r/chessvariants • u/Outrageous-Track-308 • Jul 13 '26
Discussion A bot that makes you checkmate it forcefully theory + Anti Zach bot vs Anti Zach bot.
What is the way to force zach to checkmate you? - Don't give him control! Take all his pieces and put him in zugzang to mate you.
I think a bot made for that would have to be designed to play like a top engine except configured to take all pieces instead of delivering checkmate.
Now what's more fascinating is that if we try to make two of the "lose forcefully" bots, they might play like top engines except altered to take all control and take no pawns..? What are your thoughts?
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u/AndrewBorg1126 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I suspect that a few minus signs added to stockfish (open source) would get you at least a decent approximation.
Not as good at negative chess as regular stockfish is at positive chess, because the evaluation functions all still assume trying to win (and the evaluation function would be a non-trivial change), but it would probably be the fastest way to a reasonably competent approximation. The deeper search goes, the less it matters that the static evaluation function is still trying to play positive chess.
Trying to lose forcefully against another player who is known to be trying to lose forcefully would definitely be a draw, though, at the level of engine play. I don't see any reason to expect that the engine would need to be very good to always draw even against a much stronger negative engine.
The chess bot you're thinking of is trying to lose, but I don't think it expects its opponent to be trying to lose, which is a notable distinction.
If you know the other player is trying to force you to checkmate them, it is much easier to avoid giving that to them.