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Saturday, August 25, 2018

Puzzle #78: White to Play; White to Tinue

Hello, all!

I had a lot of windshield time at work this week and decided that I wanted to beat TakticianBot. I came close a few times with flats, but Tako would ultimately outwit me. I finally got this road win and thought it would make a good puzzle.

For the purpose of this puzzle, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (Black, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (White) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

This can go a few different ways.  So, try to find the best and longest defensive line that you can for Black.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

UPDATE:  The Reddit site has updated and the newer version does not recognize the older spoiler tag - " [spoiler text](/spoiler) ". The new version has it's own spoiler tag " >! spoiler text !< ". Unfortunately, the new spoiler tag does not work on the old Reddit. So, for the time being, since we have community members using both new and old Reddit, both tags need to be used. I found a way to nest these spoiler tags:

>! [spoiler text](/spoiler) !<

Ex:  >![35. a3> 3b2+](/spoiler)!<


I know it's a bit of a pain, but eventually, we should be able to switch over to the new tag only.

Enjoy!!

P.S. If you have suggestions for puzzle board states, please let me know. If you would like to post them yourself but don't know how, I can also help with the behind-the-scenes steps.


Saturday, August 18, 2018

Puzzle #77: White to Play; White to Tinue

Hello, Takkers of the world!

Here's a neat Tinue sent to me by u/archvenison. It's from a game between him and Syme. If you want to see the game up to this point - here it is.

I won't list the number of turns until Tinue on this puzzle as it is deceiving. See what you can come up with!

For the purpose of this puzzle, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (Black, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (White) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

UPDATE:  The Reddit site has updated and the newer version does not recognize the older spoiler tag - " [spoiler text](/spoiler) ". The new version has it's own spoiler tag " >! spoiler text !< ". Unfortunately, the new spoiler tag does not work on the old Reddit. So, for the time being, since we have community members using both new and old Reddit, both tags need to be used. I found a way to nest these spoiler tags:

>! [spoiler text](/spoiler) !<

Ex:  >![35. a3> 3b2+](/spoiler)!<


I know it's a bit of a pain, but eventually, we should be able to switch over to the new tag only.

Be sure to thank u/archvenison for this one!

P.S. If you have suggestions for puzzle board states, please let me know. If you would like to post them yourself but don't know how, I can also help with the behind-the-scenes steps.



Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Let's Get Physical

Some industrious Tak attendees left these behind at their stations


Hello, all!

The core ideas of this post have been rolling around in my head, attempting to materialize, since the GenCon Tak Tournament. During those 4 days, I played more physical games of Tak than I have in the past 2 years. Up until that point, I almost exclusively played Tak online. The main reason for this is I live in the middle of the woods. So, my closest physical opponents are 7 and 9 years old with interest in Tak that waxes and wanes, like, well, 7 and 9 year olds :)

During our game tonight, Wee Red made the Parthenon
Not only was GenCon the greatest concentration of physical games in my Tak experience, it was also the only physical tournament that I have been involved in. Some interesting nuances are involved in playing on a physical board. In this post I would like to explore a few of those nuances, especially those regarding tournament play.

The GenCon tournament was managed with the following philosophy in mind:  Each player was responsible for refereeing their own game. Officials could be called in at any time for disputes, but, on the whole, each player was responsible for:  watching their time, monitoring their opponent's time, spotting any illegal moves, and recording game/match results. Players were also responsible for declaring a win.

This may not seem surprising to those of you that have participated in physical chess tournaments or something similar. But, to me, it was vastly different from online tournaments where the computer keeps track of time, prohibits illegal moves, automatically searches for win conditions after every move, and even organizes the pieces for you.

Another interesting thing about physical gameplay was the organic decision to change from a contact-style end turn condition to a clock-based one. Players were allowed to change their movement or placement decisions up until they depressed the clock button. This rule moves away from chess in an intuitive way; in Tak, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain contact, as you are often handling multiple pieces while moving stacks.

One major takeaway from this tournament was that we should make a concerted effort to alter our online play experience to more closely mirror in-person, tournament play. I am not saying that we should let people make illegal moves online, as I think that these training wheels are very important for new players. However, I did come up with 2 suggestions for changes that I feel would benefit players of all levels.

Here's how I think it could go:

3 buttons would need to be added to the notation area of the gameplay screen - 'Reset', 'End Turn', and 'Declare Win'. Programmer-defined hotkeys (or user-defined ones) could also be used for these. I would suggest 'alt' or 'ctrl' for the 'End Turn' hotkey, as they would accommodate both left- and right-handed players. 'Declare Win' could be the other key + D. These are just spitballs; experimentation with different keys and key combinations is most likely needed.

'End Turn' -- Instead of your turn ending when you place a stone or move a stack, you would be free to undo and redo moves until you were satisfied. Then, you would press 'End Turn'. This button would act the same way that a physical chess timer works; it would stop your time and start your opponent's. I think this method is superior to our current system because it would substantially reduce the instances of 'misclicks' as well as giving players freedom to try out moves before committing to them. 

'Reset' -- this button would be used any time you decided to change your move before submitting it with either of the other 2 buttons discussed here. Pressing this button simply resets the board as it was at the beginning of your turn.

'Declare Win' is very similar to 'End Turn'. It ends your turn, but, before play transfers over to your opponent, this button also prompts the computer to run an analysis of the board state, searching for win conditions. If win conditions are present, then the appropriate player gets the win. If win conditions are not present, the player is notified of this. 'Declare Win' must be used during your turn.

