The 7-piece Perfect Play Lookup Database for the Game of Checkers

Many research teams and individuals have computed endgame databases for the game of chess which use the distance-to-mate metric, enabling their software to forecast the number of moves remaining until the game is over. This is not the case for the game of checkers. Only one programming team has generated a checkers database capable of announcing the distance to the terminal position. This paper examines the benefits and detriments associated with computing three different types of checkers endgames databases, demonstrates the solutions to the longest wins in the 7-piece checkers database, presents tables of longest wins for positions including all permutations of four pieces and fewer against three pieces and fewer, and offers major improvements to some previously published play.