30 Weird Chess Algorithms: Elo World

suckerpinch · 965.1K views · 2019-07-15 · 42:36

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Overview

Tom Scott-style absurdist tour by Tom7 of SIGBOVIK chess projects: a tournament of 30 weird chess algorithms used to rate a color- and piece-blind chess program. Topics include mirrors, arithmetic encoding, perverted game tree search and a diluted Stockfish.

On Hacker News

HN commenters call it a must-watch for its deadpan, absurdly elaborate engineering and cite it for ideas like diluting strong engines with random moves.

Recommended by 8 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2019–2026

Topics

Chess, board games & puzzles Satire & parody Algorithms & data structures

What people said

GuestHNUser · 2022-04 · Strong recommendation
Tom7 is brilliant for anyone that hasn't seen him before. His Reverse Emulation video ( [LINK] ) and Weird Chess Algorithms ( [VIDEO] ) are a must watch. His dead pan delivery coupled with the ridiculous amount of effort he puts into things that don't _really_ matter is honestly inspiring.
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Rendello · 2026-05 · Recommendation
This reminded me of Tom7's video where he made a bunch of ridiculous engines and pitted them against each other (and against "diluted" versions of Stockfish): [VIDEO] [LINK]
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iamevn · 2023-07 · Recommendation
Anything that catches your eye is good but my favorites are: 30 Weird Chess Algorithms: ELO World [VIDEO] Reverse Emulating the NES to give it SUPER POWERS! [LINK]
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Sources

Video by suckerpinch, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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