Sil, who has for some time refused to play backgammon with me after a series of (admittedly often close) thrashings may find some comfort in the following, which I found on Wikipedia. It concerns one of the earliest backgammon playing computers, BKG 9.8:
by July 1979, BKG 9.8 was ready to play against then current world champion Luigi Villa. It won the match, 7-1, becoming the first computer program to defeat a world champion in any game, although this was mostly a matter of luck, as the computer happened to get better dice rolls than its opponent in that match.
On a related note, Cowthello has now been de-XHTML’d so should work properly again. One day I mean to programme a 3-ply version using the alpha-beta algorithm without tying myself in knots. Until then, you’ll have to make do with this.
Nice. Note that I just played Cowthello against http://www.freegames.ws/games/boardgames/othello/othello.htm and it kicked your cow’s arses, so the three-ply version is clearly now a priority.
I bet it still beat you though.