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Chinese Chess Endgame Databases Query System Newly added: Chinese
Chess Endgame Databases Blog Important links Available endgames (Interactive): rook
type,
knight type, cannon
type, pawn type, misc. Available endgames (Java): rook
type,
knight type, cannon
type, pawn type, misc. Introduction Based on the three papers listed at the end of this page, I have put
together a Chinese chess endgame databases query system. It takes
q long time to construct larger endgame database, so I will put them in
the server as they are constructed. There are many interesting databases
available already, such as knight vs
single bishop, rook-cannon vs rook,
cannon-pawn-bishop-elephant
vs full defense, and knight-pawn-bishop-elephant
vs full defense. The annon-pawn-bishop-elephant vs full defense endgame
has total 10 pieces on the board (king, 1 cannon, 1 pawn, 1 bishop,
1 elephant vs king, 2 bishops, 2 elephants), and it takes
189
moves before the strong side captures the first piece when both sides
play perfectly -- a feat very hard for humans to duplicate. As matter of
a fact, the best Chinese chess player would only give a lesson on how to
beat the full defense with one cannon, one pawn, one bishop, and TWO elephants.
Reasons The major reasons to put the databases on line are two fold. First,
I don't know if my implementation is 100% correct, and I would like anyone
who is interested to look into them to see if there are still stained positions
(the ones with incorrect information accoording to rules). Rules for Chinese
chess are pretty complicated. Although I try to construct the databases
to fully conform to Asian rules of Chinese chess, I am afraid that
some special situations are overlooked. If you find any stained position,
please let me know. I will appreciate it a lot. The second reason is to
let more people enjoy the benefits of the endgame databases. It has been
said that one learns chess best with endgame study. During the course of
making these endgame databases, I am fascinated by the various ways to
win a certain endgame as discovered by the databases. A lot of plays are
still beyond my comprehension. By putting the databases on line, I am hoping
people can enjoy the benefits and in the mean time discuss the intriguing
plays that are hard for humans to grasp.
Instructions To use the database, I assume the users know the Chinese characters of the pieces and traditional notation for the moves. (If it is a problem according to feedback, I will consider providing English notation.) To use the database, you can look at this page as an example. At the left is a java chessboard representing the board position. At the top of the middle column is the indication of which side will make the next move, followed by order and value of the current position, followed by all the legal moves. There are selections for various actions at the right column. The order and value are the key information for using the database. Order will be explained later. For the endgames which only one side has attacking pieces, the orders are always zero. Value represents the steps to the nearest capture as well as win or loss for the side to move. When the value is odd number (except 999), it means the current position is a win for the side to move. When it is even number, it means the side to move will eventually lose if both sides play perfectly. Value 999 indicates it is a draw position. The current version of databases adapt distance-to-capture method, so the number indicates the distance to the nearest capture. At the right of each legal move, there is an order and value pair of information (oo-vvv). It indicates the order and value of the position after the move is made. The objective of the winning side is to choose a move which is a loss position for the opposite side with the fewest steps toward the capture. A winning position means there is at least one move that will lead to the opposite side's loss. The smaller value number guarantees it will eventually lead to a capture. At the right side of each best move, there is a "*" sign. A "c" at the right side indicates it is a capture move. For our example, (n5+7) is the recommended move. A losing position means of all the available moves, all of them will lead to winning position for the opposite side. The objective is to choose a move that will delay the winning side's capture of a piece as long as possible. The best move will be the biggest of all the odd values. Again, they are followed by "*" sign. There are several actions to choose at the right side. The most usable
one should be the "Suggested move" link. It will choose one of the best
moves (the ones with "*") from the legal moves and make the move for you.
To just enjoy how the endgame databases solve a position, you can keep
hitting this link to see the suggested line. You can also choose the move
you want to make from available legal moves to see the line you are interested.
"Previous page" and "Next page" are to simulate the "Back" and Forward"
buttons for your browser. It is there to save the mouse traveling distance.
"Home page" will lead to this page for explanations.
Playing mode At the top of the action links is the interesting "Playing mode" link,
which will link you to the corresponding playing mode page. In playing
mode, the order and value information is hidden. To play with endgame databases,
you make the move for one side, and hit "Suggested move" when it is the
opposite side's turn to move. Alternating between these two actions will
feel like you are playing with an almost invincible enemy. It is a great
way to practice your endgame skills. I highly recommend it. Hope you will
enjoy it. In the playing mode, this link becomes "Look up answers". When
you are frustrated enough that you can not find the solution, you can always
look the answer up and examine what you have missed.
Available endgames In the available endgame page, you will find a list of all the endgame databases currently available and some summary information, such as biggest distance-to-capture number, the winning percentage for the red side. Click on the database name will lead you to more detail information about that database. The explanation will be given at later section. The name for the database is given according to the pieces on the board. K, k -- (k)ing
Red is listed first, followed by black. The piece order should be k
> r > c > n > b > e. knkb means red
has king and knight; black has king and bishop.
