Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralTraveller
However it is also affecting chess.
Finally, it is affecting how the game is played. For one thing, it must improve opening theory.
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Hi David,
Thanks for the post, the link and the interesting background as to
how these chess playing programs are affecting chess tournaments.
In the April 1975 edition of Scientific American, Martin Gardner in the
"Mathematical Games and Puzzles" section authored an April Fool's
spoof entitled "Six sensational discoveries that somehow or another
have escaped public attention".
One of these gems was the announcement that there was now a computer
proof that if white opened with "pawn to king's rook 4" that it would
result in a win for white "with a high degree of probability."
Despite the fact the same article included a claim that Leonardo da Vinci
had invented the valve flush toilet, complete with a drawing in the style
of Leonardo of a renaissance man sitting on the can, the fact that it
was an April Fools joke was lost to many readers and some chess
aficionados were aghast that their centuries-old game was now
hardly worth playing.
And the real salt in the wound was that, as I understand it,
"pawn to king's rook 4" had never been regarded as a particularly strong
opening move.
Nevertheless, the prospect of such as spectacular revelation one day being
announced has always stuck in my mind.
Just as when we are young, most of us quickly learn that "if I start here"
in noughts and crosses, "nothing you can do will not result in a win
or at least a draw for me", I've wondered at the prospect that one day,
even though it is exceedingly unlikely, that a deep computer analysis
dropped a bombshell much akin to Martin Garner's April Fools joke,
that is, "if I open with this particular move" and then continue with a
precisely computable set of counter moves, I will always win.
It certainly would break the hearts of a lot of people.
Chess would be regulated to this "simple game" like noughts and crosses
suitable only for young children. Tournaments would cease. Chess board
and chess book sales would all but halt.
Grand masters would hide behind dark glasses, move to Vegas and
turn their hands to Texas hold'em instead!