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Subject: Re: Help on bitboards

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 19:59:18 12/24/03

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On December 24, 2003 at 21:23:46, Toni wrote:

>Hi all.
>
>I'm starting my chess engine and I'm dealing with bitboards. I find natural to
>code the board as:
>
>a8 ... h8
>.      .
>.      .
>.      .
>a1 ... h1
>
>so bit0 = h1 and bit 63= a8, viewing the board from white's point of view.

I have always done it this way that you mention also.

The only point of confusion that I've had is when you do a left shift (<<), the
bits visually move to the right (and a right shift goes left). So someone might
choose to arrange the bits in such a way that a left shift moves left, and a
right shift moves right.

I guess someone also might choose to have a8=0, b8=1, and h1=63, because then
when you output the board you just go from 0 to 63 and it outputs the squares
correctly.

I don't think there is any "right" way to do this. Just choose whatever makes
the most sense to you so that things like rotated bitboards will be easier for
you to understand.



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