http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.htmlTim Mann is the author of Winboard (a free graphical interface to allow computer programs to play against each other), also information on: GNU Chess, XBoard, WinBoard, Crafty, Internet Chess Servers, Zippy, Chess Web Sites, Chess FTP Sites, and more. http://www.wbec-ridderkerk.nl/This is probably the most famous tournament for chess engines. http://www.freechess.org/FICS is a Free …
ArpadCalc ArpadCalc is a program to calculate your rating compared to your opponent. If you know your opponents rating it will show your estimated rating, otherwise you can still see the difference between your and your opponents rating (just enter ‘0’ for “Opponents Rating”). ArpadCalc can be downloaded on the download page. Screenshot of ArpadCalc 0.1 The …
The first thing you have to know is that it’s a huge undertaking to write a chess program from scratch. You will not finish it in a few weeks – it might (and usually will) take years before you can call it a decent chess player. But in the end it’s worth all that effort …
A chess program consists of 3 parts:a.) Move generator: Generates all possible moves in a given positionb.) Search function: Looks at all possible moves and replies and try to find the best continuation.c.) Position evaluator. Gives a score to a position. It consists of a material score (pawn=100; knight=300 etc.) and a positional score (safe king=20; pawn in center=10; …
Move generation NagaSkaki has a unique method of generating moves. Instead of using rotated bitboards (like most programs do), it uses shifted bitboards. Before I go into detail about how this works, let me first explain how NagaSkaki represents the chess board. Board Representation NagaSkaki represents the chessboard as a combination of 64bit integers, called …
The thinking process When NagaSkaki has to make a move, it goes through the following process: Look in the opening book to see if it can skip the thinking process If a move was found in the opening book, make it! If not, decide how much time to use for this move (after each ply …
Part 2: A detailed description Evaluation Material First NagaSkaki evaluates the material score, which is as follows:Pawn = 100Knight = 310Bishop = 320Rook = 500Queen = 1000 The reason a pawn is valued at 100 and not 1, is to give you enough resolution to use integers which is faster than floating point operations. Positional …
Take 2 During my final year exam at varsity, the chess bug bit me again. By now I’ve learned the C++ language and had access to the Internet (where I discovered the beauty of the Alpha-beta algorithm and better ways to represent a chess board.) My hardware was also much better (a Pentium 120MHz) and …
Part 1: The early years Humble beginnings My first attempt at writing a chess engine was at the age of 15 (or something close to that.) After finishing a program that could play noughts and crosses, I thought it was time for something more challenging – of course chess seemed like a nice challenge and …
Index Part 1: The early years Humble beginnings Take 2 Part 2: A detailed description Evaluation The thinking process Move generation Next >>
