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Great Shatranj. Great Shatranj. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

H.G.Muller wrote on Fri, Apr 25, 2008 07:58 AM UTC:

After 150 games the Ministers lost to the High Priests by 42% (47+, 71-,
32=). That is an excess score for the High Priests of 8%, about 2/3 of the
Pawn-odds excess score. That would suggest a High Priest is about 33 cP
stronger than a Minister.

Because the difference is so small, preliminary tests left me in the dark
as to which piece was stronger, so in the test mentioned above I had to
run them as exactly equal. This is the safest thing for not producing any
self-fulfilling bias in favor of one or the other, and thus reliably
determine who is strongest. (Note that the statistical error over 150
games is only 3.56%, so that the probability of an 8% swing (2.24 sigma)
between equal pieces is only ~2%.)

The disadvantage of exactly equal programmed piece values (625), however,
is that any difference in strength is not fully expressed, because the
side with the better piece will often trade it for the inferior one, not
realizing it is better, annihilating his advantage. So I am rerunning the
test now with the High-Priest programmed as 650.