Re:Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion
by schoen on Friday November 22, 2013 @12:32PM
(#6782231)
Although the best chess players are now computers, chess doesn't seem anywhere close to being solved in the formal game theory sense (where we know how to produce perfect play that can't be beaten even in principle). There was a gap of over a decade between a machine becoming the world checkers champion (1994) and checkers becoming a formally solved game (2007). (Impressively, both of these were achieved by the same person, Johnathan Schaeffer.)
The difference, of course, is between "this machine can beat the best existing human player" and "this machine can beat any conceivable player as long as it's logically possible to do so". And right now we're at the former stage for chess (at least in some abstract sense: I'm not sure that a specific machine exists in operable condition that reflects the state of the art), but nowhere near the latter.
Re:Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion
by jrs99 on Friday November 22, 2013 @01:35PM
(#6782734)
yes, absolutely agree. that's what i mean by "solved" in quotes. i mean that computers can beat the best humans, not that the games are solved in the absolute sense like tic tac toe.
The difference, of course, is between "this machine can beat the best existing human player" and "this machine can beat any conceivable player as long as it's logically possible to do so". And right now we're at the former stage for chess (at least in some abstract sense: I'm not sure that a specific machine exists in operable condition that reflects the state of the art), but nowhere near the latter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solving_chess#Predictions_on_w...