Editing Jonathan Schaeffer

{{short description|Canadian researcher and professor}}
{{about||the philosopher|Jonathan Schaffer|the musician|Jon Schaffer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Jonathan Schaeffer
| honorific_suffix  = {{postnominals|FRSC|size=100%}}
| image             = Jonathan Schaeffer.jpg
| image_size        =
| caption           = June, 2014
| birth_date        = {{Birth year and age|1957}}
| birth_place       = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]]
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = 
| ethnicity         = 
| fields            = [[Artificial intelligence]]<br/>[[Heuristic search]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Alberta]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Waterloo]]<br/>[[University of Toronto]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = 
| notable_students  = 
| thesis_title      = Experiments in Search and Knowledge
| thesis_year       = 1986
| thesis_url        = https://primo.tug-libraries.on.ca:443/WATERLOO:search_tab:vtug943855
| known_for         = [[Chinook (draughts player)]], [[Polaris (poker bot)]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = {{ublist|[[AAAI]] Fellow {{small|(2000)}}|[[Alberta Centennial Medal]] {{small|(2005)}}}}
| religion          = 
| signature         = 
| footnotes         = 
| website           = {{URL|webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~jonathan}} 
}}

'''Jonathan Herbert Schaeffer''' {{post-nominals|FRSC}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Graney |first=Juris |date=3 August 2018 |title=Dean of science resigns from University of Alberta |work=edmontonjournal |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/university-of-alberta-dean-of-science-resigns-post-citing-actions-of-university-leadership |access-date=2023-12-04 |publisher=[[Edmonton Journal]] |archive-date=2021-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210919174027/https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/university-of-alberta-dean-of-science-resigns-post-citing-actions-of-university-leadership |url-status=live }}</ref> (born 1957) is a [[Canadians|Canadian]] researcher and professor at the [[University of Alberta]] and the former [[Canada Research Chair]] in Artificial Intelligence.

He led the team that wrote [[Chinook Checkers Program|Chinook]], the world's strongest [[English draughts|American checkers]] player, after some relatively good results in writing [[computer chess]] programs. He is involved in the University of Alberta GAMES group developing [[Computer poker players|computer poker]] systems. Schaeffer is also a member of the research group that created [[Polaris (poker bot)|Polaris]], a program designed to play the [[Texas Hold'em]] variant of poker. He is a Founder of Onlea,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.onlea.org/#team | title=Our Team | accessdate=2014-10-10 | publisher=Onlea Corporation | archive-date=2014-10-17 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017165815/http://www.onlea.org/#team | url-status=live }}</ref> which produces online learning experiences.

==Early life==
Born in [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 from the [[University of Toronto]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jonathan Schaeffer, PhD |url=https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/jonathan |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=apps.ualberta.ca |archive-date=2024-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324183833/https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/jonathan |url-status=live }}</ref> He received a Master of Mathematics degree in 1980 and a Ph.D. in 1986 from the [[University of Waterloo]]. Schaeffer reached national [[Chess master|master]] strength in [[chess]] while in his early 20s, but has played little competitive chess since that time.

==Draughts: Chinook==
{{main|Chinook (computer program)}}
Chinook is the first [[computer program]] to win the world champion title in a competition against humans. In 1990 it won the right to play in the human World Championship by being second to [[Marion Tinsley]] in the US Nationals. At first the [[American Checker Federation|American Checkers Federation]] and English Draughts Association were against the participation of a computer in a human championship. When Tinsley resigned his title in protest, the ACF and EDA created the new title Man vs. Machine World Championship, and competition proceeded. Tinsley won with four wins to Chinook's two.

In a rematch, Chinook was declared the Man-Machine World Champion in checkers in 1994 in a match against Marion Tinsley after six drawn games, and Tinsley's withdrawal due to pancreatic cancer. While Chinook became the world champion, it had never defeated the best checkers player of all time, Tinsley, who was significantly superior to even his closest peer.

