Time-eecient State Space Search

We present two time-e cient state space algorithms for searching minimax trees. Because they are based on SSS* and Dual*, both dominate Alpha-Beta on a node count basis. Moreover, one of them is always faster in searching random trees, even when the leaf node evaluation time is negligible. The fast execution time is attributed to the recursive nature of our algorithms and to their e cient data structure (a simple array) for storing the bestrst node information. In practical applications with more expensive leaf evaluations we conjecture that the recursive state space search algorithms perform even better and might eventually supersede the popular directional search methods.

[1]  Hermann Kaindl,et al.  Minimax Search Algorithms With and Without Aspiration Windows , 1991, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[2]  Amitava Bagchi,et al.  A Faster Alternative to SSS* with Extension to Variable Memory , 1993, Inf. Process. Lett..

[3]  A. Reinefeld A Minimax Algorithm Faster than Alpha - Beta , 1994 .

[4]  Amitava Bagchi,et al.  Making Best Use of Available Memory When Searching Game Trees , 1986, AAAI.

[5]  Rajjan Shinghal,et al.  An empirical comparison of pruning strategies in game trees , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[6]  Donald E. Knuth,et al.  The Solution for the Branching Factor of the Alpha-Beta Pruning Algorithm , 1981, ICALP.

[7]  George C. Stockman,et al.  A Minimax Algorithm Better than Alpha-Beta? , 1979, Artif. Intell..

[8]  Jonathan Schaeffer,et al.  Low Overhead Alternatives to SSS , 1987, Artif. Intell..

[9]  Vipin Kumar,et al.  Parallel Branch-and-Bound Formulations for AND/OR Tree Search , 1984, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[10]  Matthew L. Ginsberg,et al.  Iterative Broadening , 1990, Artif. Intell..

[11]  Judea Pearl,et al.  Heuristics - intelligent search strategies for computer problem solving , 1984, Addison-Wesley series in artificial intelligence.

[12]  Tony Marsland,et al.  Phased state space search , 1986 .

[13]  Wim Pijls,et al.  SSS*-Like Algorithms in Constrained Memory , 1993, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[14]  Judea Pearl,et al.  A Minimax Algorithm Better Than Alpha-Beta? Yes and No , 1983, Artif. Intell..

[15]  Wim Pijls,et al.  Another View on the SSS* Algorithm , 1990, SIGAL International Symposium on Algorithms.