The ancient game of checkers is dead, following a long illness. Checkers, also known as draughts, has been killed by a mathematical proof that shows the game always results in a draw if neither player makes a mistake.
A steady stream of games has succumbed to computer attack, including , which was “solved” more than 10 years ago. But it took 18 years for Jonathan Schaeffer, a computer scientist and games specialist at the University of Alberta in Canada, to solve checkers (Science, ).
Schaeffer has used the proof to update the checkers-playing program Chinook, which in…
