[Computer-go] Primble: Scrabble with prime numbers

["Ingo Althöfer"]

One more message on Scrable:

influenced by Brian's dissertation, one of my
students (Thomas Rolle) had to read and to explain 
the contents of the thesis in his oral exam, in 2002.
Thomas caught fire, and soon later wrote a "simple" bot
for a Scrabble variant: (decimal) digits instead of
letters, and prime numbers instead of words. So, this
is a really international version where each person -
independent of his mother tongue - has in principle
the same chances.

The data base for the bot contained all primes with at
most seven digits. Typical semi-full board positions
looked like in the picture on
http://www.althofer.de/primble.html

As a human player I was completely chanceless against
the bot...

Ingo.


-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:21:14 +0100
> Von: "Ingo Althöfer" <3-Hirn-Verlag at gmx.de>
> An: computer-go at dvandva.org
> Betreff: [Computer-go] Special Offer: Towards perfect play of Scrabble

> Hello,
> 
> on the website
> www.icga.org
> I just found the item
> "Books for sale at ICGA (special offer)"
> in the list on the left.
> 
> In this books list there are several titles with reduced price.
> I would like to promote one of them, from the sublist
> "Ph.D. Theses", namely
> 
> Brian Sheppard: 
> Towards Perfect Play of Scrabble 
> Normal (old price): 25 €     Special offer (now): 15 € 
> For ordering information, contact info at icga.org
> 
> 
> It is a thesis from 2002 (University of Maastricht). I bought 
> it in that year, and for me it was a high calibre eye opener.
> It is very smooth to read, and contains a lot of interesting
> stuff, even for those people who are not especially engaged
> in computer Scrabble.
> The core part is Chapter 10, on simulations  (called Monte Carlo
> runs in other fields). I like especially Section 10.5 on the
> historical development (hand simulations by Ron Tiekert in
> the 1980's).
> 
> Without this book I would likely not have started to use
> "pure" Monte Carlo in my programs for "computer aided game
> inventing" in 2004.
> 
> Ingo.
> 
> -- 
> GMX DSL Doppel-Flat ab 19,99 Euro/mtl.! Jetzt mit 
> gratis Handy-Flat! http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/dsl
> _______________________________________________
> Computer-go mailing list
> Computer-go at dvandva.org
> http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go

-- 
Empfehlen Sie GMX DSL Ihren Freunden und Bekannten und wir
belohnen Sie mit bis zu 50,- Euro! https://freundschaftswerbung.gmx.de