Artificial Intelligence

Chap IV – Games
 Outline

 Zero-Sum Game
 Game Tree
 Min-Max Algorithm
 Alpha-Beta Pruning

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 Adversarial Search

 Searches in which two or more players with conflicting

goals are trying to explore the same search space for the
solution, are called adversarial searches, often known as
Games.

 Games are modeled as a search problem and

heuristic evaluation function, and these are the two
main factors which help to model and solve games
in AI.
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 Types of Games in AI

 Deterministic games: Deterministic games are those games which

follow a strict pattern and set of rules for the games, and there is no
randomness associated with them. Examples are chess, tic-tac-toe, etc.
 Non-deterministic games: Non-deterministic are those games which
have various unpredictable events and has a factor of chance or luck. This
factor of chance or luck is introduced by dice or cards. These are random,
and each action response is not fixed. Such games are also called as
stochastic games.
Example: Backgammon, Monopoly, Poker, etc.

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 Zero-Sum Game

 Zero-sum games are adversarial search which involves pure

competition. In Zero-sum game each agent's gain or loss of
utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of utility of
another agent.
 One player of the game try to maximize one single value,
while other player tries to minimize it.
 Each move by one player in the game is called as ply.
 Chess and tic-tac-toe are examples of a Zero-sum game.

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 Formalization of the problem
 A game can be defined as a type of search in AI which can be formalized of the following elements:

 Initial state: It specifies how the game is set up at the start.

 Player(s): It specifies which player has moved in the state space.

 Action(s): It returns the set of legal moves in state space.

 Result(s, a): It is the transition model, which specifies the result of moves in the state space.

 Terminal-Test(s): Terminal test is true if the game is over, else it is false at any case. The state

where the game ends is called terminal states.

 Utility(s, p): A utility function gives the final numeric value for a game that ends in terminal states

s for player p. It is also called payoff function.

For Chess, the outcomes are a win, loss, or draw and its payoff values

are +1, 0, ½.And for tic-tac-toe, utility values are +1, -1, and 0.
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 Game tree
 A game tree is a tree where nodes of the tree are the game states and
Edges of the tree are the moves by players. Game tree involves initial
state, actions function, and result Function.

 Example:Tic-Tac-Toe game tree:

 The following figure is showing part of the game-tree for tic-tac-toe game.
Following are some key points of the game:

• There are two players MAX and MIN.

• Players have an alternate turn and start with MAX.

• MAX maximizes the result of the game tree

• MIN minimizes the result.

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Game tree

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 Game tree
 From the initial state, MAX has 9 possible moves as he starts first.
MAX place x and MIN place o, and both player plays alternatively until we reach a
leaf node where one player has three in a row or all squares are filled.

 Both players will compute each node, Minimax, the Minimax value which is the best
achievable utility against an optimal adversary.

 Suppose both the players are well aware of the tic-tac-toe and playing the best play.
Each player is doing his best to prevent another one from winning. MIN is acting
against Max in the game.

 So in the game tree, we have a layer of Max, a layer of MIN, and each layer is called as
Ply. Max place x, then MIN puts o to prevent Max from winning, and this game
continues until the terminal node.

 In this either MIN wins, MAX wins, or it's a draw. This game-tree is the whole search
space of possibilities that MIN and MAX are playing tic-tac-toe and taking turns
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alternately.
 Game tree
Hence adversarial Search for the Minimax procedure works as
follows:
 It aims to find the optimal strategy for MAX to win the game.
 It follows the approach of Depth-first search.
 In the game tree, optimal leaf node could appear at any depth of
the tree. Propagate the Minimax values up to the tree until the
terminal node discovered.
 In a given game tree, the optimal strategy can be determined
from the Minimax value of each node, which can be written as
MINIMAX(n). MAX prefer to move to a state of maximum value
and MIN prefer to move to a state of minimum value. 10
 Mini-Max Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence

 Mini-max algorithm is a recursive or backtracking algorithm which is used in decision-

making and game theory. It provides an optimal move for the player assuming that
opponent is also playing optimally.

