An evaluation function for the game of amazons

Abstract

Amazons is a fascinating game that shares properties of chess and Go. Designing a computer program that plays amazons on the level of human experts and beyond is a real challenge. This article emphasizes the secret of such a program, viz. its evaluation function. We describe the function by using explicit formulas, we mention the ideas and goals behind these formulas, we discuss possible refinements, and study in detail methods for special endgame problems. By analyzing a tournament game of A MAZONG against the threefold computer world champion 8QP we illustrate how the new features of our evaluation function can lead to victory.