
Thinking Machine 6: Play chess against a transparent intelligence - gwulf
http://bewitched.com/chess/
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light_hue_1
Would be more interesting if it actually played chess. I mated it, it captured
my queen with its king, I captured its king with a pawn, and then it declared
a draw.

The end result: [http://imgur.com/WoFSJcr](http://imgur.com/WoFSJcr)

People should polish a little more before releasing these things. Who knows
what the visualization means if the rules are this broken.

~~~
Angostura
I'd find it more enjoyable if I could remember what pieces the abstract shapes
represent.

~~~
gjm11
They're reasonably evocative (both of the pieces' actual nature and of the
traditional shapes used for them), I think.

The rook/castle, which moves orthogonally, is represented by a square made out
of orthogonal lines.

The bishop, which moves diagonally and traditionally has a kinda-triangular
mitre on its head, is represented by a triangle with diagonal lines for sides.

The knight, which moves in a funny way and is traditionally shown as a sort of
horse's head, is represented by a quarter-circle which is unlike all the other
shapes (less symmetrical, mix of straight and curved lines) and actually quite
similar in outline to the traditional horse's head.

The king, which is usually shown with a cross on its head, is represented by a
cross.

The queen, which moves like a king but more so and which is usually shown with
a many-pointed crown on its head, is represented by a many-pointed star (a bit
like that crown, and also a bit like the king only more so).

And the pawns, which are weaker than all the other pieces and traditionally
smaller than the others, are represented by little circles, smaller than the
other pieces.

~~~
dragontamer
I just hung a piece to the opponent's knight because I didn't realize it was a
knight.

Its completely unplayable for me.

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catnaroek
This AI is very stupid. Here's our game, I played white:

> 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4

It's well known that the correct move here is 3...d6.

> 4.Qe2 d5 5.d3 Bb4+

Black could still limit its material losses to just a pawn with 5...Qe7.

> 6.c3 Bd6 7.Nf3 0-0 8.dxe4 dxe4 9.Nd4 Nd7 10.Nd2 f5

Completely inexplicable.

> 11.Ne6 Qh4 12.g3 Qe7 13.Nxf8 Kxf8

My pieces are still a little stuck, but I'm a full rook up! To my surprise,
black was very happy to exchange pieces. The main thing that delayed the final
result was my own imprecision.

> 14.Nc4 Bc5 15.h4 Ne5 16.Nxe5 Qxe5 17.Bf4 Qe7 18.0-0-0 Bd6 19.Bxd6 cxd6
> 20.Qd2 Be6 21.Qxd6 Qxd6 22.Rxd6 Bxa2 23.Bh3 g6 24.g4 fxg4 25.Bxg4 h5 26.Bh3
> Bf7 27.Re1 Re8 28.Rd7 Be6 29.Bxe6 Rxe6 30.Rxb7 a6 31.Rb4 Rf6 32.Re2 e3
> 33.fxe3 Rc1+ 34.Kc2 Kg8 35.Rg2 Rf6 36.Rb7 Rd6 37.Rd2 Rxd2+ 38.Kxd2 a5 39.e4
> a4 40.Ke3 Kh8 41.Kf4 Kg8 42.Kg5 Kf8 43.Kxg6 Ke8 44.Kf6 Kd8 45.Ke6 Kc8 46.Rh7
> Kb8 47.Kd6 Ka8 48.Kc6 Kb8 49.e5 Kc8 50.Rh8#

~~~
sheepleherd
I think they wanted you to notice the design and the thinking lines. They
didn't set out to invent the world's best chess player.

~~~
catnaroek
In practice, I didn't notice the thinking lines, and I didn't even see the
board itself. The author should've displayed the thinking lines on a separate,
perhaps smaller, board on the side.

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psuter
I feel like the AI is particularly intelligent in its use of lines to distract
me. Fun visualization otherwise, even though it's a little hard to really
understand what's going on. At least I can tell which moves are _not_
considered.

~~~
sheepleherd
what would make it much better along those lines (are you listening
designers?) would be if it drew its thinking lines on the board but under the
pieces.

because I can't study the board while it's thinking (it obscures all the
pieces) I can't quickly learn if its lines are interesting or not

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Animats
That's cute. It's running in the browser as ordinary JavaScript, not on a
remote server. Unfortunately, Firefox 46 crashed about 20 moves into a game.

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danvoell
I love the idea. Not sure if it is the best visual. What does a strong line
mean versus a thin line? Does it mean you are thinking real hard about that
route? I know it would be much more effort but it would be interesting to read
what it is thinking. Which piece is it trying to get in the short term. What
is the long-term rational.

~~~
TylerE
What bugs me the most is that it doesn't use anything even resembling standard
iconography for the pieces.

~~~
dragontamer
Yeah, I'm likely not going to be able to keep track of the pieces after a few
moves.

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clickok
I really liked this. Understanding what the AI is doing is usually something
that comes with experience and a bit of analysis, but a good visualization can
act as a shortcut to intuition. And this one in particular was nicely
designed.

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pybolt
I think I broke your program. Its my turn and I should be able to take the
King but the game keeps on going:
[http://imgur.com/ZLbHaLK](http://imgur.com/ZLbHaLK)

