---
title: "The Reason for the Benefits of Minimax Search"
authors:
  - "Anton Scheucher"
  - "Hermann Kaindl"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/51"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/0051.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1989
pages: "322-326"
track: "Search"
keywords:
---

# The Reason for the Benefits of Minimax Search

Anton Scheucher, Hermann Kaindl

*Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 322-326.

## Abstract

Since there existed no convincing theoretical explanation for the usually observed benefits of minimax search in practice, we investigated two instances of a class of tree models which are based on the concept of quiescence. (This way the strict separation of static and dynamic aspects in practical programs is modeled.) We performed Monte Carlo simulations, enhanced by analytic results. The behaviour of these models in our studies generally corresponds quite well to observations in practice (especially that of the model based on the more restrictive definition of quiescence). Hence, we found empirical evidence for an earlier conjecture, and these results can serve as an important step towards understanding the reason for the benefits of minimax search .