Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site sunybcs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!sunybcs!ugfailau
From: ugfailau@sunybcs.UUCP (Fai Lau)
Newsgroups: net.games.chess
Subject: Perfect Play?
Message-ID: <2916@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Mar-86 00:04:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.2916
Posted: Sun Mar  9 00:04:03 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Mar-86 20:19:46 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 28


	I have the following question, I am interested in what people
in the net think about it.

	It seems that if any strategic game (i.e. chess) is played flawlessly
by all participants making the best possible moves (assuming the entire game
tree is available for reference), there is only one possible outcome for
each type of game; either one player wins or a tie if the game is
so allowed. Since in reality it is impossible to built an entire game tree
for all but the most elementary strategic games such as tic tac toe, it is
impossible to know who is 'supposed' to win in any given type of game.
Therefore, it seems that the one who wins is the one who makes the fewer
mistakes during the couse of the game.
	Now let's consider a game tree is available for SCORING ONLY for
the game of chess. Every arc of the tree is assigned a point value denoting
the quality of the move comparing to other moves branching from a common
node. That is, the best move following every node carries the point value
of one, second best two, third best three, etc.. The tree is traversed
by a pointer. Whenever a player makes a move, the pointer traverses to the
corresponding node through the corresponding arc. The player than picks
up the point value of the arc and adds it to his score. So at any given
moment of the game, the player who has the lower score is making less
deviation from a perfect play.
	The question is:

	IS IT POSSIBLE FOR THE LOSER OF THE GAME TO ACTUALLY HAVE
ACQUIRED LOWER SCORE? IN OTHER WORD, IS IT POSSIBLE FOR THE LOSER TO HAVE
MADE FEWER DEVIATION FROM A PERFECT PLAY EVEN THOUGH HE LOST THE GAME??