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What are some board games that are difficult for a computer to play?

Asked by PhiNotPi (12681points) May 22nd, 2012

I am looking for a board game with extremely simple rules but which is extremely difficult for a computer to play. To be specific, I am looking for an abstract strategy game.

In many of our most popular board games (Chess, Checkers/Draughts) an advanced game engine can defeat even the most skilled human player.

With chess, while it is very hard for a person to make a really good move, it is relatively easy to make a relatively good move. This is because humans are very good at setting goals and sub-goals, and deciding a move that can accomplish this goal. We do not consider every possible chess move when deciding to use a pawn to capture the opponent’s queen.

Computers, however, like to brute-force solutions. This allows them to take into account so many possibilities that no human could possibly think that far ahead. This works fine in chess and checkers, but when there is a very large number of legal moves, then the computer can no longer look very far ahead.

I am on a quest to find a game such that no current computer can beat a skilled human. The game should have extremely simple rules, such that an ordinary person could easily memorize them.

So far, I have looked into Arimaa. Even though it does appear to be very hard for a computer to win, with a claimed 17,000 legal moves each turn, the rules are complicated. There are trapdoor spaces, pulling and pushing enemy pieces, and a complicated hierarchy of pieces.

I have also read about Go, which has a relatively large number of legal moves, but has more complex scoring rules, and an additional game phase in which players identify dead and alive stones before scoring.

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