Computational Creativity and Music - Computational Creativity Research: Towards Creative Machines - page 304

Fig. 15.1 White to mate in two moves
take a very long time even for a single random three-letter combination if, that is,
the combination actually exists in a word. Clearly, some kind creative process must
be involved to solve some of these combinations.
For example, one type of creativity employed that obviously uses association
involves phonetically sounding out loud the three-letter combination in ways that
make associations more apparent. Thus, 'NGL,' three consecutive letters one would
not expect to find quickly in a word, almost immediately brings to mind 'angle,'
'strangle,' or 'entangle.' Here are a few other examples that might strain your own
abilities at this game:
RFGONO PIF TYP LDO RBL XTA MBL RRI BKE XYZ.
Those groupings that contain three consonants pose the biggest problems, but
either way I don't believe it's possible to succeed for very long without sounds,
association of sounds with words, and ultimately, creativity. This type of game,
while simple and with few rules, certainly belongs to the Constrained category of
creativity as described in the previous section.
As a somewhat more elaborate Constrained category of creative game playing, I
present a straightforward example in chess (see Fig. 15.1 ).
Like most games, chess has definite and highly limited rules that cover the board,
movements of pieces, initial setup, and completion. At every step of the game, one
has a limited choice of possible moves. Of course, I contend here that making the
right move, the one that ultimately wins the game or at least contributes to winning
the game in twomoves, requires somethingmore than brute force, and that something