Scalable Search in Computer Chess: Algorithmic Enhancements and Experiments at High Search Depths (Computational Intelligence) [Paperback]

Ernst A. Heinz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Computational Intelligence | Publication Date: December 1999

The book presents new results of computer-chess research in the areas of selective forward pruning, the efficient application of game-theoretical knowledge, and the behavior of the search at increasing depths. It shows how to make sophisticated game-tree searchers more scalable at ever higher depths. Throughout the whole book, the high-speed and master-strength chess program "DarkThought" serves as a realistic test vehicle to conduct numerous experiments at unprecedented search depths. The extensive experimental evaluations provide convincing empirical evidence for the practical usefulness of the presented techniques.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ernst A. Heinz earned his "Doktor" (Ph.D.) degree with "Auszeichnung" (summa cum laude) from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 1999 and joined the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Boston/Cambridge, USA, as a Postdoctoral Fellow later that year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: GWV-Vieweg; 1 edition (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3528057327
• ISBN-13: 978-3528057329
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,805,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but...., March 13, 2001

By 

Michael Nyman "michaelny" (Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scalable Search in Computer Chess: Algorithmic Enhancements and Experiments at High Search Depths (Computational Intelligence) (Paperback)

The book is pretty good, and I got a lot out of it. It contains lots of interesting ideas about pruning. I suppose I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. The reason I don't rate the book higher is because most of the book was pretty worthless. Nearly 50 pages of the book is devoted to the move lists of all the games they played! I don't need to see 50 pages worth of computer chess game moves. That's something that could be better served from a website. Sure it's probably needed for the thesis to verify that they actually did the studies they say they did, but I don't think it belongs in the book. Also, a large portion of the book is devoted to end game databases and recognizing when to look in them and optimal ways to index, etc. I wasn't very interested in that. My last complaint is that there isn't really any source code included with the book. All of the snippets of code that are shown are greatly cut up to the point where they're completely illegal. This book would be a 5 start book if they had actual pieces of code - or even the whole source - instead of the stupid moves. Code like if(try_null) { // do null move here } is the kind of code you see. He should have just printed the full alpha-beta algorithms. He tries to describe them as clearly as possible, using as little as possible real code. Like he wants to explain it all, yet keep it a secret! Putting in the code would be self-descriptive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the more advanced practioner, May 5, 2003

By 

Thomas Likens (Brookline, NH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Scalable Search in Computer Chess: Algorithmic Enhancements and Experiments at High Search Depths (Computational Intelligence) (Paperback)

This book will provide the most benefit to someone who has already written a computer chess program and is looking to improve it. The chapters on extended forward-pruning were especially informative and a number of high-level programs currently use the adaptive null-move pruning presented here.

I also found the chapter on interior-node recognizers unique and eye opening. A number of clever enhancements are provided that coupled with chapter 6, on knowledgable tablebase encoding, are sure to provide a idea or two even to hardened computer programmers.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you spend the time delving through it, you will more than likely find a number of ideas to apply to your chess engine. It is written with an academic perspective and is rigourous in the ideas that it presents (unlike Levy and Monroe's books which are geared more towards the general public).