Top professors from across the globe will be arriving in Essex for a high-level conference on board games.
Draughts, chess and backgammon will all be on the agenda at the first Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers symposium on computational intelligence and games at Essex University.
Assembled researchers will also discuss remote-controlled car racing and video games, including Pacman and Quake.
The boffins claim studying the way people improve their tactics as they play games can help them learn how to make computers which think for themselves.
They say methods used to win at bridge or poker could be turned into profitable techniques for gambling on the stock market.
Essex has been chosen to host the conference, set for April 2005, as the Wivenhoe Park university was one of the first in the UK to recognise the academic importance of games and start offering degree courses which cover the subject.
Published Friday January 2, 2004
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