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Subject: Books to Read on Chess Engines

Author: Bob Durrett

Date: 08:59:01 11/17/02

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On November 17, 2002 at 10:57:38, jefkaan wrote:

>> (C in 24 hours)
>>Not likely. I tried those books as well, and granted they do give a basic
>>understanding of the C language. I went and took some cheap evening courses to understand better, and for the most part I am still confused. Time heals all >wounds.. and C is going to bust you up :)
>>
>>Just give it time, and don't rush things.
>
>in line with my own experience; i used to be *good* (and fast) in programming 20
>years ago; now i'm only parttime busy with C,
>bought 3 books (didn't read them from page 1 to end though)
>and started with modifying and extending MSCP, using a |
>freeware compiler from DevC++ (very easy to use for C);
>now for every change i made, it introduced about 3 bugs,
>and indeed most time was used for debugging (which i just
>did by changing, testing, etc.); headaches guaranteed.
>
>So Bob Durret, you could start by just compiling MSCP2 (Just
>look it up in Google), its only one c file, set it (in
>the source code) eg. a 7 ply and run in Winboard. Then |
>forget it and have a look at TSCP, i would suggest.
>Somewhere around there's also a Pascal version ( i compiled it
>with Delphi7) but it has a bug (illegal move input).
>
>Forget about Crafty, much too complicated for a beginner.
>Besides TSCP there are some other rather simple C sources,
>like GNUchess (old), Faile, and Resp (a new one).
>Gerbil and Beowulf are excellent but rather complicated.
>
>Best line to proceed is probably re-writing TSCP from
>scratch, adding things from theory (buy 3 books about
>computer chess

Which books?


>i would suggest, i have only 2); and
>plan to use a lot of time; make eg. a 5 yr plan..
>Richard Pijl (Baron) started in this way but is
>a smart and experienced programmer; yet the result
>of drawing against Tiger in his 2nd tournament
>shows this is a good way to start.
>good luck,
>jefk
>PS and now you've read the above, you might
>be interested in something else than chess,
>eg. Go-Moku, ie 5 in a row (Free Pascal source
>available) or Othello (free C source available).
>Chess (and maybe also Go) seems to get the attention of
>some of the best programmers so you will
>probably never feel succesful in this area
>(for example, i know i won't, but its not my aim
>as i'm more interested in opening theory, eg. |
>gambits to improve my own OTB chess as a hobby;
>its always funny for example to mate a computer
>program on ICC within 20 moves orso, you know :)

Thx for the comments.

Bob D.
Bob Durrett
Robert Henry Durrett



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