Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 17:41:06 12/10/04
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How to integrate my probing code into your chess program
========================================================
Probing code is located in the file tbindex.cpp. It's really C++, not C,
file - it use some C++ constructions, so you have to use C++ compiler to
compile it.
If possible, please do not modify files itself, or at least send all
modifications to me, so I shall be able to include those in all subsequent
versions.
I recommend to '#include "tbindex.cpp"' into one of your files; you have to
have some chess program-specific glue code anyway.
For probing code to compile, you have to declare the following types before
#include directive:
- INDEX - have to be wide enough to fit all enumerated positions;
for 5-pieces tablebases can be 32-bit unsigned integer.
- square - any integer type, preferable the fastest on the given machine.
You have to define the following macro:
- NEW - if you want to use my new, more compact tablebase format;
otherwise SJE's schema will be used.
- XX - 'invalid' square - used to specify impossibilty of
en-passant capture. Must be any 'square' value except
0..63.
- T41_INCLUDE - if you want to probe any 5-man 4+1 table (e.g. KPPPK);
if you will not ever probe those tables (I suppose
most chess program will never do that), you can save
some space by not including corresponding code and
enumeration tables;
- DEBUG - there are asserts in the code; you have to define it
to turn asserts on.
Enumeration types 'color' and 'piece' are declared in tbindex.cpp. For your
purposes you must know that white is 0, black is 1; pawn is 1, ..., king is 6;
A1 is 0, B1 is 1, ..., H8 is 63.
Tablebase probing function expects that you will pass to it 2 arrays that
contain locations of all white and black pieces on the board. Actually it do
not access those arrays itself, instead it passes them to the following
functions or macros that must return location of the specified piece:
- SqFindKing (square *) - return location of the king,
- SqFindFirst (square *, piece),
- SqFindSecond (square *, piece),
- SqFindThird (square *, piece) - find location of the first/second/third
piece of the given color,
- SqFindOne (square *, piece) - (hopefully) more efficient variant of
SqFindFirst(); it's called when there is exactly one piece of the
given color (plus the king, of course) on the board.
For example, when calculating index for KBNKQ, indexing code will call
SqFindFirst (white_squares, x_pieceBishop) and SqFindFirst (white_squares,
x_pieceKnight) to obtain squares of the white pieces, and SqFindOne
(white_squares, x_pieceQueen) to obtain square of the black queen. When
calculating index for KNNKQ, indexing code will call SqFindFirst
(white_squares, x_pieceKnight) and SqFindSecond (white_squares, x_pieceKnight)
to obtain squares of the white pieces, and SqFindOne (white_squares,
x_pieceQueen) to obtain square of the black queen. Please note that to write
signatures of those functions usually you'll have to declare enum type
'piece', too - it's declared conditionally in tbindex.cpp. You have to
declare those functions/macro before '#include "tbgen.cpp"'.
Please note that during initialization code calls malloc() function.
It will allocate approximately 210Kb of memory if you'll not define
T41_INCLUDE, and 360Kb, if you'll define it, plus some amount for
each tablebase it'll find.
Currently the only thread-safe function in the code is L_TbtProbeTable(). If
you want to use it from the parallel program, you have to define following
macro:
- SMP - code will be thread-safe; if that macro not defined, code will
be not thread-safe, and you'll have to synchronize yourself.
- Lock,
- UnLock,
- LockInit - synchronization primitives (equivalent to their Crafty
counterparts).
Following functions and macro are exported:
IInitializeTb (char *path) - initialize data structures, parse specified
directories and register all tablebases that are there. Path consists of
several directory names seperated by commas, semicolons, or (at non-Windows
systems) by colons. Directories are searched in the specified order.
Function returns # of pieces in the "largest" tablebase it found - e.g. 5 if
it found KRPKR, 4 if it found KBNK, 3 if it found KRK, 0 if no tablebases
found. You can call this function several times if you want to change
directories. In that case it will "forget" previously found tablebases.
Please note that in it will not "forget" tablebases that were read or mapped
to memory.
FTbSetCacheSize (void *buffer, ULONG size) - set buffer for TB caching.
Returns false if buffer is too small. You can call this routine as many times
as you want. Pass 0 as size to turn caching (and probing of all non-loaded-
to-memory TBs) off. You can call that function as many times as you want.
VTbCloseFiles (void) - close all open TB files; for performance reasons, code
tries to keep opened as much TB files as possible. On some systems that can
cause problems when chess program tries to open file for its own purposes.
So, if fopen() in your code returns NULL, you can call that function and then
try again.
FReadTableToMemory (int iTB, color side, BYTE * buffer) - load entire TB into
memory. You have to either pass NULL as buffer (in this case function will
call malloc() to obtain the memory), or pass buffer that is large enough.
Function returns false if it cannot load TB. You can call that function even
if you specified 0 as cache size during FTbSetCacheSize() call. TB cannot be
unloaded from memory.
FMapTableToMemory (int iTb, color side) - (Win32 only) - map entire file into
memory. Analogue of FReadTableToMemory().
L_TbtProbeTable (int iTb, color side, INDEX index) - probe TB and return
either result or 'L_bev_broken' if some error happened. If specified TB was
loaded to memory, function will return result immediately. Otherwise it will
try to find needed value in TB cache; in the worst case it have to read chunk
of a file from disk.
