The readings for this are essay Introduction To Computer Chess, which you should have already read, and the new reading in the sixth set of readings, p. 1-92 of Man vs. Machine by Mueller and Schaeffer. You can also watch the youtube videos below. After reading these texts, use one to two pages to answer the following questions.
1) What are the two search strategies described by Claude Shannon in 1950?
2) What is a "ply" when talking about chess search? How many plies are there in a 20 move game? If there are always at least 5 reasonable moves in a position, how many possible games are there possible in a 20 move game (i.e. black resigns after making her 20th move)?
3) What is "minimax" search? How does the "alpha-beta" algorithm improve it?
4) What is an evaluation function?
5) Why is determining the "quiescence" of a chess position so important in classical computer chess? Why might it be difficult?
6) What is a "heuristic"? Give a concrete example of one from the history of computer chess.
7) Computers have been prone to very "inhuman" and "unintelligent" behavior on the chess board. One of the simplest of these is called the "horizon effect." Describe the core idea of the horizon effect briefly.
1) What are the two search strategies described by Claude Shannon in 1950?
2) What is a "ply" when talking about chess search? How many plies are there in a 20 move game? If there are always at least 5 reasonable moves in a position, how many possible games are there possible in a 20 move game (i.e. black resigns after making her 20th move)?
3) What is "minimax" search? How does the "alpha-beta" algorithm improve it?
4) What is an evaluation function?
5) Why is determining the "quiescence" of a chess position so important in classical computer chess? Why might it be difficult?
6) What is a "heuristic"? Give a concrete example of one from the history of computer chess.
7) Computers have been prone to very "inhuman" and "unintelligent" behavior on the chess board. One of the simplest of these is called the "horizon effect." Describe the core idea of the horizon effect briefly.