Chess will never be solved, here's why

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Avatar of tygxc

@12172

"how long can a chess game go until someone gets an advantage and how long can the opponent prolong not getting checkmated?"
++ The ongoing ICCF World Championship Finals now has 109 draws out of 109 games and they end in draws in average 39 moves. https://www.iccf.com/event?id=100104

"How many calculations would it need for that to be "solved"?"
++ Weakly solving chess needs to consider 10^17 positions = Sqrt (10^37*10 / 10,000).
The 17 ICCF World Championship finalists looked at 1.9*10^17 positions = 90*10^6 positions/s/server * 2 servers/finalist * 17 finalists * 3600 s/h * 24 h/d * 365.25 d/a * 2 a

"chess games do have a max possible move count with the 50 move rule"
++ The 50-moves rule plays no role at all.
Games end in draws in average 39 moves, long before the 50-moves rule can trigger.

Avatar of DiogenesDue
tygxc wrote:

"chess has a branching factor from 31" ++ Some positions can have 31 legal choices, but average only 3 that do not transpose: 3^80 = 10^38

Not "some", the average middlegame position. Some have as high as 40. Your 3 number is one I have seen from only one source, you...and you are distinctly unreliable for numbers.

"until you can perfectly evaluate a single position" ++ 1 e4 e5 2 Ba6? loses for white, without needing any game tree. The perfect evaluation of 1 a4 cannot be better than that of 1 e4, without needing any game tree.

This logic has never worked, sorry. You might as well extend your mistaken premise and say that 1 e3 is not winning because 1 e4 is superior, or 2 Be2 is not winning because 2 Bc4 and Bb5 are better.

"Whether AB or BA are actually identical in result is not something you can determine"
++ Of course move order matters, but when the same position results, it is the same and needs only consideration once.
Chess is full of transpositions: the branches come back together in the same node.

"you are not actually working with 10^44" ++ I work with 10^38: nobody promotes to a 3rd rook, bishop, or knight in a real game, let alone in an optimal game.

"you double, triple, and possibly quadruple count the elimination of positions"
++ No. The reduction from 10^44 to 10^38 is by eliminating underpromotions to pieces not previously captured, i.e. to a 3rd rook, bishop, or knight. The reduction from 10^38 to 10^34 (or 10^32 per Tromp) is to eliminate positions that make no sense, i.e. cannot result from optimal play by both sides. The reduction from 10^34 (or 10^32) to 10^17 is by assuming perfect Alpha-Beta search for the weak solution.

Once again...you cannot achieve perfect Alpha Beta search. Your Tromp number I will not believe coming from you, you have misrepresented him before.

"Your argument tries to apply it's largest reduction twice" ++ No.

Avatar of MEGACHE3SE

tygxc why arent you addressing the fact that we've proven you wrong again and again?

do you get some sort of sick kick from spreading misinformation?

Avatar of MEGACHE3SE

". The reduction from 10^34 (or 10^32) to 10^17 is by assuming perfect Alpha-Beta search for the weak solution"

but you dont list the computational effort required for that lmfao

Avatar of MEGACHE3SE

I used to be confused as to hwo somebody like tygxc could be so confidently incorrect for so long without being strictly anti science but thats when I saw the terrence howard podcast.

tygxc is just terrence howard. He cites a ton of fancy terms but he doesnt understand any of the principles., nor does he understand basic logic.

Avatar of Elroch
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

". The reduction from 10^34 (or 10^32) to 10^17 is by assuming perfect Alpha-Beta search for the weak solution"

but you dont list the computational effort required for that lmfao

It's junk. It relies on unambiguously failing to do what is necessary, but guessing that doing so doesn't matter.

Avatar of Elroch
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

I used to be confused as to hwo somebody like tygxc could be so confidently incorrect for so long without being strictly anti science but thats when I saw the terrence howard podcast.

tygxc is just terrence howard. He cites a ton of fancy terms but he doesnt understand any of the principles., nor does he understand basic logic.

I had never heard of Terence Howard, but now I see he is one of the people who have realised that for every truth there is an alternative truth for which you can find a market. Admittedly that market consists of idiots, but why should that matter?

