New Computer Chess Programming Blog

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It’s been six years since I’ve done any serious chess development. During that time family life has been full-on, with two high energy daughters and one demanding wife. The pace of work has also picked up the pace. While I haven’t had time for chess computer coding I certainly haven’t been far from the computer chess scene (it’s so addictive!). There have been few days when I haven’t checked CCC.

During those seven years I’ve also observed many changes in the world of computer chess, some of which have piqued my desire to code another engine. From my perspective here are the notable developments:

  • Magic Bitboards: These provide the ability to quickly generate attack tables for sliding pieces. The tables can be used for move generation or to create sophisticated evaluation functions. Back in 2006 the jury was still as to whether or not bitboards are any better than other board structures; Magic Bitboards seem to tip scales heavily in favor of a bitboard architecture. I’d really like to develop a magic bitboard engine.
  • Ubiquitous 64 Operating Systems: 64 bit is now the norm. This wasn’t the case back in 2006. This makes bitboard engines even more attractive.
  • Late Move Reduction: This seems to be one of the main developments in computer chess over the last few years. It was starting to be discussed back in 2006 but now it seems to be the norm. I think there are many possibilities for enhancing the basic LMR techniques and making a highly selective engine.
  • New Testing Tools & Methods: Fabian Letouzey managed to improve Fruit at an amazing pace. One of his secrets was his obsession with testing. It would seem that playing thousand of super fast games (e.g. 1 second per game) is the best way to prove, or disprove, potential improvements. I find this interesting. One of my other passions is marketing. I suspect computer chess testing methods may provide a philosophical framework for improving businesses in general. Anyway I’d like to set up such a rapid-fire testing environment.

As a result of all of this I’ve downloaded Visual Studio Express, set up this website and rummaged around to find my old Monarch code. I thought about carrying on with Monarch chess but it doesn’t seem quite right. The new project will be a new code base (apart from basic i/o code), so I think it’s right I start a new engine. This new engine will be called “Maverick“, which conveys, in one word, my overall design philosophy and aims.

If you want to follow along you can access my live code base here. I’ve also set out what I’m striving to achieve on the development philosophy page.

I’d be interested to hear your comments and suggestions!