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A comment on Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title. Parent comment

Re:Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title by rocqua on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @08:45AM (#32164953)
It isn't known theoretically whether perfect play is enough for black to force a draw. It is also an infinitesimal probability that white starts off in zugzwang (i.e. all possible moves are bad).

However the consensus guess is that perfect play yields a draw.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title by Gehinnn on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @09:01AM (#32165148)
Why is that the consensus guess? I could imagine that a perfect play completely contradicts common chess theory.

Just like we can efficiently find approximate solutions for the traveling salesman problem (that are at most 50% longer than the optimal solution), these heuristics have not much to do with the optimal solution.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title by bluGill on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @10:41AM (#32166419)
Because when great players realize they have a position that they connect win are still able to figure out how to force a draw so they don't lose.

> I could imagine that a perfect play completely contradicts common chess theory.

So can anyone. Nobody knows what perfect chess play is. Our best guess though is that whatever your opponent plays you can always force a draw before they can win.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title by bee_rider on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @10:46AM (#32166486)
That's an interesting point.

Unfortunately it leaves us in the position of not having much to go by, if expert experience doesn't help analyze the game.

I wonder how different a chess engine and optimal play look for the reduced sized boards.

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