 Mini-Max algorithm uses recursion to search through the game-tree.

 Min-Max algorithm is mostly used for game playing in AI. Such as Chess, Checkers, tic-
tac-toe, go, and various tow-players game. This Algorithm computes the minimax
decision for the current state.

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 Min-Max Algorithm
 In this algorithm two players play the game, one is called MAX and other is
called MIN.

 Both the players fight it as the opponent player gets the minimum benefit while
they get the maximum benefit.

 Both Players of the game are opponent of each other, where MAX will select
the maximized value and MIN will select the minimized value.

 The minimax algorithm performs a depth-first search algorithm for the

exploration of the complete game tree.

 The minimax algorithm proceeds all the way down to the terminal node of the
tree, then backtrack the tree as the recursion.
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 Min-Max Algorithm

 The working of the Minimax algorithm can be easily described using an

example. Below we have taken an example of game-tree which is representing
the two-player game.

 In this example, there are two players one is called Maximizer and other is
called Minimizer.

 Maximizer will try to get the Maximum possible score, and Minimizer will try to
get the minimum possible score.

• This algorithm applies DFS, so in this game-tree, we have to go all the way through the
leaves to reach the terminal nodes.

• At the terminal node, the terminal values are given so we will compare those value and
backtrack the tree until the initial state occurs. Following are the main steps involved in
solving the two-player game tree:
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 Min-Max Algorithm

 Step-1: In the first step, the

algorithm generates the entire
game-tree and apply the utility
function to get the utility values
for the terminal states.
 In the below tree diagram, let's
take A is the initial state of the
tree. Suppose Maximizer takes first
turn which has worst-case initial
value =- infinity, and Minimizer will
take next turn which has worst-
case initial value = +infinity. 14
 Min-Max Algorithm
Step 2: Now, first we find the
utilities value for the Maximizer, its
initial value is -∞, so we will
compare each value in terminal state
with initial value of Maximizer and
determines the higher nodes values.

It will find the maximum among the

all.
 For node D max(-1,- -∞) =>
max(-1,4)= 4
 For Node E max(2, -∞) =>
max(2, 6)= 6
 For Node F max(-3, -∞) =>
max(-3,-5) = -3
 For node G max(0, -∞) = max(0,
7) = 7

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 Min-Max Algorithm

Step 3: In the next step, it's a turn

for Minimizer, so it will compare all
nodes value with +∞, and will find
the 3rd layer node values.
 For node B= min(4,6) = 4
 For node C= min (-3, 7) = -3

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 Min-Max Algorithm
Step 4: Now it's a turn for Maximizer,
and it will again choose the maximum
of all nodes value and find the
maximum value for the root node. In
this game tree, there are only 4 layers,
hence we reach immediately to the
root node, but in real games, there will
be more than 4 layers.

 For node A max(4, -3)= 4

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Properties of Mini-Max algorithm
 Complete- Min-Max algorithm is Complete. It will definitely find a
solution (if exist), in the finite search tree.

 Optimal- Min-Max algorithm is optimal if both opponents are playing

optimally.

 Time complexity- As it performs DFS for the game-tree, so the time

complexity of Min-Max algorithm is O(bm), where b is branching factor
of the game-tree, and m is the maximum depth of the tree.

 Space Complexity- Space complexity of Mini-max algorithm is also

similar to DFS which is O(bm).

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Limitation of the Minimax Algorithm

 The main drawback of the Minimax algorithm is that it

gets really slow for complex games such as Chess, go, etc.
 This type of games has a huge branching factor, and the
player has lots of choices to decide.
 This limitation of the Minimax algorithm can be improved
from alpha-beta pruning which we have discussed in the
next topic.

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Min-Max Algorithm

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning
 Alpha-beta pruning is a modified version of the Minimax algorithm. It is an
optimization technique for the Minimax algorithm.

