Chess and go were developed centuries ago before computers were even science fiction concepts, much less the game opponents to humans they are today. Now that the computer age is upon us, it seems only natural that new games would be especially designed to exploit the weaknesses of computers so that humans may always remain the champs. Call it vanity, call it research – the key is whether or not such an effort results in a challenging and enjoyable game. With Arimaa, it has.

Developed by chess fan and artificial intelligence scholar Omar Syed, the game of Arimaa is played on a standard chess board with chess pieces but with new moves and strategic options that he says favor human imagination over machine calculations. Syed is offering a reward of $10,000 to the first person who can design a program that enables a computer to beat a human in Arimaa match play. The offer stands until 2020. It’s not quite a million dollar bounty for a killer go program, but Arimaa hasn’t been around thousands of years to attract millions of players, either. Yet.