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Subject: Re: Min # of bits needed to store a chess position

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 10:25:03 04/22/00

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On April 21, 2000 at 13:21:56, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote:

>On April 21, 2000 at 02:03:53, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On April 21, 2000 at 01:44:07, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>>On April 20, 2000 at 11:58:55, KarinsDad wrote:
>>>>On April 20, 2000 at 04:21:58, James Robertson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>What is the current minumum number of bits required to store a chess position?
>>>>>If somebody could send me instructions on how to encode a chess position in as
>>>>>few bits as possible, I would be very happy.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>James
>>>>>jrobertson@newmail.net
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I think the answer is around 155 or so bits with a enumeration algorithm, but
>>>>I'm not sure if anyone has actually written one and proved it. The reason is
>>>>that it would be a bit of a bear to write (but doable).
>>>>
>>>>My best is 162 bits with the algorithm I put together. It also has not been
>>>>written. However, it would be quicker to calculate than an enumeration
>>>>algorithm.
>>>>
>>>>A good algorithm is the one used in EDP. It requires 192 bits, but is extremely
>>>>simple to code up. Something like:
>>>>
>>>> 64   64 bits bitboard
>>>>128   4 bits per piece times 32 pieces
>>>
>>>Hmm. I wonder if some sort of Huffman encoding would be useful for the bitboard.
>>>Of course, then you get positions that are variable bit lengths, but if that's
>>>not a requirement...
>>
>>that is an excellent idea for average length reduction, but I think it will
>>actually expand the worst case length by a few bits.
>
>I don't think so. Say you use the simplest Huffman of 3 bits for pawns, and 4
>bits for other pieces. For every two promotions (adds 2 bits), one man must be
>removed (subtracts 3-4 bits), so the total length is smaller.

Notice my idea was to use Huffman encoding for the bitboard, and not the pieces.

-Tom



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