Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software rendering of these rules might lag a bit—but if you have dedicated hardware, it should be possible to make this work.
This is such an intriguing comment. What question are you answering?
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Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
51–60 of 116 posts
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software rendering of these rules might lag a bit—but if you have dedicated hardware, it should be possible to make this work.
Help me understand... Why would I need dedicated hardware to render chess moves that are slightly different to regular chess moves...? Your comment makes no sense...
Use a physical board and play against a person.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#53I was hoping that it would help find the changes in rules that would at the same time 1) result in more even game between white and black and 2) result in fewer draws. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell all the alterations of rules that they explored turned out worse than classical chess on at least one of those criteria.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#54I think what this analysis really shows is that less time lead to less draws. Maybe we could rethink time controls. Classic could maybe be something like 1h+20sec increment for both sides. This would also make it more interesting to watch such an event live.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#55I feel compelled to say that, Coronavirus shenanigans aside, Wijk an Zee has just finished and was a fantastic event with many interesting and decisive games. Classical chess does not need fixing, even at the highest level. It’s fun that we can run these experiments though. I’d love to test out some of the variants a friend and I came up with! One of my favourites was starting with all the pieces off the board and a…
Yes Tata Steel tournament was great, I just don't think we need variants like Fischer random chess. There is still lot to explore in classical chess. Anyway, how is the first variant you described called? (one starting with empty board). My favourite is crazychess, lot of tactical fun there.
Do you mean crazyhouse maybe? Which is a single player (per side) variant of bughouse.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#56I was hoping that it would help find the changes in rules that would at the same time 1) result in more even game between white and black and 2) result in fewer draws. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell all the alterations of rules that they explored turned out worse than classical chess on at least one of those criteria.
I'm particularly surprised that the stalemate = win rule doesn't result in more decisive games. Intuitively, it would seem that an entire class of endgames that are classically draws would become winning for the stronger side.
Perhaps computers are so strong they can "see through" the rule change?
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#57I was hoping that it would help find the changes in rules that would at the same time 1) result in more even game between white and black and 2) result in fewer draws. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell all the alterations of rules that they explored turned out worse than classical chess on at least one of those criteria.
Are those goals not somewhat contradictory? How would a more even game not lead to more draws instead of fewer? Unless the new rules punish slight mistakes much more severely, perhaps? But that would lead to other issues in the balance and feel of the game.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#58I was hoping that it would help find the changes in rules that would at the same time 1) result in more even game between white and black and 2) result in fewer draws. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell all the alterations of rules that they explored turned out worse than classical chess on at least one of those criteria.
I'm particularly surprised that the stalemate = win rule doesn't result in more decisive games. Intuitively, it would seem that an entire class of endgames that are classically draws would become winning for the stronger side. Perhaps computers are so strong they can "see through" the rule change?
From the posted stats, the Stalemate=win rule does result in more decisive games (fewer draws). But it has an even bigger effect in giving white a further advantage over black.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#59I think what this analysis really shows is that less time lead to less draws. Maybe we could rethink time controls. Classic could maybe be something like 1h+20sec increment for both sides. This would also make it more interesting to watch such an event live.
Don’t rapid and blitz already kind of fill that role? I’m really not sure that having fewer draws is a great metric to guide optimization for classical chess. First, some games that end in draws are actually fantastic, back-and-forth battles that are as exciting as any win. Second, if there are fewer draws, each win becomes less special, especially for the major tournaments. For a cautionary tale, see baseball. They optimized the game for home runs, and now it’s a less interesting sport because it’s become much more one dimensional, and viewership is still trending down anyway. I feel like classical human chess is in a pretty good position right now, having survived the rise of the machines. Chess YouTubers like Gotham and agadmator (and many others) have sizable followings. And I would argue that the biggest popularity boost chess has gotten recently has been the Queen’s Gambit. So maybe leave the rules alone and make more chess TV shows and movies.
Re: Reimagining Chess with AlphaZero
#60I feel compelled to say that, Coronavirus shenanigans aside, Wijk an Zee has just finished and was a fantastic event with many interesting and decisive games. Classical chess does not need fixing, even at the highest level. It’s fun that we can run these experiments though. I’d love to test out some of the variants a friend and I came up with! One of my favourites was starting with all the pieces off the board and a…
Yes Tata Steel tournament was great, I just don't think we need variants like Fischer random chess. There is still lot to explore in classical chess. Anyway, how is the first variant you described called? (one starting with empty board). My favourite is crazychess, lot of tactical fun there.
We didn’t really give them names, these were things we came up with ourselves (perhaps not original ideas though!) I suspect the first would be ruined quite quickly by computer analysis or really any calculation at all but we had fun. :)