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Subject: Why is Crafty so fast?

Author: Giovanni Lavorgna

Date: 11:59:47 11/24/97


I recently came across two simple chess programs, TSCP (Kerrigan) and
SCP (Stanback). These programs come with source code that can be
compiled without much effort under Unix. They both play a fair game of
chess, expecially considering their size. The only thing that puzzles me
is that they look very slow when compared to a program like Crafty, even
after switching its hash tables off. I tested this on a variety of
positions and Crafty seems to consistently search at least 1-2 plies
deeper. Compiler optimization switches I used were the same for all
programs. I wonder what makes Crafty so much faster than the other two
programs. Is this due to the use of bitboards?

Also, is there available a basic-Crafty version that retains all its
speed, without all the other features that have been more or less
recently added. I mean, I like to see Crafty continually improved, but I
would love also to have a easy-to understand version to fiddle with.

Thanks in advance.

Giovanni Lavorgna



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