Author: Ferdinand S. Mosca
Date: 18:50:53 04/12/03
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On April 12, 2003 at 20:10:49, Dan Benjamin wrote: >It is, of course,unknown whether chess is ultimately a win, loss, or draw for >white, and wecannot know the answer for sure until chess is solved. However, it >may be possible to gather some suggestive evidence: > >The idea would be to have a computer solve different varieties of >mini-chess on a 4x5 chessboard, 5x5, and, if possible, 5x6. For the >larger boards, it might take a computer running several days to solve it, >but it might be doable. In each case, the set-up of white and black >pieces would be symmetric (e.g., NQKB in the 4x5 case), but one could vary >the set-up (e.g., trying BQKN, RQKN, etc.). > >The questions would be: Which of these are wins? Do the winning >possibilities fall with the size of the board? Does black ever win? > >Of course, it may be difficult to infer anything about 8x8 chess from >mini-chess. On the other hand, certain possible outcomes of this experiment >would be strongly suggestive. For example, suppose it was found that all >versions are draws. There is little reason to suppose that the outcome would be >different in 8x8 chess. > >In any case, the games themselves might be entertaining. And it might be fun to >resuscitate a research program on mini-chess, which was used extensively in the >early days of computer chess. > >If anyone wants to run these experiments, I would be very curious about the >outcomes. I think the white side can only draw. The advantage to play first is not enough to win because there are so many ways for black to draw this game examples 1. stalemate 2. there are draws for KP vs K, even here tells us that a pawn ahead is not enough to win 3. there are draws for KRP vs KR many others. I also believe that a mate can't be generated in the middle game since in the first place both sides have equal pieces. Regards, Dinan
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