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Monday, January 02, 2012

GNU Backgammon

Yesterday, prompted by playing a few games while visiting my mother, I decided to install gnubg on this computer. Gnubg is a backgammon program which uses neural networking to work out the optimal move from every position in a backgammon game. It has a brutally good AI and has the ability to analyze a played match and tell you every single thing you did imperfectly over the course of the entire game. It's pretty cool! I remember playing it a few years ago on my laptop and having to wait around a bit after each match for it to analyze the game. There are a lot of moves to be me made at each step of the game, after all. On this computer? Practically instant. I'm wondering if I've got the settings set up differently than I used to or if this computer is just that much faster.

At any rate I went something like 2-8 in best of 7 matches against the computer last night. I'm pretty sure I got lucky when I won! I'm certainly making a lot of mistakes (like the wrong opening moves which I used to know) so I need a lot more practice if I'm going to be ok at the game again. Makes me wish I hadn't lost my introductory strategy book... I wonder if I can find one on the Kobo!

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