Around the World in Eighty Games: From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World's Greatest Games

by Marcus du Sautoy

The first example of machine learning in game play also consisted of a machine that learned how to play tic-tac-toe. But rather than being made from electronics, this machine consisted of 304 matchboxes. Created by British computer scientist Donald Michie in 1961, it was called MENACE, which stood for Machine Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine. Each matchbox corresponded to all the possible configurations the game could be in from beginning to end. Again, you didn’t need to consider every state because you used symmetry to reduce things down to 304 different configurations. So a match box might have on its side