Games, analysis and discussion

For chess variants/board games of skill 12 criteria, 9 games scored 0-4 & 13th scored by # non-0 scores for 1st 12 criteria.

9:
Chess, Chess960, Doubles Chess (Bughouse), Shogi, Go, Arimaa & 3 of my variants (Throne Chess, 4*Chess & Sac Chess). Sac Chess hopes for 1st & do bett than 0 in 1st 12 criteria.

12:
1. Computer-resistant (v men not close to best);
2. Any endgame stage not in signif danger of comprom e.g. by tablebases (adjourn poss);
3. Signif pop. in N Amer esp (ideally clubs & cash prize events);
4. Tested (e.g. 100s yrs);
5. Rules not too complex/simple;
6. Has signif lit. & cult. (ideally no licensing/copyright on game);
7. Fixed start pos (e.g. aesthetic & not same as chess if variant, or empty board before 1st player moves);
8. Openings not in danger of being played out too soon;
9. 2 players usually;
10. Not too many/few pcs or board sqs/cells/points & play on 1 board;
11. Pcs look & move nicely & board can be on coffee table (ideally fixed start position not same as chess if variant);
12. Has mateable kings.
Using the 12, scores for the 9 after add 13th crit. (max sc: 60):

Code:

Chess Shogi ==Go= Arima DoubC Ch960 SacCh ThrCh 4*Che    Criteria ##

  0     2     4     1     3     0     2     0     1           1

  0     4     4     4     2     0     1     0     1           2

  4     0     2     1     3     1     0     0     0           3

  4     4     4     2     3     2     0     0     0           4

  4     1     3     4     2     2     1     4     1           5

  4     3     4     0     0     0     0     0     0           6

  4     2     2     2     3     0     2     1     1           7

  0     2     2     3     3     4     3     0     3           8

  4     4     4     4     0     4     4     4     4           9

  4     3     0     4     0     4     2     4     0          10

  4     0     0     1     0     1     2     1     1          11

  4     4     0     0     4     4     4     4     4          12

  9    10     9    10     8     8     9     6     8          13

 45    39    38    36    31    30    30    24    24           T

[1st update: I like fixed start pos for merchandis, study & populariz a game. Controv due to poss lessening/defining possibilities for openings in game but if there's suff variety to opening phase of game this won't be signif for ages.]

[2nd update: below are links re: 8 of the 9 games I've prev ment, in case viewers are unfam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess960

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...-K-to-K8-wins)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...-(Part-1-of-2)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...nsional-chess)

[3rd update: link to free package to play variants e.g. Sac Chess, & link to cards using chess variant - maybe computer-resistant & skillful:]

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...Chess-variant)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightmare_Chess

[4th update: Com-resistance of the 9; 4 factors rated:]

A. Board size (large gen aids hum, e.g. Go);
B. Pos'l eval (in Go a human can easily tell import. of a well placed stone for >= 100 ply at times, while pos in chess-like games with Ks can be eval at shallower depth);
C. Search tree prun ability (succ'ly matching many heuristics men use for prun heavily favours a com in chess-like games if a deep enough search is viable, as is oft case, unlike for e.g. Go). Shogi-like drops 2-edged: a mating series of drops suits com (unless drops allowed only on own half of board);
D. Simplicity of piece movement (in e.g. Shogi, Arimaa or Go [or Checkers], pieces oft take short easy to visualize moves, if they mv aft placed, which aids men gen).

