Chess On Ice is both the name of this site and the name of my first Curling App (Game/Simulator).
Iām also currently working on a Monte Carlo simulator to explore the statistics of various aspects of the game of curling, and will report my results on this blog.
— Actually: done, but not reported yet. Short story: there’s no difference between blanking an end or taking one point, except in the second last end. And the team that has the hammer in the first end has a 10% to 30% higher chance of winning the game, which is why we should consider giving the other team a half point to start OR (my personal preference) giving the other team the hammer at the halfway point (e.g. the start of the 5th end for an 8 end game) regardless of who had the hammer and/or took points in the 4th end. In other words, turning a curling game into two 4-end minigames makes them statistically fair again, similar to the fix they implemented for American Football and who has possession at the start of the second half. š
Finally, a long-term goal is to develop an Artificial Intelligence which learns the optimal strategy to the game of curling, given the particular ice conditions and abilities of those playing (for and against). Specifically, this will be a deep neural network for those who know about such things. š
I personally currently curl three times a week, and also coach two different clubs of juniors at least twice a week in total.
Thanks for joining me on this journey! Feel free to get in touch if our interests and activities overlap.
I’ve spent several hundred hours so far on this labour of love, and I expect to spend several hundred more hours in the near future. š
Good curling!