Author: Tina Long
Date: 20:23:09 03/14/02
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Hi Guys, Bobby Fischer invented a version of checkers called Fischer-Random-Checkers. The four pieces on each back row are shuffled randomly (although piece two must remain on the left of piece three). This is to eliminate the dependance of human and machine players on opening theory. My questions to Martin: At the start, how deep (how many plies) do the best Checkers programs, on average, play by "Opening Book" before they start to "think". In an average middlegame move of 2mins (?), how deep do the best Checkers programs look - I would guess 30 or even 40 ply. Do the best Checkers programs use "Tablebases" (when there are few pieces left, hardcoding that states "in this board position make this move") instead of "thought". Rough enough is good enough for me, I've only a passing interest. Thanks mate, Tina Long On March 14, 2002 at 20:21:25, martin fierz wrote: >On March 14, 2002 at 19:51:50, Jerry Doby wrote: > >>On March 14, 2002 at 18:42:10, martin fierz wrote: >> >>>aloha! >>> >>>sorry for trespassing in the computer chess club with a computer checkers >>>message, but i thought maybe there are other checkers programmers posting and >>>reading here?! here's a mail i got from mac banks. >>> >>>cheers >>> martin >>> >>> >>> >>>Hi George and Everyone, >>> >>>I want to advertise this machine vs. machine checker tourney >>>as much as possible so I will appreciate anyone on this list >>>that has a web page or newsletter to help me out in this effort >>>by printing the info listed below. I am thanking all of you >>>for help in this matter. >>> >>>WORLD MACHINE VS. MACHINE CHECKER QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT >>> >>> >>>A world Qualifying Machine vs. Machine Checker tournament will be held in >>>Las Vegas, Nevada >>>during the period 2-10 August, 2002 at the 4 Queens Hotel. To enter this >>>tournament, email George >>>Miller at george@egroeg.freeserve.co.uk prior to 30 March, 2002. Each >>>checker program that enters >>>must be the original work of the entering developers. Each entry is a >>>computing system and one or >>>more humans who programmed it. At least one of the program developers must >>>attend the championship >>>to operate the program. The winner of this qualifying checker tourney will >>>have the opportunity to challenge the World Machine Checker Champion program >>>"Chinook" . After the numer of participants >>>are determined, a set of rules will be sent to the participants as well as >>>the number of games that will be >>>played and other information that is necessary. The type of checkers played >>>will be the 3 move American >>>restricted checkers that uses the 8 x 8 squares and this tourney is open to >>>all program developers who >>>meets the criteria listed above. For more information on this tourney >>>please email Mac Banks at >>>mbanks36@hotmail.com. >> >> >> >> >> Question; Are Computer Checkers Programs Stronger then the strongest Humans? >>Have they achieved grandmaster status? thanks > >"chinook", the program by jonathan schaeffer & co won a match against don >lafferty back in about '96 to be recognized as world champion. it was also rated >higher than all humans at the time. schaeffer recently said his machine then was >comparable to a 1GHz pc of today. therefore, today's programs should be able to >beat GMs in cross-board play. however, there is no more activity in man-machine >matches in checkers, so there are no facts to base this on, and no program has >had a chance of officially achieving grandmaster status. as in chess, there are >also positions in checkers where the top programs fail miserably while even weak >humans can easily find the solution. > >checkers is played in many variations. this post refers to english checkers (8x8 >board, kings moving one square). this variant of checkers is close to being >solved, because the best programs all have the 8-piece endgame database, which >is hit right out of the opening. schaeffer is working on the 10-piece db now, >and once he has it, he may solve the game. since exchanges are unavoidable in >checkers, you quickly trade a few pieces and come closer to the database. a >combination of automated opening book expansion and endgame database should >solve whatever there is to solve about this variant of checkers. > >another popular variant is international checkers, which is played on a larger >board (10x10) and kings sweep (i think). in this variant, there was recently a >match between the top program (buggy) against a grandmaster ranked about 10th in >the world, which the grandmaster won. so there computers are close, but not >quite there yet. > >aloha > martin
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