That's the title of an article in the current issue of Science, by Jonathan Schaeffer, Neil Burch, Yngvi Björnsson, et al, from the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta.
Article abstract: The game of checkers has roughly 500 billion billion possible positions (5 x 1020). The task of solving the game, determining the final result in a game with no mistakes made by either player, is daunting. Since 1989, almost continuously, dozens of computers have been working on solving checkers, applying state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques to the proving process. This paper announces that checkers is now solved: perfect play by both sides leads to a draw. This is the most challenging popular game to be solved to date, roughly one million times more complex than Connect Four. Artificial intelligence technology has been used to generate strong heuristic-based game-playing programs, such as DEEP BLUE for chess. Solving a game takes this to the next level, by replacing the heuristics with perfection.
(hide) If you want to find an opponent with similar playing skills to your own look in the Ratings page of the type of game you want and find a player with a similar BKR. (pauloaguia) (show all tips)