Sparring Milhouse versus Chinook

April 27, 2009 | Checkers | By: Mark VandeWettering

Well, I’ve mucked around a bit, and begun to add PDN (Portable Draughts Notation) logging to Milhouse. Here is a sparring match between the novice version of Chinook that you can play online versus Milhouse, running at around 15 ply search with a six piece endgame database. It seemed clear that the position was a draw at the end. Chinook seemed to think I had it on the ropes around move 19. Did milhouse miss a strong line, or is the novice level of Chinook misguided? I’m not sure.

[Event "Sparring Match"]
[Date "2009-04-27"]
[Black "Milhouse"]
[White "Chinook (Novice)"]
[Site "Internet"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
1. 11-15 22-18 2. 15x22 25x18 3. 8-11 29-25 4. 4-8 24-20 5. 12-16 26-22
6. 8-12 28-24 7. 9-13 30-26 8. 10-15 24-19 9. 15x24 18-15
10. 11x18 20x11 11. 7x16 27x11 12. 18x27 31x24 13. 12-16 32-27 14. 6-10 24-20
15. 10-15 11-8 16. 3x12 20x11 17. 12-16 11-8 18. 15-19 21-17
19. 16-20 27-23 20. 19-24 23-19 21. 24-27 19-16 22. 27-32 17-14
23. 20-24 8-4 24. 24-27 25-21 25. 1-6 16-11 26. 13-17 22x13
27. 6-9 13x6 28. 2x18 26-23 29. 18-22 21-17 30. 22-25 17-14
31. 27-31 23-19 32. 31-26 19-16 33. 25-29 14-10 1/2-1/2