Statistics Click database name in the available endgame page will bring you to the corresponding statistic page. Here, you can learn what kind of endgame outcome this endgame belong to. Usually, there are three typical outcomes for any given endgame -- red win, black draw, and non-determined. By remembering the usually outcome of certain endgame combination, player can simplify the board combination and lead to the situations more advantageous to himself. If red win percentage is greater than 98%, it means red will win this endgame except very rare situations. If the black draw percentage is greater than 98%, it means this combination will lead to draw. One of the more interesting items in the statistic page is the longest
win position. For each order, I place one of the longest lines and put
it in the table. Click on it can lead you to the corresponding javaboard.
You can use "Suggested move" to just go through it to enjoy the intricate
play, or you can use "Play mode" to test your endgame solving skill.
Indefinite checking/chasing The "Order" needs to be explained further. In Chinese chess, it is different from western chess in dealing the repeat positions. In western chess, the repeat positions should be declared as draw according to the rules. However, in Chinese chess, repeat positions could be win, loss, or draw depending on the specific situation. The current databases try to conform asian rules of Chinese chess. In short, when one side is checking/chasing opponent indefinitely, the side is required to change the pattern, otherwise he will be declared as loss according to asian rules. On the other hand, the side that forces the opponent to checking/chasing indefinitely can win by this rule. If the repeat situations do not form indefinitely checking/chasing, they will be declared as draw if neither side is willing to break the pattern. Because of this difference between western chess and Chinese chess, the typical retrograde analysis method can not be applied to Chinese chess without modifications. It is not until the publication of Fang et al., 2002 (as far as I know), the endgame database construction is limited only to the endgames when only one side has attacking pieces. Hence, I think it is a very interesting paper. However, the paper only solved the indefinitely checking situations while left out indefinitely chasing situations. While I was making the endgame databases following their method, I found, with the great help from meifire, that substantial amount of positions will be stained by indefinitely chasing situations if not taken care of. Fortunately, I was able to extend the method of Fang et al., and made it also working with indefinitely chasing situations. With this, the databases should conform all the asian rules of Chinese chess. I hope you will help me find out if it is the case. In order for one side to win, other than wining by checking opponent's
king, one can also lead the opponent to an indefinitely checking/chasing
situations where the opponent has to choose either the moves that lead
to eventual demise or keeps the pattern and declared as loss. This indefinitely
checking/chasing situation can happen many times before the strong side
checkmate the opponent when both sides have attacking pieces. Instead of
driving the game to checkmate, now one can also drive the game to indefinitely
checking/chasing. To each indefinitely checking/chasing condition and the
positions leading to it, an order is assigned. The value becomes the shortest
distance to indefinitely checking/chasing. Again, odd numbers mean win,
even number loss. The side in the positions that have value 0 can either
check/chase again to the value 1 of the same order, or he can go to the
loss positions with lower orders. By making sure the order will get smaller
(checking/chasing moves are limited), the strong side can eventually reach
checkmate position.
Input any position If you look at the address bar in your browser for any given endgame
position in these pages, you will see a string of strange characters right
after "endgame.cgi?" or "play.cgi?". It is the notation to indicate a specific
position. If you learn this notation, you can input any position that you
are interested and query the database. If it is among the available ones,
you will get corresponding board shown with win/loss/draw information.
I highly recommend you to learn this notation. If there will be a standard
way to represent a Chinese chess board position in the future, it should
not be too far away from this form. Starting from the top row, scan through
the row from left to right. If it is a space, add one to the space counter.
If it is not a space, write out the value of the space counter (omit it
if it is 0), then the piece encountered according to the table given above.
If it is a black piece, it should be the capital version. If red, use small
letter. Reset the space counter and continue the procedure until you reach
the right side of the row. At that point, write out the space counter number
and reset it to zero. Again, omit it if the space counter is zero. Continue
this procedure for the next row until the last row. The example knkb endgame
board has the notation as "4K44B49994n495k399". Compare it to the real
board position to see if you understand it. It is red to move if the string
is without a "0" at the end. Put a "0" to indicate it is black to move.
Finally, if you put a ":" at the very end, it will invert the board so
you will be seeing from black side. Click on these link to see the difference:
4K44B49994n495k3990
, 4K44B49994n495k3990:
Thanks To do Welcome you to suggest endgames to construct.
Discussion forums There are many good discuss forums for Chinese chess. If there are needs to discuss about certain endgames, I would recommend hgchess for discussion in Chinese, and rec.games.chinese-chess for discussion in English. Some page also has good endgame materials that you can study with the help of endgame databases. If you know any other places, please let me know. It's hard to make things right the first time, I would welcome all feedback/suggestions for improvement regarding the endgame pages. I would try to do it when I see fit. Have fun! Jih-tung Pai
References Haw-ren Fang, Tsan-sheng Hsu and Shun-chin Hsu. "Indefinite Sequence of Moves in Chinese Chess Endgames", Proc. 3rd International Conference on Computers and Games (CG), to appear in a Springer-Verlag LNCS volume, 2002. [pdf] Haw-ren Fang, Tsan-sheng Hsu and Shun-chin Hsu. "Construction of Chinese Chess Endgame databases by Retrograde Analysis" Proc. 2nd International Conference on Computers and Games (CG), Springer-Verlag LNCS# 2063, pages 96--114, 2000. [pdf] Ren Wu and Donald F. Beal. "A Memory Efficient Retrograde Algorithm
and Its Application To Chinese Chess Endgames" More Games of No Chance
MSRI Publications Volume 42 , 2002. [pdf]
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