Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

One Jump Ahead

Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers

  • Book
  • © 1997

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jonathan Schaeffer

    1. Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • An account of Chinook-the computer program that perfected checkers, updated and in softcover
  • A must-read for all those interested in computer intelligence and computer games
  • Author Schaeffer is a world-renowned expert at the leading center on games, University of Alberta’s GAMES Group

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (26 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. I Can’t Lose

    1. I Can’t Lose

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 1-2

  3. The Opening

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 3-3
      Download chapter PDF

    2. This Was Going to Be Easy

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 5-25

    3. Bottomless Well

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 26-35

  4. The Middlegame

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Valuable Lessons

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 39-56

    3. The Illusion of Intelligence

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 57-75

    4. A Nobel Turing Trio

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 76-89

    5. Didn’t Samuel Solve That Game?

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 90-102

    6. The Case for the Prosecution

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 103-126

    7. As Close to Perfection As Humanly Possible

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 127-133

    8. You Look Like a Checkers Player

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 134-146

    9. The Fudge Factor

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 147-173

    10. I Feel Like a Teenager Again

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 174-202

    11. Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 203-229

    12. Trust Me

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 230-236

    13. A Wake-Up Call

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 237-252

    14. Prelude to Disaster

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 253-283

    15. Programmed by God

      • Jonathan Schaeffer
      Pages 284-308
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Why did I write this book? I'm still not sure. After all, I'm a researcher, which means I think I know how to write technical papers. But writing for a n- technical audience is something I know nothing about. It took a lot of effort before I could force myself to sit down to write the first word. Once I did, however, it was hard not to stop! When I started this project, I didn't know that I had a lot to say and, in some sense, the results show this. The book is much longer than I even imagined it would be. Worse yet is that there is a lot of material that I decided not to include. It's a good thing that the publishers decided to limit how long the book could be! However, after much soul searching, I think I now know the reasons why I wrote this book. First and foremost, this book tells an interesting story. It's about the life of a checkers-playing computer program, Chinook, from its creation in 1989 to its retirement in 1996. In reality the story revolves around two people with different views of the program. As the creator of Chinook, I wanted to push the program to become the best player in the world, in much the same way that a father might encourage his son to excel at sports.

Reviews

"...We get a close look into the embarrassingly low-rent, codger-populated world of championship checkers... and a few painless lessons in the game itself... But the most memorable passages deal with Schaeffers's own bittersweet reactions. His brainchild does so well that he can see, all too clearly, its almost tragic effect on the cloistered society of checkers - and on his fellow human beings." Newsweek

" Schaeffer's personal involvement in the Chinook project, along with his engaging and open story-telling makes the book surprisingly gripping." A.K. Dewdney

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Jonathan Schaeffer

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: One Jump Ahead

  • Book Subtitle: Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers

  • Authors: Jonathan Schaeffer

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2733-3

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 1997

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4757-2733-3

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 496

  • Number of Illustrations: 56 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Probability and Statistics in Computer Science

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation