Item

Abstract

We present FINESSE, a system that forms optimal plans for declarer play in the \u000Agame of Bridge. FINESSE adapts the technique of proof‐planning, developed at \u000AEdinburgh University in the context of mathematical theorem‐proving, to deal \u000Awith the disjunctive choice encountered when planning under uncertainty, and \u000Athe context‐dependency of actions produced by the presence of an opposition. \u000AFINESSE not only demonstrated how the idea of proof‐planning could be \u000Ageneralised, but also proved to be a very capable bridge system. In its domain \u000Aof planning for individual suits, it correctly identified the proper lines of \u000Aplay found in many examples from the Bridge literature, supporting its \u000Adecisions with probabilistic and qualitative information. Caes were even \u000Adiscovered in which FINESSE revealed errors in the analyses presented by \u000Arecognized authorities.