Arimaa Forum - Print Page


    
      
        Arimaa Forum
        (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi)
      

        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Peculiar Arimaa match - Zillions of Games version 
        
(Message started by: cvic on Aug 16^th, 2011, 3:35pm)

Title: Peculiar Arimaa match - Zillions of Games version
Post by cvic on Aug 16^th, 2011, 3:35pm

I played using the .zrf file with the enhancements and optimizations added by Larry Lynn Smith.

First I noticed that the AI is very weak, so I tried to win by getting rid of all the rabbits

http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/144/39g.png

http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/4417/43g.png

But... the game continued and I proceeded to the next phase: eliminate every piece, except the elephant.

One interesting moment: a horse was in the elephant's way and it was pushed in an unsecured trap, to my surprise

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9112/45ga.png

The final goal: elephant immobilization. I failed at that one because the elephant commited suicide

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/6035/elephantsuicide.png

Well... maybe next time :- D

Title: Re: Peculiar Arimaa match - Zillions of Games vers
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 17^th, 2011, 1:24am

When Omar created Arimaa, the rule was that if both sides lost all of their rabbits, the game would end in a draw. He wanted there to be the possibility of a draw, so that a perfectly played game could end in a draw. In practice, however, it did not seem that both sides were ever losing all their rabbits, and in the very rare cases where it did happen, it didn't look much like perfect play. Omar realized that just because he had put draws into the state space somewhere didn't mean that reaching that corner of the state space had anything to do with good play. So he took away the draws and made elimination of rabbits a winning condition. That was long after the rules were encoded in a Zillions file.

The Zillions AI was Omar's first test of whether Arimaa was computer-resistant. The fact that the Zillions AI is fairly strong at most chess variants but is horribly weak at Arimaa goaded Omar in over-confidence and almost cost him $20,000. Omar offered to double the Arimaa Challenge prize (from $10,000) if David Fotland could win it in the very first Challenge match. Fotland temporarily made Bomb stronger than any human player, and looked poised to win that bet. Omar got really lucky to defend his prize money, IMHO.