 The Minimax search algorithm that the number of game states it has to
examine are exponential in depth of the tree. Since we cannot eliminate
the exponent, but we can cut it to half. Hence there is a technique by
which without checking each node of the game tree we can compute the
correct Minimax decision, and this technique is called pruning. This
involves two threshold parameter Alpha and beta for future expansion, so
it is called alpha-beta pruning. It is also called as Alpha-Beta
Algorithm.

 Alpha-beta pruning can be applied at any depth of a tree, and sometimes it

not only prune the tree leaves but also entire sub-tree.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning
 The two-parameter can be defined as:
◦ Alpha: The best (highest-value) choice we have found so far at any
point along the path of Maximizer.The initial value of alpha is -∞.

◦ Beta: The best (lowest-value) choice we have found so far at any point
along the path of Minimizer.The initial value of beta is +∞.

 The Alpha-beta pruning to a standard Minimax algorithm returns

the same move as the standard algorithm does, but it removes all
the nodes which are not really affecting the final decision but
making algorithm slow. Hence by pruning these nodes, it makes the
algorithm fast.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning
 Condition for Alpha-beta pruning:
The main condition which required for alpha-beta
pruning is:
α>=β
 Key points about alpha-beta pruning:
The Max player will only update the value of alpha.
The Min player will only update the value of beta.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning

Step 1: At the first step the, Max

player will start first move from
node A where α= -∞ and β= +∞,
these value of alpha and beta
passed down to node B where
again α= -∞ and β= +∞, and
Node B passes the same value to
its child D.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning

 Step 2: At Node D, the value of α will be

calculated as its turn for Max. The value of
α is compared with firstly 2 and then 3,
and the max (2, 3) = 3 will be the value of
α at node D and node value will also 3.

 Step 3: Now algorithm backtrack to

node B, where the value of β will change
as this is a turn of Min, Now β= +∞, will
compare with the available subsequent
nodes value, i.e. min (∞, 3) = 3, hence at
node B now α= -∞, and β= 3.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning
In the next step, algorithm traverse the
next successor of Node B which is
node E, and the values of α= -∞, and
β= 3 will also be passed.

Step 4: At node E, Max will take its turn,

and the value of alpha will change. The
current value of alpha will be compared
with 5, so max(-∞, 5) = 5, hence at node
E, α= 5 and β= 3, where α>=β, so the
right successor of E will be pruned, and
algorithm will not traverse it, and the
value at node E will be 5.

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning
 Step 5: At next step, algorithm again
backtrack the tree, from node B to node A.
At node A, the value of alpha will be
changed the maximum available value is 3 as
max (-∞, 3)= 3, and β= +∞, these two values
now passes to right successor of A which is
Node C. At node C, α=3 and β= +∞, and
the same values will be passed on to node F.

 Step 6: At node F, again the value of α will

be compared with left child which is 0, and
max(3,0)= 3, and then compared with right
child which is 1, and max(3,1)= 3 still α
remains 3, but the node value of F will
become 1. 27
 Alpha-Beta Pruning
 Step 7: Node F returns the node
value 1 to node C, at C α= 3 and
β= +∞, here the value of beta will be
changed, it will compare with 1 so min
(∞, 1) = 1. Now at C, α=3 and β= 1,
and again it satisfies the condition
α>=β, so the next child of C which is
G will be pruned, and the algorithm
will not compute the entire sub-tree
G.

 Step 8: C now returns the value of 1

to A

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 Alpha-Beta Pruning

 The best value for A is max

(3, 1) = 3. Following is the
final game tree which is the
showing the nodes which
are computed and nodes
which has never computed.
Hence the optimal value for
the maximizer is 3 for this
example.

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Pseudo-code for Alpha-beta Pruning

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 Exercise
 Apply the Minimax algorithm and the Alpha-Beta
pruning on the following tree.

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