Molecular computation: RNA solutions to chess problems

We have expanded the field of “DNA computers” to RNA and present a general approach for the solution of satisfiability problems. As an example, we consider a variant of the “Knight problem,” which asks generally what configurations of knights can one place on an n × n chess board such that no knight is attacking any other knight on the board. Using specific ribonuclease digestion to manipulate strands of a 10-bit binary RNA library, we developed a molecular algorithm and applied it to a 3 × 3 chessboard as a 9-bit instance of this problem. Here, the nine spaces on the board correspond to nine “bits” or placeholders in a combinatorial RNA library. We recovered a set of “winning” molecules that describe solutions to this problem.

A new treatise on chess, containing the rudiments of the game explained on scientific principles, with the best methods of playing the most brilliant openings and difficult ends of games, including numerous original positions, and a selection of fifty new chess problems.

Mode of access: Internet.

Chess problems, a collection of original positions, forming one hundred ends of games won or drawn; to which is added a selection of games, including those played between the Leeds and Liverpool clubs, with remarks.

Mode of access: Internet.

A treatise on the game of chess; containing an introduction to the game, and an analysis of the various openings of games, with several new modes of attack and defence; to which are added, twenty-five new chess problems on diagrams.

Mode of access: Internet.

A new treatise on chess, containing the rudiments of the science, with an analysis of the best methods of playing the different openings and ends of games, including many original positions, and a selection of fifty chess problems never before printed in this country.

Mode of access: Internet.

Running the gauntlet; a study of the capture of pawns, en passant, in chess problems,

Introduction in English and German on opposite pages.

Sam Loyd & his chess problems ...

Pt. 1, Sam Loyd, Pt. 2, Chess strategy; Pt. 3, Miscellanies.

Hoyle's games : illustrated edition. Embracing all the most modern modes of play, and the rules practised at the present time, in billiards, whist, draughts, cribbage, backgammon, and all other fashionable games; together with sixteen games adapted to the new Yankee-notion cards. Also the whole of Frer̀e's chess hand-book. Containing, besides elementary instruction and the laws of chess, about fifty select games by the first players, endings of games, and the defeat of the muzio gambit. Also, thirty-six of the choicest chess problems, and a description of, and rules for, four-handed chess /

Classified for chess; Frère's chess hand-book, p. 229-324.

Amusements in chess /

Mode of access: Internet.

Kriegslisten des Schachspiels, oder, Der kluge Schachspieler : praktische Anleitung nach den Werken der besten Meister das Spiel remis und patt zu machen order zu gewinnen /

Originally written in French, then translated into English, and then into German.

The manual of chess: containing the elementary principles of the game; illustrated with numerous diagrams, recent games and original problems.

Mode of access: Internet.

The dark side of the board: advances in chess Kriegspiel

While imperfect information games are an excellent model of real-world problems and tasks, they are often difficult for computer programs to play at a high level of proficiency, especially if they involve major uncertainty and a very large state space. Kriegspiel, a variant of chess making it similar to a wargame, is a perfect example: while the game was studied for decades from a game-theoretical viewpoint, it was only very recently that the first practical algorithms for playing it began to appear. This thesis presents, documents and tests a multi-sided effort towards making a strong Kriegspiel player, using heuristic searching, retrograde analysis and Monte Carlo tree search algorithms to achieve increasingly higher levels of play. The resulting program is currently the strongest computer player in the world and plays at an above-average human level.