KQKR: Assessing the Utility of Heuristics¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Jansen, Peter J.

Affiliations: School of Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University

Note: [1] This article is an edited version of part of Chapter 6 of the author’s Ph.D. thesis, September 1992, Carnegie-Mellon University (report CMU-CS-92-192). The editing was mainly done in order to make the contribution self-contained.

Abstract: In the context of a three-part study of the KQKR endgame, some heuristics appealing to human players are examined. Three measures of goodness are defined, by means of which these heuristics can be evaluated in a uniform way, given complete knowledge of the domain. The evaluation proves that, as judged by these objective measures, apparently intuitively attractive heuristics vary greatly in their utility. The study of these heuristics and some further observations are shown to be a reasonable basis for at least a crude predictor of human play. The principles and limitations of such a programmed predictor of human counterplay are discussed.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1992-15402

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 179-191, 1992