Endgame Databases
Endgames can be 100 moves long in checkers
- branching rate of 2 gives 2100 = 1030 positions.
But there is a trick when few pieces left
- first used by Ken Thompson in Chess
- (Ken Thompson wrote first Unix, won Turing award)
Calculate the true optimal move for every position
- e.g. 406 x 109 eight piece positions, 4x1011<< 1030
Best version of Chinook used 8 piece databases
- web version just uses 6 piece