[jeffnc]

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This "complete information" idea is commonly bandied about. It's true in theory, but not in practice, at least among amateur players.



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Jeff, I've seen you make this claim a few times. In game theory terminology, chess is indeed a game of complete information, and poker is a game of incomplete information.

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That's what I said. I also am saying that in practice you don't make all your decisions based strictly on game theory. In many actual game situations in chess, you can knowingly make theoretically incorrect moves and still gain an advantage over a (non master) opponent. You obviously cannot do this in a game theory sense. The fact that chess is theoretically a game of complete information is irrelevant sometimes, yet people keep talking about it as if chess is a game played against perfect computers, not against people. Since their assumption is wrong, sometimes their conclusion is wrong.

In some ways, amateur chess in practice has more in common with poker, a game of incomplete information, than with a game of complete information. This is the point I'm trying to get across.

For example, in poker you might say "I'm not sure what my opponent has and he's not sure what I have, but based on his play I think he has something like ABC, and he probably thinks I have something like XYZ."

In chess you might say "I'm not sure what my opponent's up to here, but based on his last couple moves he's very worried about this threat, even though there is an easy defense to it that he's obviously not aware of. I will continue with this "bluff". I might be exposing myself here, but I'm not sure since I can only imagine a couple moves ahead, and furthermore I doubt he'd see that anway even if it is an exposure."

I'm trying clear up the misconception that just because a game is one of "complete information", you can't bluff and you can't outplay your opponent in many of the same ways you can in poker. If your opponent does not know how to use information or is not aware of it, then that information might as well not exist, making the game one of incomplete information in practice. And then the game plays more like a theoretical game of incomplete information.