Pairwise Comparison of Chess Opening Variations
21 Pages Posted: 29 Jul 2014
See all articles by Jamal Munshi
Jamal Munshi
Date Written: July 28, 2014
It is demonstrated that a methodology previously described for comparing a number of different test openings with a neutral and perfect opening may also be used to make pairwise comparisons of alternate continuation lines of any chess opening. Such comparisons show, for example, that Accelerated Dragon variations initiated by black are not robust because they depend on white's cooperation. Rather than these specific findings, however, the real purpose of this paper is to further refine, validate, and demonstrate an objective methodology for evaluating the relative merit of chess openings, a subject of great interest to chess players at all levels of play.
Keywords: chess openings, chess engines, refutation, methodology, Monte Carlo simulation, numerical methods, probability vector, Euclidean distance, robust statistics, bootstrap, first move advantage, chess
Munshi, Jamal, Pairwise Comparison of Chess Opening Variations (July 28, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2472783 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2472783
Jamal Munshi (Contact Author)
Sonoma State University ( email )
1801 East Cotati Avenue