advantage? and if we're solving chess, fastest way to checkmate? or

Elroch
x6px wrote:

this is just for me to understand but what exactly does it mean for something to be solved and what exactly makes a move more solved than another? advantage? and if we're solving chess, fastest way to checkmate? or

There are a few different types of solution of a game, but what they have in common is that they tell you the optimal result of the game with perfect play, with absolute certainty. Tablebases provide the solutions of all the games which start with a small number of pieces on the board in a specified position (technically, they provide a strong solution of all of them, the most informative of the three main types of solution).

The wiki article is a painless way to get up to speed on the issue (and explains what I refer to above).

MEGACHE3SE
Optimissed wrote:
x6px wrote:

this is just for me to understand but what exactly does it mean for something to be solved and what exactly makes a move more solved than another? advantage? and if we're solving chess, fastest way to checkmate? or

It's a fantasy where some people believe that it should be possible to trace every possible sequence of moves in chess and determine if it wins, loses or draws. Totally crazy. It would take billions of years to work out and there would be nowhere to store the info, so it would be useless. Possibly no way to retrieve the info. Just a crackpot idea really.

there is no disagreement here, at least on my end. it hasnt been completely proven that a shortcut wont be found, but we currently have no progress on such a shortcut,.

DiogenesDue
Optimissed wrote:

Nope. I mentioned that there were others who contributed and were just as vital as Turing, since they did most of the work on the Tunny code. Shows the sort of person you are doesn't it? YOU are downplaying THEIR contribution. Turing has been romanticised but still did a lot for the war effort. As much as Mitchell who designed the Spitfire and as much as the Aussie general who held Tobruk against all the odds. And some others. Auchinleck, Montgomery. I have a signed letter somewhere from a Gurkha who was awarded the V.C. for single-handedly taking a hill in N Africa and wiping out a machine gun bunker, which enabled the hill to be held just in time to stop the passage of the German attack. You never know, he could have won us the war. If he hadn't done that they could have taken Libya or something and won the war. Any number of people you are systematically dissing by worshipping only the chosen heroes. You're just a kid really.

Twaddle.

Stop trying to obfuscate. You dislike the amount of acclaim Turing has finally gotten...no great mystery why.

My grandfather fought in the British 8th Army against Rommel (he was a Major at the time). I have a ghurka knife in my garage...been in its sheath for a long time now.

As for who is a kid...lol. You collect war memorabilia, but you've never served. You say you can take out 3 men in a fight, but you stamp and whine whenever you aren't getting your way. It's all a bit sad and insecure, really.

DiogenesDue
Luke-Jaywalker wrote:

they queued up to take him on, to no avail.

Good call. This will probably work better for you than when you called me the Bruce Lee of the forums years ago. Optimissed is much more likely to fall for such wind-up flattery.

Anika

ong, chillax ppl

playerafar
llama_l wrote:

Saying dumb stuff then reporting people for pointing out you're dumb... pretty classless. Guess we can add that to the list.

Reporting people? That doesn't sound like something tygxc would do.

Thee_Ghostess_Lola

would s/o plz report me ?...again ?...Lukey ?

