Ataraxos vs. Pim Niemeijer

We evaluated Ataraxos in a 20-game series against Pim Niemeijer, a player whose accolades include: 4 world championships (the most of any active player and tied for the most of all time); 15 Dutch national championships (the most of all time); 2 online world championships (the most of all time); and over 600 weeks as the #1 ranked player (the most of all time). According to George Franka, the only player to compete in every world championship since 1997, Pim is “the best Stratego player ever.”

Ataraxos won the series with 15 wins, 1 loss, and 4 draws. This margin is unprecedented at the highest level of human play, where, according to 3-time runner-up world champion Max Roelofs, the risk that must be assumed during play keeps margins razor thin. It was achieved despite an asymmetry that 3-time world champion Vincent de Boer considered a large handicap: Ataraxos played a fixed strategy, and Pim, knowing it would not adapt, could search for and exploit its weaknesses across the series.