Avatar of playerafar
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

tygxc why arent you addressing the fact that we've proven you wrong again and again?

do you get some sort of sick kick from spreading misinformation?

tygxc's 'strongest' position so far ... as in 'least weak' is something that he just mentioned but has been saying for years.
Like this:
"1 e4 e5 2 Ba6? loses for white, without needing any game tree."
Now I would say that's reasonable.
White simply 'drops his bishop' for a compensation that is just too much less.
(black then has doubled isolated a-pawns)
So I would say that the computer not bothering to analyze further from there - is reasonable 'approximate solving'. A term unfortunately coined is 'weakly solving'.
After bxa6 there ... black is not 'weak'. He's strong. A bishop up.
--------------------------
but tygxc is using the logic of that one argument - to build illogic.
For the computer to keep dismissing 'further game tree' on any line because its materially up -
isn't legitimate because 'compensation' varies and it isn't easy to assign definitions of what is 'enough compensation' or 'more than enough compensation' ...
but tygxc would then be likely to use 'computer evaluation' ... like have the computer 'dismiss' if its evaluation is for more than two point advantage for one side.
But he doesn't get it that that's a circular argument that fails to take into account that the computer is fallible and hasn't 'solved' chess in the first place and can't do so.
He's arguing that the computer could validate itself and is right because it says so.
Does tygxc believe in his own false argument or is he being deceitful?
Has tygxc fallen into a pitfall because in tactics puzzles - the puzzle doesn't continue beyond the solution moves? Has tygxc 'fallen' because players Resign in lost positions?
-------------------------
Experience and observation over decades tells me that such things aren't A or B.
Whoever - if invested enough - stops caring much whether they think they believe their own nonsense or not.
So they're not even aware either way.
Is there another specific instance of this in tygxc's spiels?
Yes.
It becomes more apparent when he asserts 'We don't Care about the number of operations per second that supercomputers can do - we only Care about Nodes per second!'
That is basically revealing about tygxc's internal illogic.
He doesn't care because he doesn't know.
He doesn't know because he doesn't want to know.
---------------------------------
You'll find this in many crass denial of logic or denial of science or denial of reality situations around the world.
Do flat-earthers know they're pushing nonsense or they think they aren't?
They stopped caring long before - as to which - and they stopped being internally aware of same. And don't want to be.
Result - nobody can talk to them - about them.
And the result is projection. Which always involves falsehood by the person so doing.
'No! Its You! And MSM! Main Stream Media. The world is Flat!'

Avatar of playerafar

When somebody lies - but they internally choose to believe their own lie and then maintain in that way - are they still then lying?
The short answer is yes.
Is anybody exempt from this?
If you tell yourself that something is true that isn't - are you lying?
Some would say 'if whoever was given false data to work with - then that could be an instance about being honest in telling a falsehood'.
That's the medium answer.
---------------------------------
Could a computer be assigned to simply analyze all lines of chess and stop analyzing any lines where the advantage for one side has reached +5 ?
Could chess be 'approximately solved' that way?
Or to have a chance - would the 'stopping advantage' have to be as little as 0.5 ?
That would be ridiculous.
Stockfish could 'solve' chess right now if the stopping advantage only had to be 0.1
It would Solve chess in seconds. Already has.

Avatar of BigChessplayer665

The issue is tyxgcs claim.makes it that chess is likely a draw but it doesn't prove anything unfortunately for him

Avatar of MEGACHE3SE
Elroch wrote:
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

I used to be confused as to hwo somebody like tygxc could be so confidently incorrect for so long without being strictly anti science but thats when I saw the terrence howard podcast.

tygxc is just terrence howard. He cites a ton of fancy terms but he doesnt understand any of the principles., nor does he understand basic logic.

I had never heard of Terence Howard, but now I see he is one of the people who have realised that for every truth there is an alternative truth for which you can find a market. Admittedly that market consists of idiots, but why should that matter?

i just noticed that tygxc's style of commentary was very reminiscent of terrence howard's.

Avatar of Elroch

Right. I have not delved far enough to learn how he presents his absurd nonsense.

Avatar of BigChessplayer665
Elroch wrote:

Right. I have not delved far enough to learn how he presents his absurd nonsense.

He's forgetting that high probabilities doesn't mean you assume he's assuming it means that it is true

Avatar of MEGACHE3SE
playerafar wrote:

When somebody lies - but they internally choose to believe their own lie and then maintain in that way - are they still then lying?The short answer is yes.
Is anybody exempt from this?

i'd say that nobody is exempt from this, but our intellectual worth is determined by our effort to be true in our knowledge.If you tell yourself that something is true that isn't - are you lying?
Some would say 'if whoever was given false data to work with - then that could be an instance about being honest in telling a falsehood'.
That's the medium answer.
---------------------------------
Could a computer be assigned to simply analyze all lines of chess and stop analyzing any lines where the advantage for one side has reached +5 ?
Could chess be 'approximately solved' that way?
Or to have a chance - would the 'stopping advantage' have to be as little as 0.5 ?
That would be ridiculous.
Stockfish could 'solve' chess right now if the stopping advantage only had to be 0.1
It would Solve chess in seconds. Already has.

those advantages can only really be useful in pruning one side for a "solve" so im not entirely sure.

