Author: Dan Ellwein
Date: 14:13:12 12/16/99
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On December 16, 1999 at 16:10:20, Bo Persson wrote: >On December 16, 1999 at 10:59:48, Dan Ellwein wrote: > >>My original post came about as a result of wanting to know how many unique >>movements there are in chess (or at least have a rough idea). >> >>Chess, being the complex game it is, I wanted to see just how many unique >>movements this complexity was based on. >> >>What came to mind for consideration were the following: >> >>the movements of the 32 pieces >>special moves like castling and en-passant >>pawn moves being different from pawn captures >>pawns being able to move 2 squares on the first move >>and pawn promotion (although this may not apply) >> >>(there may be other possibilities to consider) > >Also, >the Queen is very powerful, but alone and also very vulnerable >the Rooks are not quite as strong, but there is two of them! >the Knights can jump over other pieces, their attacks are hard to block. So is >their movement >the Pawns are weak, but they are many and work good in teams >the two Bishops are equal, but also different (square colors). Potential for >team work with many other pieces. Long range and lower value is good for >support. >the King is often threatened, but can move in any direction. It is also very >strong in the end game, where it can block its opponent. > >An extremely successful mix! > > >The complexity is not only in the different "movements", but also in forming >groups of pieces where each "character" can use its own special abilities to >support the others, working together towards a common goal. > >Hm, an interesting thought there... :-) > yes... agree... it's actually the interaction of the movements that give rise to the complexity found in chess and not the movements themselves... the 32 pieces reducing down to 6 (K,Q,R,B,N,P) combine to make-up 32 major groups... K KP KN KB KR KQ KPN KPB KPR KPQ KNB KNR KNQ KBR KBQ KRQ KPNB KPNR KPNQ KPBR KPBQ KPRQ KNBR KNBQ KNRQ KBRQ KPNBR KPNBQ KPNRQ KPBRQ KNBRQ KPNBRQ > >Since pawns do move differently than the way they capture, I decided to use as >>one of my parameters for movement - Type. >> >>I came up with 3 types of movement which I called: Capture/NonCapture, >>NonCapture Only, and Capture only. > >or, possibly, "Piece moves", "Pawn moves" and "Pawn captures"? (forgetting about >castling for a moment, and separating the pawns from the major pieces). > >>Capture/NonCapture would include all the pieces except for the pawn. >> >>NonCapture Only would include the pawn moves (including the option of the pawn >>moving 2 squares on its first move) > >slightly different from the castling (where the king and the rook make their >combined first move), the pawn can make a double move *from its original >location*. Ok, so it's only a small difference, but the pawns state can be >deduced from its position (2nd row), while you have to keep track of king and >rooks, as they could have moved previosuly and returned to there start position. > >> and castling (since a capture cannot occur on this move). > >No, but some other *very* special conditions apply, like some squares must be >empty, and some squares must not be attacked by the opponent. Not to mention >that two pieces that haven't even moved *once* before, suddenly move both at the >same time. And they are passing thru (or over?) each other! > >>Capture Only would only include the pawn. En-passant would be covered in this >>category. >> >>Also, since, pieces can move more than one square on a move (moving from one end >>of the board to the other end a piece travels 7 squares), I decide to use as >>another parameter of movement - Magnitude. >> >>Since chess is played on an 8x8 board, Magnitude would have a maximum limit of >>7. >> >>So, Movement, then, (at least for my purposes) is a funtion of Type and >>Magnitude. >> >>Type - having three categories: Capture/NonCapture, NonCapture Only, and Capture >>Only. >> >>Magnitude - ranging from 1 (square) to 7 (squares). >> >>Looking at the 32 pieces we have the following: >> >>K's - 2 >>Q's - 2 >>R's - 4 >>B's - 4 >>N's - 4 >>P's -16 >> >>So, from the 32 pieces, 6 pieces need to be considered - K,Q,R,B,N,P >> >>From these 6 pieces, 4 need to be looked at due to the Rook and Bishop movements >>are incorporated into the Queen. >> >>So now we have - K, Q(which includes the Rook and Bishop), N, P > >Yes, some programs (like Crafty) keeps track of the combined piece types >Rooks_and_Queens and Bishops_and_Queens to use in places like attack detection. > >>And this is how I came up with my table and came up with there being 11 unique >>(discrete) movements in chess. >> >>If, instead of Magnitude having a range of 1 to 7, but we give it a range of 0 >>to 7, then pawn promotion could be considered also. Replacing a pawn with >>either a Q,R,B,N does not involve a movement (the Q,R,B,or N is placed on the >>same square as the pawn was on - the actual promotion requires no movement). >> >>In this case there would be 12 unique movements in chess, and these 12 movements >>would be what gives chess its complexity. >> >>PilgrimDan > > > >Still fascinated by the thoughts, but don't (yet?) know how to use it. > > >Bo Persson >bop@malmo.mail.telia.com
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