Editorial: Back to the roots

Abstract

In the last issue of this volume, the ICGA Journal will go back to its roots by presenting several contributions on computer chess. We start by presenting two scientific articles that explore how to deal with draws in chess. The first article, Are Armageddon chess games implemented fairly? by Vladimir Vargas, describes the chess variant Armageddon chess, where in case of a draw Black is declared the winner. To compensate for this, White is given more time. The article presents a method that combines a 2750+ ELO human and engine chess play analysis to estimate the optimal time control so that the expected result of an Armageddon chess game is fair. The second article, Stalemate and ‘DTS’ depth to stalemate endgame tables by Karsten Müller and Guy Haworth, proposes that stalemate is a secondary goal in chess, superior to a draw by agreement or rule – but inferior to mate. The authors report the work of ‘Aloril’ who has created endgame tables holding both depth-to-mate and depth-to-stalemate data.