Friday, 2 December 2005
Car Chase Game
Gamebrew website has got many online games. If you have plenty of time to waste it is a place to visit.
Friday, 19 August 2005
Computer chess
Once solely the province of the human mind, chess is now played by both humans and machines. At first considered only a curiosity, the best chess playing programs like Shredder or Fritz have risen in ability to the point where they can seriously challenge and even defeat the best humans, and regularly defeat the average human Grandmaster.
Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, played a six-game match against IBM's chess computer Deep Blue in February 1996. Deep Blue shocked the world by winning the first game in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, but Kasparov convincingly won the match by winning three games and drawing two.
The six-game rematch in May 1997 was won by the machine (informally dubbed Deeper Blue) which was subsequently retired by IBM. The other programs running on general purpose hardware are generally weaker than Deep Blue was, but catching up, as computers get faster. In October 2002, Vladimir Kramnik drew in an eight-game match with the computer program Deep Fritz. In 2003, Kasparov drew both a six-game match with the computer program Deep Junior in February, and a four-game match against X3D Fritz in November.
The chess machine Hydra is the intellectual descendant of Deep Blue; and appears to be somewhat stronger than Deep Blue was. Certainly it is very much comparable in terms of positions analysed per second. Given the relative ease with which it beats the other programs, and the humans it has met, Hydra may be expected to beat any unaided human player in match play. In June 2005, Hydra scored a decisive victory over the then 7th ranked GM Michael Adams winning five games and drawing one game in a six game match.
Kasparov's loss to Deep Blue has inspired the creation of chess variants in which human intelligence can still overpower computer calculation. In particular Arimaa, which is played upon a standard 8�8 chessboard, is a game at which humans can beat the best efforts of programmers so far, even at fast time controls.
Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, played a six-game match against IBM's chess computer Deep Blue in February 1996. Deep Blue shocked the world by winning the first game in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, but Kasparov convincingly won the match by winning three games and drawing two.
The six-game rematch in May 1997 was won by the machine (informally dubbed Deeper Blue) which was subsequently retired by IBM. The other programs running on general purpose hardware are generally weaker than Deep Blue was, but catching up, as computers get faster. In October 2002, Vladimir Kramnik drew in an eight-game match with the computer program Deep Fritz. In 2003, Kasparov drew both a six-game match with the computer program Deep Junior in February, and a four-game match against X3D Fritz in November.
The chess machine Hydra is the intellectual descendant of Deep Blue; and appears to be somewhat stronger than Deep Blue was. Certainly it is very much comparable in terms of positions analysed per second. Given the relative ease with which it beats the other programs, and the humans it has met, Hydra may be expected to beat any unaided human player in match play. In June 2005, Hydra scored a decisive victory over the then 7th ranked GM Michael Adams winning five games and drawing one game in a six game match.
Kasparov's loss to Deep Blue has inspired the creation of chess variants in which human intelligence can still overpower computer calculation. In particular Arimaa, which is played upon a standard 8�8 chessboard, is a game at which humans can beat the best efforts of programmers so far, even at fast time controls.
Friday, 11 February 2005
Chess
Chess is a game played by two players, who we'll call White and Black. It is played on a board of 64 squares. Each square can be empty or occupied by a piece. The initial position of the game consists of 16 white pieces and 16 black pieces, arranged as shown in the following diagram.
Players alternate making moves. White always goes first. In a typical move, White selects a white piece and moves it to another square. The destination square is either empty or occupied by an enemy piece. In the latter case the enemy piece is said to be captured. The captured piece is removed from the board, and plays no further role in the game.
Looking across the bottom row of white pieces we see a rook (sometimes called a castle), a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king, another bishop, another knight, and another rook. The next row of white pieces consists of eight pawns. Each different type of piece moves in a specific way, as described in detail in the rest of this tutorial.
The goal of the game is to capture the opponent's king. However to actually capture the king would be offensive. So this is not allowed. This leads to the notion of check. Black's king is said to be in check if (assuming it were White's turn to move) White could capture Black's king. To avoid this capture, Black must make a move that takes Black's king out of check, so White cannot capture Black's king on the next move.
If it's impossible for Black to get out of check, then Black's king is said to be checkmated, and White wins the game. Another way to describe checkmate is to say that Black is in check and Black has no legal moves. An alternative outcome is if Black is NOT in check but has no legal moves. This is called a stalemate. When this occurs the game ends in a draw.
