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Subject: Re: Board games and mathematical complexity: a poll

Author: James Swafford

Date: 12:33:36 12/11/02

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On December 11, 2002 at 12:00:12, Edward Seid wrote:

>Please rank the following games in order of mathematical (programming)
>complexity.  Also, if you can, provide a degree of magnitude to quantify your
>ranking.
>
>Western Chess
>Shogi
>Go
>Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
>Othello
>
>Also, feel free to add any other games I didn't include.


I don't quite know what you mean by programming complexity - I don't
think it should be difficult to develop good algorithms (good relative
to others that have done the same) for any of those games.

Solvability is quite another issue.  In terms of space complexity,
checkers is by far the smallest, and Go is by far the largest.
Here are some numbers quoted from Schaeffer's "Chips Challenging
Champions" :


    game          state-space complexity
    checkers      10^21
    othello       10^28
    draughts      10^30
    chess         10^46
    chinese chess 10^48
    shogi         10^71
    go (15x15)    10^105
    go (19x19)    10^172


I don't have any experience programming any of those other than chess.
I do know that Go is exceptionally difficult, however - even the best
computer Go players are pathetically weak.

Size does matter, afterall. :)

--
James




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