Answers.Body: <p><a href="http://rebelscience.blogspot.de/2011/02/intelligent-computer-chess-part-i.html" rel="nofollow">http://rebelscience.blogspot.de/2011/02/intelligent-computer-chess-part-i.html</a></p>
  
  <p>This is the blog of a guy who tries to do what you describe: Create an artificial intelligence that learns to play chess purely by trial and error. I don't think he ever got very far. He also believes that the old testament contains coded information on how to create an AI …</p>
  
  <p>It is surely <a href="http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~mit/Papers/KI11.pdf" rel="nofollow">possible to create an AI</a> that learns to play chess from scratch, but I doubt it would ever be any good (Though this General Game Playing stuff doesn't learn the rules, the <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf" rel="nofollow">deepmind company atari AI</a> does.). The reason is that chess is a tactical game and calculating tactics requires extremely optimised code. That's nothing you just stumble into after playing a few million games. </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-01T14:13:53.437Z
Answers.Text: The example paper only illustrate a framework. Unfortunately, it fails to address how exactly the learning can be done. We still don't know the inputs and outputs, there is no workflows or protocol.
Answers.UserDisplayName: SmallChess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-01T14:20:24.977Z
Answers.Text: The link looks like it talks about how to simulate a brain for playing chess, rather than learning a new game of chess at run time.
Answers.UserDisplayName: SmallChess
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-01T15:02:44.420Z
Answers.Text: Well, you have to read a bit more, there is no representation of the board programmed into this brain, the input is purely what the 3x3 "eyes" can see and it is supposed to learn from "changes" in his view. The first paper is just an example, there is a lot of General Game Playing stuff out there. And the Deepmind paper should have a lot of technical details.
Answers.UserDisplayName: BlindKungFuMaster
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-02T16:03:47.667Z
Answers.Text: Unfortunately, the atari AI doesn't learn the rules, it just learns a set of actions that follow them. While it could successfully play many games, it would probably not be very good at chess.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Owen Johnson
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-03T07:54:02.487Z
Answers.Text: Isn't that ultimately the same? But I agree that the set of actions that follow the rules are vastly more complicated in chess than in any atari game.
Answers.UserDisplayName: BlindKungFuMaster
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-06-01T13:43:45.730Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-06-01T13:43:45.730Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: BlindKungFuMaster
Answers.Body: <p>Zillions of Games is a General Game Playing system that plays chess.  It was perhaps designed with chess specifically in mind, but in order for the program to play a game, you must first load a zdf file which specifies how the pieces move and what the goal is.  It can also play checkers, go, shogi, etc.</p>
  
  <p>The engine Nebiyu running in the GUI Winboard Alien Edition can play checkers, chess, go, reversi, Amazons and a few other games.  On Android, there is a program called XO Demo which plays many board games.  On iOS, there is an app called Social Games.</p>
  
  <p>The Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence holds a General Game Playing competition every year at its conference.  The programs are designed to play almost any game, and are not told in advance which games will be played.  Each of the programs could play chess if someone wrote up a rule set.  I don't think the GGP competitions have ever included chess as one of the games however. </p>
  
  <p>In the context of chess engines, the word "learning" refers to the engine adapting its opening book (book leaning) or evaluation (automated tuning) based on its results.  Many engines learn in this sense, eg. Crafty, Deep Thought, Exchess, Gaviota, Junior, MChess, Neurochess, Romichess and Tao.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-09-29T14:47:20.233Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-09-29T15:09:46.233Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2015-09-29T15:09:46.233Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: A passerby
Answers.Body: <p>The 2016 conferece paper &quot;<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44781-0_11" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DeepChess: End-to-End Deep Neural Network for Automatic Learning in Chess</a>&quot; by David, Netanyahu and Wolf reports such a learning method.</p>
  <p>Quote from the abstract of the paper (emphasis is mine):</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>We present an end-to-end learning method for chess, relying on deep
  neural networks. Without any a priori knowledge, in particular
  <strong>without any knowledge regarding the rules of chess</strong>, a deep neural network is trained using a combination of unsupervised pretraining and
  supervised training. The unsupervised training extracts high level
  features from a given position, and the supervised training learns to
  compare two chess positions and select the more favorable one. The
  training relies entirely on datasets of several million chess games,
  and no further domain specific knowledge is incorporated.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-02T05:17:15.050Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-02T05:42:26.550Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-07-02T05:42:26.550Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Body: <p>There is another question that asks "Has anyone ever written a chess program that does have insights of its own" that question is about a chess only game AI. I am asking having to learn the rules of the game, pieces, board size, etc. The program should be able to learn any board game, checkers, go, etc. Computers programmed by humans are better at chess than humans. Any computer programmed by itself (via some self learning algorithm, where even the rules have to be learned, i.e. number of pieces, board dimensions, piece move rules, game objective, etc) playing any good at all? Let's ignore that the self learning algorithm would have been devised by a human...</p>
  
