Author: Robert Henry Durrett
Date: 15:28:07 08/21/98
As discussed briefly here at CCC some time ago, a large database such as that used by ChessBase can [at least in theory] be used to produce a list of chess positions which occur often in the games of chessmasters and GMs. These positions can be listed in order with the position which has occurred most often being listed first, the position which has occurred in the database next most often be listed as second, the third most often occurring position being listed third, etceteras, until all of the positions which have occurred in the database in more than one game have been listed in order. I do not know if anybody has ever actually done that, but it should be clear that it is possible to make such a list. If several different positions have occurred the same number of times, some other criteria could be used to make the list unique if there were any need to do that. Each entry in the list would have to include essential information such as whether it is White to move or Black, whether the kings have moved, and other such information. Positions appearing identical in the sense that the same squares have the same pieces, but different in one of these other ways would have to be regarded as different positions in the list. Evidentally, the initial position of the game, where it is white to move, would appear at the top of the list. The position after 1.e4 where it is Black to move would be listed second. Etceteras. All of the above was just to set the scene for the following observation: If the programmer who creates a chess engine wishes to utilize "books" to make his software stronger [essentially by incorporating the knowledge of known "chess theory"], then it really seems advisable and quite logical to provide a "book" for each and every position which occurs near the top of the list of "most often recurring positions." This would be especially true for often-recurring positions which have received considerable attention and analysis in the open chess literature. One obvious question is: "Is this not being done, in effect, already?" I believe the answer is a resounding NO! Now, there is another generalization of the above, as follows: Suppose someone had collected a fairly complete set of "test positions" which are known to create problems for a particular chess engine. Wouldn't is also be "advisable and quite logical" to include in that particular chess engine's "book" a move or line for each such position? At what point do the moralists and purists start to holler "that's not fair"?
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