Related papers: Not all Chess960 positions are equally complex
This work focuses on the analysis of Chess 960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, a variant of traditional chess where the starting positions of the pieces are randomized. The study aims to predict the game outcome using machine learning…
We introduce a novel metric to quantify the fragility of chess positions using the interaction graph of pieces. This fragility score $F$ captures the tension within a position and serves as a strong indicator of tipping points in a game. In…
We have seen numerous machine learning methods tackle the game of chess over the years. However, one common element in these works is the necessity of a finely optimized look ahead algorithm. The particular interest of this research lies…
Strategy improvement is a widely-used and well-studied class of algorithms for solving graph-based infinite games. These algorithms are parameterized by a switching rule, and one of the most natural rules is "all switches" which switches as…
In this article, we study the decision-making process of chess players by using a chess engine to evaluate the moves across different pools of games. We quantified the decisiveness of each move during the games using a metric derived from…
Modern chess engines significantly outperform human players and are essential for evaluating positions and move quality. These engines assign a numerical evaluation $E$ to positions, indicating an advantage for either white or black, but…
The complexity of chess matches has attracted broad interest since its invention. This complexity and the availability of large number of recorded matches make chess an ideal model systems for the study of population-level learning of a…
This paper provides a complexity analysis for the game of reconnaissance blind chess (RBC), a recently-introduced variant of chess where each player does not know the positions of the opponent's pieces a priori but may reveal a subset of…
Moves in chess games are usually analyzed on a case-by-case basis by professional players, but thanks to the availability of large game databases, we can envision another approach of the game. Here, we indeed adopt a very different point of…
Unlike tic-tac-toe or checkers, in which optimal play leads to a draw, it is not known whether optimal play in chess ends in a win for White, a win for Black, or a draw. But after White moves first in chess, if Black has a double move…
Do AI systems truly understand human concepts or merely mimic surface patterns? We investigate this through chess, where human creativity meets precise strategic concepts. Analyzing a 270M-parameter transformer that achieves…
We introduce a quantitative framework for separating skill and chance in games by modeling them as complementary sources of control over stochastic decision trees. We define the Skill-Luck Index S(G) in [-1, 1] by decomposing game outcomes…
Predicting player behavior in strategic games, especially complex ones like chess, presents a significant challenge. The difficulty arises from several factors. First, the sheer number of potential outcomes stemming from even a single…
We study the computational complexity of strategic behaviour in primary elections. Unlike direct voting systems, primaries introduce a multi-stage process in which voters first influence intra-party nominees before a general election…
The strength of chess engines together with the availability of numerous chess games have attracted the attention of chess players, data scientists, and researchers during the last decades. State-of-the-art engines now provide an…
Repetition-based draw rules in deterministic games like chess ensure termination but introduce strategic artifacts, allowing players to enforce draws independent of positional value. We propose an asymmetric modification: threefold…
In imperfect information games, the game state is generally not fully observable to players. Therefore, good gameplay requires policies that deal with the different information that is hidden from each player. To combat this, effective…
The opening book is an important component of a chess engine, and thus computer chess programmers have been developing automated methods to improve the quality of their books. For chess, which has a very rich opening theory, large databases…
A famous (and hard) chess problem asks what is the maximum number of safe squares possible in placing $n$ queens on an $n\times n$ board. We examine related problems from placing $n$ rooks. We prove that as $n\to\infty$, the probability…
From sports to science, the recent availability of large-scale data has allowed to gain insights on the drivers of human innovation and success in a variety of domains. Here we quantify human performance in the popular game of chess by…