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Game Solvers

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Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies

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Abstract

Games have simple, fixed rules as well as clear results such as win, draw, or loss. However, developing algorithms for solving games has been a difficult challenge in Artificial Intelligence, because of the combinatorial complexity that the algorithms must tackle.

This chapter presents an overview of successful approaches and results accomplished thus far on game solving. Conducting tree search is a standard way to solve games and game positions. Remarkable progress has been made in developing efficient search algorithms over the last few decades. The chapter describes several standard techniques including αβ search, proof-number search, and endgame databases.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research, Ireland Research Lab, Dublin, Ireland

    Akihiro Kishimoto

  2. University of Alberta, T6G 2R3, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Martin Mueller

Authors
  1. Akihiro Kishimoto
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  2. Martin Mueller
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Correspondence to Akihiro Kishimoto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Design School, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Ryohei Nakatsu

  2. Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Matthias Rauterberg

  3. Dipto. Scienze dell'Informazione, Università di Bologna , Bologna, Italy

    Paolo Ciancarini

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Kishimoto, A., Mueller, M. (2017). Game Solvers. In: Nakatsu, R., Rauterberg, M., Ciancarini, P. (eds) Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-50-4_35

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