Introducing Individual and Social Learning Into Evolutionary Checkers

In recent years, much research attention has been paid to evolving self-learning game players. Fogel's Blondie24 is just one demonstration of a real success in this field and it has inspired many other scientists. In this paper, evolutionary neural networks, evolved via an evolution strategy, are employed to evolve game-playing strategies for the game of Checkers. In addition, we introduce an individual and social learning mechanism into the learning phase of this evolutionary Checkers system. The best player obtained is tested against an implementation of an evolutionary Checkers program, and also against a player, which has been evolved within a round robin tournament. The results are promising and demonstrate that using individual and social learning enhances the learning process of the evolutionary Checkers system and produces a superior player compared to what was previously possible.