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Subject: Re: New 80-bit Chess engine Gothic Vortex. Your opinion please.

Author: Tord Romstad

Date: 03:47:28 10/16/03

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On October 16, 2003 at 03:16:58, Axel Schumacher wrote:
>It is possible to use an Array Move Generator. Most programmers who attempt to
>write something as complex as a chess program first build an Array Move
>Generator. On the plus side, an Array Move Generator is easier to program and
>debug. It also "makes sense" to think in terms of an Array Move Generator, since
>the computer instructions used to encode the program closely resemble the
>process a human player might use to do the same thing. On the minus side, an
>Array Move Generator is many times slower than a Bitboard Move Generator.

This is simply not true, even for normal chess.  Even the most vocal
bitboard supporters never claim that bitboard generators are many times
faster.  On the contrary, they often admit that bitboards may be slightly
slower for move generation, but that other advantages outweigh this.

>A recent experiment showed that the Bitboard Move Generator in the Gothic
>Vortex program is about 30 times as fast as the Array Move Generator found in
>the Zillions-Of-Games engine.

Which is a rather ridiculous comparison.  The Zillions-of-Games engine is
(IIRC) an engine which lets the user define a chess-like game by specifying
the board size and how the pieces are allowed to move.  It is completely
obvious that an engine which specialises in one particular chess variant
will easily outperform ZoG.

Tord



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