I love that. I am absolutely horrible at chess. Everything you just said is how I understand chess when I watch people play. It’s like watching someone do magic so far ahead in what they are doing I never see it.
Once you realize it isn't random, and that there are a limited number of moves, the whole things becomes trivial.
Just like in poker. Once you understand your general odds of getting any particular hand, you no longer are playing the game, you are playing the mentality of your opponent.
In Chess, masters have memorized nearly every notable tournament game, and every move involved. Names are given to techniques, which makes it easier to recall the pattern on the board formed by the placement of the pieces.
Internalizing these board patterns means you don't have to see 20+ moves ahead, because you already know the 8 or however many number of boards that can eventually result from the one you're currently looking at.
Then, out of the 8 possible boards coming up, you have to anticipate which one your opponent will try to set up. You muster a defense for board set-up number 5 out of the 8 and try to sneakily get your pieces into place to counter. If the opponent is bluffing, you have to plan around that as well.
Ultimately, however, the game that novices usually play is as rigged as tic-tac toe.
These have made it impossible to perfectly craft a procedural AI that wins every time. These two moves, especially castling, have made it impossible to predict the exponential possibilities in a reasonable time frame. Castling can occur on nearly every turn, and drastically changes the game board. The fact you can Castle either Rook means that there is an inherent 50/50 split on every single board pattern possible in the game.
If not for Castling and En Passant, Chess would be fully rigged and about as interesting as tic-tac-toe. 90% of games would end in a stalemate.
In fact, if not for Chess, AI might not be nearly as advanced as it is today:
It’s like chess whole bunch of nothing then moves everywhere!
To the novice, moving the pawns around is the most boring part of the game.
To a master, he knows that the game is decided when there are no more pawns to move.
The battle is won before the fighting starts. Once the first piece is taken, the number of possibilities decreases rapidly.
I love that. I am absolutely horrible at chess. Everything you just said is how I understand chess when I watch people play. It’s like watching someone do magic so far ahead in what they are doing I never see it.
Once you realize it isn't random, and that there are a limited number of moves, the whole things becomes trivial.
Just like in poker. Once you understand your general odds of getting any particular hand, you no longer are playing the game, you are playing the mentality of your opponent.
In Chess, masters have memorized nearly every notable tournament game, and every move involved. Names are given to techniques, which makes it easier to recall the pattern on the board formed by the placement of the pieces.
Internalizing these board patterns means you don't have to see 20+ moves ahead, because you already know the 8 or however many number of boards that can eventually result from the one you're currently looking at.
Then, out of the 8 possible boards coming up, you have to anticipate which one your opponent will try to set up. You muster a defense for board set-up number 5 out of the 8 and try to sneakily get your pieces into place to counter. If the opponent is bluffing, you have to plan around that as well.
Ultimately, however, the game that novices usually play is as rigged as tic-tac toe.
https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-way-to-never-lose-at-Tic-Tac-Toe
What makes Chess objectively competitive is the introduction of two mechanics.
Castling
En Passant
These have made it impossible to perfectly craft a procedural AI that wins every time. These two moves, especially castling, have made it impossible to predict the exponential possibilities in a reasonable time frame. Castling can occur on nearly every turn, and drastically changes the game board. The fact you can Castle either Rook means that there is an inherent 50/50 split on every single board pattern possible in the game.
If not for Castling and En Passant, Chess would be fully rigged and about as interesting as tic-tac-toe. 90% of games would end in a stalemate.
In fact, if not for Chess, AI might not be nearly as advanced as it is today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwF229U2ba8