Game over for checkers Computer scientists at the University of
Alberta have solved checkers, the popular board game with a
history dating back to 3,000 BC. After 18-and-a-half years and
sifting through 500 billion billion (a five followed by 20
zeroes) checkers positions, Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer and
colleagues have built a checkers-playing computer program that
cannot be beaten. Completed in late April this year, the
program, Chinook, may be played to a draw but will never be
defeated. The results of this research were published recently
in the journal Science. "This is a tremendous achievement — a
truly significant advance in artificial intelligence," said Dr.
Jaap van den Herik, editor of the International Computer Games
Journal. "I think we've raised the bar — and raised it quite a
bit — in terms of what can be achieved in computer technology
and artificial intelligence," said Schaeffer, chair of the
University of Alberta Department of Computing Science. "With
Chinook, we've pushed the envelope about one m