playerafar

Regarding Elroch and Dio - they constantly outclass @Optimissed.
And O constantly loses. Because he lies as he projects. Among his other insecurities.
------------------------------------
Regarding mathematical induction I was taught that you first prove something is valid for k.
Then you prove its valid for k+1.
And only then - after that second step is mathematical induction in progress.
That's how I remember it. I might have forgotten some of it or misremembered it. It was many many years ago. You could just argue that by writing k=1 as an alternative c then that's already proven algebraically by just k. I remember having to prove initially that it would have to work for an actual known numerical value of k too.
Consider that if you 'prove it' for just the middle step ... that's almost like 'proving' that algebra works.
Checking Wiki just now - it doesn't seem to have changed.
'The second case, the induction step, proves that if the statement holds for any given case 
𝑛 = 𝑘, then it must also hold for the next case 𝑛 = 𝑘 + 1
-----------------------------------------------------
Regarding tygxc - he still continues to cling to the 'square root' argument.
When you take the square root of four - it happens that the result is half of four.
Square root of 9 - a third of the number.
Square root of 10,000 - a hundredth of the number.
But when you take the square root of an extremely large number ... the result is an extremely small fraction of that number.
The fact that the number in its numerical base 10 form is halved in Length could cause a person to intuitively downplay the degree to which the number has been reduced.
Why does tygxc keep returning to his disinformation regarding 'taking the square root'?
Because he knows about the prohibitive size regarding number of possible games of chess -
So he wants to take an almost infinitesimal fraction of that number ...
else everything he's claiming is 'swamped' by the permutations of possible games ...
He wants to take one grain of sand on a very large beach and claim that that is all to be cared about.
It is very similiar to his not caring about limitations on the operations per second computers can do - trying to assert 'nodes per second' instead.
--------------------------------------------
Does tygxc have a 'language issue'?
I doubt it.
Is he 'intellectually dishonest' as MEGA suggests?
At times - yes.
But I'm suggesting that's not his 'main issue'.
Its more like him wanting to apply his 'learned chess subjectivity' to the forum topic in ways that are invalid logically.
You can count on it that O is insanely and foolishly and pathetically jealous of tygxc.
And O is @Optimissed of course. But O is 'dismalized'. 
A condition self-inflicted by him upon himself.
--------------------------------------------
Note that tygxc had conceded more than once that chess cannot be solved with current technology.
By such concession - in my opinion he rescues himself from most claims of 'intellectual dishonesty'.
He admits to that reality.
So the discussion has mostly involved the semantics of the poorly coined 'weakly solving' phrase.
Elroch and I will probably always disagree about the demerits of that terminology.
But its those demerits that have led to the large number of postings here.
'weakly solving' gives tygxc all the footholds he needs to just keep subjectively and tactically working the vulnerability of that terminology.
And to thereby pursue his 'shortcuts'.
Will tygxc himself ever be 'solved'?
Looks like Nyet.
In his mind - he has already 'weakly solved' all of chess.
Years ago.
No matter how much logic you fire at him ...
it may as well be popcorn fired upon the battleship USS Missouri.

playerafar
llama_l wrote:

Is... is this multiple pages disagreeing on whether chess is solvable?

It is a 'working' of the very vulnerable and poorly coined terminology 'weakly solved'.
A gremlin at the center of the 'discussion'.
Regarding mathematical induction - I like an idea of 'getting' from k and to k + 1 that its going to work no matter how many times you keep adding 1.
As opposed to just algebra 'proving itself'.
Regarding the logic of it ...
similiar ideas are constantly used in many walks of real life without reference to algebra or mathematical notations of any kind.
People 'get the idea' anyway.

playerafar
llama_l wrote:
playerafar wrote:

similiar ideas are constantly used in many walks of real life without reference to algebra or mathematical notations of any kind.
People 'get the idea' anyway.

Yeah, probably.

'weakly solved' gives anybody all the subjective opportunity they want to simply arbitrate for themselves and even apply to others 'this is what we Care about' ...
tygxc is not going to let others tell him or decide for him 'what he should care about' ... nor 'what We should care about' 
and I tend to think that's righteous of tygxc.
There's a principle involved.
Its like persons trying to decide for others whether there's an afterlife or not.
Constantly goes on in the world. In both directions.

MEGACHE3SE

i think llama got auto/mod muted or smth. I would have been reported into the ground by tygxc if tygxc reported messages he simply didnt like, although i have been careful to make sure my messages never severely cross any lines, so it is possible.

"Regarding mathematical induction I was taught that you first prove something is valid for k.
Then you prove its valid for k+1."

i gave an example of a proof by induction as well as a mini proof for why induction works.

you've basically the idea right.

MEGACHE3SE
llama_l wrote:
 

I agree his stubbornness is exceptional. From time to time I peek at the lichess forums and I see people pillory him there too. To persist does give him an air of admirability.

As for his claims, if they're merely saying chess is solved, or solvable in some practical sense then that's fine.

wait tygxc spreads his misinformation on other sites too?!?!? goddam.

also, tygxc's issues are far more than just a modest definition of solvability. it's terrence howard levels of disconnect from scientific and mathematical reasoning.

playerafar
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

i think llama got auto/mod muted or smth. I would have been reported into the ground by tygxc if tygxc reported messages he simply didnt like, although i have been careful to make sure my messages never severely cross any lines, so it is highly possible.

