The other day I was reading about Advanced Chess or something, where the player has a computer with him which can calculate probable future moves and access a database of opening moves and end game strategies. The argument in favour of this is that games should no longer be lost in end game when they should be won, and the players' strategies should decide the result.

With the recent talk about how much information should be provided in the Fantasy Football Client, I found myself thinking again about regular chess and Advanced Chess. Is it somehow immoral to have a list of endgames and check them while playing normal chess? Probably. It's quite possibly against competition rules as well (I don't know, I've never played/taken any interest in competition chess). I wonder how people would react if you took a laptop to a BB tourney, with a program on it that would calculate odds for your moves almost instantly. This is the grey area. If you were to take in a hand-held computer with a program such that you simply inputted the current game position, asked it what the "best" route to get the ball would be and got a probability out for that route, I would expect people would start to be a little less welcoming... You could then extend this program a little further and have it form tactics for your whole game. Maybe. I don't know much about programming. Maybe if you played against a fumbbl coach, you could have it search his match history (given enough time) and find what his probable tactics would be.

Is the first example cheating? Not really. In theory, there's no problem with you taking in a calculator and working out all those odds yourself (OK, maybe time would become a factor...). Is the second example cheating? It feels like it should be. But the coach still has to decide if that probability is good enough. Is the third example cheating? This definitely feels like it should be. But if we let the second case through, where do we draw the line?

I am excited about the FFB client, and I'm not trying to suggest that Kalimar/Christer have made a mistake by putting chances of success onto the pass ruler or for dodges. It will certainly help me, as I don't think I've ever made a pass on fumbbl while knowing what I needed to roll. I played elves in a TT tourney once, and had to check the rulebook every time I wanted to pass (I think I gave up on passing after the second game because of this :P ). So from that perspective, it will help me learn as well.

In case anyone is wondering, no I don't know what my point is here either. Even if I did, I'm sure it's been bastardized into things that don't even resemble words anymore. I just wanted to write stuff down while I was thinking. BIG MISTAKE. Sorry. :(

Also, sucks to be any of you who just read all that. :D