Conference : Advances in Computer Games 2021

November 23-25

Online (please register here)

Organized by the International Computer Games Association

Presentation

Welcome to the home page for the Advances in Computer Games conference. The first ACG conference was held in 1975 (then called Advances in Computer Chess). 47 years later, we are still going strong! Since the 1990s, the conference has been organized by the International Computer Games Association.

ACG features cutting edge artificial intelligence technology as applied to computer games. This year’s conference is being held online November 23-25. Attendance is free! Join us for an exciting program of superb keynote speakers and exciting research papers.

Conference Program and Schedule

November 23-25. Click here for the detailed schedule.

Registering for the Conference

Conference attendee registration is free. A few days before the conference you will receive a video link which will allow you to watch and interact with the live presentations.

Please register here.

Keynote Speakers

David Silver leads the reinforcement learning research group at DeepMind and was lead researcher on AlphaGo, AlphaZero and co-lead on AlphaStar. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1997 and subsequently co-founded the video games company Elixir Studios. He returned to academia in 2004 at the University of Alberta to study for a PhD on reinforcement learning, where he co-introduced the algorithms used in the first master-level 9×9 Go programs. David consulted for DeepMind from its inception, joining full-time in 2013. Silver led the AlphaGo project, culminating in the first program to defeat a top professional player in the full-size game of Go. AlphaGo subsequently received an honorary 9 Dan Professional Certification; and won the Cannes Lion award for innovation. For his breakthrough advances in computer game-playing, David was awarded the 2019 ACM Prize in Computing. In 2021, He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

Michael Bowling is a professor in Computing Science, Fellow in the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, and a senior scientist in DeepMind. His research is driven by his fascination in the problem of how computers can learn to play games through experience. He led the Computer Poker Research Group, which has built some of the best poker playing programs in the world, including being the first to beat professional players at both limit and no-limit variants of the game. He also was behind the use of Atari 2600 games to evaluate the general competency of reinforcement learning algorithms, which is now a ubiquitous benchmark suite of domains for RL. In 2020, Michael became a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Mark Lefler is an American computer games and chess programmer. He is author of the computer chess program Now and co-author of the general game playing program Zillions of Games. Mark founded the Chess Programming Wiki in 2007, and in 2013 he joined the Komodo computer chess team. Mark graduated in 1981 with a BS degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His non-computer interests include performing magic, music, and gaming. Mark serves as the Programmers Representative of the International Computer Games Association (ICGA).

Larry Kaufman is an American chess and shogi player. In chess, he was awarded the awarded the International Master title in 1980 and Grandmaster title in 2008 (by winning the 2008 World Seniors Championship). A longtime researcher in computer chess, Larry has made several contributions to chess-related works. He helped write the opening book for the pioneering program Mac Hack, co-developed Socrates II and its commercial adaptation, Kasparov’s Gambit, edited the journal Computer Chess Reports, and worked on many other research and commercial chess engines. He is also known for his work on computer chess engine Rybka 3 and Komodo. Larry has been working on computer chess programs since 1967!

Accepted Papers

22 papers were accepted.

