Author: Ricardo Gibert
Date: 08:58:32 09/18/03
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On September 18, 2003 at 11:45:39, Ricardo Gibert wrote: >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 miscounted. I can do 66. > > >> >> >>> >>>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.
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