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

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 14:08:35 06/12/00

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On June 12, 2000 at 11:49:26, Tom Kerrigan wrote:

>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.

I think what I mean by influential is deliberately ambiguous. I don't have a
strong opinion about items 5 - 10 in any case. So criticizing any of those does
not bother me. I really have no interest in the list _I_ generated. I just put
it out there as an example to help people come up with their own list. What I am
_really_ interested in is the list _other_ people come up with. I want to know
how _you_ think the word "influential" should be interpreted.

So what would be your list?

>
>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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