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Subject: A call for weekend warriors -- a new C.A.P. project starts tomorrow!

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 20:34:40 01/18/99


We're looking for a few good CPU's to help us crunch through Project
Heartwood:

If you enjoy chess or math, and computers -- read on:

Project Heartwood is analysis of the most frequently played chess positions,
by order of frequency. First, positions gained at least 200 times in a chess
game (there are over 67,000 of these in our database). Then, positions
gained at least 100 times, then 50, etc. Imagine a forest of 400 trees
(there are 400 combinations for the first move by white and the first
response by black). Some are scraggly little shrubs (hardly ever played and
not usually successful). Some are mighty Sequoia trees (played thousands or
millions of times). We examine the heartwood of the big trees to find out
why they grow so tall.  We have already completed an analysis of all 500 ECO
classified chess openings and will have completed an analysis from beginning
to end of games that start with the move 1. b4 by tommorow (1-19-99).

This project will probably be the most important from an end-user usefulness
standpoint.  The most "likely" to happen chess positions will be analyzed --
whether they have been logged in a book somewhere or not.  We now have about
100,000 distinct positions that have been played at least 100 times in our
database, and more than 67,000 positions that have occurred at least 200
times.  By carefully analyzing these positions, we can create opening books
that are relatively free from defects and also discover tactical holes in
some very popular openings.  By post processing the data, we may learn even
more.  To find out more about the Chess Analysis Project, see the C.A.P.
FAQ:
ftp://38.168.214.175/pub/Chess%20Analysis%20Project%20FAQ.htm

If you think that such a project might be interesting to you, send an email
to dcorbit@solutionsiq.com.
You will receive a kit that can be used to create project result sets.

We would like to have people who can allow their machines to run over the
weekend.  If you can run nightly batches, that would be fine too.  You will
receive assignments by email, catered to your particular hardware.  After
the initial setup, all you have to do is launch the task at the end of the
day.  If you don't want to perform an assignment, you can just skip it.  And
if you want to drop out of the project at any time, that is fine too.  We
currently have about 100 computers operating, capable of about 25,000 rows
analyzed per week.  The more computers we have enrolled, the more complete
and accurate our results can be.

If you at least have your curiosity raised, why not give the C.A.P. FAQ a
read?
--
C-FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
"The C-FAQ Book" ISBN 0-201-84519-9
C.A.P. Newsgroup   http://www.dejanews.com/~c_a_p
Chess Data: ftp://38.168.214.175/pub/





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