Avatar of Elroch
playerafar wrote:
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

tygxc why arent you addressing the fact that we've proven you wrong again and again?

do you get some sort of sick kick from spreading misinformation?

tygxc's 'strongest' position so far ... as in 'least weak' is something that he just mentioned but has been saying for years.
Like this:
"1 e4 e5 2 Ba6? loses for white, without needing any game tree."
Now I would say that's reasonable.

It's a very reasonable guess. But if you think it is a strictly CERTAIN conclusion, you are being unreasonable (in a way many people are).

White simply 'drops his bishop' for a compensation that is just too much less.

Right so, we are using our positional evaluations as human players to conclude there is no need to analyse that line further (let's face it, none of us have bothered to look further).(black then has doubled isolated a-pawns)

An example of a crude positional factor used as part of our positional evaluation.So I would say that the computer not bothering to analyze further from there - is reasonable 'approximate solving'.

Reasonable from the point of view of a human player (of what strength).

A term unfortunately coined is 'weakly solving'.

Nothing unfortunate about it. It's a label, perfectly understood by everyone who seriously uses it (or who can read a wikipedia article).After bxa6 there ... black is not 'weak'. He's strong. A bishop up.

Irrelevant conflation. And it's as if you don't know that when you are constructing a weak strategy as black for chess that reaches the position 1. e4 e5, you need to demonstrate a forced draw (or win) for black from the position 1. e4 e5 2. Ba6. Not just guess one. You need first to pick a move for black (easy enough, capture the bishop the way you want - you can use the knight if you don't like doubled pawns) then deal with the 25 possible moves (if I have counted correctly in my head) for white on move 3.--------------------------
but tygxc is using the logic of that one argument - to build illogic.
For the computer to keep dismissing 'further game tree' on any line because its materially up -
isn't legitimate because 'compensation' varies and it isn't easy to assign definitions of what is 'enough compensation' or 'more than enough compensation' ...
but tygxc would then be likely to use 'computer evaluation' ... like have the computer 'dismiss' if its evaluation is for more than two point advantage for one side.

Yes. This is junk. There is no doubt that you could find a million bishop sacrifices it would get wrong. Probably the easiest way would be to have them reaching a tablebase position that it gets wrong.But he doesn't get it that that's a circular argument that fails to take into account that the computer is fallible and hasn't 'solved' chess in the first place and can't do so.

Exactly.He's arguing that the computer could validate itself and is right because it says so.
Does tygxc believe in his own false argument or is he being deceitful?
Has tygxc fallen into a pitfall because in tactics puzzles - the puzzle doesn't continue beyond the solution moves? Has tygxc 'fallen' because players Resign in lost positions?
-------------------------
Experience and observation over decades tells me that such things aren't A or B.
Whoever - if invested enough - stops caring much whether they think they believe their own nonsense or not.
So they're not even aware either way.
Is there another specific instance of this in tygxc's spiels?
Yes.
It becomes more apparent when he asserts 'We don't Care about the number of operations per second that supercomputers can do - we only Care about Nodes per second!'
That is basically revealing about tygxc's internal illogic.
He doesn't care because he doesn't know.
He doesn't know because he doesn't want to know.
---------------------------------
You'll find this in many crass denial of logic or denial of science or denial of reality situations around the world.
Do flat-earthers know they're pushing nonsense or they think they aren't?
They stopped caring long before - as to which - and they stopped being internally aware of same. And don't want to be.
Result - nobody can talk to them - about them.
And the result is projection. Which always involves falsehood by the person so doing.
'No! Its You! And MSM! Main Stream Media. The world is Flat!'

Let me make an observation. Stockfish is the strongest chess player in the world. It is so based on just three essential things:

  1. its positional evaluation routine
  2. its ability to prioritise search of variations guided by this
  3. doing this very fast

Up to quite recently, many years were spent to handcraft a positional evaluation routine, with many contributors improving it, testing the improvements and iterating this process.

Then all this was replaced by the training of one neural network from scratch. This single change - ignoring all the human input and previous testing - increased Stockfish rating by a massive amount, around 100 points, by far the biggest step since it had become world class.

