Checkmate for checkers — Nature

Computer scientists at the University of Alberta have solved the game of checkers. This means that every conceivable game from start to finish has been mapped out, making a computer that utilizes the solved algorithms essentially unbeatable.

The team directed Chinook so it didn’t have to go through every one of the 500 billion billion (5 * 10[^]20) possible moves. Not all losing plays needed to be analysed; instead, for each game position, Chinook needed to work out only a move that would allow it to win. In the end, only 1/5,000,000 of the moves were computed.

Every time it was in the news that a human was playing a computer at chess (IBM’s Deep Blue, e.g.), I wondered when chess would be solved. Essentially, the computer (in either checkers or chess) would not need to be programmed with the logic, that is found in today’s A.I., to battle the human opponent. The current state of the board after each move would only need to be checked against a database of winning moves. Chess has considerable more possibilities than checkers; therefore, I would assume it is quite a few years off from being solved.

With regards to victory in checkers, though, humans have officially become second-class.