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ArimaaFrom http://blog.chess.com/qixel/introducing-arimaa by Fritzlein - 4 months ago ... Arimaa, Pente, TwixT, and chess all share the property of being deep. The depth of an abstract strategy game is a very important measure of its quality, perhaps the most important. Suppose, however, that your evaluation of a game is instead based on how well-suited it is for having excellent World Championship matches. Then depth is only one of several criteria. For example, the frequency of draws is also an important consideration. Chess, despite being incredibly deep, has a frustratingly large proportion of draws at the top level of play. Arimaa, Pente, and TwixT are drawless, which enhances their appeal at match play. Another important factor is balance. Arimaa and TwixT are both so well balanced that it essentially doesn't matter who gets to play first. Chess, on the other hand, is imbalanced enough that you couldn't hold a knockout tournament where the winner of best three of five games would advance, because it would be considered too unfair to let one player in the knockout play white three times. Pente is simply horrible in this regard, with a huge first-player advantage. A Pente World Championship can't do anything but play pairs of games and hope that eventually one player can win both as first and second player. A final criterion for a good World Championship match is whether spectators can be engaged by the drama of the games. Chess (apart from having too many draws) is very dramatic. In particular one player may have sacrificed material for an attack, and we simply can't tell for many moves whether the attack will earn the victory or will fizzle out and leave the defending player to mop up with extra material or whether the tense imbalance will resolve into a different tense endgame imbalance. Arimaa is dramatic like chess, both in the material/attack tradeoff, and in other tense imbalances. Pente and TwixT, however, despite their great depth, have little ability to stay tense once the game has become imbalanced. This is bad for drama, and makes them less suitable for World Championship play. I argue in my book that Arimaa (so far) has none of the flaws that have held back other abstract strategy games from greatness. Thus, while not trying to disrespect the depth of other deep games, I submit that Arimaa has additional virtues which make it stand out. Arimaa is the perfect storm. I have come to believe that the only way Arimaa could fail to be a classic is if an improved level of play reveals flaws that are currently hidden. As a 2500-strength Arimaa player, I can see a game that is balanced, drawless, dramatic, and infinitely deep, but perhaps a 3000-strength Arimaa player will see a game that is imbalanced, drawish, boring, and/or played out. Only time will tell. Peace, Arimaa/Introduction to Strategy/Elephant Mobility @ Wikibooks Arimaa/Introduction to Strategy/Camel Hostage @ Wikibooks |