Using this neutral network and its algorithm for searching, it does not ignore positions like 1. e4 e5 2.Ba6. Rather it gives them a low priority. When they are near the start of analysis it will definitely analyse a lot of other more sensible looking stuff first, but when a lot of good lines have been quite well analysed, it will use a little CPU time to look a bit deeper at 2. Ba6. Just in case. It leaves no stone unturned (it just doesn't turn really bad-looking stones until it has had a good look at all the better looking stones).

The "reasonable" choice to ignore 2.Ba6 completely either shows that Stockfish is getting it wrong and needs some advice from us humans or that it is only approximately reasonable and is actually pedantically misguided. If you want to know which is true, it's probably best to think of the comparison between many years of collaborated development of a positional evaluation routine and leaving the neutral network do it itself.

Avatar of Elroch
BigChessplayer665 wrote:
Elroch wrote:

Right. I have not delved far enough to learn how he presents his absurd nonsense.

He's forgetting that high probabilities doesn't mean you assume he's assuming it means that it is true

I was referring to Terrence Howard. I think you thought "he" and "his" referred to @tygxc.

Avatar of playerafar
MEGACHE3SE wrote:
Elroch wrote:
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

I used to be confused as to hwo somebody like tygxc could be so confidently incorrect for so long without being strictly anti science but thats when I saw the terrence howard podcast.

tygxc is just terrence howard. He cites a ton of fancy terms but he doesnt understand any of the principles., nor does he understand basic logic.

I had never heard of Terence Howard, but now I see he is one of the people who have realised that for every truth there is an alternative truth for which you can find a market. Admittedly that market consists of idiots, but why should that matter?

i just noticed that tygxc's style of commentary was very reminiscent of terrence howard's.

Terence Howard. Does Terence believe his own nonsense?
Or is he just grandstanding?
Or is is a kind of 'devil's advocate' behaviour and his real message is 'don't be like this'.
I don't know. Probably won't know.
I took one glance a few days ago at TH's public commentary and decided I didn't want to see any more.
I would say that Terence Howard is a much much better person than Alex Jones though.
But that's not hard.
--------------------------------------------------------
Also from MEGA
"When somebody lies - but they internally choose to believe their own lie and then maintain in that way - are they still then lying?The short answer is yes.
Is anybody exempt from this?"
reply from MEGA ...
"i'd say that nobody is exempt from this, but our intellectual worth is determined by our effort to be true in our knowledge"
I agree. Which would mean that 'O' (@Optimissed) has zero intellectual worth but in the case of tygxc - does it apply to him too?
tygxc keeps making the same mistakes over and over.
What ever brought him to this?
My guess would be chessplaying and chess study and chess puzzles.
Puzzles are solved without always playing through to mate.
Players in losing positions often Resign. Sometimes even mistakenly resign.
Elroch appears to be suggesting that trying to assign human tendencies in the computer programming - is a mistake.
If I've got that right about Elroch's reply notes to my post.
I should make a separate post replying to Elroch. Will.

Avatar of BigChessplayer665
Elroch wrote:
BigChessplayer665 wrote:
Elroch wrote:

Right. I have not delved far enough to learn how he presents his absurd nonsense.

He's forgetting that high probabilities doesn't mean you assume he's assuming it means that it is true

I was referring to Terrence Howard. I think you thought "he" and "his" referred to @tygxc.

Yup

Avatar of dietvernors999

chess is solved by the first move by white and then they resign. this is the first choice that is possible

its resigning

Avatar of playerafar
Elroch wrote:
playerafar wrote:
MEGACHE3SE wrote:

tygxc why arent you addressing the fact that we've proven you wrong again and again?

do you get some sort of sick kick from spreading misinformation?

tygxc's 'strongest' position so far ... as in 'least weak' is something that he just mentioned but has been saying for years.
Like this:
"1 e4 e5 2 Ba6? loses for white, without needing any game tree."
Now I would say that's reasonable.

It's a very reasonable guess. But if you think it is a strictly CERTAIN conclusion, you are being unreasonable (in a way many people are).

White simply 'drops his bishop' for a compensation that is just too much less.

Right so, we are using our positional evaluations as human players to conclude there is no need to analyse that line further (let's face it, none of us have bothered to look further).(black then has doubled isolated a-pawns)

An example of a crude positional factor used as part of our positional evaluation.So I would say that the computer not bothering to analyze further from there - is reasonable 'approximate solving'.

Reasonable from the point of view of a human player (of what strength).

