digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

Checkers - Solved.

cs.ualberta.ca — Checkers has a search space of 5x1020, a daunting number. Almost continuously since 1989 (with a gap in the 1997 to 2001 period), dozens of computers have been working around the clock to solve the game. On April 29, 2007, we were pleased to announce that checkers is now solved.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • hokie47, on 10/11/2007, -24/+20King me
    • aDJsavedmylife, on 10/11/2007, -12/+8"King Me"

      "Son of a bitch! You lousy, cheating little *****! You're ***** with me! You did that on purpose. You sit there and you play like the ***** dead lice are falling off of you, and then suddenly, you're like seabiscuit all over the ***** damn place. You're a smartass, is what you are, kid."
      • scubasteve377, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Dugg up for reference to the film with possibly the most cursing in front of small children in cinema history.
  • kf_man, on 10/11/2007, -1/+87It's also 5*10^20 (5 with 20 zeros after it), not 5*1020 (5100)...huge difference!
    • jheimark, on 10/11/2007, -6/+6ya, HUGE difference. i was confused at first
    • llbbl, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2thats a lot of checking, mate
    • merreborn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8It says "5x1020" 'cause the newb who submitted just copied and pasted the description, and didn't do anything about the fact that digg stripped the superscript.

      Don't be lame: fix the formatting in your submissions.
  • 10001110101, on 10/11/2007, -17/+6Wonder why Canada doesn't have a large military? It's because we spend our tax dollars on solving board games!
    • LowROI, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15And because the US is spending 50 times more than they need to on the military. Therefore we don't have to.
    • Exekutor, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Why you need one?, You want to invade something?
      • ominpotent123, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5easy...easy...jsut stay calm, and back away from that pistol
        • mickcn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0You've got bombers en route to your location, and your worried about a pistol?
        • hmunkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wtf does that mean.
      • kcpwnsgman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2no, just need to protect themselves
      • Konstantino, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I hope you realize there are Canadian soldiers already fighting in Afghanistan.
    • hmunkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2And because if anyone attacks Canada the US will have to get involved.
  • bkienzle22, on 10/11/2007, -7/+40what is with this onslaught of dupes lately?

    http://digg.com/gaming_news/Computer_Program_Can_t_Lose_at_Checkers
    • DephexTwin, on 10/11/2007, -12/+2Ironically, your post itself is a dupe.
    • NiX0n, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Thank you for posting original Digg.
    • andyd273, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7its just because we're reaching the end of the internet. Soon every single story thats possible will be on Digg, after which point every story submitted will be a dupe.
      • supernovasky, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"diggberts peak"?
      • SirBriggs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Now it's happening at an alarming rate, dupe stories reach the front page the same day or the day after the originals.
  • ACrazyGerman, on 10/11/2007, -17/+169Checkers has taught me that two guys on top of each other is a King. Life taught me that thats a Queen.
    • daybreaker, on 10/11/2007, -9/+56buried for not crediting demitri martin for that joke
      • ACrazyGerman, on 10/11/2007, -20/+5Well who hasn't seen him on comedy central?
    • crazedgremlin, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3who said they're guys?
  • Xansas, on 10/11/2007, -8/+6Ah, so they've found a cure for cancer then, surely...
    • cathars1s, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12yes, we should get all researchers working on the same thing regardless of their area of study. If you're asking every computer science researcher to cure diseases, why not ask the same out of every person worldwide?

      Also, 'curing' cancer is slightly more complicated than making a checkers-playing machine.

      /cs and math geek
      //common-sense geek too
    • nitramlliw, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1cancer's technically been cured. there was a digg earlier this week about using bacterium to kill off cancer cells. but, as we don't know how it works, we don't use it. also, the bacterium can kill you after it's killed the cancer. =)
    • hfactor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"Ah, so they've found a cure for cancer then, surely..."
      Have you? So what are you doing on digg?
    • nrfx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1This isn't fark.
  • unjustend, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5Dupe a Dupe? I think I read this twice on here yesterday actually. Good story though.
  • chesbomb, on 10/11/2007, -5/+5its just checkers..
  • Goldennova, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0There was an article about this last night. Next time, actually look at past sstories before posting duplicate crap.
  • jason469, on 10/11/2007, -0/+19They might know all the moves, but I'll keep moving my king and the game will last FOREVER.
  • psg188, on 10/11/2007, -5/+18What if the computer played itself? Wouldn't that mean that it is defeat able?
    • cathars1s, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13it should draw every time.
      • FieldAnonymouse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Exactly. Two perfectly matched opponents in a game of pure skill (as opposed to luck) should never end in anything but a draw. This is the basis behind the end sequence in the movie War Games. "The only winning move is not to play" because every sequence ends in a draw as every move one player makes is tactically matched by the move made by the other player.
      • hfactor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"Exactly. Two perfectly matched opponents in a game of pure skill (as opposed to luck) should never end in anything but a draw."

