Designed to use the same board and pieces provided in a standard Chess set, Arimaa is intended to be difficult for computers to play while still being fun and easy for humans. The average number of moves at each turn in Arimaa is over 15,000 compared to about 30 for Chess. Yet humans have no difficulty finding the good moves. Computers struggle to see beyond 4 turns and aren't able to use opening books or end game tables.
There is a reward of $10,000 for the first person or company who can build a computer program that can defeat selected top human Arimaa players prior to 2020. This challenge has been attempted every year since 2004 and the humans have successfully defended it each year. In the 2009 match, the human world champion Jean Daligault defeated the computer by giving the equivalent of a rook handicap in chess.
The complete rules of the game are available at the http://www.arimaa.com/ website where visitors can also play the game online with others. Over 2000 games played each month. http://arimaa.com/arimaa/gameroom/recentgames.cgi
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