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Article: The checkers solution.(Science Scoops)
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Chinook can beat you at checkers. Even if you're a genius and don't make a single bad move, the game will end in a tie. If you don't believe it, go to http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook/play/and play against Chinook yourself.
Chinook is a computer program created by Jonathan Schaeffer and his colleagues at the University of Alberta (Canada). Ever since 1989, hundreds of computer processors have been analyzing 500 billion billion (yes, that's billion billion!) possible checkers positions. In April 2007, Chinook's creators announced that the puzzle of the game of checkers had been solved! If both players play perfectly, there is now ...