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Minimax Algorithm, is a solution to reduce the burden on hardware in chess engine. However, a more in-depth method is needed to further increase the search algorithm. One of those solutions is called Alpha-Beta Pruning algorithm. The idea is to eliminate the unnecessary nodes in the search tree.

Monte-Carlo Tree Search is a sampling-based search algorithm that has been successfully applied to a variety of games. Monte-Carlo rollouts allow it to take distant consequences of moves into account, giving it a strategic advantage in many domains over traditional depth-limited minimax search with alpha-beta pruning. However, MCTS builds a highly selective tree and can therefore miss crucial moves and fall into traps in tactical situations. Full-width minimax search does not suffer from this weakness. This paper proposes MCTS-minimax hybrids that employ shallow minimax searches within the MCTS framework. The three proposed approaches use minimax in the selection/expansion phase, the rollout phase, and the backpropagation phase of MCTS. Without requiring domain knowledge in the form of evaluation functions, these hybrid algorithms are a first step at combining the strategic strength of MCTS and the tactical strength of minimax. We investigate their effectiveness in the test domains of Connect-4 and Breakthrough.

Probability trees are decision trees that predict class probabilities rather than the most likely class. The pruning criterion used to learn a probability tree strongly influences the size of the tree and thereby also the quality of its probability estimates. While the effect of pruning criteria on classification accuracy is well-studied, only recently there is more interest in the effect on probability estimates. Hence, it is currently unclear which pruning criteria for probability trees are preferable under which circumstances. In this paper we survey six of the most important pruning criteria for probability trees, and discuss their theoretical advantages and disadvantages. We also perform an extensive experimental study of the relative performance of these pruning criteria. The main conclusion is that overall a pruning criterion based on randomization tests performs best because it is most robust to extreme data characteristics (such as class skew or a high number of classes). We also identify and explain several shortcomings of the other pruning criteria. ispartof: Machine Learning vol:78 issue:1 pages:251-285 status: published

Neural network pruning methods on the level of individual network parameters (e.g. connection weights) can improve generalization, as is shown in this empirical study. However, an open problem in the pruning methods known today (e.g. OBD, OBS, autoprune, epsiprune) is the selection of the number of parameters to be removed in each pruning step (pruning strength). This work presents a pruning method lprune that automatically adapts the pruning strength to the evolution of weights and loss of generalization during training. The method requires no algorithm parameter adjustment by the user. Results of statistical significance tests comparing autoprune, lprune, and static networks with early stopping are given, based on extensive experimentation with 14 different problems. The results indicate that training with pruning is often significantly better and rarely significantly worse than training with early stopping without pruning. Furthermore, lprune is often superior to autoprune (which is superior to OBD) on diagnosis tasks unless severe pruning early in the training process is required.

Pruning decision trees is a useful technique for improving the generalization performance in decision tree induction, and for trading accuracy for simplicity in other applications. In this paper, a new algorithm called OPT-2 for optimal pruning of decision trees is introduced. The algorithm is based on dynamic programming. In its most basic form, the time and space complexities of OPT-2 are both Θ (nC), where n is the number of test nodes in the initial decision tree, and C is the number of leaves in the target (pruned) decision tree. This is an improvement over the recently published OPT algorithm of Bohanec and Bratko (which is the only known algorithm for optimal decision tree pruning) especially in the case of heavy pruning and when the tests of the given decision tree have many outcomes. If so desired, the space required by OPT-2 can further be reduced by a factor of r at the cost of increasing the execution time by a factor that is bounded above by (r + 1) 2 (this is a considerable overestimate, however). From a practical point of view, OPT-2 enjoys considerable flexibility in various aspects, and is easy to implement.

In this study, we tackled the reduction of computational complexity by pruning the igo game tree using the potential model based on the knowledge expression of igo. The potential model considers go stones as potentials. Specific potential distributions on the go board result from each arrangement of the stones on the go board. Pruning using the potential model categorizes the legal moves into effective and ineffective moves in accordance with the threshold of the potential. In this experiment, 4 kinds of pruning strategies were evaluated. The best pruning strategy resulted in an 18% reduction of the computational complexity, and the proper combination of two pruning methods resulted in a 23% reduction of the computational complexity. In this research we have successfully demonstrated pruning using the potential model for reducing computational complexity of the go game.