Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein) vs Jean Daligault (chessandgo)
From final game, move 31
2008 Arimaa World Championship

2008 May 1 Arifuddin Syed wins player of the month for Apr 2008. Apr 26 Humans wins the 2008 challenge match. Mar 24 Karl Juhnke (Fritzlein) wins the 2008 world championship. Mar 13 David Fotland's Arimaa program (Bomb) wins the computer championship. 2007 Mar 1 Humans win the 2007 challenge match. Jan 28 Ultraweak wins the prediction contest. Jan 22 bot_Bomb2005CC wins the computer world championship. Jan 14 Jean Daligault (chessandgo) wins the human world championship.

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Arimaa is a highly competitive strategy game. It was designed to be:

• Difficult for computers.
• Playable with a standard chess set.
• Fun and interesting for humans.

Some features which make Arimaa highly competitive and interesting for human players include:

• Rules that are simple, consistent and easy to learn.
• Lots of strategic concepts to explore and discover.
• Extremely low chance of draws even among experienced players.
• Equal winning chances for both players. Neither side has a clearly distinguishable advantage.
• A yearly world championship tournament to determine the best human player.

Some features which make Arimaa difficult for computers and challenging for AI programmers include:

• Extremely high branching factor significantly limits the search depth.
• Less tactics and more strategy.
• Opening books are not very useful.
• End game databases are practically useless.
• A yearly world championship tournament for Arimaa playing programs.
• A challenge prize for developing a program that can defeat the top human players.
• Proposed as the next challenge for AI after Chess.

Some features which make Arimaa interesting for fans and spectators include:

• Knowing that one player or the other will prevail, since mutually agreed draws are forbidden and natural draws are rare.
• Knowing that the players will fight to the very end since resigning is highly discouraged.
• Dramatic and suspenseful games, since the game objective is race oriented and depends less on material advantage.
• Spectators can try to guess the outcome of the world championship games to win prizes.

Additional notable points include:

• An online gameroom where players from around the world can play each other and against computer programs.
• A complete database of all games since the very first games is available to download.
• A growing collection of contributed software is available to download.
• A growing community of active players and fans.
• A forum through which players and fans can discuss the game.
• A public license which grants unrestricted rights for personal, educational and research use of the game.
• A player of the month contest with a cash prize.

www.arimaa.com

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