The remainder of this tutorial explains how all the pieces move, and a few other rules that don't quite fit the pattern described here, such as castling, promotion and en passant. These notes only try to explain the rules. Learning to play well is a different story.
Players alternate making moves. White always goes first. In a typical move, White selects a white piece and moves it to another square. The destination square is either empty or occupied by an enemy piece. In the latter case the enemy piece is said to be captured. The captured piece is removed from the board, and plays no further role in the game.
Looking across the bottom row of white pieces we see a rook (sometimes called a castle), a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king, another bishop, another knight, and another rook. The next row of white pieces consists of eight pawns. Each different type of piece moves in a specific way, as described in detail in the rest of this tutorial.
The goal of the game is to capture the opponent's king. However to actually capture the king would be offensive. So this is not allowed. This leads to the notion of check. Black's king is said to be in check if (assuming it were White's turn to move) White could capture Black's king. To avoid this capture, Black must make a move that takes Black's king out of check, so White cannot capture Black's king on the next move.
If it's impossible for Black to get out of check, then Black's king is said to be checkmated, and White wins the game. Another way to describe checkmate is to say that Black is in check and Black has no legal moves. An alternative outcome is if Black is NOT in check but has no legal moves. This is called a stalemate. When this occurs the game ends in a draw.
The remainder of this tutorial explains how all the pieces move, and a few other rules that don't quite fit the pattern described here, such as castling, promotion and en passant. These notes only try to explain the rules. Learning to play well is a different story.
What is Chess?
Chess is a game played by two players, who we'll call White and Black. It is played on a board of 64 squares. Each square can be empty or occupied by a piece. The initial position of the game consists of 16 white pieces and 16 black pieces, arranged as shown in the following diagram.
Players alternate making moves. White always goes first. In a typical move, White selects a white piece and moves it to another square. The destination square is either empty or occupied by an enemy piece. In the latter case the enemy piece is said to be captured. The captured piece is removed from the board, and plays no further role in the game.
Looking across the bottom row of white pieces we see a rook (sometimes called a castle), a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king, another bishop, another knight, and another rook. The next row of white pieces consists of eight pawns. Each different type of piece moves in a specific way, as described in detail in the rest of this tutorial.
The goal of the game is to capture the opponent's king. However to actually capture the king would be offensive. So this is not allowed. This leads to the notion of check. Black's king is said to be in check if (assuming it were White's turn to move) White could capture Black's king. To avoid this capture, Black must make a move that takes Black's king out of check, so White cannot capture Black's king on the next move.
If it's impossible for Black to get out of check, then Black's king is said to be checkmated, and White wins the game. Another way to describe checkmate is to say that Black is in check and Black has no legal moves. An alternative outcome is if Black is NOT in check but has no legal moves. This is called a stalemate. When this occurs the game ends in a draw.
The remainder of this tutorial explains how all the pieces move, and a few other rules that don't quite fit the pattern described here, such as castling, promotion and en passant. These notes only try to explain the rules. Learning to play well is a different story.
Players alternate making moves. White always goes first. In a typical move, White selects a white piece and moves it to another square. The destination square is either empty or occupied by an enemy piece. In the latter case the enemy piece is said to be captured. The captured piece is removed from the board, and plays no further role in the game.
Looking across the bottom row of white pieces we see a rook (sometimes called a castle), a knight, a bishop, a queen, a king, another bishop, another knight, and another rook. The next row of white pieces consists of eight pawns. Each different type of piece moves in a specific way, as described in detail in the rest of this tutorial.
The goal of the game is to capture the opponent's king. However to actually capture the king would be offensive. So this is not allowed. This leads to the notion of check. Black's king is said to be in check if (assuming it were White's turn to move) White could capture Black's king. To avoid this capture, Black must make a move that takes Black's king out of check, so White cannot capture Black's king on the next move.
If it's impossible for Black to get out of check, then Black's king is said to be checkmated, and White wins the game. Another way to describe checkmate is to say that Black is in check and Black has no legal moves. An alternative outcome is if Black is NOT in check but has no legal moves. This is called a stalemate. When this occurs the game ends in a draw.
The remainder of this tutorial explains how all the pieces move, and a few other rules that don't quite fit the pattern described here, such as castling, promotion and en passant. These notes only try to explain the rules. Learning to play well is a different story.
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