The number of effective moves for Chinese chess

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chen, Jr-Chang^{a; *} | Lin, Ting-Yu^b | Hsu, Tsan-Sheng^{b; **}

Affiliations: [a] National Taipei University, Taiwan | [b] Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

Correspondence: [**] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Note: [*] Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 23741, Taiwan.

Abstract: The accurate measurement for opening positions in a game is an important issue in computer games. Evaluation functions used in game-playing programs are designed for the middlegame, and may not suitable for the opening phase. This paper proposes a method, named the number of effective moves, which is composed by a set of opening heuristics. It can be seen as an evaluation function for the opening. In addition, we implement a GUI tool based on an opening book to facilitate adjustments. The tool helps to discover new opening lines in practice and to assist move selection in the opening.

Keywords: The number of effective moves, evaluation functions, Chinese chess

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-180070

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 471-478, 2018