        That depends on the balancing of the game. In Connect 4, the first player wins if both players play perfectly; without any luck factor involved.
    • Toshibi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+23"Could god microwave a burrito so hot that even he couldn't eat it?" - Homer Simpson
    • TKn00b, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2whichever side gets the first move wins.
    • CrankyPants, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Only of it chooses to defeat itself.
  • footbag01, on 10/11/2007, -8/+4The processing power that is required to solve checkers apparently isn't as much as the processing power required to handle a front page DIGG... Website is sssssslllllloooooooooowwwwwww!!!
  • johnn11238, on 10/11/2007, -16/+15God, you Digg addicts get so riled when someone has the SHOCKING GALL to post something without first scouring the entire Digg website to see if someone has posted something similar. Some of us actually have a ***** life, so please forgive us and simply ignore duplicate stories so that the rest of us may enjoy them in peace and ignorance.
    • MikeFromAmerica, on 10/11/2007, -2/+24"Some of us actually have a ***** life."

      Buried as inaccurate.
    • ACrazyGerman, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4I guess its true some men can get PMS.
      • DephexTwin, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I guess it's true that someone can be sexist even when the other person is not of the opposite sex.
        • hfactor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I can be sexist without anyone around. I win.
    • dezmo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11um, doesn't digg give you a list of similar stories before they let you post? and the front page doesn't exactly require 'scouring' of the site
  • etandrib, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6Whew! I've been waiting a loooooong time for them to solve checkers. Now I can finally sleep at night.
  • revenge7, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Time to solve chess....
  • chesbomb, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3go here to play the computer.

    http://games.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook/cgi-bin/player.cgi
    • Managore, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3I won!
    • danpat, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Looks like this game was created in 1989 when they started trying to solve the game. Its utter rubbish.
  • jdengenis, on 10/11/2007, -2/+35Sure, it knows how to play checkers, but does it play Global Thermo-nuclear War?
    • mrmacky, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1It can play it.... but it'll be about 5*10^20 nuclear holocausts before it can play it "perfectly" and come up with a draw. :)
    • MilesLombardi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You mean Defcon?
    • RogaDanar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2JOSHUA
  • bigapple666, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If the speed of the website is any indication of the computing speed of the computers that solved the game, I'm surprised it didn't take longer. I never even got to 'play' because nothing happened!
  • Bahimiron, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Worst web game ever. It's impossible!
  • vcpirkle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1There whole algorithm is *****. There going to have to try again because the white side of the board is supposed to go first.
  • SlackerCSB, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I just beat it.
  • FearlessFreep, on 10/11/2007, -0/+31Cool, now I can turn off my checkers@home screen saver
  • Oldschoolhack, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2*yawn* wake me up when 'GO' is completed and unbeatable. Then I would be throughly impressed.
    • jeffster1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2The fact that you "yawn" when someone solves the largest game ever solved tells me a lot about your intelligence level.
      • revenge7, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Checkers is NOT the largest game ever. Chess has more moves than checkers, and Go has more moves than chess.
    • alexkorova, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2*Yawn* Wake me up when they've solved the question about life, the universe and everything. Everything up until then is completely unimpressive.
    • BigFont, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Go is soooo......2D
  • jordan314, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2would matching it against itself be like hitting an immovable object with an unstoppable train?
    • jeffster1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Obviously you didn't RTFA, since it was solved to show that given perfect moves on both sides it would always end in a draw.
    • mky5439, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Don't you mean hitting the unstoppable force with the immovable object? yay for WoW references....
  • shade45, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Lets solve Monopoly next!
    • skyfire1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2All you have to do is rob the bank when no one is looking.
  • Yuo122986, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1so I guess its really easy to cheat at online checkers games from now on (if they're still around :), since it tells you if the move is a win, loss or tie
  • Elric77, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Will it Blend?
  • pEEpiNgtoM, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2So what happens when you have a match of two computers both running this program against one another?
    • hfactor, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2a) use common sense
      b) read the ***** article
      c) read the ***** comments above.
  • kidcodea, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3CHEATERS
  • velvet396, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4to everyone saying "wouldn't it beat itself" RTFA - perfect play, for either side, results in a draw.
  • monsenanna, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Buried, Duplicate
  • retrac1324, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Some guy told me that he's good at checkers. That just means he's not good at a lot of things.

    - Demetri Martin
  • hempydave, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2Um.. I read a book "How to win at everything " 40 yrs ago in grade 2 and became the checker champ of my school.
    This was solved along with pik up stiks and blackjack and the stats on landing on park place etc.No big deal ether the checker thing has only 7 opening moves and about half a dozen rules. PS as in all these kind of games the winnner never goes first.God you kids think you invented everything yesterday.
  • citizenmatt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.