How I scored the 9 in fav Com or Hum using 4 factors:

Code:

Chess Shogi ==Go= Arima DoubC Ch960 SacCh ThrCh 4*Che    Factor

 Com   Hum   Hum   Com   Hum   Com   Hum   Com   Hum       A

 Com   Com   Hum   Com   Com   Com   Com   Com   Com       B

 Com   Com   Hum   Com   Hum   Com   Hum   Com   Com       C

 Com   Hum   Hum   Hum   Hum   Com   Com   Com   Com       D

  0     2     4     1     3     0     2     0     1      Hum T

[5th update: it's poss av search depth+# heuristics vital. In 2016 top Go man lost v com. In 2015 top men lost v com at Arimaa:]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa#Arimaa_Challenge

Note I chose search tree prun ability factor as fav men in Doubles Chess rather than in e.g. Shogi, as I fig. the search depth of an engine would be signif inhibited. This would be due to the 2 chessboards involved (making for a larger 'board' than in e.g. Shogi). It would also be due to the commonly avail. variety of captured (& often quite mobile) pieces avail. for drops, rather than in e.g. Shogi, where a player can have e.g. captured pawns, but with lim options for where to leg. drop them. Similarly, I judged that the ease of visualizing drops in Doubles Chess improves on the overall visualizing of moves comp. to that in chess.

[6th update: at least 1 Shogi variant (Wa Shogi) is played on a larger board (11x11) & has 16 pc types (e.g. pawns), not counting their status if promoted, which maybe isn't so bad in terms of complexity IMO. If played with drops, as is the mod. way, I'd est this chess-like game as having 3 of my 4 computer-resistant factors in fav. of men (with the exception of Pos Evaluation, which always ends up fav com in chess-like games I'd suppose). Link re: Wa Shogi follows.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_shogi

[7th update: re: a diff way of looking at com-resistance, below is a link re: the adv of Arimaa over Chess in regard to brute force searching. The main point is that each 3 ply deep searched in Arimaa approx match each 8 ply deep searched in Chess. For an eng that prunes I'd guess 30 ply (avg.) searched (deeper per ply for say # moves = approx sq rt of avg # legal moves in a game) in Sac Chess match 40 ply deep in chess, and 35 ply searched in Grand Chess match 40 in chess.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comput...orce_searching

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_chess

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=International_draughts

Here's a link re: 7 criteria a world champ Arimaa player thinks would make for com-resistant chess var:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/compute...chess-variants

I'd guess the av num of legal moves in Shogi would be approx as for Arimaa, with actual avail. num fluct wildly during a given game. Here's a link re: com Shogi, with com curr almost at par with best men:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_shogi

I'd guess av num of legal moves in Crazyhouse Chess approx as in Arimaa or Shogi, with wild fluct. Here's a link re: Crazyhouse, which uses drops as in Shogi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazyhouse

Here's a link re: why Go appears to be so com-resistant:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go

[8th update: below are links to more recent chess variants of mine.]

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...-(Part-2-of-2)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...chess-variants

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...nsional-chess)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...ional-chess%29

http://www.chessvariants.com/index/m...carrouselchess

http://www.chessvariants.com/index/m...=MScollegemess

http://www.chessvariants.com/index/m...fullhousehexag

[9th update: I'd guess 9/[12]/{15} ply searched respectively in my 4*Crazyhouse/[Crazyhouse 1010]/{Sac Chess Crazyhouse} variants (in previous links) match 40 ply deep in chess. However the greater board size of my 3 crazyhouse variants (4D or 10x10) means that in prac this might further signif lim the depth of a search, i.e. due to mem remaining to store positions. This factor could also signif lim the search depth for plain 4*Chess, in this way putting it almost at par with Arimaa, Crazyhouse Chess or Shogi; I'd guess mem needs might respectively lim 4*Crazyhouse/[Crazyhouse 1010]/{Sac Chess Crazyhouse}/Sac Chess/[Grand Chess] to 5/[10]/{12}//25/[30] ply for 40 ply searched in chess.]

[10th update: For a top chess prog I'd guess its chess rating as about 1550 plus (n-10)*60. n is ply looked ahead. Based on the above, hyp. top Sac Chess/[Grand Chess] prog. might someday be rated 2450/[2750]. Of all my variants ment, I curr like & or trust Sac Chess/[Crazyhouse 1010] 1st/[2nd] all things cons]

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...w-tech-method)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...games-of-skill)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...riant-of-mine)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...uture-of-chess

http://www.chessvariants.org/


http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...in-fairy-chess