5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel

[Peter Berger]

One of my nieces told me about this game, and she was all excited. I had never heard about it before.

Your opinion?

Peter

[supersharp77]

One of my nieces told me about this game, and she was all excited. I had never heard about it before.

Your opinion?

Peter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_Chess_ ... ime_Travel

"5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel
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5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel.png
Developer(s) Thunkspace
Publisher(s) Thunkspace
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux
Release 22 July 2020
Genre(s) Chess variant
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel is a 2020 chess variant video game released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux by American studio Thunkspace. Its titular mechanic, multiverse time travel, allows pieces to travel through time and timelines in a similar way to how they move through ranks and files. The game was met positively by critics and was praised for its complex and elegant design.


Contents
1 Gameplay
2 Release
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links
Gameplay
5D Chess begins each game with an ordinary chess setup. As the game progresses pieces can, following specific rules, be moved onto a past version of the board. To prevent time-travel related paradoxes, instead of changing the "original" past, this time travel results in the creation of an alternate timeline or "parallel universe", for which the starting position is the same as the corresponding time-point in the original timeline but with the time-traveling piece added. Pieces can also be sent between these different "timelines" and, when moving across timelines, can move into that timeline's "past", "present", or "future".[1] Whenever a new timeline is formed from a movement of a piece between different times of the board, the player has to make a move for each timeline created, e.g. if there are 3 separate timelines, each turn consists of 3 moves. The game ends when the number of valid moves available for a player is less than the number of timelines, in which case that player loses.[2] In general, the more moves have elapsed, the more complicated the game gets due to the creation of the new timelines.[3]

The rules of piece movement are generalized from standard chess rules, with time and timelines being axes of movement, as with ranks and files.[4] For example, a rook can move any number of squares along one axis, so a player can send the rook into its current position, but any number of turns in the past, using time as an axis of movement.[a] Bishops move any number of squares in exactly two axes, so it is possible, for example, to move a bishop three squares vertically and three turns into the past. Knights move two spaces on one axis and one on another axis - for example, a knight may move to any adjacent space (one) into a timeline that is two timelines away (two). Kings move one in any number of axes.[a] For example, a valid move for a king is to simultaneously go one space over horizontally, into a timeline that is "adjacent" or one move away, and one turn into that timeline's past. Queens move any number of spaces equally on any number of axes. A valid move for a queen could be moving 4 spaces vertically, 4 horizontally, into a timeline that is 4 timelines away, and 4 turns into that timeline's past. Pawns can move through time and timelines under certain conditions.[a] In addition to the standard six chess pieces, the game includes its own fairy chess pieces, the unicorn and dragon (which can move any number of spaces equally through exactly three or four dimensions, respectively) and the princess (which moves like a Queen but is restricted to a maximum of two dimensions of movement).[1][5] These pieces can be used in alternate board configurations, as in addition to matches on regular 8×8 boards, the game also supports games on 4×4 boards, 5×5 boards, 6×6 boards and 7×7 boards and a puzzle mode. The game can be played online against other players or offline against an AI.[6]

Release
The game was launched on 22 July 2020 on Steam. It was developed by Conor Petersen and Thunkspace.[7] Petersen said that he had enjoyed chess variants such as three-dimensional chess and conceived using time as an additional dimension for piece movements. He said: "From there, I tried to solve each problem or paradox I found".[8]

Reception
Kotaku reviewer Nathan Grayson called the game "remarkably elegant for what it is".[1] Arne Kaehler, of ChessBase, noted that while the game ran well and is a fun chess variant, the opponent AI was not very competent.[3] A Digitally Downloaded reviewer noted that, due to the increasing complexity of the game as turns pass, it presents a "limitless well of possibility".[9] Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer called the game "mind-bending".[10] Jacob Aron of New Scientist wrote how the game "isn't for the faint-hearted" and "is brain-meltingly hard".[11] Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura played the game when appearing on VENN in August 2020.[8]"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOotGsWbaeA.....Enjoy!!

[Peter Berger]

Yes, I have read this article and also watched the video, but I didn't really understand how the game was supposed to work.

Has anyone tried it for him-/herself?

[towforce]

Haven't tried it, but it looks as though it becomes too complex to reasonably play if you create too many timelines - link.

I'm not sure how the future is supposed to work, but the past is an interesting concept: you can move a piece onto a position that occurred earlier in the game, and that then becomes the new present. That in itself would be manageable. the rule would be to be wary of letting your opponent put a piece in a position where it could have taken a piece earlier in the game.

[towforce]

Here's Hikaru playing the game (he should have worked his way through the examples first!) - link.

[Madeleine Birchfield]

One of my nieces told me about this game, and she was all excited. I had never heard about it before.

Your opinion?

Peter

With regards to creating engines for 5D chess, the high branching factor of the game means that MCTS is probably much more effective than AB search for engines, and the lack of any well known theory or general principles means that a neural network is probably best for evaluation and move ordering. Not sure how board representation or move generation would be done because there are multiple branching timelines to deal with, one might just use a MuZero-like algorithm if one doesn't want to spend the time coming up with an efficient board representation.

[Peter Berger]

Here's Hikaru playing the game (he should have worked his way through the examples first!) - link.

Thanks for the Hikaru video! I understood the game +much+ better watching him trying to work it out.

The game has a major problem with the useless engine provided with it. EVERYONE can beat it ( although it seems to have a workable implementation of the rules).

And as no one else but you is playing it: with whom are you supposed to play games in the first place?

I am still kind of fascinated by it - the game is SOO not for a human mind - it is just too complex - but it is kind of an interesting challenge.

Peter