Author: Ricardo Gibert
Date: 08:45:39 09/18/03
Go up one level in this thread
On September 18, 2003 at 11:25:01, Ricardo Gibert wrote: >On September 18, 2003 at 10:02:33, Edward Seid wrote: > >>I'm learning how to program by reading Deitel's Visual Basic.NET How to Program. >> I'm eager to try out my new skills on a chess-related project. >> >>The Pawn Game - as presented by GM Lev Alburt in Comprehensive Chess Course, Vol >>1 >> >>[D]8/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/8 w - - 0 0 >> >>The game is won by: >>1- capturing all of the opponent's pawns >>2- reaching the last rank first >>3- 'stalemating' the opponent, while still having at least one move for yourself >> >>The game is drawn if: >>1- both sides' pawns are blocked so that neither side can make any moves >> >>The programming exercise I've assigned to myself it to try to solve this game >>using brute-force minimax. My question to you... can this game be solved on >>today's typical desktop computer using brute-force? >> >>I've been thinking about this and have made the following observations: >>1- while classical chess has a branching factor of around 30, the Pawn Game >>branching factor is 16 in the initial position, and around 8 in the >>'middlegame', and goes down with each capture. >>2- the longest 'game' is certainly less than 81 ply, and is probably around >>60-65 (81 ply is calculated by the impossible scenario of each side taking 40 >>ply each to march all pawns to the 7th rank + 1 ply to promote) > > >Unless I've suffered from a brain fart, a 42 ply game is impossible, while a 41 >ply game is trivial to construct. Wrong! I'm up to 67 ply being possible. > > >> >>I'm not planning to use anything fancy like hashtables or board rotation. I'd >>be happy if I'm successful in coding a 10x12 board representation (practice for >>writing a classical chess engine in the future), a valid pawn move generator, >>and a correct implementation of the minimax algorithm. >> >>I'm very curious what the solution to this game is. Is it a win/loss/draw for >>White? Of the 16 possible White moves, which ones win/lose/draw? How long is >>the longest game? How long is the shortest game? What is the distribution of >>wins amongst the 3 methods of winning? >> >>Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
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.