Maven (Scrabble)
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Maven is the current best known artificial intelligence Scrabble player, created by Brian Sheppard. Its name derives from the word maven.
Yahoo! Scrabble and Hasbro Scrabble have used this algorithm.
Algorithms
Maven's game play is sub-divided into three phases: The "mid-game" phase, the "pre-endgame" phase and the "endgame" phase.
The "mid-game" phase lasts from the beginning of the game up until there are 9 or fewer tiles left in the bag. During this phase, the game is most randomised and the artificial intelligence uses heuristical move evaluations.
The "pre-endgame" phase works in almost the same way as the "mid-game" phase, except that it is designed to attempt to yield a good end-game situation.
The "endgame" phase takes over as soon as there are no tiles left in the bag. In two-player games, this means that the players can now deduce from the initial letter distribution the exact tiles on each other's racks. Maven uses the B-star search algorithm to analyse the game tree during the endgame phase.
References
- World-championship-caliber Scrabble, Brian Sheppard, Artificial Intelligence 134 (2002), 241-275