N check odds

[lkaufman]

The discussion of N check chess gave me an idea for human vs engine matches. Quite simply, they play standard chess, but the human also wins the game if he gives a specified number of checks. For a top human player (say MVL, by far the top 3 check player on chess.com, and also World Blitz Champion in standard chess), I suspect that the "fair" number is 3. Of course this assumes that the engine can play (x,y) check chess reasonably well; in this case it is simply playing 3,99 (or any other huge number) check chess, where it loses after 3 checks but only wins after an unreachably large number of checks, so it must checkmate to win. Aside from equalizing chances in perhaps a better way than piece odds, it also should lead to far fewer draws, since only the engine can draw by perpetual check (human would win), and since many drawish endings will be won for the human. Since we already know that color is very important in N check chess, each step has two sub-steps depending on color. It may well be that in an engine vs MVL match at 3 check odds, both sides will score very heavily with the White pieces if they alternate colors. Presumably 1 check + move odds (human White) would be for novice level players, since they could just read Uri's brief analysis to win in a few moves. 1 check odds (engine White) is probably not a trivial win (not easily memorized to the end), but is probably only suitable for weak players. 2 check and move odds might be suitable for mid-rated amateurs, two check odds (engine White) for strong amateurs or even masters, 3 check and move odds for grandmasters, and 3 check (engine White) just for MVL or another top player who reaches his level at 3 check chess. Probably no human would win a match at 4 check odds, even with White, but who knows? Of course it depends on time control, I'm assuming something in the Rapid range. Just my guesses, feel free to offer your own opinions. Note that no special GUI is needed, it can just be set for normal chess with resign on, trusting that the engine will return a resignable score if it has been checked the specified number of times. Unfortunately Komodo isn't currently programmed for this variant; if it were we might propose a match.

[Uri Blass]

You can play N check odds with FRC to solve the memorization problem because memorization of lines can also help in 3 check odds(you do not need to memorize all possible lines to get a significant advantage).

[lkaufman]

You can play N check odds with FRC to solve the memorization problem because memorization of lines can also help in 3 check odds(you do not need to memorize all possible lines to get a significant advantage).

Good point, although there is a concern that some FRC positions may be much more or less favorable for the human side (the one needing only to give N checks). In normal chess this is not a big issue; although White's advantage varies from one FRC position to another, it doesn't seem to vary by a huge amount, but with the goal of giving N checks, this may not be the case. Even without any memorization (other than memorizing that 1.e4 is the best first move in these variants!), the human will get big advantages in the opening just by playing good chess moves, since the engine will do whatever is necessary to avoid safe checks, making many concessions.