Minimax Checkers Playing GUI: A Foundation for AI Applications

This paper presents an application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to play checkers. The program application has a MATLAB graphical user interface (GUI) and is equipped with a minimax algorithm. The AI has proven to be successful against the average student at the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) in a game of checkers. The importance of this project resides in providing the first steps at research and implementation of artificial intelligence that could be used in applications such as robotics in manufacturing and project planning. The project accomplished the objectives of creating an AI GUI that could play checkers against UTEC students. As was expected, success of the AI depended on the depth of the minimax tree. The AI struggled against UTEC students while using tree depths of three and four levels; however, the AI proved successful against UTEC students at tree depths of five and six. The optimal level chosen for the checkers AI eventually was five levels of depth because for six or more levels, the time of minimax evaluation delayed too much for fluid human game play.