Author: Robert Pope
Date: 07:02:13 01/18/99
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On January 17, 1999 at 21:06:48, Lawrence S. Tamarkin wrote: >I have recently aquired the following books on computer chess: (sorry, I'm not >planning on selling them, but if you like I will look for double copies of them >from a renowned chess book reseller that I know:)) > >1. Chess and Computers, by David Levy, Computer Science Press, 1976. This was probably one of my favorites - I would check it out of our library probably once a month for almost a year. Back in ~1987, it was about my only source on computer chess and I used it as the basis for writing my first chess program. I was only fifteen at the time, and I was basically limited to the public library's card catalog for finding books, so this one was a goldmine. I thought it was very comprehensive and detailed about what was state of the art back then, but a lot has happened since. Also, don't forget about the revision published in 1980. "More About Chess and Computers" or "All About Chess and Computers". I think it came both as a double book and as a separate 'update'. > >2. Advances In Computer Chess4, editor D.F. Beal, Pergamon Press, 1986. I read all of these, but if I recall, they tended too be of little practical use, though some were interesting. > >3.Computer Chess, by Monroe Newborn, Academic Press, Inc., 1975. Another winner! This had the first general discussion of endgame tablebases and was nicely written. > >Already had the following, > >4. Computer Chess Compendium, by David Levy, B.T. Batsford, 1988. Was a good idea, but I thought it spent too much time on articles rehashing history that was given in this earlier book. > >5. Computer Chess, and Cognition, editors, T. Anthony Marsland, Jonathan >Schaeffer Chess 4.5 and bitboards - I thought it was very interesting reading, but I didn't understand the technical parts of the implementation quite well enough from this alone to give them a try when I was actively programming. > >6. How Computers Play Chess, by (Still packed at another location). Steve Walsh? Actually, I think he may have been the author of two other books: "Computer Chess" and "Computer Chess II" (I may have the title wrong). > >7. Kasparov versus DEEP BLUE, by Monty Newborn, Springer-Verlag, 1997. > > >Roughly speaking, my questions are; > >1. What are your opinions of these books. >2. Who are they most aimed at, programmer's or Layman (or both). >3. What would they be worth to you - I really like this question:) >4. Do they have any relavency to people who make programs like Fritz, Hiarcs or >MChess? (or whatever)... >5. What chess computer books should a chess software addict!, such as myself be >looking to get? > >Thanks for any answers:) > >mrslug - the inkompetent chess software addict! A _very_ nice collection. Add in ten years of ICCA and I would be green with envy. I would give almost anything for this collection, if only for the nostalgia, but I don't have much free cash right now (Baby Boy Pope is due in two weeks!). Seriously, I would pay at least $20 each for these books, but they are probably worth more. As far as relevency goes, not much, I would say. They are good for the basic ideas and getting a program going, but someone more than minimal familiarity (i.e. alpha-beta, quiescence, and move-ordering) with computer chess would get better and more recent technical information from various magazine articles that have been published in "Articial Intelligence", "ICCAJ" and the like. The books, in order to have a wide enough general audience, are forced to spend too much time on history, be not quite as technical, and are almost by definition, dated. I may be wrong, but I don't think any of these books mention things like the history heuristic, symmetric multi-processing, mtd(f), negascout, or conspiracy numbers, and there are only a couple references to other topics like tablebases or bitboards. But I sure wish I had them. :) Rob Pope
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