With uniform pieces and diagonal moves, checkers is simple enough for a child to learn. But to achieve absolute mastery of the game, scientists needed to run hundreds of computers for nearly 20 years, analyzing roughly 500 billion billion scenarios.

By completing the project, a team of Canadian researchers have officially "solved" checkers, creating an unbeatable program that will choose the best move in every possible situation. This achievement represents a major benchmark in the field of artificial intelligence, which uses games to develop complex problem-solving strategies for computers.

In 1994, a program named Chinook beat the reigning human world checkers champion, a feat that preceded Deep Blue's famous chess defeat of grandmaster Gerry Kasparov by three years. But even after proving dominant over humans, finishing the calculations required to solve the game required thirteen more years of research.

"Had I known 18 years ago it was this big of a problem, I probably would've done something else," said Jonathan Schaeffer, who led the project at the University of Alberta, "but once I started, I had to finish."

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