Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)

Since the answer to last week's post, AI/NN: 'Here to Stay?', is a resounding 'Yes!', it's time to learn a little more about the subject. One aspect on which I'm particularly fuzzy and which is important to understanding AlphaZero is the Monte Carlo Tree Search, aka MCTS. The following video is not specific to chess, but explains the concepts better than any other video I reviewed while working on this post.

Monte Carlo Tree Search (15:49) • 'Published on Mar 5, 2017'

The description explains,

This is a video I [John Levine] made for my class "CS310: Foundations of Artificial Intelligence" at the University of Strathclyde. The video has a brief description of the Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm and includes a worked example.

The 'worked example', which starts at 3:30 into the clip, is particularly useful and helps to understand better the material that precedes it. For more about MCTS specific to chess, see Monte Carlo Tree Search (chessprogramming.org).