How to deal with the imminent solution to antichess

I think 960 Antichess rating must be separate from usual Antichess rating.
The same as 960 standard chess have separate rating from usual standard chess.

Appearance of 960 Antichess - is really inevitable.
I am sure it is a matter of time when 960 Antichess becomes routine variant on many chess sites.

And old Antichess - will be just historical relic. But could be still playable if adapted with pie rule.

The pie rule is very interesting, as choosing the first move DOES allow directional influence over the game, which retains a certain "advantage" in and of itself. It would even add depth and massive variety to regular chess games...

#12 offtopic but there is a cool variant related to that idea http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/refusal.html

I don't think the pie rule is great myself -- antichess would still be largely unfit for competitive play.

Hmm....

Pardon me my English isnt that great but from what I understood from that article e3 is about to be solved not entire Antichess ? or is the rest already solved ?

until recently e3 had only 2 variations left unsolved, that means 18 out of 20 replies by black would end in a loss, and from what i understand now theres only 1 unsolved line left now by black against "e3" ?

Pardon me again but i dont understand your concern. There are 12 highly playable openings by white, and even if all of them are solved, even if there will be such a thing as "Watkins lines" as you say, that shouldnt be able to affect or ruin the fun for human players because there are many options for black per move, and i dont think any human is capable of memorizing every possible best move when there so many options for black to choose from.

this does not change anything for the game, memorizing lines will not help u when u are up against a strong player. Once i lose to someone in a certain line i immediately change my replies next time, it would take a genuinly strong player to truly beat another strong player not memorizing solved lines. Human capacity for remembering is limited so theres no real danger here, and the fun should continue.

I'll give you an example im quite inspired by, you see this player http://en.lichess.org/@/f4opening hes devoted himself to an opening that is openly and officially lost, and yet even I at my best efforts could barely beat him, infact it mighta been a draw if he had not accepted my takeback.

like i said, until recently 18 out of 20 replies to e3 were lost by black, yet did anyone care ? nope, black players still kick whoites "winning" ass quite frequently.

we are only humans. This news doesnt affect our game or fun. But even if it did, we would find a way around it im sure, there are always options and different parts of something, you can enjoy.

hm...again

i missed that last part of this post

from what I understand, the thought process behind this is to remove Antichess as a variant with the reason of it being solved ?

if thats the case then i would assume the actual problem is not being able to tell cheaters from those who simply memorize line (as i understood in your conversation) Im sure there are much better and fairer ways to deal with that problem than to remove the variant completely as there are many of us whove invested an awful lot of time and heart in this game, it would be a very cruel fate for all of us Anti players on Lichess.

But I hope I simply misread everything :)

I believe AM has said everything.
Just I want to tell you guys that there are many players who love this game. So do not remove it as a variant but if u guys want to omit the ratings for it I have no problem with that!!!

@AM-Veriitas
The problem is that if 1.e3 is solved as a white win then the game is a white win unless you ban 1.e3 since white can always use a software that contain Watkins' lines and defeat black no matter how black plays.

@AM-Veriitas
That's why I'm also against removing the game since it is not in the interest of any game solver (such as Professor Watkins) or player to ruin the game.

The only difference is that reading Watkins' lines while playing games (but not reciting the lines before playing) will be considered cheating and cheaters will always win as white. It's just a little more extreme than cheating in normal chess.

FYI we never said we'd outright remove the variant, just make it unrated. It has lost its value as a competitive sport duee to white's overwhelming advantage. And this isn't the 'official position', just some thoughts. :) Everything is still on the table.

Just as i thought

even though the original post does not state anything regarding the removal of the game, it was obvious where this is coming from and where this is going.

I believe this has nothing to do with Antichess being solved "thats just an excuse no doubt" the main issue is the Cheating part.

You are not sure how best to handle the cheating dilemma in Anti so you think about making it Unrated with the excuse of it being solved? I dont mean to be rude but Lol comon is that best you can do ?

just tell people cheating is a problem in anti, and its hard to detect who cheats and who simply memorizes lines therefore it causes trouble between members and staff constant complaints etc..in other words a big headache

However, I believe every antichess player agrees with me on this when I say thats not reason enough to make it Unrated. To be unrated is not knowing urskill level or your progress in the game and it even takes away the fun and the competition. So basically its worse than removing the variant because its like giving you a hungry man an apple with no taste, nor texture and no Satiety, its simply torture.

If detecting cheaters is that big of an issue I suggest you ban certain lines or go through a verification process with the suspects there arent that many anti players anyway, even less who cheat.

I sincerely hope antichess remains as is, but if not, then I think this site will lose itself some decent members/followers.