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Topic: 2006 Postal Tournament (Read 6976 times) |
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #60 on: Apr 25th, 2006, 8:06am » |
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on Apr 24th, 2006, 11:53pm, frostlad wrote:| I've made a mistake in over half of my games that is rare for me to make now and was completely common for me a month or two ago. |
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Probably everyone improves fastest right when they are starting, but I definitely still have this same feeling even now when I make a mistake in a postal game, and if I understand what the mistake was. I don't want to play on in a poor position, I want to start a new game armed with my new knowledge and see what would happen then.
Ah well, postal games require a lot of time and patience, too much by some standards. That's why we can also play blitz! 
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frostlad
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Arimaa player #1704
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #61 on: Apr 25th, 2006, 10:49am » |
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It's alright, I don't mind fighting it out til the end. I think what i've learned best so far isn't the opening game, it is how to fight back after I blunder something away or get into a bad position.
Although most of the opponents that I've had to do that against are bots, humans aren't as forgiving really.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #62 on: Apr 25th, 2006, 11:30am » |
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on Apr 13th, 2006, 8:39pm, IdahoEv wrote:| You don't have very much free time on your hands, do you? |
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Speaking of spending too much time on Arimaa, I just scanned a bunch of the games to see how everyone is doing, and who is in contention for winning the most games overall. Based on my cursory impressions (I didn't analyze any of the positions to any depth), Omar, despite leading the current standings with a 2-0 record, is in trouble in too many other games to be considered the overall leader.
Instead the leader at the moment is clearly JDB, although he hasn't finished any games. Next come Thorin and Belbo vying for second. Somewhat behind those three, RonWeasley, Adanac, and I are in a bunch.
I can't tell what the heck is going in the game RonWeasley vs. Adanac. Either Adanac is about to break through with a forced goal, or else RonWeasley has a solid material advantage. I split the point between them because it was hurting my brain to think about it. Whoever wins that game jumps up among the leaders, while the other falls behind.
Admittedly, it is still early in the tournament, and there are a lot of unclear positions. For example, 99of9 could still conceivably run the table and win all ten of his games, since he's equal or better in all but one. Purplebaron could still go 0-10 or 10-0, since his games have barely started. There's a ton of play left, but I just wanted to see how things are shaping up so far.
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| « Last Edit: Apr 25th, 2006, 4:06pm by Fritzlein » |
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IdahoEv
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Arimaa player #1753
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #63 on: Apr 25th, 2006, 6:42pm » |
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on Apr 25th, 2006, 8:06am, Fritzlein wrote:| Probably everyone improves fastest right when they are starting, but I definitely still have this same feeling even now when I make a mistake in a postal game, and if I understand what the mistake was. |
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I started the tournament when I had only been playing Arimaa for a couple of weeks, and had not yet even figured out how to beat 'zilla.
I look at my postal games now, and in most of them I think "how in hell did I get in a position this bad?"
Then again, I did let jdb barricade my phant just three turns ago, so maybe I haven't learned so much after all.  (I could have sworn I saw a way out of it in the planning window...)
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Adanac
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Arimaa player #892
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #64 on: Apr 28th, 2006, 1:47pm » |
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Just an FYI to my opponents: feel free to take your time before your next move I'll be very busy during the 2 weeks and I won't reply to any moves until May 13/14. See you all again in 2 weeks.
