Natural Developments in Game Research

In game-programmmg research there are four Interestmg and related domams CHESS, XIANG QI (Chmese chess), SHOGI (Japanese chess) and Go In this article we compare CHESS With SHOGI by rules and by computatIOnal aspects We will see that CHESS and SHOGI are mostly very Similar, but that there are some Important differences which complicate SHOG! programmmg The most Important difference IS the game-tree compleXity, which IS considerably higher than the game-tree compleXity of CHESS We will then argue that the SimilarIties and differences make SHOGI a good chOice for advanced research m game programmmg In the near future CHESS Will no longer be competitively mterestmg Smce XIANG QI has a game-tree compleXity Similar to CHESS, the same AI techmques will also be successful In this domam, and, as a consequence, this game Will also no longer be mterestmg Go IS too rIsky as a next research target because lIttle IS known about the cogmtIve aspects of the game, which m our view hold the key to developmg new techmques A short history of computer Shogl With the results of the latest CSA computer Shogl tournament IS given ConclUSIOns are proVided m Section 5 In the appendiX, a short mtroductlOn to the rules of the game IS mcluded