A time out would prompt a win check and would include pieces on the board that had be placed/moved but not submitted.

As an added bonus, these suggestions would allow FriendlyBot to actually call "tak" instead of simply waiting an extra amount of time before taking the win. FriendlyBot would evaluate the board state, message the opponent "Tak", and then wait 30 seconds before pressing 'Declare Win', giving the opponent time to request an undo.

I am not a programmer, but I believe all of the mechanics for these suggestions are already in place within playtak, they would just need to be teased out and made separate, controllable commands instead of automatic ones.

I know our access to playtak programming is limited, so maybe this could be written into Treff's fork?


TL;DR

  • Online play should recreate physical play while still enhancing it.
  • The GenCon tournament (on physical boards) required players to declare a win.
  • This tournament also let players experiment with their move/placement up until pressing the clock.

  • Therefore, I have come up with a suggestion for adding these elements into our online play while still retaining the benefits of online play (access to human and AI opponents, board and piece organization, keeping track of time, recording results, etc.)


Let me know what you think. My general philosophy is that everything is up for debate, so feel free to attack any and all points you disagree with.


Saturday, August 11, 2018

Puzzle #76: Black to Play; Black to Tinue

Good evening, Takolytes!

I hope everyone had a good week and is ready to stretch their brain a bit.

This week's puzzle is from fairly early in a 5x5 game I played a couple weeks ago. White just played c4+, which turns out to be the wrong move in this scenario. See if you can find the Tinue for Black. If you want to stretch your brain a bit further, you can also tell me what White should have done instead of c4+ to prevent this Tinue.

For the purpose of this puzzle, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (White, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (Black) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

The Tinue I am looking for in this puzzle occurs in 5 moves, meaning that the actual win will come in 7 moves for Black.

I believe all responses by White are singular and forced. If the response is not singular and forced, then any response results in the same following move by Black or the defensive moves by White have ready responses by Black and those defense/offense pairs are interchangeable in regards to order. Of course, I could have made a mistake...in that case, let me know so I can fix it or, at least, apologize.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

UPDATE:  The Reddit site has updated and the newer version does not recognize the older spoiler tag - " [spoiler text](/spoiler) ". The new version has it's own spoiler tag " >! spoiler text !< ". Unfortunately, the new spoiler tag does not work on the old Reddit. So, for the time being, since we have community members using both new and old Reddit, both tags need to be used. I found a way to nest these spoiler tags:

>! [spoiler text](/spoiler) !<

Ex:  >![35. a3> 3b2+](/spoiler)!<


I know it's a bit of a pain, but eventually, we should be able to switch over to the new tag only.

Next week I will be featuring a 6x6 Tinue puzzle sent to me by archvenison. If any readers have puzzle ideas, feel free to send them my way and I will see what I can do. Thanks for your support!

Enjoy!



Tuesday, August 7, 2018

GenCon Post Mortem






Hello everyone!

GenCon was amazing! I would like to thank all those people that came out to the Tak events - we had an excellent turnout:  all slots that were signed up for were filled and we even had multiple passersby walk up and get involved.





















We put on 4 events total:  2-hour casual events were held Thursday, Friday, and Sunday with a 4 1/2 hour tournament on Saturday. It was great to see some high level games between experienced Tak players. It was also very morale-boosting to see all the new people interested in Tak. The events left me feeling charged and reaffirmed in my belief that Tak is here to stay and grow.

These events simply couldn't have happened without Ben working hard to organize them. Among other things, he secured entry badges, gathered prizes, and helped make sure no one was left out. Thanks, Ben!!

Also, I would like to thank Queso and FloatingSkull for helping set up, tear down, and talk Tak!



Congrats are in order for M_Ainsel! She walked away with a white oak Wyrmwood Tak set and a copy of my book signed by James Ernest.

Second place was Tarontos, winning an Arcanist board and my book signed by the team at Worldbuilders.

3rd-8th place all received some combination of Tak sets from Cheapass Games along with a copy of Mastering Tak.

In addition to having a great experience, all participants walked away with the new Tak coin from Cheapass Games.

So, all in all, I think we gave away over $700 in prizes! Not bad for a $20 entry fee...


A video of the final games will be posted by Ben when he gets the time to do post-production on it. After that, I plan on doing an in-depth analysis of the most interesting one.

_____________________


I wanted to share my GenCon haul with you guys, too. The first day I managed to only spend $4 in the exhibition hall, and that was on a tray of nachos :)  But, as anyone that has been around that much awesome stuff can tell you, there's always something that draws you in.

Space is at a premium in my house, so only premium things get that space. I searched through the convention center and these items fit the bill:

Tak University Edition with cloth board
A nicely embroidered bag to put it in

And a place to put my Tak coins

Also inside this Bag o' Tak, I can fit my Tak-themed Pairs deck and wooden deck box with Name of the Wind dealer coin:


If you've never played Pairs, it's a great game to rest your mind after a long day of Tak!

The fit is a little snug, as the deck box is made for 52 cards, but the craftsmanship is superb and I couldn't pass it up


If you weren't able to make it to GenCon this year, there's always next year!

Until then, let's go spread the good word of Tak :)


P.S. I will try to post a puzzle this weekend. I also have a non-puzzle blog to post, hopefully late this week or early next.