Draughts is solved

Bad wolf

Only Chess

19 Jul 07

Kepler

Demon Duck

of Doom!

Joined: 20 Aug 06
Moves: 20099

19 Jul 07

Originally posted by OrangeKing
I think the game is technically not solved - the USA Today article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/mathscience/2007-07-19-checkers-solved_N.htm

It merely says that:

Schaeffer's proof is what is called a "weakly solved" result. It calculates the result from an initial position — 10 pieces on the board — rather than from the beginning of the gam ...[text shortened]... it wrong and it's only solved for 10-pieces-or-less, which wouldn't shock me either.

That is exactly it. He has calculated that any opening leads to one of the 10 piece endgames if both players play perfectly. Of course there is little chance that both players will play perfectly so the game is still good for humans. The same would apply to chess if it was ever solved.

excalibur 122

Joined: 13 Jul 07
Moves: 843

20 Jul 07

Originally posted by Bad wolf
I would pronounce it drafts.

Iwould spell it 'draughts' but pronounce it 'drafts'.

Mephisto2

Joined: 12 Mar 03
Moves: 44411

20 Jul 07

Aren't we talking about the 8x8 squares 'checkers' variant? Still something different than the 'International Draughts' 10x10 game!

hunterknox

Hopeless romantic

The sticks

Joined: 01 Oct 06
Moves: 41291

20 Jul 07

I think it would be slightly amusing if chess were proven to be a draw, if only to see the book titles: How to draw with the sicilian, Play 1.d4=, 1001 drawn endgames etc. Sure would save some plus signs for the typesetters.