Abstract:

In 1989 the Chinook project began with the goal of winning the human 
World Checkers Championship. There was an imposing obstacle to success 
-- the human champion, Marion Tinsley. Tinsley was as close to 
perfection at the game as was humanly possible. To be better than 
Tinsley meant that the computer had to be perfect. In effect, one had to 
solve checkers. Little did we know that our quest would take 18 years to 
complete. What started out as a research project quickly became a 
personal quest and an emotional roller coaster. In this talk, the 
creator of Chinook tells the story of man versus machine for supremacy 
at checkers.