Arimaa

A few weeks ago, I started a Go entry course. I don't plan to become a Go player with a "Dan" level, just to know the basics and be able to defend myself. But today, while I was searching for a good Go computer program, I came across a game named Arimaa.

What I found interesting about this new game is that was made with the purpose of being difficult to build a competent computer A.I. for it. In its Wikipedia entry, they talk about Game Theory, Brute force search depth, and such. It is compared with chess as they both share a similar board.

They offer a prize for the one who can build a computer program capable of defeating human players, and without the need of a Deep Blue supercomputer. Seems like an interesting challenge.

On the other hand, it is also hard to build good Go programs, but at least there exist some of them. And I really like the ones made for cell phones as I can practice while I'm travelling.