Author: S J J
Date: 10:26:59 02/21/04
Go up one level in this thread
On February 20, 2004 at 11:37:51, Mark Rawlings wrote:
>Hi Steve-
>
>Here's my story...
>
>I had always dreamed of writing a chess program, but never started because I
>thought it would be too difficult. A number of years ago I decided to start with
>a simpler game and chose mancala. It was a lot of fun programming it and took
>quite awhile to do. I still work on it from time to time and it's extremely
>strong now. I used the book "Kasparov vs Deep Blue" as my main source of
>information to get the search working, etc. It was just right for a
>"non-programmer." (I've also been reading ccc daily since it started, which
>helped, too.)
>
>Anyway, my 12-year old son started learning TrueBasic in school this year and a
>month or so ago announced that he was going to write a chess program. (He had
>previously written a tic-tac-toe program.) Well, after about two weeks he had a
>program that could generate legal moves and had a simple evaluation with no
>search. You could still play a game against it, though. Just yesterday, I
>helped him work out the last few bugs in the search and now he has a complete
>program! It's very slow right now because of the complicated "check" routine
>and we don't have a TruBasic compiler either. He may be able to use the schools
>compiler, which would help.
>
>I was pretty amazed at his efforts and it gave me the push I needed to start my
>own chess program. (I'm using QuickBasic.) To make a long story short, I now
>have a chess program that's not too bad! (I'm working my way up the "trainer
>levels" in Chess Tiger for Palm as a sparing partner for it.) I'm still trying
>to figure out how to test for check and checkmate so it still makes some illegal
>moves, and I haven't incorporated en passant yet. What it does now is to keep
>on playing even after a king is captured! I'm looking forward to years of
>tinkering with it! (Working on it right now...)
>
>Good luck with your program!
>
>Mark
>
Mark,
Thanks for the warm story. Because of familiarity, I'm planning on
using Basic also. I managed to pick up Kasparov Vs. Deep Blue at the bookstore.
It has some great starting points.
At this point, a few lines have been written. Hopefully will be able
to generate legal moves (and perhaps a few illegal!) in a couple of days.
Thanks again for the suggestion.
Regards,
Steve
>
>On February 19, 2004 at 09:51:41, S J J wrote:
>
>>
>> After reading posts for three years, I'm ready to make a first
>>feeble attempt at a program. Odss are that checkers would be
>>the best place to cut my teeth.
>>
>> Can anyone recommend any books or web pages that would give a
>>novice programer a start to writing checkers and chess programs?
>>
>>Best Regards,
>>Steve "No Moore's Law" J
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