The championship continued with Chinook defending its title against [[Don Lafferty]] when it lost one game, won one and drew 18. After the match, Jonathan Schaeffer decided not to let Chinook compete anymore, but instead try to [[solve game|solve]] checkers. It was rated at 2814 [[Elo rating system|Elo]].

In 2007, after 18 years of computation, he proved through a [[solved game|weak solution]] that checkers always results in a draw if neither player makes a mistake. The solution involved 10<sup>14</sup> calculations from endgame positions with fewer than 10 pieces on the board.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12296-checkers-solved-after-years-of-number-crunching.html | title=Checkers 'solved' after years of number crunching | date=2007-07-19 | accessdate=2007-07-20 | publisher=NewScientist.com news service | first=Justin | last=Mullins | archive-date=2009-05-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090522102738/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12296-checkers-solved-after-years-of-number-crunching.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

==Poker: Polaris==
{{main|Polaris (poker bot)}}
Schaeffer is a member and, until 2004, leader of the computer poker research group at the [[University of Alberta]], which has developed several strong computer programs for playing [[Texas hold 'em]] poker.  The earliest and most general of these is Poki, which uses [[Monte Carlo simulation]] to choose actions during a game.  More recently, the group has focused on the two-player (Heads-Up) variant, and has developed a series of programs that approximate [[Nash equilibrium]] strategies for the game.  Several of these programs (such as Poki, SparBot and VexBot) are available in products such as Poker Academy from BioTools.

In July 2007, Schaeffer announced a competition between the group's newest program, [[Polaris (poker bot)|Polaris]], and two human professionals, [[Phil Laak]] and [[Ali Eslami]].  The competition was held at the 2007 [[Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]] (AAAI) conference, which also hosted an international competition between computer poker programs.  Out of four matches against the human professionals, Polaris won one, tied one, and lost twice; overall, the humans won the competition by a small margin.<ref name="UoA1">{{cite news |title=Polaris drawing professionals to a stand-still |publisher=University of Alberta: Express News |date=July 20, 2007 |url=http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=8611 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523114124/http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=8611 |archivedate=May 23, 2008 }}</ref> In the computer competition, Polaris (playing under the name Hyperborean) won the Limit Hold'em event and came first in the No-Limit Hold'em event.<ref name="UoA2">{{cite news |title=U of A researchers win computer poker title |publisher=University of Alberta: Express News |date=August 9, 2006 |author=Ryan Smith |url=http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=7789 }}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  In 2008, an updated version of Polaris defeated a team of human professionals in the Second Man-Machine Poker Competition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Second Man-Machine Poker Competition |url=http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/man-machine/ |access-date=2023-12-04 |website=webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca |archive-date=2023-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115040351/https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/poker/man-machine/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Later life==

Schaeffer was previously the vice-provost for [[information technology]] at the [[University of Alberta]]. On July 1, 2012, he started serving a five-year term as [[Dean (education)|dean]] of science at the [[University of Alberta]]. He is a founder of Onlea, a nonprofit organization, which produces interactive online learning experiences such as Massive Open Online Courses.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.onlea.org/ | title=About | accessdate=2014-10-10 | publisher=Onlea Corporation | archive-date=2014-10-17 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017165815/http://www.onlea.org/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of University of Waterloo people]]

==References==
* ''Canadian Who's Who 1997.'' University of Toronto Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8020-4996-4}}.
<references/>

==Further reading==
* Schaeffer, Jonathan. ''One Jump Ahead: Challenging Human Supremacy in Checkers'', 1997, Springer, {{ISBN|978-0-387-94930-7}}.

==External links==
*{{official|http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~jonathan/}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaeffer, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Canadian artificial intelligence researchers]]
[[Category:Canadian computer scientists]]
[[Category:Canada Research Chairs]]
[[Category:Canadian draughts players]]
[[Category:Canadian chess players]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada]]
[[Category:Game theorists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Toronto]]
[[Category:Chess players from Toronto]]
[[Category:Canadian poker players]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Alberta]]
[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]]
[[Category:University of Waterloo alumni]]