Dynamic difficulty for checkers and Chinese chess

Abstract

We investigate the practical effectiveness of a theoretically sound algorithm for dynamic difficulty adjustment in computer games: Firstly, we show how the partially ordered set master (Posm) algorithm [11] can be incorporated in board games, taking checkers and Chinese chess as examples. Secondly, we describe an empirical study of (i) Posm on checkers against synthetic opponents of varying strength, (ii) Posm on chinese chess against synthetic opponents of varying strength, and (iii) Posm on Chinese chess against human opponents of varying strength. Our results indicate that Posm can indeed serve as a flexible and effective subroutine for dynamical difficulty adjustment in computer games.