A term unfortunately coined is 'weakly solving'.

Nothing unfortunate about it. It's a label, perfectly understood by everyone who seriously uses it (or who can read a wikipedia article).After bxa6 there ... black is not 'weak'. He's strong. A bishop up.

Irrelevant conflation. And it's as if you don't know that when you are constructing a weak strategy as black for chess that reaches the position 1. e4 e5, you need to demonstrate a forced draw (or win) for black from the position 1. e4 e5 2. Ba6. Not just guess one. You need first to pick a move for black (easy enough, capture the bishop the way you want - you can use the knight if you don't like doubled pawns) then deal with the 25 possible moves (if I have counted correctly in my head) for white on move 3.--------------------------
but tygxc is using the logic of that one argument - to build illogic.
For the computer to keep dismissing 'further game tree' on any line because its materially up -
isn't legitimate because 'compensation' varies and it isn't easy to assign definitions of what is 'enough compensation' or 'more than enough compensation' ...
but tygxc would then be likely to use 'computer evaluation' ... like have the computer 'dismiss' if its evaluation is for more than two point advantage for one side.

Yes. This is junk. There is no doubt that you could find a million bishop sacrifices it would get wrong. Probably the easiest way would be to have them reaching a tablebase position that it gets wrong.But he doesn't get it that that's a circular argument that fails to take into account that the computer is fallible and hasn't 'solved' chess in the first place and can't do so.

Exactly.He's arguing that the computer could validate itself and is right because it says so.
Does tygxc believe in his own false argument or is he being deceitful?
Has tygxc fallen into a pitfall because in tactics puzzles - the puzzle doesn't continue beyond the solution moves? Has tygxc 'fallen' because players Resign in lost positions?
-------------------------
Experience and observation over decades tells me that such things aren't A or B.
Whoever - if invested enough - stops caring much whether they think they believe their own nonsense or not.
So they're not even aware either way.
Is there another specific instance of this in tygxc's spiels?
Yes.
It becomes more apparent when he asserts 'We don't Care about the number of operations per second that supercomputers can do - we only Care about Nodes per second!'
That is basically revealing about tygxc's internal illogic.
He doesn't care because he doesn't know.
He doesn't know because he doesn't want to know.
---------------------------------
You'll find this in many crass denial of logic or denial of science or denial of reality situations around the world.
Do flat-earthers know they're pushing nonsense or they think they aren't?
They stopped caring long before - as to which - and they stopped being internally aware of same. And don't want to be.
Result - nobody can talk to them - about them.
And the result is projection. Which always involves falsehood by the person so doing.
'No! Its You! And MSM! Main Stream Media. The world is Flat!'

Let me make an observation. Stockfish is the strongest chess player in the world. It is so based on just three essential things:

  1. its positional evaluation routine
  2. its ability to prioritise search of variations guided by this
  3. doing this very fast

Up to quite recently, many years were spent to handcraft a positional evaluation routine, with many contributors improving it, testing the improvements and iterating this process.

Then all this was replaced by the training of one neural network from scratch. This single change - ignoring all the human input and previous testing - increased Stockfish rating by a massive amount, around 100 points, by far the biggest step since it had become world class.

Using this neutral network and its algorithm for searching, it does not ignore positions like 1. e4 e5 2.Ba6. Rather it gives them a low priority. When they are near the start of analysis it will definitely analyse a lot of other more sensible looking stuff first, but when a lot of good lines have been quite well analysed, it will use a little CPU time to look a bit deeper at 2. Ba6. Just in case. It leaves no stone unturned (it just doesn't turn really bad-looking stones until it has had a good look at all the better looking stones).

The "reasonable" choice to ignore 2.Ba6 completely either shows that Stockfish is getting it wrong and needs some advice from us humans or that it is only approximately reasonable and is actually pedantically misguided. If you want to know which is true, it's probably best to think of the comparison between many years of collaborated development of a positional evaluation routine and leaving the neutral network do it itself.

from Elroch:
"Right so, we are using our positional evaluations as human players to conclude there is no need to analyse that line further (let's face it, none of us have bothered to look further)"
the computer might look a little further - but its only going to take it some billionths of seconds to determine that white has no subsequent tactical retaliation to black taking the bishop at a3. So its not just a 'human' thing that the computer 'saves time' and doesn't bother going much further. 
A few billionths of seconds. Maybe that's a Lot for Stockfish.
---------------------------------------
I'll add to this post.
But I want to make sure I'm not getting graphics problems first.
So I'll post this now.