A recent XKCD comic charted the difficulty of various games for computers, from
Tic Tac Toe and
Nim being solved for all positions, to computers mastering the physical game of
Beirut and mental game of
chess (
the 2006 Deep Fritz vs Vladimir Kramnikin games, previously). There are other games that are basic on the face, but whose potentials for move combinations is so vast as to be beyond the scope of computers.
Marion Tinsley was the last great human checkers player, matching off against
Chinook in the last 6 games of his life, each ending in a draw (
previously).
Checkers was finally solved in 2007 (Google quickview;
original PDF), and is largest game that has been solved to date, at 8x8.
Solving Othello might be possible, if the decision tree were truncated, as
the 10x10 board game tree complexity is very huge.
The 19x19 Go board is is often noted as one of the primary reasons why a strong program is hard to create, though
some programs are
getting better at
optimizing move evaluations. More:
computerized gaming solutions previously, and
the Wikipedia page for solved games.
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 11, 2012 -
57 comments
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, "International Chess" was the only widely known chess variant in the West. It had its problems. People
tried to
solve them. Of course, they could just play
xiangqi instead. There's also
janggi,
Makruk, and the granddaddy of them all,
chaturanga. Perhaps the most refined game in the family, however, is Japanese Chess--
shogi.
[more inside]
posted by sonic meat machine
on Feb 15, 2008 -
9 comments
Go : The future of computing "In recent years, computer experts, particularly those specializing in artificial intelligence, have felt fascination - and frustration - with an ancient Asian game called Go. To date, no computer has been able to achieve a skill level beyond that of the casual player."
posted by jragon
on Aug 2, 2002 -
29 comments
