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Subject: Re: is Chess a Hard NP?

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 13:56:15 01/21/05

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On January 21, 2005 at 06:06:51, Oreopoulos Kostas wrote:

>Forgive me but i think that its another thing how big the problem space is and
>if there is a polynomial solution.
>The tree is certainly exponential, but is there a proof that finding a solution
>is about equal to visiting all nodes? [ like the traveling salesman problem ]
>
>It is certain that chess evaluation can cut the trees size down BUT that does
>not provide any clue on wether the problem is NP compete or not.
>If we had a perfect evaluation function that will pick the best move always,
>then we have of course an O(1) problem. Anything else keeps the problem in NP
>space, (an i wrong) but of course cuts down the time required for solving the
>problem.

That is a good point.  The best known algorithms for chess are exponential.
That does not rule out even a linear solution (your best node always chosen as
first example).

When asked, "How many moves do you see ahead?",
Capablanca replied: "One move - the best one."

So we just need a program that does that.
;-)



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