One Jump Ahead

This extraordinary book tells of the creation of the world-class checkers computer program, Chinook. From its beginnings in 1988, Chinook became a worthy opponent to the world champion and by 1992 had defeated all the worlds top human players. In his fascinating account, Jonathan Schaeffer, the originator and leader of the Chinook team, provides an engrossing story of failures and successes. He describes the human story behind Chinook and his own feelings in his continuous effort to improve the programs performance. We follow the development of Chinook from an innocent question asked over lunch, through to the final match against the then world champion, Marion Tinsley. As the story unfolds, readers are introduced to the rules of checkers and the basics of computer game programs, as well as to the key figures in the story. The culmination of this new edition expounds upon checker finally perfected and solved by Chinook ten years after the story was originally told.