1 Answer
Reinforcement learning has an environment and an agent. The agent performs some actions to achieve a specific goal. Every time the agent performs a task that is taking it towards the goal, it is rewarded. And, every time it takes a step that goes against that goal or in the reverse direction, it is penalized.
Earlier, chess programs had to determine the best moves after much research on numerous factors. Building a machine designed to play such games would require many rules to be specified.
With reinforced learning, we don’t have to deal with this problem as the learning agent learns by playing the game. It will make a move (decision), check if it’s the right move (feedback), and keep the outcomes in memory for the next step it takes (learning). There is a reward for every correct decision the system takes and punishment for the wrong one.