IDescFindFromCounters (int *) - that function returns TB #. It takes as an
input the 10-element integer array - it's zeroth element is number of white
pawns on the board, first - number of white knights, ..., nineth - number of
black queens. It returns zero if no such TB registered, TB #, if TB found,
or negative TB # if you asked for TB with 'wrong' colors, e.g. KPKRP.
WARNING: that function will return non-zero even if only one of the pair of
the corresponding TBs registered (e.g. KRK.WTM, but not KRK.BTM). You can use
FRegistered() function for more precise information - see example.
Also, you can write your own function that will return TB #, if you prefer
to do so. Just look at the IDescFindFromCounters source.
PfnIndCalc(iTb, side) - macro that returns function that calculate index of
the position in the TB.
PfnIndCalc(iTb, side) - function that returns function that calculate index of
the position in the TB.
FRegistered(iTb, side) - macro that returns true if corresponding TB was found
during initializing.
FRegisteredFun(iTb, side) - function that returns true if corresponding TB was
found during initializing.
All functions are declared with 'extern "C"' naming conventions, so that
you can easily call them from C (not only C++). Please note that even in that
case you'll have to make a C++ source file, declare there all necessary
identifiers (see above), and #include 'tbindex.cpp'. In this case, hopefully,
it'll be not necessary to include detailed knowledge of your program chess
structures in that C++ file.
The following pseudocode shows how you can probe TB:
#if (program is written in pure C, and tbindex.cpp not included)
/* Have to declare types/constants/functions */
/* Please note that YOU have to declare types INDEX, square, */
/* as well as constant XX */
#if defined (_MSC_VER)
#define TB_FASTCALL __fastcall
#else
#define TB_FASTCALL
#endif
typedef int color;
#define x_colorWhite 0
#define x_colorBlack 1
#define x_colorNeutral 2
typedef int piece;
#define x_pieceNone 0
#define x_piecePawn 1
#define x_pieceKnight 2
#define x_pieceBishop 3
#define x_pieceRook 4
#define x_pieceQueen 5
#define x_pieceKing 6
#define L_pageL 65536
#define L_tbbe_ssL ((L_pageL - 4) / 2)
#define L_bev_broken (L_tbbe_ssL + 1) /* illegal or busted */
#define L_bev_mi1 L_tbbe_ssL /* mate in 1 move */
#define L_bev_mimin 1 /* mate in 32766 moves */
#define L_bev_draw 0 /* draw */
#define L_bev_limax (-1) /* mated in 32765 moves */
#define L_bev_li0 (-L_tbbe_ssL) /* mated in 0 moves */
#define L_bev_limaxx (-L_tbbe_ssL - 1) /* mated in 32766 moves */
#define L_bev_miminx (-L_tbbe_ssL - 2) /* mate in 32767 moves */
typedef INDEX (TB_FASTCALL * PfnCalcIndex)
(square*, square*, square, int fInverse);
extern int IDescFindFromCounters (int*);
extern int FRegisteredFun (int, color);
#define FRegistered FRegisteredFun
extern PfnCalcIndex PfnIndCalcFun (int, color);
#define PfnIndCalc PfnIndCalcFun
extern int TB_FASTCALL L_TbtProbeTable (int, color, INDEX);
#endif
int rgiCounters[10];
int iTb;
color side;
int fInvert;
square *psqW;
square *psqB;
square sqEnP;
INDEX ind;
Initialize rgiCounters
iTb = IDescFindFromCounters (rgiCounters);
if (0 == iTb)
return L_bev_broken; // No such TB
if (iTb > 0)
{
side = side to move;
fInvert = false;
psqW = pointer to locations of white squares;
psqB = pointer to locations of black squares;
}
else
{
side = OtherSide (side to move);
fInvert = true;
psqW = pointer to locations of black squares;
psqB = pointer to locations of white squares;
iTb = -iTb;
}
if (!FRegistered(iTb, side))
return L_bev_broken;
sqEnP = square of en-passant capture, IF IT'S POSSIBLE, or XX
ind = PfnIndCalc(iTb, side) (psqW, psqB, sqEnP, fInvert);
return L_TbtProbeTable (iTb, side, ind);
Before doing #include 'tbgen.cpp', you can #define the following
constants; if you'll not do that, default values will be used.
Constants must be power of 2.
- TB_CB_CACHE_SIZE - # of bytes in one TB cache chunk;
default is 8k. With larger chunks you'll speedup search
in the LRU lists, but more bytes will be read from disk
when needed entry is not in cache. If you'll modify that
constant please declare the companion constant
LOG2_TB_CB_CACHE_SIZE.
- TB_DIRECTORY_SIZE - all cache entries from one TB are kept
in several LRU lists; this constant specifies how many lists
for each TB will be used. The larger is constant, the shorter
average list will be, and the faster average search will be.
Default is 32.
Assuming that you'll reserve 16Mb for TB caching, and will always
probe exactly the same TB with random index values (very strong
assumptions), average size of the LRU list (when you will not modify
default values) will be 8 when using 64Kb chunks, and 64 when using
8Kb chunks.
Good luck!
Eugene Nalimov
eugenen@microsoft.com
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