"Regarding mathematical induction I was taught that you first prove something is valid for k.
Then you prove its valid for k+1."

i gave an example of a proof by induction as well as a mini proof for why induction works.

you've basically the idea right.

I'm glad llama is here.
Like yourself MEGA - llama is a very good poster.
-------------------
tygxc pushes the same stuff in other websites?
He uses the same name?
That's noteworthy.
------------------------------
tygxc reports people?
this is the first I've heard of such notions.
perhaps tygxc mentioned something to that effect?
Reporting people. It can be righteous.
But when O threatens to report people - he's never righteous.
And he's almost never righteous anyway.
------------------------------------------------

playerafar

Regarding mathematical induction ...
k is usually an integer. A nonzero positive integer.
Could there be cases where k is fractional or irrational or transcendental?
Pi and e are examples of transcendental numbers because they cannot be presented in a finite algebraic form.
They 'transcend algebra'.
Although each of them can be presented as a 'sum' of an 'infinite series' of finite algebraic terms.
Whereas the square root of two can be presented algebraically and is therefore not transcendental but is still 'irrational' as it cannot be presented in a form p/q where p and q are integers.
One third is 'rational' but 'repeating' because its numeric decimal form repeats endlessly - it isn't irrational because it can and is presentable in the form p/q where p/q are integers.
Point: see beginning of this post.

tygxc

@12402

"I'm assuming the ICCF top players all have access to the same engines and databases as each other - so isn't it rather expected that they'll all be drawing each other in their games?"

++ All ICCF World Championship Finalists qualified for the Finals through qualifiers, so they are of comparable strength. They have access to more or less the same hardware and software and resources. However, in previous years they also were of comparable strength and also had access to about the same hardware and software and resources, and nevertheless there were decisive games, every year fewer. Now none: 110 draws out of 110 games.
That means they were approaching perfect play in previous years and now have reached it.

tygxc

@12401

"It's also important to note that other than discarding probably lost positions, we can also discard any position that feels yucky." ++ That is what I did inspecting the random sample of 10,000 positions, e.g. this one:

That is how I reduced from 10^38 to 10^38 / 10,000 = 10^34 positions.

"pretty much any opening ICCF GMs don't play we can probably safely ignore"
++ This is debatable. They played Ruy Lopez: open, closed, Berlin, Italian, Vienna, Petrov both Nxe5 and d4, Sicilian Najdorf, Moscow, Closed, French Winawer and Steinitz, Queen's Gambit Slav and accepted and declined, Catalan, Nimzovich Indian Defense, Queen's Indian Defense, Grünfeld Indian Defense, Kings Indian Defense, Reti, English...
They did not play Scotch, Four Knights, Sicilian Alapin, French Tarrasch, Advance, or Exchange...

"Strong players play good openings, and bad players play bad openings."
++ Yes, they try to win, not lose, or scrape a draw.

"A solution will contain strong openings" ++ Elroch will insist on 1 a4 and 1 e4 e5 2 Ba6.

"ICCF GMs have already solved chess" ++ Almost. It is redundant, but not yet complete.
Their effort of 90 CPU/server * 2 server/finalist * 17 finalists * 2 years = 6120 CPU years is 61 times more than the 50 CPU * 2 years = 100 CPU years Schaeffer used to weakly solve Checkers.

"Any position they don't play in one of their games we can also discard as a lost position."
++ Or a draw without prospect. 1 a4 is enough to draw, but makes it easy for black.

tygxc

@12535

"it more likely means humans have less and less useful input, and when the engines play each other it's unsurprisingly a draw."
++ No, it is the human that has most input.
'the key is planning, which computers do not do well'
'computer engines did not understand the main ideas and suggested in most middlegame positions that all candidate moves were equivalent'
'it’s not just about the hardware, but also about one’s ability to make the most of the hardware'
'a sequence that no computer would consider or find'
'Much of the most intense work occurs before games start. '
SIM Jon Edwards wins 32nd World Correspondence Championship

Elroch
tygxc wrote:

@12535

"it more likely means humans have less and less useful input, and when the engines play each other it's unsurprisingly a draw."
++ No, it is the human that has most input.

LOL. Easily checked: see who wins out of a human without an engine and an engine without a human. Place your bets now.

