Efficient Time Control in Chinese Chess with Alternating Search

Xun, J. and Grimbergen, R. (2012).

in: The 17th Game Programming Workshop in Japan (GPW2012), pp. 141--143, Kanagawa, Japan.

Abstract

Time control is an important strategy problem in games. With a good strategy, time can be used more efficiently, using more time for more important decisions. In computer games, a good strategy can provide more time for certain moves, thus allowing deeper search which results in better moves. Furthermore, a good strategy should be adaptive so it can be used in different contexts. In this paper, we propose a new method to improve the efficiency of time control by adjusting the search depth according to the game stage and the time that is left. The experimental results show that the proposed method may be a suitable way to use time more efficiently.