Author: frank phillips
Date: 04:55:18 05/15/98
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On May 14, 1998 at 13:34:54, Will Singleton wrote: > >On May 14, 1998 at 05:32:13, frank phillips wrote: > >>Can anyone point me in the direction of explanations of the techniques >>used in chess programming. Having learnt a bit of C this year and with >>the help of articles found on the Net about search algorithms managed to >>write crude connect4 and othello programs, I would now appreciate some >>pointers to simple but thorough and complete explanations of bitboards >>and hashtables. Several articles I have found partially explain these >>topics but usually assume that the reader has more knowledge than I do, >>perhaps because they assume a basic programming background which I do >>not have. The source code to Crafty (thanks Bob) is well documented but >>beyond me at the moment. On a specific issue, I would be grateful for >>an explanation of how to get a pv out of the (alpha/beta negamax) >>search. Everything I have tried so far based on storing the best move >>in an array pv[depth] has failed, so I seem to be missing a fundamental >>point - or am just plain stupid :-/ > >Hi Frank, > >As you know, you can find a wealth of material on the net. Here's one >that's useful: http://www.xs4all.nl/~verhelst/chess/. > >If you really want to get into it, you can order back issues or a >complete set of the ICCA Journal. Look at >http://www.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/~icca/. > >There are also some chess programming books at Amazon, do a search over >there. > >Re your question on the pv, take a look at Tom Kerrigan's Simple Chess >Program. Much better than crafty for the novice :) > >I hope you know what you're getting into. Actually, you probably don't. > I was where you are about a year and a half ago (chess >programming-wise). And I've learned most stuff the hard way. Not every >algorithm or idea works the same in every program, a lot depends on the >interaction of the parts. And sometimes, it's just plain magic that it >works at all. > >btw, does everyone down your way say "learnt?" > >Will Thanks to those who responded (Will, Don Daily, David Corbit and Brian McKinley) with links, explanations and valuable code fragments. As to learnt, Will, it does not sound strange to me. But after mentally trying to following recursive search routines I may have broken something inside my head. Still, I learned a bit more from all your replies :-)
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