title: Checkers is solved.
abstract: The game of checkers has roughly 500 billion billion possible positions (5 x 10(20)). The task of solving the game, determining the final result in a game with no mistakes made by either player, is daunting. Since 1989, almost continuously, dozens of computers have been working on solving checkers, applying state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques to the proving process. This paper announces that checkers is now solved: Perfect play by both sides leads to a draw. This is the most challenging popular game to be solved to date, roughly one million times as complex as Connect Four. Artificial intelligence technology has been used to generate strong heuristic-based game-playing programs, such as Deep Blue for chess. Solving a game takes this to the next level by replacing the heuristics with perfection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8, Canada. jonathan@cs.ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schaeffer
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Burch
authors.forename: Yngvi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Björnsson
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kishimoto
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sutphen