• N. Fabiano and T. Cazenave Sequential Halving Using Scores
• J. Uiterwijk Solving Bicoloring-Graph Games on Rectangular Boards — Part 1: Partisan Col and Snort
• J. Uiterwijk Solving Bicoloring-Graph Games on Rectangular Boards — Part 2: Impartial Col and Snort
• H.-J. Chang, C. Yueh, G.-Y. Fan, T.-Y. Lin and T.-S. Hsu Opponent Model Selection Using Deep Learning
• T. Cazenave, J. Sentuc and M. Videau Cosine Annealing, Mixnet and Swish Activation for Computer Go
• G. Moskowitz and V. Ponomarenko A Heuristic Approach to the Game of Sylver Coinage
• R. Hayward, M. Jamshidian and R. A. Hearn BoxOff is NP-complete
• R. Haque, T. H. Wei and M. Mueller On the Road to Perfection? Evaluating LeelaChess Zero Against Endgame Tablebases
• M. Goadrich and C. Shaddox Quantifying the Space of Hearts Variants
• L. G. Heredia and T. Cazenave Expert Iteration for Risk
• S. Tanaka, F. Bonnet, S. Tixeuil and Y. Tamura Quixo is solved
• B. Doux, B. Negrevergne and T. Cazenave Deep Reinforcement Learning for Morpion Solitaire
• M. Stephenson, E. Piette, D. J. N. J. Soemers and C. Browne Automatic Generation of Board Game Manuals
• G. Guglielmo, I. Peradajordi and M. Klincewicz Using Deep Learning to Detect Facial Markers of Complex Decision Making
• C. Yi and T. Kaneko Improving Counterfactual Regret Minimization Agents Training in card game Cheat Using Ordered Abstraction
• D. J. N. J. Soemers, E. Piette, M. Stephenson and C. Browne Optimised Playout Implementations for the Ludii General Game System
• K. Fujihira, C.-H. Hsueh and K. Ikeda Procedural Maze Generation with Considering Difficulty from Human Players’ Perspectives
• A. Pálsson and Y. Bjornsson Evaluating Interpretability Methods for DNNs in Game-Playing Agents
• M. Bizjak and M. Guid Automatic Recognition of Similar Chess Motifs
• A. Gunes, F. Kavum and S. Sariel A Generic Approach for Player Modelling Using Event-Trait Mapping Supported by PCA
• C. Browne, E. Piette, M. Stephenson and D. Soemers General Board Geometry
• D. Gomboc and C. Shelton Chess endgame compression via logic minimization

Program Committee

The conference co-chairs are:

• Cameron Browne, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Akihiro Kishimoto, IBM Research, Tokyo, Japan

Committee members:

• Yngvi Bjornsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
• Bruno Bouzy, Paris Descartes University, France
• Tristan Cazenave, LAMSADE Université Paris Dauphine PSL CNRS, France
• Lung-Pin Chen, Tunghai University, Taiwan
• Siang Yew Chong, School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Malaysia
• Chao Gao, University of Alberta, Canada
• Reijer Grimbergen, Tokyo University of Technology, Japan
• Michael Hartisch, University of Siegen, Germany
• Ryan Hayward, University of Alberta, Canada
• Chu-Hsuan Hsueh, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan
• Hiroyuki Iida, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan
• Eric Jacopin, CREC Saint-Cyr, France
• Nicolas Jouandeau, Paris8 University, France
• Tomoyuki Kaneko, University of Tokyo, Japan
• Jakub Kowalski, University of Wroclaw, Poland
• Sylvain Lagrue, Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC), France
• Diego Perez Liebana, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK
• Shun-Shii Lin, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
• Richard Lorentz, California State University, USA
• Martin Mueller, University of Alberta, Canada
• Todd Neller, Gettysburg College, USA
• Mark Nelson, American University, USA
• Eric Piette, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Mike Preuss, Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
• Abdallah Saffidine, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
• Spyridon Samothrakis, University of Essex, UK
• Jonathan Schaeffer, University of Alberta, Canada
• Dennis Soemers, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Matthew Stephenson, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• Nathan Sturtevant, University of Alberta, Canada
• Ruck Thawonmas, Ritsumeikan University, Germany
• Michael Thielscher, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
• Jonathan Vis, Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
• Ting Han Wei, University of Alberta, Canada
• Mark Winands, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
• I-Chen Wu, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
• Shi-Jim Yen, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan
• Kazuki Yoshizoe, Kyushu University, Japan

International Computer Games Association (ICGA)

Interested in AI and games? Join the ICGA! The benefits of membership include:

• receiving the quarterly ICGA Journal (electronically or in print);
• enter the World Computer Chess Championships;
• enter the Computer Olympiad;
• contribute to and/or participate in the annual Computers and Games and Advances in Computer Games conferences; and
• join an international community of researchers/companies/hobbyists who have a passion for applying to AI to games.

For more information, please go here.

 

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