A top engine adds 1000 points to a 2600-rated human (way more to a weaker player), while even if humans do still add value to engines (not proven until you have a match where one side is pure engine), it is unlikely to be as much as 100 points (as the NN upgrade to Stockfish was). You reckon a human with an out of date engine would beat an up to date engine?

Elroch
Optimissed wrote:

Note that although Elroch depicted it as a full mathematical representation of draughts, it was not that at all.

It was in the correct sense. I can understand why you are confused about this.

So we can understand that at that time, weakly solving it in this way was at the limit of practical possibilities.

Yes, solving checkers took 18 years and over a thousand CPU years. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computing.

Zermelo represented his Theorem as a proof that chess may be solved similarly.

No. He simply presented a mathematical proof that serves for all combinatorial games. [A technicality meant it only applied to chess with a drawing rule which forces games to be finite. Later this was extended to basic chess, where games can go on forever]

Firstly, Elroch has knowingly misrepresented the question, since he had claimed that Zermelo proved that chess could be mathematically represented, which involves representing chess as a series of equations.

This is a major misunderstanding of what mathematics is.

In general mathematics is about abstract truth, In the main this is revealed by the deduction of propositions from sets of axioms that define the properties of an object or a class of objects. For example, you can write a set of axioms that defines a vector space, then derive an infinite number of theorems that apply to all vector spaces. But it also incorporates more specific results, such as the result of an arbitrary calculation like 134798174 * 1382382. Solving a specific game is a bit like the latter.

The representations in Schaeffer's proof are part of the working of the proof that there is a drawing strategy for white and a drawing strategy for black. If you think of it as being like the working of a big arithmetic calculation, you won't go wrong.

This is a rather petty result to mathematics, which is interested in generalities rather than arbitrary examples. But to humans, the solution of a single classic game is of interest. By contrast, Zermelo's result is general. But it does not tell us the result of any game, nor provide any strategies - it just proves they exist! Mathematics is full of existence proofs, as well as more explicit results.

Schaeffer's work is in truth a huge proof most of which is done by a computer. This is perfectly normal - we can easily write a program to check things and be confident of the result even though the working is too big to check. Say a huge arithmetic calculation. Or, for example, the mathematical result that 2^82,589,933 − 1 is prime requires a large amount of computer checking to verify. It is certainly important that programs used to derive mathematical results are checked thoroughly. Ideally redundancy should be used, but the computational cost of results like solving checkers is too big for this to be fully done until the cost falls a lot.

Zermelo's theorem doesn't rely on any representation - it relies on the axioms defining a class of games. 

I am quite sure that it is impossible to expect that a simple proof by mathematical induction demonstrates that a simple, linear game such as noughts and crosses may be mapped to an extremely complex, non-linear (no, that's not a valid use of the term 'non-linear') game such as chess. Zermelo's claim was definitely bogus in this respect.

Let me be quite blunt - that is ignorant narcissism. Zermelo was a mathematician who developed the set theoretic foundation of all of mathematics, and you are a guy who boasts about IQ tests you took when you were young. More importantly, Zermelo's theorem stands today, tested by several generations of mathematicians, all more capable than you. If you disagree, show me your best work.

This is backed up by my son's judgement that representing chess mathematically is completely impossible.

I recall this from a few years back and understand what he meant - that you cannot simplify chess in a way which would permit a compact proof - it is too arbitrary. I think your son would understand that generating the 32-piece tablebase is conceptually possible (just impractical) and you can inform him that in the relevant sense this is "representing chess mathematically". This is the right sense, because it is the sense that determines if a proof is possible. Do discuss tablebases with him.

Elroch is a statistician,

I am not. My original specialisation was in mathematical analysis, and my MMath is in this area. I use probability theory in my work, and am a proponent of Bayesian analysis.

as against a very gifted mathematical analyst

he's a physicist, but I am sure his mathematical skills are good. Here the relevant field is game theory and I am not aware of his level of knowledge. 

who has performed groundbreaking mathematical procedures including representing magnetism mathematically as a product of fermionic spin.

Good for him. And irrelevant to this, to be frank.

I want to say a word about Elroch's behaviour. Elroch constantly switches stories.

I warrant that you are unable to exhibit a single example of two posts of mine that support this.

[deleted drivel]