TY - JOUR
T1 - Best Play in Fanorona Leads to Draw
AU - Schadd, Maarten P. D.
AU - Winands, Mark H. M.
AU - Uiterwijk, Jos W. H. M.
AU - van den Herik, Hendrik Jaap
AU - Bergsma, Maurice H. J.
PY - 2008/11/1
Y1 - 2008/11/1
N2 - Fanorona is the national board game of Madagascar. The game's complexity is approximately the same as that of checkers. In this article, we present a search-based approach for weakly solving this game. It is a well-chosen combination of Proof-Number search and endgame databases. Retrograde analysis is used to generate the endgame databases in which every position with 7 or fewer pieces on the board has been solved. Then, a Proof-Number search variant, PN2, exploits the databases to prove that the game-theoretical value of the initial position is a draw. Future research should develop techniques for strongly solving the game.
AB - Fanorona is the national board game of Madagascar. The game's complexity is approximately the same as that of checkers. In this article, we present a search-based approach for weakly solving this game. It is a well-chosen combination of Proof-Number search and endgame databases. Retrograde analysis is used to generate the endgame databases in which every position with 7 or fewer pieces on the board has been solved. Then, a Proof-Number search variant, PN2, exploits the databases to prove that the game-theoretical value of the initial position is a draw. Future research should develop techniques for strongly solving the game.
U2 - 10.1142/S1793005708001124
DO - 10.1142/S1793005708001124
M3 - Article
SN - 1793-0057
VL - 4
SP - 369
EP - 387
JO - New Mathematics and Natural Computation
JF - New Mathematics and Natural Computation
IS - 3
ER -