Lecture Note

Artificial Intelligence “Search”

Professor dr. Hiroyuki Iida

JAIST

2012-11-13
 Search, Games and more
• Three aspects of games from the perspective of
search: a model of three masters [Iida, 2002]
• Towards the deeper understanding of
entertainment: game-refinement theory [Iida,
2003]
• Towards a search strategy for more human-like
performance [on-going]
• Towards the mathematical model of intellectual
interaction between players [Iida, 2012]
 M/W A Model of
Winning Three Masters
[Iida 2002]
Game Theory

competitiveness

M/U
M/P
Playing Understanding

Game-Refinement Theory Combinatorial Game

Theory

entertainment metaphor
 M/W A Model of
Winning Three Masters
Revised (2012)
Game Theory
Combinatorial Game
Theory
competitiveness
M/U
M/P
Playing Understanding

Game-Refinement Theory Game Information

Dynamics

entertainment interaction
M/W Minimax
J. von Neumann and O. Morgenstern
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944) Second
Edition, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ,
1947.

Von Neumann wrote 150 published papers in his

life; 60 in pure mathematics, 20 in physics, and
60 in applied mathematics. His last work, written
while in the hospital and later published in book
form as The Computer and the Brain, gives an
indication of the direction of his interests at the
time of his death.

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Game-tree search
Programming a computer for playing chess First
presented at, the National IRE Convention, March 9,
1949, New York, U.S.A.

In 1950 Shannon published a groundbreaking paper on

computer chess entitled Programming a Computer for
Playing Chess. It describes how a machine or
computer could be made to play a reasonable game of
chess. His process for having the computer decide on
which move to make is a minimax procedure, based on
an evaluation function of a given chess position.

Game-tree search (1949)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Alpha-beta algorithm
Knuth, D. E., and Moore, R. W. (1975). "
An Analysis of Alpha-Beta Pruning". Artificial
Intelligence Vol. 6, No. 4: 293–326.
Author of the seminal multi-volume work
The Art of Computer Programming,[3] Knuth has been called the
"father" of the analysis of algorithms, contributing to the
development of, and systematizing formal mathematical
techniques for, the rigorous analysis of the computational
complexity of algorithms, and in the process popularizing
asymptotic notation.

Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Opponent-model search
Potential Applications of OM-Search: Part 1. The
domain of applicability ， Iida, H, Uiterwijk, J.W.H.M,
Herik, H.J.v.d. and Herschberg, I.S ， ICCA
Journal ， 16 ， 4 ， 201-208 ， 1993

Opponent-model search (1993)

Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Proof-number search
L. Victor Allis, Maarten van der Meulen, and H. Jaap
van den Herik, “Proof-number Search”, Artificial
Intelligence, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 91-124, March 1994.

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993)

Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Tutoring strategy
Tutoring Strategy in Game-Tree Search， H. Iida, K.
Handa, and J.W.H.M. Uiterwijk ， ICCA Journal ， 18 ， 4 ，
191-205 ， 1995

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W PN* search
Masahiro Seo , Hiroyuki Iida , Jos W.H.M. Uiterwijk,
The PN*-search algorithm: application to tsume-shogi,
Artificial Intelligence, v.129 n.1-2, p.253-277, 2001

PN* search (2001)

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Weak proof-number search
T. Ueda, T. Hashimoto, J. Hashimoto, and H. Iida,
“Weak Proof- Number Search,” in Proceedings of the
Conference on Computers and Games 2008

Weak proof-number search (2008)

PN* search (2001)

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
M/W Synchronism in games
Outcome Uncertainty and Interestedness in Game-Playing: A
Case Study using Synchronized Hex ， Alessandro Cincotti and
Hiroyuki Iida ， New Mathematics and Natural
Computation ， 2 ， 2 ， 173-181 ， 2006

Weak proof-number search (2008)

Synchronism in games (2006)
PN* search (2001)

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
 Master-like opening strategy
M/W Self-Playing-based Opening Book Tuning ， J. Nagashima, T.
Hashimoto and H. Iida ， New Mathematics and Natural
Computation ， 2 ， 2 ， 183-194 ， 2006

Master-like opening strategy (2006)

Weak proof-number search (2008)

Synchronism in games (2006)
PN* search (2001)

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928)

M/P
 Intellectual Interaction
M/W
between players

Master-like opening strategy (2006)

Weak proof-number search (2008)

Synchronism in games (2006)
PN* search (2001)

