Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: CHESS and Mathematical rules for solving it.

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:43:15 02/16/04

Go up one level in this thread


On February 16, 2004 at 21:33:59, James Swafford wrote:

>On February 16, 2004 at 17:14:16, George Tsavdaris wrote:
>
>>
>>Stefan Zipproth wrote in http://www.zipproth.com/chess/tbs.htm  :
>>
>>"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
>>Is there an alternative to table bases?
>>Today's chess engines work by searching through all possible lines in a given
>>position. One could think that it may be possible to find a rule that simply
>>tells which move is the correct one, without having to search in the dark.
>>Unfortunately, this cannot be true for two reasons:
>>
>>A)Apparently there is no such (perfect) rule for most 3- or 4-men-positions
>>(else Nalimov would not have work), so it is very unlikely that there is such a
>>rule for 32-men.
>>
>>B)As far as I know it is possible to prove that there is no such rule, using the
>>mathematical theory of complexity.
>>"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
>>
>>I don't think we can prove A) as the number of rules we can think is infinite.
>
>Doesn't matter.  It's possible to prove something doesn't exist, even
>if that something would belong to an inifinitely large set.  (i.e.
>"is the square root of two rational?")
>
>>
>>As for the more important B), although i don't know the proof of the above
>>theory he refers, i deeply believe that a rule that tells which move(s) is the
>>correct one, exists 100%. Also i don't believe we can prove that it is not
>>possible to prove that a rule for solving chess exists.
>>
>>So does anyone know if there is a proof or some information about the B) he
>>refers above?
>
>I believe such a rule does exist, because chess is a finite game
>(albeit one with a very large state space).  I also believe we won't
>find it any time soon, if ever.  So I guess that means (IMO), a
>proof that such a rule doesn't exist doesn't exist. :)
>
>--
>James


Actually it is note 1, of Einstein's Unified Field Theorem.

:)



This page took 0 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.