Jaap van den Herik
As the new ICGA President, I am honoured to build upon the rich legacy established by my five predecessors. Their dedication has shaped the ICGA into the leading organization it is today, spanning from 1977 to 2025.
Our journey, however, began long before the ICGA’s founding. Visionaries like von Neumann, Turing, and Shannon laid the groundwork for AI in games, with chess becoming an early focal point. The evolution has been remarkable, from the first Computer Chess Championship in 1974 and the establishment of the ICCA in 1977, to Deep Blue’s ground-breaking victory over Gary Kasparov in 1997.
At the endof the 20th century, the ICCA saw a direct consequence an increased research enthusiasm for intelligent games. In particular, Backgammon and Go were rising stars, and hence we saw as a new technique Reinforcement Learning (e.g., the Backgammon program TD Gammon). Therefore, the General ICCA meeting in 2002 decided to change the name from ICCA (Computer Chess) into ICGA (Computer Games).
The 21st century has brought new challenges and opportunities. Researchers have identified key areas for improvement in game-playing AI, such as human opening books should be replaced by machine learned opening books; decision-making should incorporate long-term learning, and endgame analysis should include up to 8 piece endgame databases. We have witnessed the rise of several new techniques, and their acknowledgements by two Nobel Prizes awarded to the pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis.
My ICCA involvement started as researcher when I visited in 1980 the WCCC in Linz. There I had a deep interview with Claude Shannon. In 1983 Ben Mittman (Editor of the ICCA Newsletter) asked me to start the ICGA Journal as Editor-in-Chief (I did so for 34 years). For me the ICCA/ICGA has been a tremendous stimulus for my academic career (a.o. guiding 95 Ph.D. students, among them Victor Allis, Don Beal and David Levy). Excellent means were providing venues for the Advances in Computer Chess Conferences and the Games conferences) and to stimulate computer chess tournaments and Computer Olympiads). At the end of my career I would like to stimulate Mark Winands, Tristan Cazenave, I-Chen Wu and their related supporters (many) to broaden the community that has given me to opportunity to combine our hobby research ( chess and games) with other related serious applications. My thoughts go to Solving Chess, Applying Quantum Computing and Developing Instruction Methods for newcomers in the field.
If you consider the ICGA. as a vehicle to climb the mountains of science you have the right spirit. It does not matter what your background is (academic, student, researcher, lecturer, hobbyist, etc.). Here is a chance to follow your passion: write programs, compete on the world stage (maybe even for a World Championship), and interact with others who share your passion.
Taking over the task from Jonathan Schaeffer is an honor and a challenge. With your help we
will succeed. As you may understand we have much work to perform and your
encouragement is appreciated. Your contact person is Johanna Hellemons who is our
Secretary Treasurer. The best way to reach her is jokehellemons@gmail.com
Looking ahead, the ICGA will continue to be at the forefront of this exciting field. We will explore future frontiers such as solving chess, the potential of quantum computing, and the crucial role of AI in chess training and education. I am eager to work with all of you to further advance the field of AI in games and invite you to join us in shaping its future.
I look eagerly forward to our cooperation in such a new setting!