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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Chess and Arimaa
        
(Message started by: Indomitus on Jan 12^th, 2007, 7:15am)

Title: Chess and Arimaa
Post by Indomitus on Jan 12^th, 2007, 7:15am

Hey,

I only recently started to play Arimaa. It is a very impressive game and I'm falling in love. The strategies are so interesting! As a relatively active chess player I was wondering how many here played or still play competitive chess? Also, what are omar's plans for arimaa. I can see the game becoming big, perhaps as big as chess. Now that would be awesome.

Tempestas
"Men shed tears because the world is wrong"

Title: Re: Chess and Arimaa
Post by Fritzlein on Jan 12^th, 2007, 9:10am

We have many converts from chess. The strongest chess players I know of are Adanac and chessandgo. Lots of the rest of us dabbled in chess but never got really good, like myself, 99of9, Omar, and Swynndla. I'm sure that I'm leaving out lots of folks, because not everyone chats: some folks just play.

I think Adanac is the most dramatic conversion story so far, because he was quite serious about chess, and it was basically his only game. Now Arimaa has usurped chess for him, although real life keeps him too busy to be here all the time. Also, if I'm not mistaken, chessandgo might be ready to say that Arimaa is as good a game as chess, or better, but we have some convincing to do before he acknowledges Arimaa as superior to Go.

I, too, think Arimaa has great potential to become popular. It has grown quite a bit in the past few years with essentially no advertising. As long as nobody "busts" the game with a simple winning/drawing strategy, then it should continue to grow steadily. Omar pours several thousand dollars a year into giving us a free place to play, and the result is an enthusiastic community and a growing body of strategic knowledge.

On the other hand, Omar is content with the slow pace of growth. He doesn't want to promote the game and create a big surge, even though he could almost certainly do so if he wanted to. He would prefer to first resolve issues with the interface being slow and prone to crashing, and increase server capacity, and improve the rating system, and make sure the rules are just right, and make sure the Challenge format has stabilized. Once everything is humming along to his satisfaction, he'll turn his attention to promotion.

For my part, I think the free place to play, plus the great community, plus a seriously rockin' game might make the game popular before Omar ever gets around to promoting it. ;-)

Title: Re: Chess and Arimaa
Post by chessandgo on Jan 12^th, 2007, 11:01am

welcome Indomitus. Karl : it sounds like a great plan :) I certainly acknowledge that arimaa is at least as fun as chess in itself, and much more interesting as it's new ;) As for go, I'll wait a few millenias to compare go and arimaa in a fair way ... :)

Title: Re: Chess and Arimaa
Post by Stanley on Feb 13^th, 2007, 6:14am

I agree. Arimaa may be the best game invented, but that does not include Go. Go, like mathematics or music, was discovered not invented.