Partnership bidding for computer bridge

Abstract

In order to develop a computer bridge system that can play on an equal basis with the expert, various problems which are inherent to the incomplete information game must be solved. The authors intend to develop a new problem-solving technique through the challenge of computer bridge. In the bidding process in bridge, the player makes an effort to arrive at a better contract through collaboration involving the exchange of information by restricted bids. This paper reports a framework which was devised aiming at more humanlike (flexible) bidding than past programs. As the first step, the partnership in the bidding process is modeled as a communication between two agents with common knowledge and hypothetical reasoning mechanisms. The knowledge is divided into expertise and common sense, and a bid of the partner which deviates from the former is handled by the latter. In inferring the hand of the partner, the partner's conception of the player's own hand is also estimated, and a more adequate hypothesis is posed. As a result, a program that can perform flexible bidding according to the response of the partner is constructed. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 31(2): 72–82, 2000