A 5×5 board is the smallest board on which one can set up all types of chess pieces as a start position. We consider Gardner’s minichess variant in which all pieces are set as in a standard chessboard (from Rook to King). This game has roughly 9×10^18 legal positions and is comparable in this respect with checkers. We weakly solve this game: we prove its game-theoretic value and give a strategy to draw against best play for White and Black sides. Our approach requires surprisingly little computing power. We give a human readable proof. The way the result is obtained is generic and could be generalized to bigger chess settings or to other games.
Frédéric Prost (2012). On the Impact of Information Technologies on Society: an Historical Perspective through the Game of Chess. Turing-100. The Alan Turing Centenary, EPiC Volume 10
a French mathematician, computer scientist and associate professor at Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble and Joseph Fourier University Grenoble. His research interests include quantum programming, IT security, non-interference analyses, anonymity, and in artificial intelligence, engines for Twilight Chess [1] and game-theoretic value of chess variants [2].
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Gardner's Minichess Solved
Along with Mehdi Mhalla, Frédéric Prost weakly solved Gardner's 5x5 Minichess as published in 2013. They modified Stockfish in order to make it play Gardner Chess [4]. Abstract [5] [6]:Selected Publications
[7] [8]External Links
References
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