COSC 461/561
Checkers Program



We've talked about this in class. Get to work. Your program should start by inquiring if it is red or black. We will assume red will go first.


Some constraints:

1) your program may goes as deep as 8 (was 6)  half moves (that is, me-you-me-you-me-you). It should employ mix/max search and optionally alpha-beta pruning
2) once an opposing move is typed in, your program has 30 seconds to give figure out its own move
3) your program employ the notation given in the link

IMPORTANT
-The challenge here is to find the best evaluator you can. I think this will take you quite some time to develop and fine tune. For this reason, I am requiring working programs rather early in the semester; basically from October 6 until the end of the term, you should be working on your evaluator and related parts of the program.
- You will work in teams. I need to know the teams as soon as possible.

Some time lines:

Wednesday October 14 - A working program. You should be prepared to play 2 games against others in class.
Wednesday November 11 - You should be prepared to play 2 games against others in class.
December December ??? (Monday) - The tournament begins.


Tournament rules:

You will play another program 2 times, once as red once as black. A win receives 2 points, a draw 1 point and a lose 0 points.

The checkers program is worth 25% of your final grade. The winning program will receive a 25% for the project, the runner up will receive 24%, the second runner up will receive  23% and the third runner up will receive 22% . All others programs the correctly implement min/max search and play a valid/legal game will receive between 20% and 23%. A program that plays valid/legal checkers but doesn't implement min/max search will receive 15%-19%. Grades will be given in 1% increments.

Something New !!!!
All teams must submit a 1 page self evaluation on December 5, 2011. This self evaluation should include the following:

1) What grade do you think you deserve on this project? You should provide a number between 0 (zero - the lowest) and 100 (the highest). This number should reflect  agreement among all members of your team.

2) What percentage of the total effort did each member contribute? This should be a percentage between 0 and 100. The sum of each members percentages should be 100.

3) A one paragraph description from each individual on the team describing his/her contribution to the project.