| Author |
Message |
Mats W (Kålroten)
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 7:01 am: | |
Medieval Alquerque.
This is actually quite interesting to the game historian. In his book Draughts in relation to chess and alquerque (2005) Arie van der Stoep contends that Alquerque de doze was in medieval times played by the rules that I implemented in this program. He cites a Roman(!) author who regards the game as advantageous to the second player. This was also what I found when analysing it. I've been in contact with Arie and he was pleased to hear this. What's more, I also tested Zillions' Alquerque program, that uses Murray's rules, and found that the second player loses piece almost immediately in the opening. That Alquerque variant is not functional. This gives creedence to Stoep's idea. So this "Medieval Alquerque" variant, which is very close to modern day draughts rules, could have been played during the Roman era. This is a good example where Zillions is very useful to the game historian.
Mats |
Greg Schmidt (Gschmidt)
| | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 5:18 pm: | |
It is interesting when computer analysis supports human conjecture. The book "Behind Deep Blue" discusses how a post-mortem computer search would either support or deny the supposition that a particular move played by a human was "best". If I recall correctly, in some sense, the computer was able to determine, or at least suggest with some level of confidence, the critical move responsible for winning or losing the game.
-- Greg |
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