Ernst A. Heinz

Hiroyuki Iida

H. Jaap van den Herik

1 feel privileged that the J(jh Advances in Computer Games Conference (ACG 10) takes place in Graz, Styria, Austria. It is the frrst time that Austria acts as host country for this major event. The series of conferences started in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1975 and was then held four times in England, three times in The Netherlands, and once in Germany. The ACG-10 conference in Graz is special in that it is organised together with the 11th World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC), the Sth Computer Olympiad (CO), and the European Union Y outh Chess Championship. The 11 th WCCC and ACG 10 take place in the Dom im Berg (Dome in the Mountain), a high-tech space with multimedia equipment, located in the Schlossberg, in the centre of the city. The help of many sponsors (large and small) is gratefully acknowledged. They will make the organisation of this conference a success. In particular, 1 would like to thank the European Union for designating Graz as the Cultural Capital of Europe 2003. There are 24 accepted contributions by participants from all over the world: Europe, Japan, USA, and Canada. The specific research results ofthe ACG 10 are expected to tind their way to general applications. The results are described in the pages that follow. The international stature together with the technical importance of this conference reaffrrms the mandate of the International Computer Games Association (ICGA) to represent the computer-games community.

Many Games, Many Challenges

Advances in Computer Games

The book presents new results of computer-chess research in the areas of selective forward pruning, the efficient application of game-theoretical knowledge, and the behaviour of the search at increasing depths. It shows how to make sophisticated game-tree searchers more scalable at ever higher depths. Throughout the whole book, the high-speed and master-strength chess program "DarkThought" serves as a realistic test vehicle to conduct numerous experiments at unprecedented search depths. The extensive experimental evaluations provide convincing empirical evidence for the practical usefulness of the presented techniques. Advantages: - presentation of advanced and brand-new research results in computer chess (e.g. selective pruning and other search enhancements, improved endgame databases, etc.) - numerous experiments at unprecedented search depths - extensive experimental evaluation - practical usefulness of new techniques proven within strong state-of-the-art chess program "DarkThought" - includes detailed implementation skeletons in ANSI-C - contains concise introductions into the game of chess and the basics of computer chess in general

Ernst A. Heinz

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