One of the earliest dreams of the fledgling field of artificial intelligence (AI) was to build computer programs that could play games as well as or better than the best human players. Despite early optimism in the field, the challenge proved to be surprisingly difficult. However, the 1990s saw amazing progress. Computers are now better than humans in checkers, Othello and Scrabble; are at least as good as the best humans in backgammon and chess; and are rapidly improving at hex, go, poker, and shogi. This book documents the progress made in computers playing games and puzzles. The book is...

The Computers and Games (CG) series began in 1998 with the objective of showcasing new developments in arti?cial intelligence (AI) research that used games as the experimental test-bed. The ?rst two CG conferences were held at Hamamatsu, Japan(1998,2000).ComputersandGames2002(CG2002)wasthe third event in this biennial series. The conference was held at the University of Alberta(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), July25 27,2002.Theprogramconsisted of the main conference featuring refereed papers and keynote speakers, as well as several side events including the Games Informatics Workshop, the Agents...

It s hard to believe that it s been over a decade since One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy at Checkers was published. I m delighted to have the oppor- nity to update and expand the book. The ?rst edition ended on a sad note and that was re?ected in the writing. It is now eleven years later and the project has come to a satisfying conclusion. Since its inception, the checkers project has consumed eighteen years of my life twenty if you count the pre-CHINOOK and post-solving work. It s hard for me to believe that I actually stuck with it for that long. My wife, Steph, would probably...

Major advances in computing are occurring at an ever-increasing pace. This is especially so in the area of high performance computing (HPC), where today's supercomputer is tomorrow's workstation.
High Performance Computing Systems and Applications is a record of HPCS'98, the 12th annual Symposium on High Performance Computing Systems and Applications. The quality of the conference was significantly enhanced by the high proportion of keynote and invited speakers. This book presents the latest research in HPC architecture, networking, applications and tools. Of special note are...

Computers, Chess, and Cognition presents an excellent up-to-date description of developments in computer chess, a rapidly advancing area in artificial intelligence research. This book is intended for an upper undergraduate and above level audience in the computer science (artificial intelligence) community. The chapters have been edited to present a uniform terminology and balanced writing style, to make the material understandable to a wider, less specialized audience. The book's primary strengths are the description of the workings of some major chess programs, an excellent review of...

Major advances in computing are occurring at an ever-increasing pace. This is especially so in the area of high performance computing (HPC), where today's supercomputer is tomorrow's workstation.
High Performance Computing Systems and Applications is a record of HPCS'98, the 12th annual Symposium on High Performance Computing Systems and Applications. The quality of the conference was significantly enhanced by the high proportion of keynote and invited speakers. This book presents the latest research in HPC architecture, networking, applications and tools. Of special note are...