Checkers "Solved" by a Canadian Computer Program

A computerized checkers program named Chinook, after running continuously for 18 years on as many as 200 processors at once, has been shown to be unbeatable. Any opponent, no matter whether the human variety or another computer, can only hope to achieve a draw against the program. In an article recently published on the web site of the journal Science, Prof Jonathan Schaeffer of the University of Alberta in Edmonton announced the result of a process he started in 1989. In effect, according to one commentator, the game of checkers has now been reduced to the level of tic-tac-toe, a game with only 765 possibilities – checkers, on the other hand, is a game with 500 billion possibilities, the reason it took 18 years to reach this milestone. For general news articles with links, see: http://tinyurl.com/2kd7ws: and http://tinyurl.com/2o7wgl For an abstract and link to the full article, visit the web site of the magazine Science at: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1144079 In order to play checkers against the program Chinook, visit this page on the web site of the University of Alberta: http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook/play/ Summary by: The Editor