Multi-cut αβ-pruning in game-tree search

The efficiency of the αβ-algorithm as a minimax search procedure can be attributed to its effective pruning at the so-called cut-nodes; ideally only one move is examined there to establish the minimax value. This paper explores the benefits of investing additional search effort at cut-nodes by also expanding some of the remaining moves. Our results show a strong correlation between the number of promising move alternatives at cut-nodes and a new principal variation emerging. Furthermore, a new forward-pruning method is introduced that uses this additional information to ignore potentially futile subtrees. We also provide experimental results with the new pruning method in the domain of chess.