Artificial Intelligence (Search: Games, Minimax, and Alpha-Beta)

How might be possible for a computer to play chess?

1. Move
2. If Then Rules
3. Look Ahead & Evaluate
4. British Museum
5. Look ahead as far as possible

Minimax Idea

The player at the top would like to drive the play as much as possible toward the big numbers. Denote that player the maximizing player. There's another player, his opponent, which we'll call the minimizing player. And he's hoping that the play will go down to the board situation that's as small as possible.

Alpha-Beta Algorithm

This is the important essence of the notion of the alpha-beta algorithm, which is a layering on top of minimax that cuts off large sections of the search tree.

Gold Star Idea

• Dead Horse principle
• Martial Arts Principle
• Anytime Algorithms

Deep Blue = minimax + alpha-beta + progressive deepening + a whole lot of parallel computing + an opening book + special purpose stuff for the endgame + uneven tree development.