Chinook (draughts player)
Chinook is a computer program that plays the English lady variant. It was developed around 1989 at the University of Alberta led by Jonathan Schaeffer. Staff were Rob Lake, Paul Lu, Martin Bryant and Norman Treloar. In July 2007, Chinook was so strong that it can not lose.
Human- to -machine world champion
Chinook is the first computer program that won the world title in the fight against humans. 1990, it won the right to participate in the World Cup, won by it to Marion Tinsley second place in the U.S. Championship. First, the American Checkers Federation and the English Draughts Association opposed the participation of a computer in a human Championship. As Tinsley in protest gave his title, both organizations created the new man - against -machine world championship. Tinsley won four times in 1992 against Chinook, Chinook only twice, 33 games ended in a draw.
1994, there was a new title fight between Tinsley and Chinook. After six undecided games Tinsley had to withdraw due to pancreatic cancer, so that the Chinook title without defeating Tinsley, by far the best lady player of all time, won.
1995 Chinook defended its man - to -machine world champion title against Don Lafferty in 32 games, one of which won a Chinook, while the other ended in a draw. Then Jonathan Schaeffer decided not to allow Chinook play in tournaments, but triggered lady. Chinook had a rank score of 2814th
Algorithm
Chinooks program algorithm includes an opening book, a library of opening moves of grandmaster games, a depth-first search algorithm, a good position evaluation function and an endgame database for all positions with eight or fewer stones. The linear handwritten position evaluation function takes into account various board characteristics including number stones, ladies number, prisoners ladies, who is on the train, unblocked way to the ladies' creation and other lesser factors. All knowledge of Chinook was programmed by its creators, not learned with artificial intelligence.
Chronology
Jonathan Schaeffer wrote in 1997 the book One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers on Chinook. An improved version was reissued in November 2008.
On 24 May 2003 the database of Chinook over 10 stones 5 stones per side was finished.
On August 2, 2004 published the Chinook team that the opening of White Doctor ( 10-14 22-18 12-16) is detected as a draw.
On 18 January 2006 published the Chinook team that the opening has been demonstrated 09-13 21-17 05-09 in a draw.
On April 18, 2006 published the Chinook team that the opening has been demonstrated 09-13 22-17 13-22 in a draw.
On March 10, 2007 announced Jonathan Schaeffer (on the ACM SIGCSE Conference ) to the complete solution of lady within 3 to 5 months.
On 19 July 2007 the journal Science published an article by Schaeffer's team " Checkers Is Solved ", which proved that the best result of an opponent of Chinook can only be a draw.