Checkers mathematically solved

Who would have thought such a simple game would take so long to solve. All you need to do is write out the game tree and employ backwards induction. No small task!

Checkers mathematically solved: "David Pescovitz: Checkers has officially been 'solved.' A new computer-generated mathematical proof reveals that a perfectly-played game of checkers (aka draughts) always ends in a draw. University of Alberta computer games researcher Jonathan Schaeffer spent 18 years on the problem, making it 'one of the longest running computations in history,' according to New Scientist:
At its peak, Schaeffer had 200 desktop computers working on the problem full time, although in later years he reduced this to 50 or so. 'The problem is such that if I made a mistake 10 years ago, all the work from then on would be wrong,' says Schaeffer. 'So I've been fanatical about checking for errors.' "

(Via Boing Boing.)