Proof-number search (1994)

Opponent-model search (1993) Tutoring strategy in game

playing (1995)
Alpha-beta (1975)

Game-tree search (1950)

Minimax (1928) Interaction between players (2012)

M/P
 Search, Games and Information Dynamics

The model of three masters indicates the existence of

various interactions between players. We explore it in terms
of the “dynamics of intelligence in the field of games” or
“game information dynamics”.
The model of three masters relates three theories of
game: game theory, game-refinement theory and game
information dynamics.
The classical game theory favors no uncertainty, i.e.,
finding the game-theoretic value or equilibriums. The game-
refinement theory recognizes appropriate amount of
uncertainty that players may enjoy it. The game information
dynamics shows intellectual interaction between players.
 Milestone in chess
• May1997 Deep Blue vs. Kasparov 2-1

Q4-1. What can we observe the search from the match

between Deep Blue and Kasparov?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)#Deep_Blue_versus_Kasparov
 Milestone in Othello
• Aug1997 Logistello vs. Murakami 6-0

Q4-2. What would be any possibility of knowing the

game-theoretic value of Othello?
http://othello.dk/book/index.php?title=Logistello
 Milestone in checkers
• 1994 Chinook vs. Tinsley
• 2007 Checkers is solved!

Q4-3. What do you observe the relation between search

and knowledge in checkers?
 Milestone in shogi
• 2005 TACOS vs. Hashimoto 0-1
• 2007 Bonanza vs. Watanabe 0-1
• 2010 ＡＫＡＲＡ vs. Shimizu 1-0
• 2012 Bonkras vs. Yonenaga 1-0
 Computer Go Nomitan
since 2010
• Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)
• 2010 CESA Tournament 1st place
• 2010 Computer Olympiad
– 9x9 Go 9th place
– 13x13 Go 6th place
– 19x19 Go 8th place
 Towards the information dynamics

• The outcome of game must be uncertain

until the very end of game (seesaw game)
– Information acceleration → thrilling sense
• Some game pattern affects the player’s
emotion (entertaining, frustration, boring,
etc.)
• Intellectual interaction between players in
game playing
Information amount x(t) is an
increasing function of time t.
x’(t) = n/t x(t)
where n is a constant number determined by the player’s
strength. As the strength increases, n approaches zero.

x(0) = 0, x(T) = I
0≦ t ≦ T, 0≦ x(t) ≦ I
We have
x(t) = I * (t / T)n
I/T2 (acceleration in dynamics)
x’’(T) = I/T2 n(n-1) Game-refinement measurement
 x(t) = I * (t / T)n Thrill 　＝ Information
acceleration
I

I/T2
x(t)

0 t T
 Chess history [Iida et al. 2002]
Name
Chaturanga [A.D.5]
Shatranj [A.D.6]
Medieval chess I [A.D.13]
Medieval chess II [A.D.14]
Medieval chess III [A.D.15]
New chess [A.D.16]
Chess [A.D.16]
Key difference
King’s knight-leap
Pawn 2-move, Queen-leap
Old-Bishop⇒Bishop
Pawn 2-move, e.p.,
King,Queen-leap
Old-Bishop⇒Bishop
Old-Queen⇒Queen
King-leap⇒castling
Modern chess
Search
space

B: Av. possible moves

D: Av. game length
Sophisticated games
√B/D = 0.07 ～ 0.08
 x(t) = I * (t / T)n
I

n ＜ 1
Backward Game
x(t)

1≦n
Forward Game

0 t T
P0 Pn
 A good balance between
forward game and backward game

n ＜ 1
Backward Game
x(t)

n=1

1≦n
Forward Game

0 t T
P0 Pn
Minimax Equilibrium
Von Neumann (1928)

Game-tree search
position scoring
C.E. Shannon (1950)

Bell Chess Hardware: UNIX

K. Thompson (1968;1974;1982)

Towards speculative play:

Opponent-model search
H.Iida (1993)

Man-Machine Match
Deep Blue (1997)
Gekisashi ・ AKARA (2010)

Montecalro Go
L. Kocsis et al. (2006)

A short history of computer games: machine challenging human superiority

Minimax Equilibrium
J. von Neumann (1928)

Nash Equilibrium
J. Nash (1950)

Combinatorial Game Theory

J. Conway (1976)

Game-Refinement Theory
H.Iida (2003)

Game Information Dynamics

H.Iida (2011)

Model of Three Masters and Game Study

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