An Optimization for Amazons Search and Evaluation

Computer chess is a computer program which plays chess by itself without human intervention. With the development of related fields of study, the capability of computer chess has improved greatly since its emergence. The Game of the Amazons is a new and challenging game in computer chess. Amazons has attracted attention in the game programming because of its difficulty. In this paper, we implemented and optimized an Amazons playing program that consists of four components, including View, Data, AI, and Operation. These components facilitate the debugging and optimizing process. It has a clear logical structure that simulates Amazons playing and implements an optimized alpha-beta pruning search algorithm. An optimization is made to improve the get-moves method, and a new evaluation factor is proposed and added to the evaluation function to further enhance its artificial intelligence capability. Then we conducted experiments to test its performance. The optimization is proved to be effective and helps the program to defeat some strong Amazons-playing programs.