Related papers: A Minimax Algorithm Better Than Alpha-beta?: No an…

In 1979 Stockman introduced the SSS* minimax search algorithm that domi- nates Alpha-Beta in the number of leaf nodes expanded. Further investigation of the algorithm showed that it had three serious drawbacks, which prevented its use by…

Most practitioners use a variant of the Alpha-Beta algorithm, a simple depth-first pro- cedure, for searching minimax trees. SSS*, with its best-first search strategy, reportedly offers the potential for more efficient search. However, the…

This paper introduces a new paradigm for minimax game-tree search algo- rithms. MT is a memory-enhanced version of Pearls Test procedure. By changing the way MT is called, a number of best-first game-tree search algorithms can be simply and…

The alpha-beta pruning algorithms have been popular in game tree searching ever since they were discovered. Numerous enhancements are proposed in literature and it is often overwhelming as to which would be the best for implementation. A…

Search algorithms are often categorized by their node expansion strategy. One option is the depth-first strategy, a simple backtracking strategy that traverses the search space in the order in which successor nodes are generated. An…

Knuth and Moore presented a theoretical lower bound on the number of leaves that any fixed-depth minimax tree-search algorithm traversing a uniform tree must explore, the so-called minimal tree. Since real-life minimax trees are not…

Minimax-based search algorithms with alpha-beta pruning and transposition tables are a central component of classical game-playing engines and remain widely used in practice. Despite their widespread use, these algorithms are subtle, highly…

Deterministic game-solving algorithms are conventionally analyzed in the light of their average-case complexity against a distribution of random game-trees, where leaf values are independently sampled from a fixed distribution. This…

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) has improved the performance of game engines in domains such as Go, Hex, and general game playing. MCTS has been shown to outperform classic alpha-beta search in games where good heuristic evaluations are…

Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a family of sampling-based search algorithms widely used for online planning in sequential decision-making domains and at the heart of many recent advances in artificial intelligence. Understanding the…

This paper presents the first experimental evaluation of four previously untested modifications of Unbounded Best-First Minimax algorithm. This algorithm explores the game tree by iteratively expanding the most promising sequences of…

MTD(f) is a new minimax search algorithm, simpler and more efficient than previous algorithms. In tests with a number of tournament game playing programs for chess, checkers and Othello it performed better, on average, than NegaScout/PVS…

Modern SMT solvers, such as Z3, offer user-controllable strategies, enabling users to tailor solving strategies for their unique set of instances, thus dramatically enhancing solver performance for their use case. However, this approach of…

In this paper, we consider nonconvex minimax optimization, which is gaining prominence in many modern machine learning applications such as GANs. Large-scale edge-based collection of training data in these applications calls for…

In recent years, nonconvex minimax problems have attracted significant attention due to their broad applications in machine learning, including generative adversarial networks, robust optimization and adversarial training. Most existing…

A major challenge in decision making domains with large state spaces is to effectively select actions which maximize utility. In recent years, approaches such as reinforcement learning (RL) and search algorithms have been successful to…

In this paper, we offer an in-depth analysis about the modeling and search performance. We address the question if a more complex search algorithm is necessary. Furthermore, we investigate the question if more complex models which might…

The experiments conducted in previous studies demonstrated the successful performance of BSA and its non-sensitivity toward the several types of optimisation problems. This success of BSA motivated researchers to work on expanding it, e.g.,…

Non-convex sparse minimization (NSM), or $\ell_0$-constrained minimization of convex loss functions, is an important optimization problem that has many machine learning applications. NSM is generally NP-hard, and so to exactly solve NSM is…

We frame code generation as a black-box optimization problem within the code space and demonstrate how optimization-inspired techniques can enhance inference scaling. Based on this perspective, we propose SCATTERED FOREST SEARCH (SFS), a…