No-man’s death is a stage in the development of a logical game (usually it is about board games, such as chess , checkers , go , etc.), when the theory is developed to a level that allows any player who owns it, regardless of the opponent’s qualifications, to reduce the game in the worst case to a draw.
After the onset of “no man’s death,” the game obviously becomes meaningless, and interest in it is largely lost. Obviously, in any competition, most games will end in a draw, and the game will lose its main function: comparing the capabilities of the players.
The onset of a draw death at different times was predicted for many common games, in particular, for chess and drafts. In order to avoid this situation, changes to the rules, new versions of the games were proposed. In practice, however, these games continue to exist in their original versions.
An example of a well-known game in a state of “no man’s death”, since it is a well-known draw-down algorithm for any side, are tic-tac-toe on a 3 × 3 field. English checkers are calculated by the Chinook program [1] [2] . On the Chinook project website, you can find a whole list of board games that are currently fully calculated (that is, either an algorithm for reducing the game in a draw is found, or one of the parties has been proven to win if the optimal strategy is followed) [3] .
Game classification in a
- Games with a known winning strategy (zero draw): four in a row , homoku .
- Games in which no man’s death occurred: 3 × 3 tic-tac-toe , English drafts .
Further classification reflects only the current state of the games, and not the formal possibility of a death in the distant future:
- Games with a wide draw (draw death threatens): chess , checkers , xiangqi , renju .
- Games with a narrow draw (no draw threatens death): go , shogi , pillar checkers .
Notes
- ↑ Computer News: Chinook decided to “end” the checker forever . Checkers in Russia. Date of treatment November 5, 2009. Archived June 1, 2012.
- ↑ List of beginnings of English drafts calculated by the Chinook program for 2009 (English)
- ↑ List of calculated board games on the Chinook project website