---
title: "Relative Efficiency of Alpha-Beta Implementations"
authors:
  - "T. Anthony Marsland"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/184"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/0184.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1983
pages: "763-765"
track: "Planning and Search"
keywords:
---

# Relative Efficiency of Alpha-Beta Implementations

T. Anthony Marsland

*Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 763-765.

## Abstract

Most of the data on the relative efficiency of different implementations of the alpha-beta algorithm is neither readily available nor in a form suitable for easy comparisons. In the present study four enhancements to the alpha-beta algorithm--iterative deepening, aspiration search, memory tables and principal variation search--are compared separately and in various combinations to determine the most effective alpha-beta implementation. The rationale for this work is to ensure that new parallel algorithms incorporate the best sequential techniques. Rather than relying on simulation or searches of specially constructed trees, a simple chess program was used to provide a uniform basis for comparisons.