Conspiracy-Number Search

Article type: Research Article

Authors: van der Meulen, Maarten

Affiliations: University of Limburg, Dept. of Computer Science, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Abstract: Conspiracy-number search (cn search) is a game-tree search algorithm. Differences between cn-search algorithms described in the literature are pointed out and three improvements are given. Moreover, we describe how to combine the increasing-thresholds algorithm with the iterative-deepening algorithm. An up-to-date implementation is described in detail. Experiments with this implementation suggest that SSS*, a game-tree search algorithm superior to α-β, is a weak version of en search. We present two sample game trees where en search outperforms or at least equals (cf. the Appendix) SSS*. The realization of the ideas in tournament programs is somewhat restricted and therefore called applied en search.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1990-13102

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 3-14, 1990