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Thomas A. (Tom) Throop,
an American pioneer in Bridge programming, and founder of Great Game Products ^[1], the makers of Bridge Baron. He is strong bridge, chess and correspondence chess player ^[2], and has written a first computer bridge program on a UNIVAC I at a US Navy laboratory in Washington, D.C. in 1958 ^{[3] [4]}. In 1982, he completed the first version of Bridge Baron, and founded Great Game Products in 1985 ^[5]. In collaboration with Vaxchess programmer Tony Guilfoyle, Bridge Baron won the Gold medals in 1990/91 at the 2nd and 3rd Computer Olympiad, and the Silver medal at the 4th Computer Olympiad, 1992, the 1990 version commercialized as Micro Bridge Companion ^{[6] [7]}. Along with Dana Nau and Stephen J.J. Smith ^{[8] [9]}, Throop developed sophisticated AI-planning techniques in Bridge Baron ^[10], when it became the first world champion in 1997 ^[11]. In 2001, Thomas A. Throop, Senior passed along the role of managing the company to his son, Thomas Throop, Junior ^[12].

Selected Publications

^{[13] [14]}

1960 ...

• Thomas A. Throop (1966). Thoughts on the Development of Computer Learning Programs. Defense Technical Information Center
• Thomas A. Throop (1967). Computer Intelligence to Enhance War Gaming. Defense Technical Information Center
• Albert D. Tholen, Thomas A. Throop (1968). Time-sharing Systems for War-gaming Applications. Defense Technical Information Center

1980 ...

• Tom Throop (1980). New Chess Products. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. 75
• Thomas A. Throop (1983). Computer Bridge. Hayden Book

1990 ...

• Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1992). A hierarchical approach to strategic planning with non-cooperating agents under conditions of uncertainty. Proceedings of the First International Conference on AI Planning Systems
• Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1996). Total-Order Multi-Agent Task-Network Planning for Contract Bridge. AAAI/IAAI, Vol. 1
• Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1996). A Planning Approach to Declarer Play in Contract Bridge. Computational Intelligence, Vol. 12
• Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1998). Success in Spades: Using AI Planning Techniques to Win the World Championship of Computer Bridge. AAAI/IAAI 1998
• Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1998). Computer Bridge: A Big Win for AI Planning. AI Magazine, Vol. 19, No. 2

External Links

• Tom Throop's ICGA Tournaments
• Great Game Products
• Great Game Products Inc Company Profile | ZoomInfo.com
• The chess games of T Throop from chessgames.com

References

1. ^ Great Game Products
2. ^ Great Game Products Inc Company Profile | ZoomInfo.com
3. ^ Bridge: Jack - World Computer Bridge Championship Contestants: Bridge Baron
4. ^ Participating Computer Bridge Software for the World Computer Bridge Championship and the History of these Software Programs - Summary of Participants at Computer Olympiads See: Computer Olympiad (pdf)
5. ^ Tom Throop's Bridge Baron - GB64.COM
6. ^ Micro Bridge Companion - Programs by Tom Throop and Tony Guilfoyle from Amazon.com
7. ^ Ian Frank (1998). Search and Planning Under Incomplete Information: A Study Using Bridge Card Play. Springer, at amazon, 1996 Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh at CiteSeerX
8. ^ Graduate Alum Profile: Dana Nau
9. ^ Jussi Tella (1997). Planning in Games. Seminar on Knowledge Engineering, Fall 1997, Helsinki University of Technology
10. ^ Bridge Baron - The 1997 world champion of computer bridge uses AI planning techniques to plan its declarer play
11. ^ 1997 Baron Barclay World Computer Bridge Championship by Alvin Levy
12. ^ Participating Computer Bridge Software for the World Computer Bridge Championship and the History of these Software Programs - Summary of Participants at Computer Olympiads See: Computer Olympiad (pdf)
13. ^ dblp: Thomas A. Throop
14. ^ ICGA Reference Database (pdf)

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