Author: martin fierz
Date: 06:07:24 05/21/03
Go up one level in this thread
On May 21, 2003 at 04:29:31, Tom Kerrigan wrote: >On May 21, 2003 at 00:00:11, Russell Reagan wrote: > >>As far as I know, computer chess is the most popular computer board game. There >>are dozens of commercial programs, and hundreds of amateur programs. >> >>What do you think are the main contributing factors to computer chess being the >>most popular? Why not checkers/draughts, or go, or any other game? >> >>I think there are two main factors. >> >>1. Chess is one of the most popular games in the world, if not THE most popular. >> >>2. The computer chess community has created a good environment that is inviting >>to potential computer chess programmers. >> >>One example of #2 can be seen in the nice GUI's that we amateur computer chess >>programmers have. Between Winboard and Arena, we have nice looking interfaces, >>and networking support for internet chess servers, and we get it all for free. >> >>I also think that chess servers such as ICC and FICS do a great deal to attract >>potential programmers to chess instead of other board games. >> >>For instance, I have tried to make other game playing programs in the past >>(checkers and amazons), but after a while my program slaughters me, and there >>isn't anyone to play my program. If I had a nice GUI like Arena that would let >>me organize a tournament with a dozen other amazons programs, then I would >>maintain my interest in computer amazons. Or if there was an "Internet Amazons >>Server", and I had a GUI that would handle the networking for me, I would be >>much more motivated to continue programming amazons. >> >>So what do you think contributes to the popularity of computer chess? > >1. It seems the game itself might be the west's most popular board game, and >computers are more widespread in the west. > >2. The rules and complexity of the game are difficult but not prohibitive, so >it's not too simple to be uninteresting with current compute power (as is >Connect 4, and arguably checkers) connect 4 can be solved on a fast pc in 1 hour. checkers is nowhere near being solved IMO. it's much simpler than chess, and probably will be solved eventually, unlike chess. but for the moment, programming checkers is still a challenge :-) cheers martin PS for russell: you can also play engine-engine matches with checkerboard, if you ever write a checkers engine! and it's not too difficult to make a strong >program or deter good programmers (as is Go). > >-Tom
This page took 0.01 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.