Seven Games Analyzed By AI

An excellent book was published earlier this year, “Seven Games -- a Human History” by Oliver Roeder (W.W. Norton & Co.). Roeder looks at how computers have influenced five board games (backgammon, checkers, chess, go

and Scrabble) and two cards games (bridge and poker).

Computer programs can defeat humans in all of the board games, though checkers should end in a draw. There is no hidden information except in Scrabble, and then the computer knows all of the legal words. Go (a two-player Japanese game) was thought to be so difficult that computers would not match humans, but the world’s top go player has lost a match to a computer.

However, in my opinion, a computer will never consistently beat human experts at bridge. The unseen cards leave the computer lost in uncertainty, and computers often make rookie mistakes.

Wi t Bri g Phillip

Alder

In this deal, what should have happened in four spades? The West robot cashed its three red-suit winners and exited with the club eight: 10, jack, king.

Note that no one passes hands like East’s these days. North bid what she hoped her partner could make.

I had to find the spade queen to get home. Based on the points, West was the favorite, but perhaps West had the diamond jack and

East the spade queen.

At trick five, I led the spade jack from my hand ... and West covered with the queen!

No human would have made that egregious error. I had shown six spades in the bidding , there were three on the board, and West had three. East had to have a singleton. What if it were the king ?!