Author: Stanislav Goldovski
Date: 05:04:18 05/15/98
Dear chess programmers,
As you may know, a wonderful chess variant 'Losing Chess'
(a.k.a. Suicide or Giveaway chess) has been experiencing
a huge rise of popularity lately - mostly due to the chess
server FICS, which started supporting this variant one year ago.
Meanwhile, several hundred of games are played daily on FICS,
regular tourneys are organized, a book is being written,
endgame studies are created, an extensive Web page is constructed,
and, of course, a dozen of programmers (incl. myself) have
written Losing Chess programs, which play on the server.
One might expect that programs shouldn't have any problems
against humans in such a "tactical" game. Indeed, the best
programs sometimes find wins in 15(!) within several seconds.
But - quite surprisingly - top human players are still mostly
able to beat any existing program already with 15-20min/game.
Deep understanding of extremely sophisticated Losing Chess
strategy appears yet to be superior to the enormous tactical
strength of current programs.
My challenge is - can anyone write a really strong Losing
Chess program, with perfect "give-away" tactics opposing
the human strategic skill? I bet - no. ;)
P.S.
For more information please refer to the Losing Chess pages:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Stan_Goldovski/Index.htm
P.P.S.
Below is a game example. Joost Beltman, one of the best LC players
beats the highest rated LC program 'ascp'.
[Event "ICS Rated Suicide match"]
[Site "freechess.org"]
[Date "1998.05.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Joost"]
[Black "ascp"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2387"]
[BlackElo "2699"]
[TimeControl "300+30"]
1. e3 e6 2. Ba6 bxa6 3. h4 Qxh4 4. Rxh4 Ba3 5. Rxh7 Rxh7 6. Nxa3 Rh3
7.gxh3 a5 8. Qg4 Nh6 9. Qxg7 c5 10. Qxf7 Kxf7 11. Nb5 Nc6 12. Nxa7 Nxa7
13.b4 axb4 14. Ba3 bxa3 15. e4 d5 16. exd5 exd5 17. d4 cxd4 18. c3 dxc3
19.Ke2 Bxh3 20. Nxh3 Nf5 21. Ng1 Ne3 22. fxe3 d4 23. exd4 c2 24. Rb1
cxb1=K 25. Nf3 Kxa2 26. Kd3 Rb8 27. Ke4 Kb3 28. Nh4 a2 29. d5 a1=R
30. d6 Kc3 31.Kf5 Kg8 32. d7 Kh7 33. Ke6 Rbb1 34. d8=K Kg6 35. Nxg6 Ra2
36. Nf8 Nc8 37.Kxc8 Kb4 38. Kc7 Ra4 39. Ng6 Ra2 40. Ke5 Rba1 41. Kc6 Kc5
42. Kxc5 Rd1 43.Kc6 Rd6 44. Kcxd6 Rb2 45. Ke4 Ra2 46. Kc5 Ra1 47. Ke3
Rb1 48. Kb4 Rxb4 49.Ke4 Rxe4 50. Nf4 Rxf4
{Joost wins by losing all material} 1-0
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Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
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