Arimaa / Re: The Future of Chess ...

On Apr 2, 9:43 am, richardhut...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> This is a philosophical piece [...]

Yawn.

Let mi cite:

  http://arimaa.com/arimaa/

Here is a thoughtful idea:

************ quote **********

Arimaa is a highly competitive strategy game.
It was designed to be:

    * Difficult for computers.
    * Playable with a standard chess set.
    * Fun and interesting for humans.

Some features which make Arimaa highly competitive
and interesting for human players include:

    * Rules that are simple, consistent and easy to learn.
    * Lots of strategic concepts to explore and discover.
    * Extremely low chance of draws even among experienced
         players.
    * Equal winning chances for both players.
         Neither side has a clearly distinguishable
         advantage.

Some features which make Arimaa difficult for computers
and challenging for AI programmers include:

    * Extremely high branching factor significantly
          limits the search depth.
    * Less tactics and more strategy.
    * Opening books are not very useful.
    * End game databases are practically useless.

Some features which make Arimaa interesting for fans
and spectators include:

    * Knowing that one player or the other will
          prevail, since mutually agreed draws
          are forbidden and natural draws are rare.

************ end of quote *******

One may learn the rules (very nice) here:

    http://arimaa.com/arimaa/learn/

Regards,

    Wlod