Version 1
: Received: 25 April 2022 / Approved: 26 April 2022 / Online: 26 April 2022 (04:41:40 CEST)
How to cite:
Hintze, A. Allowing Differently Strong Chess Players to Play at An Equal Level. Preprints2022, 2022040227. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202204.0227.v1.
Hintze, A. Allowing Differently Strong Chess Players to Play at An Equal Level. Preprints 2022, 2022040227. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202204.0227.v1.
Cite as:
Hintze, A. Allowing Differently Strong Chess Players to Play at An Equal Level. Preprints2022, 2022040227. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202204.0227.v1.
Hintze, A. Allowing Differently Strong Chess Players to Play at An Equal Level. Preprints 2022, 2022040227. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202204.0227.v1.
Abstract
Chess is an interesting game for artificial intelligence research and an entertaining hobby and sport for a growing number of people. However, humans differ greatly in their ability to play. Typically, the Elo rating is used to determine a player's skill and to predict who will win. When differences in Elo are too great the weaker player is almost guaranteed to lose. While on one hand, the Elo rating allows players to be matched to equally well-playing opponents, it also to some degree restricts the games to be played between equally strong opponents since otherwise the result is known beforehand. Here a handicap system where stronger players remove pieces at the start of the game is evaluated. Specifically, the effect each removed piece or combination of pieces have on a player. Interestingly, pieces do not always reduce the Elo of a player by a predefined amount, but their effect depends strongly on the player's current Elo. The results presented here are from playing the computer engine Stockfish because data about humans playing this scheme is limited. However, the results make direct predictions about the effect of piece removal on Elo.
Keywords
chess; elo; evaluation; equal play; handicap
Subject
MATHEMATICS & COMPUTER SCIENCE, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
