Are there Practical Alternatives to Alpha-Beta?

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Junghanns, A.^{; 1}

Affiliations: Edmonton, Canada

Note: [1] University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science, 615 GSB, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2H1. Email: andreas@cs.ualberta.ca.

Abstract: The success of the alpha-beta algorithm in game playing has shown its value for problem solving in artificial intelligence, especially in the domain of two-person zero-sum games with perfect information. Still, there are different algorithms for game-tree search which challenge the value of the alpha-beta algorithm. This paper describes and assesses the alternatives proposed according to how they try to overcome the limitations of alpha-beta. We conclude that for computer chess no practical alternative exists, but many promising ideas have good potential to change that in the future.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1998-21103

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 14-32, 1998