Author: Laurence Chen
Date: 06:48:35 10/23/02
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On October 23, 2002 at 04:44:42, Travers Waker wrote: >Hi everyone. > >I'm considering doing a Masters (5th year) degree in Computer Science, but only >if I can come up with an interesting topic that can be tested as part of a >chess-playing computer program. I've contacted the local University, >(University of Cape Town, South Africa) and found someone who's willing to >supervise my thesis if I can come up with a suitable topic. He has expressed >concerns about the field of computer chess, saying that he feels that "it seems >to be a very well explored area with little potential novelty." > >I'm not really interested in doing a thesis just for the sake of getting the >degree. I want to deeply explore a topic that I'm very interested in, and >computer chess is the only one I can think of that has the potential to be the >basis of a thesis. > >Despite the discouraging opinion of my potential supervisor, I believe that >there's still plenty of scope for new and novel research in the area of computer >chess. Much like Mikhail Tal could conjour up tactical fireworks from the most >barren looking positions, I think it's possible to find an interesting topic in >computer chess that hasn't been properly explored yet. > >So, the reason for this post is that I'd like to request the opinions of this >board's members (epecially those of you who have been involved in academic >research) on what areas of computer chess I could look at to find an >interesting, novel topic for my thesis. > >Thanks for any ideas. > >Travers How about GO? GO is one of the games which has not made any advancement in the computer field. It's search algorithm is not very good, and so far no great advancements nor break through has made in this difficult game. The best PC playing GO software is only a strong amauter. Not even close to master strength. New ideas or breakthrough in the AI maybe required to make GO into master strength. Don't be deceived by GO easy rules of playing, it has very simple rules, but a very complex opening, and middlegame. The best GO engines can play the endgame correctly, but only the final counting stages. Therefore GO still an unexplored area, and it is much more difficult to master then chess, and it is much more interesting than chess. Regards, Laurence
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