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Subject: Re: What are the Top 10 Computer Chess Algorithms & Techniques?

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 08:49:26 06/12/00

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On June 11, 2000 at 22:18:41, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>On June 11, 2000 at 21:38:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On June 11, 2000 at 17:46:32, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>
>>>In the January/February issue of CiSE, there was published a list of 10
>>>algorithms having "the greatest influence on the development and practice of
>>>science and engineering in the 20th century" . You can see this here:
>>>
>>>http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/personal/jborwein/algorithms.html
>>>
>>>Which I found this to be quite interesting, so naturally I wondered what the
>>>membership of CCC thought were the Top 10 Computer Chess Algorithms & Techniques
>>>having the greatest influence on the development and practice of Computer Chess.
>>>I'll get things started with my Top 10 List:
>>>
>>>1.  Alpha-Beta search Algotihm
>>>
>>>2.  Iterative Deepening
>>>
>>>3.  Transposition Tables
>>>
>>>4.  Null Move Pruning
>>>
>>>5.  Chess Game Databases (Chessbase)
>>>
>>>6.  Ken Thompson's Endgame Tablebases
>>>
>>>7.  Judea Pearl's Scout Algorithm
>>>
>>>8.  Bitboards
>>>
>>>9.  Tim Mann's Winboard
>>>
>>>10. Robert Hyatt's source listing of Crafty
>>>
>>>BTW, I've tried to place items in the list in order of importance. The first
>>>four were easy, but I would expect a lot of disagreement in the next 6. In fact,
>>>I disagree with myself here. It's not easy. Deep Blue ought to fit in there
>>>somewhere. Also, I made a half-hearted attempt to include attribution, so any
>>>additional information or corrections will be appreciated.
>>>
>>>I can't help but notice the absence of commercial programmers from my list, but
>>>I think this is due to their keeping their methods "secret". History may
>>>remember their programs, but credit them with few innovations.
>>
>>
>>
>>I would delete 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10.  I don't think the source for Crafty has been
>>an "important event".  Gnuchess source has been out far longer, as has the
>>source for other programs like Sargon, Cray Blitz, chess 4.x, who knows what
>>else.
>
>Perhaps, but don't you I think your source has been more influential? Being
>first isn't everything. How influential a work is must be factored in too.

What do you mean by "influential"? Do you mean that people have copied code and
algorithms from Crafty, i.e., cheated? I don't think this is such a great
quality.

Crafty is obviously the highest-profile open source chess program, but I don't
see that it contributed anything new or innovative to the community.

-Tom



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