The area of computer strategic game playing has a history almost as long as computer science itself. Strategic games have proven to be a worthwhile domain for study, and many prominent figures in computer science have devoted time to the study of computer chess and other skill-testing games. Some of these luminaries include John Von Neumann, Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, John McCarthy, Donald Knuth, Alan Newell, Herbert Simon, Arthur Samuel, Donald Michie, and Ken Thompson.
Games generally have a clearly defined set of rules and a specific goal, and these properties are highly desirable for research in computer science. Most games of skill feature simple logistics yet complex strategy, which allows many interesting experiments to be undertaken.
The most basic question is how well a computer can be taught to play a given game. The fact that it is possible to accurately measure the degree of success of a particular approach, by comparing the results of many games played against programs based on rival ideas, is an important characteristic of games. Indeed, many areas of Artificial Intelligence have greatly benefited from having such a well-defined metric for progress.