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frostlad
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Arimaa player #1704
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #65 on: May 3rd, 2006, 2:31pm » |
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on Apr 5th, 2006, 1:29pm, Fritzlein wrote:
| Elephant File | 2005 | 2006 | | d | 98.1% | 79.5% | | c | | 13.7% | | b | 1.9% | 6.3% | | a | | 0.5% | | Rabbits Forward | 2005 | 2006 | | none | 14.4% | 22.6% | | a | 2.5% | 15.3% | | c | 3.1% | | | ah | 55.6% | 56.3% | | cf | 23.1% | | | ag | | 0.5% | | adh | | 2.6% | | abgh | 0.6% | | | acfh | 0.6% | | | adeh | | 2.6% | | Setup Balance | 2005 | 2006 | | Symmetrical | 56.9% | 50.5% | | Balanced | 22.5% | 30.0% | | Unbalanced | 20.6% | 19.5% | | Gold Move 2w | 2005 | 2006 | | E up 4 | 68.8% | 26.3% | | E up 3 over 1 | 11.3% | 11.6% | | E up 3; X up 1 | 6.3% | 41.1% | | E up 2; X,Y up 1 | 3.8% | 10.5% | | E, X, Y, Z up 1 | 3.8% | 3.2% | | Other | 6.3% | 7.4% |
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I would definitely not mind seeing the winning percentages in these different categories once the tourney is complete. I know it isn't a big enough data set to really draw conclusions, but at least it is a set of data from some of the higher ranked players and all players are human.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #66 on: May 4th, 2006, 6:55am » |
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on May 3rd, 2006, 2:31pm, frostlad wrote:| I would definitely not mind seeing the winning percentages in these different categories once the tourney is complete. |
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One slight problem with this is that many players didn't vary their opening from game to game, so entire categories belong to a single player. For example, all opening positions with four rabbits forward were blue22 playing Gold, and all opening positions with three rabbits forward were blue22 playing Silver.
I remember a span of time when Kasparov was playing the Gruenfeld Defense every game against Karpov. If you were to just look at the results of those games, you might conclude that the Gruenfeld is a mighty fortress, when a more justified conclusion would be that Kasparov is a formidable player.
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99of9
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #67 on: May 4th, 2006, 6:51pm » |
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Another problem is that asymmetric setups often beget asymmetric setups in reply. Then the winning percentage will be 50:50 because someone's gotta lose.
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chessandgo
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Arimaa player #1889
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #68 on: May 5th, 2006, 6:56pm » |
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on May 4th, 2006, 6:51pm, 99of9 wrote:| because someone's gotta lose. |
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hum, that's just because you arimaa players are just a bunch of bloodliking warriors, without showing it as explicitely as go players ! Follow chess players' example, and come back to the good side of the force, where animals of every colors live in peace !
I solemnly beg you to stop slaughtering innocent little beasts ! (and particularly mine please ...)
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #69 on: May 9th, 2006, 2:30pm » |
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A few games have tipped in the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd update the leader board. However, after compiling all the stats, I realized that not much had changed. I should definitely wait a whole month between updates. Anyway, based on the current game states, I have the leaders as
JDB
Thorin
Belbo
Fritzlein
Adanac
99of9
Everyone is losing at least one game (even purplebaron now that he has started moving), so the top score this year might be only nine points, but a lot could still happen given how many games still are even and/or unclear.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #70 on: May 9th, 2006, 2:37pm » |
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For those of you who like to take a peek at interesting goings-on in other game, permit me to direct your attention to Robinson vs. Thorin. Despite heavy engagement, no captures have yet occurred, and none appear likely in the near future.
A quick search of my database found six rated games between humans which ended in goal with neither side making a capture. The longest of these was game 13511, in which Robinson punched through a rabbit against PMertens in 37 moves. http://arimaa.com/arimaa/gameroom/replayFlash.cgi?gid=13511&s=w& client=1
That was a 30-second game, though. I'm curious to see whether Robinson can do it again at postal speeds.
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| « Last Edit: May 9th, 2006, 10:31pm by Fritzlein » |
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chessandgo
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Arimaa player #1889
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #71 on: May 9th, 2006, 6:25pm » |
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Thanks for the tip Fritzl !
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chessandgo
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #72 on: May 9th, 2006, 6:33pm » |
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And nices games from the 3 players ... I guess it's a question of style, the time control doesn't matter.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #73 on: May 22nd, 2006, 11:17am » |
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on Feb 26th, 2006, 12:12pm, jdb wrote:| When analyzing games in the planning window, *close* the game window, to prevent sending a move by accident! When you have decided on your move, reopen the game window. |
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Arrrgh! How many times am I going to have to make the same mistake before I listen to JDB's advice? I just sent move 39w in my game against Robinson thinking I was in the plan window. What's the good of making mistakes if I never learn from them? I'm a regular Charlie Brown. 
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: 2006 Postal Tournament
« Reply #74 on: May 23rd, 2006, 10:13am » |
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Now that my game against Blue22 has finished, only 99of9 and purplebaron have no completed games. Maybe the tournament is about half done in terms of total moves played so far versus total moves yet to be played. It terms of total time elapsed, however, we may have a long way to go: 86 days have elapsed versus 214 days more until we reach the cutoff.
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