Computer Chess Compendium

For many years I have been interested in computer chess and have collected almost every learned paper and article on the subject that I could find. My files are now quite large, and a considerable amount of time, effort and expense has been required to build up this collection. I have often thought how difficult it must be for many computer chess enthusiasts to acquire copies of articles that they see referenced in some other work. Unless one has access to a good reference library, the task is almost impossible. I therefore decided to try to make available, in one volume, as many as possible of the most interesting and important articles and papers ever written on the subject. Such a selection is naturally somewhat subjective, and I hope that I will not offend authors whose works have been excluded. In particular I have decided to exclude any material which has appeared in the Journal of the International Computer Chess Association (ICCA), or in its precursor, the ICCA Newsletter. The reason is simply that the ICCA itself is in the process of compiling a compendium containing the most important material published in those sources. For further information on ICCA membership and publications the reader is invited to contact: Professor H. 1. van den Herik, or Dr Jonathan Schaeffer University of Limburg, Computing Science Dcpaitment, Department of Computer Science University of Alberta, 6200 MD Maastricht Edmonton Netherlands Alberta, Canada T6G 2HI. Front Matter....Pages i-x Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Programming a Computer for Playing Chess....Pages 2-13 Chess....Pages 14-17 The Chess Machine: An Example of Dealing with a Complex Task by Adaption....Pages 18-27 Front Matter....Pages 28-28 Chess Playing Programs and the Problem of Complexity....Pages 29-42 Computer v Chess-Player....Pages 43-47 A Chess Playing Program for the IBM 7090 Computer....Pages 48-55 The Greenblatt Chess Program....Pages 56-66 The Technology Chess Program....Pages 67-79 Chess 4.5: The Northwestern University Chess Program....Pages 80-103 Cray Blitz....Pages 104-111 Front Matter....Pages 112-112 Statistics for the Chess Computer and the Factor of Mobility....Pages 113-117 A Five Year Plan for Automatic Chess (excerpts)....Pages 118-121 Front Matter....Pages 122-122 Tree-Searching and Tree-Pruning Techniques....Pages 123-128 Some Methods of Controlling the Tree Search in Chess Programs....Pages 129-135 The Heuristic Search and The Game of Chess. A Study of Quiescence, Sacrifices, and Plan Oriented Play....Pages 136-142 A Theory of Evaluative Comments in Chess with a Note on Minimaxing....Pages 143-155 Front Matter....Pages 156-156 The Sequence of Phases....Pages 157-174 Skill in Chess....Pages 175-188 Decision Making and Computers....Pages 189-195 A Chess Mating Combinations Program....Pages 196-212 Front Matter....Pages 156-156 Robot Chess....Pages 213-219 Front Matter....Pages 220-220 A Computer Chess Tutorial....Pages 221-232 Using Patterns and Plans in Chess....Pages 233-257 Mate at a Glance....Pages 258-265 Front Matter....Pages 266-266 Some Ideas for a Chess Compiler....Pages 267-272 Robots....Pages 273-278 CHEOPS : A Chess-oriented Processing System....Pages 279-285 Belle Chess Hardware....Pages 286-292 Front Matter....Pages 293-294 Co-ordinate squares: A Solution to many Chess Pawn Endgames....Pages 295-315 Goal-Directed Search in Chess End Games....Pages 316-329 Computer Analysis of a Rook Endgame....Pages 330-336 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Games from the ACM Tournaments....Pages 338-381 Games from the World Computer Championships....Pages 382-407 Blitz Games between Computers and Human Players....Pages 408-409 Simultaneous Games between Computer Programs and Human Players....Pages 410-410 Games Played by Computer Programs in Human Tournaments....Pages 411-418 Miscellaneous Games Played By Computer Programs....Pages 418-418 The World Microcomputer Championships....Pages 419-420 Back Matter....Pages 421-440