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Subject: Re: High branching factor games

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 01:58:36 11/27/02

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On November 27, 2002 at 03:52:37, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>Consider backgammon. Despite the element of chance, alpha beta is still
>applicable. Also, because if the element of chance, the game has a very high
>branching factor. You must account for all possible rolls in addition to all the
>possible legal moves with the checkers.
>
>The best backgammon programs play better than the best humans despite the high
>branching factor. Humans do not really try to calculate all the possibilities,
>so a program that searches just 3 ply ahead can outplay strong humans.
>
>The other oddity about backgammon is that the use of neural nets has actually
>been effective for evaluation. This contrasts with the results in chess.
>
>If you are interested in reading more about this you can check out the following
>site: http://www.bgsnowie.com/snowie/snowie.dhtml


So is it fair to say that backgammon, despite having a high branching factor, is
still playable by computers because it is a relatively simple game? For example,
in backgammon, you say 3 ply is sufficient. Go programs can get 3 ply, but it's
far from sufficient.



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