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Checkers is Solved. Next?

There are 500 billion billion possible ways to arrange pieces on the board during a game of checkers. Still, after 18 years of research, Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada, announced last year that his program had "solved" checkers-that is, it was unbeatable. How soon before we solve other popular games?-Kate Pickert

Heads-Up Texas Hold 'Em

Time to Solve: 5 years

Poker is generally no fun with just two people, but it's impossible to "solve" (in the scientific sense) with any combination of more than two players.

Backgammon

Time to Solve: 10 years

The element of chance (rolls of the dice) makes the number of board combinations huge (1020). Scientists know how to solve backgammon, but current computer technology can't do it.

Chess

Time to Solve: 100 years

No one knows exactly how many possible board positions for chess exist, but it's thought to be somewhere between 1040 and 1045. Schaeffer predicts that the game will not be solved in his lifetime.

Go

Time to Solve: Anybody's guess

The extremely complicated game, which originated in ancient China, has far more board combinations than chess (10100). Scientists have no idea how to solve it and won't even venture to guess when the technology will exist to definitively do so.

Image Credits: Thomas van de Weerd; Alan Light; Donarreiskoffer

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1 Comment

why? when there are so many other choices.......still land will be destroyed to get the coal , people die mining it, water is polluted from mining......land is taken from people to get at it.......wake up people!! we are smarter than this most things we truly need are above ground just a little blessing from the universe and god!!!!!! Why do we feel the need too waste time.lives and money tearing things apart to find our answers....the world was designed perfectly , we have the sun , wind & water to obtain energy we can create hydrogen gas from water and as an added bonus we keep the beautiful mountains to visit with our children. Why do we cling to our destructive ways when we have better cleaner answers- this bs spreads money too thin and holds back real progress- sooner or later there will be no coal for anyone this is already known why not pretend this is so now and move on to better things aaa?
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