Experiments With Some Programs That Search Game Trees

  • Authors:
  • James R. Slagle;John E. Dixon

  • Affiliations:
  • National Institutes of Health, Division of Computer Research and Technology, Bethesda, Maryland;National Institutes of Health, Division of Computer Research and Technology, Bethesda, Maryland

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the ACM (JACM)
  • Year:
  • 1969

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Abstract

Many problems in artificial intelligence involve the searching of large trees of alternative possibilities—for example, game-playing and theorem-proving. The problem of efficiently searching large trees is discussed. A new method called “dynamic ordering” is described, and the older minimax and Alpha-Beta procedures are described for comparison purposes. Performance figures are given for six variations of the game of kalah. A quantity called “depth ratio” is derived which is a measure of the efficiency of a search procedure. A theoretical limit of efficiency is calculated and it is shown experimentally that the dynamic ordering procedure approaches that limit.