New architectures in computer chess
F.M.H. Reul · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) · 2009
About five years ago I completed my diploma project about computer chess at the University of Applied Sciences in Friedberg, Germany.Immediately afterwards I continued in 2004 with the R&D of my computer-chess engine Loop.In 2005 I started my Ph.D. project "New Architectures in Computer Chess" at the Maastricht University.In the first year of my R&D I concentrated on the redesign of a computer-chess architecture for 32-bit computer environments.I developed more efficient search methods and more precise evaluation functions in order to carry out my R&D within the scope of a state-of-the-art computerchess environment.In fall 2006 the development of my new 32-bit computer-chess architecture was completed.With the opening book by Gerhard Sonnabend and the hardware provided by Clemens Keck my computer-chess engine Loop Leiden achieved the 2 nd place behind Rybka and before Hiarcs X MP at the 26 th Open Dutch Computer-Chess Championship 2006 in Leiden (NL) (see Appendix C.1).In 2007, I started the next R&D phase on the basis of this computer-chess engine.The focus of this phase was on the development of a 64-bit computer-chess architecture that should be used within the scope of a quad-core computer-chess engine.The new 64-bit computer-chess engine, Loop Amsterdam, achieved the 3 rd place behind Rybka and Zappa but before Shredder at the 15 th World Computer-Chess Championship 2007 in Amsterdam (NL) (see Appendix C.2).For the persons who continuously supported me some words of gratitude are appropriate.In particular, I am grateful to my supervisor Professor Jaap van den Herik who brought me with firm guidance to this success.He stimulated me to continue the R&D of my computer-chess engine Loop Chess and motivated me to write this thesis.In addition, he set up the contact to the company Nintendo in 2007 which implemented my source codes successfully in their commercial product Wii Chess.Moreover, I would like to thank my daily advisor dr.Jos Uiterwijk for the many crucial suggestions and tips during the reading of my thesis.My thanks goes also to Dr. Christian Donninger (Chrilly) for his advisory input during the development of a parallel search engine and to Tord Romstad for his assistance in generating magic multipliers.Gerhard Sonnabend and Clemens Keck helped me in the experiments that lasted many months and particularly in the preparation for two important computer-chess championships, Great Work! v vi PREFACE Finally, I am grateful to Viktoria