Lambda Depth-first Proof Number Search and its Application to Go.pdf

Lambda Depth-first Proof Number Search and its Application to Go Kazuki Yoshizoe Dept. of Electrical, Electronic, and Communication Engineering, Chuo University, Japan yoshizoe@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp Akihiro Kishimoto Department of Media Architecture, Future University-Hakodate, Japan kishi@fun.ac.jp Martin Mu?ller Dept. of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Canada mmueller@cs.ualberta.ca Abstract Thomsen’s λ search and Nagai’s depth-first proof- number (DFPN) search are two powerful but very different AND/OR tree search algorithms. Lambda Depth-First Proof Number search (LDFPN) is a novel algorithm that combines ideas from both algorithms. λ search can dramatically reduce a search space by finding different levels of threat sequences. DFPN employs the notion of proof and disproof numbers to expand nodes expected to be easiest to prove or disprove. The method was shown to be effective for many games. Inte- grating λ order with proof and disproof numbers enables LDFPN to select moves more effectively, while preserving the efficiency of DFPN. LDFPN has been implemented for capturing problems in Go and is shown to be more efficient than DFPN and more robust than an algorithm based on classi- cal λ search. 1 Introduction Many search methods have been developed to solve com- plex AND/OR trees, as occur in games. The direction of search can be controlled in an ad hoc manner by domain- specific knowledge. Domain-independent best-first, nonuni- form tree expansion techniques are a more principled ap- proach. Research in this area has produced two families of algorithms: in the first family of algorithms based on proof and disproof numbers [Allis, 1994; Nagai, 2002; Kishimoto and Mu?ller, 2005], search is controlled through the combined estimated difficulty of solving sets of frontier nodes that must be (dis-)proven in order to (dis-)prove the root. The second family of algorithms utilizes null (pass) moves [Donninger, 1993] for finding threats to achieve a goal [Thomsen,