  <p>If you know of any such generic game AI engines, please post references to them, at least their name. Thanks!</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2015-06-01T18:52:36.990Z
Comments.Text: The name of the research field is "General Game Playing".
Comments.UserDisplayName: RemcoGerlich
Tags: <engines>
Title: Non chess specific game AI that learns any game and can play chess?
ThreadText: # Non chess specific game AI that learns any game and can play chess?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2015-05-30)
  
  There is another question that asks "Has anyone ever written a chess program that does have insights of its own" that question is about a chess only game AI. I am asking having to learn the rules of the game, pieces, board size, etc. The program should be able to learn any board game, checkers, go, etc. Computers programmed by humans are better at chess than humans. Any computer programmed by itself (via some self learning algorithm, where even the rules have to be learned, i.e. number of pieces, board dimensions, piece move rules, game objective, etc) playing any good at all? Let's ignore that the self learning algorithm would have been devised by a human...
  
  If you know of any such generic game AI engines, please post references to them, at least their name. Thanks!
  
  **Tags:** engines
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: The name of the research field is "General Game Playing".  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2015-06-01. Score: 2
  
  <http://rebelscience.blogspot.de/2011/02/intelligent-computer-chess-part-i.html>
  
  This is the blog of a guy who tries to do what you describe: Create an artificial intelligence that learns to play chess purely by trial and error. I don't think he ever got very far. He also believes that the old testament contains coded information on how to create an AI …
  
  It is surely [possible to create an AI](http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~mit/Papers/KI11.pdf) that learns to play chess from scratch, but I doubt it would ever be any good (Though this General Game Playing stuff doesn't learn the rules, the [deepmind company atari AI](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf) does.). The reason is that chess is a tactical game and calculating tactics requires extremely optimised code. That's nothing you just stumble into after playing a few million games.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_3**: The example paper only illustrate a framework. Unfortunately, it fails to address how exactly the learning can be done. We still don't know the inputs and outputs, there is no workflows or protocol.  
  > **username_3**: The link looks like it talks about how to simulate a brain for playing chess, rather than learning a new game of chess at run time.  
  > **username_2**: Well, you have to read a bit more, there is no representation of the board programmed into this brain, the input is purely what the 3x3 "eyes" can see and it is supposed to learn from "changes" in his view. The first paper is just an example, there is a lot of General Game Playing stuff out there. And the Deepmind paper should have a lot of technical details.  
  > **username_4**: Unfortunately, the atari AI doesn't learn the rules, it just learns a set of actions that follow them. While it could successfully play many games, it would probably not be very good at chess.  
  > **username_2**: Isn't that ultimately the same? But I agree that the set of actions that follow the rules are vastly more complicated in chess than in any atari game.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2015-09-29. Score: 0
  
  Zillions of Games is a General Game Playing system that plays chess. It was perhaps designed with chess specifically in mind, but in order for the program to play a game, you must first load a zdf file which specifies how the pieces move and what the goal is. It can also play checkers, go, shogi, etc.
  
  The engine Nebiyu running in the GUI Winboard Alien Edition can play checkers, chess, go, reversi, Amazons and a few other games. On Android, there is a program called XO Demo which plays many board games. On iOS, there is an app called Social Games.
  
  The Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence holds a General Game Playing competition every year at its conference. The programs are designed to play almost any game, and are not told in advance which games will be played. Each of the programs could play chess if someone wrote up a rule set. I don't think the GGP competitions have ever included chess as one of the games however.
  
  In the context of chess engines, the word "learning" refers to the engine adapting its opening book (book leaning) or evaluation (automated tuning) based on its results. Many engines learn in this sense, eg. Crafty, Deep Thought, Exchess, Gaviota, Junior, MChess, Neurochess, Romichess and Tao.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2023-07-02. Score: 0
  
  The 2016 conferece paper "[DeepChess: End-to-End Deep Neural Network for Automatic Learning in Chess](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44781-0_11)" by David, Netanyahu and Wolf reports such a learning method.
  
  Quote from the abstract of the paper (emphasis is mine):
  
  > We present an end-to-end learning method for chess, relying on deep
  > neural networks. Without any a priori knowledge, in particular
  > **without any knowledge regarding the rules of chess**, a deep neural network is trained using a combination of unsupervised pretraining and
  > supervised training. The unsupervised training extracts high level
  > features from a given position, and the supervised training learns to
  > compare two chess positions and select the more favorable one. The
  > training relies entirely on datasets of several million chess games,
  > and no further domain specific knowledge is incorporated.
  
  
  ---
  
  