Schaeffer, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, started out by taking a close look at the pioneering work of Arthur Samuel, an IBM researcher who began to program checkers in 1952. This computer program, called Chinook, stands ready to challenge the top human player for the world title - if the game's sanctioning organizations ever relent and approve the match.Īt the same time, computer scientists are finding that checkers - like chess - provides a handy platform on which to develop and test new programming concepts that may eventually prove useful in other applications. Today, the checker program he and his colleagues developed ranks among the top 10 checker players in the world. "So we decided to do something about it."
"I was quite surprised that nearly everybody had been ignoring checkers," Schaeffer says. Responding to a casual query concerning progress in computer checkers, he discovered that programming a computer to play checkers had been largely neglected for decades, partly because many computer scientists and artificial-intelligence experts already believed - erroneously - that for all practical purposes, the game had been solved. Without ready access to enormous computing power, and ill-equipped to build a computer specifically designed for playing chess, he found he could make little further progress.Įarly in 1989, he abruptly changed the direction of his research. In 1986, this program tied for first place at the world computer chess championship.ĭespite that success, Schaeffer felt frustrated. Schaeffer himself spent many years perfecting a chess program named Phoenix. It was natural, then, for computer programmers to ignore checkers and to focus instead on the challenge of creating machines that could master chess. Its childishly simple rules and its image as a sedate pastime for elderly gentlemen put checkers deep in the shadow of chess, it smore prestigious rival.
Like many chess players, computer scientist Jonathan Schaeffer had a condescending attitude toward the game of checkers.
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MLA style: "The checkers challenge: a checker-playing computer program contends for the world title." The Free Library.
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