GNU CHESS 5.00 README

Table of Contents

  Introduction
  Who We Are
  Data Structures
  Move Generator
  Search
  Evaluation
  Book
  Hash Table
  Auxillary File Formats (PGN, EPD)
  Universal Board
  Caveats
  Compilers
  Internet
  Xboard/Winboard
  Installation
  Command List


INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the GNU CHESS 5.00 README. This is somewhat different than 
a normal readme. You might consider this a manual. We've always found
multiple documents confusing, overlapping and sometimes contradictory
as far as software documentation goes. By putting it all together in
one place we hope to avoid these traditional inadequacies and be able
to maintain a single document. If you add documentation, add it to
this document only.

GNU Chess 5.00 is the new version of GNU Chess. The goal of creating this
new version was to eliminate perceived problems with past versions, the
major one being spaghetti-code that was extremely poorly documented, but
another being antiquated data structures and especially the ignominous
linked list. Another good reason was to have more standard file formats
for game positions and game listings.


WHO WE ARE

We are the GNU Chess developers and you may reach us at 

	bug-gnu-chess@ai.mit.edu

Failing this, contact the folks at

	http://www.gnu.org

which also serves as our software depository for new versions of
GNU Chess.

We also have a Usenet bulletin board, gnu.chess. Feel free to post and
support. Please become a developer and contribute your time and coding skill
to GNU Chess. Make a donation of your time and money.

But, as developers we like to develop our own ideas. Thus, if you have
an idea check to see that no one else is working on it (posting on the
above bulletin board or sending an email should be sufficient to find
if someone is working on the idea and if you can collaborate with
them.)

We don't like messages asking us to implement features. Everybody
has a list a mile long. Instead, contribute by writing code or pointing
out very clearly a bug. To report a bug, tell us the version number
of the program (version.h).

The code is provided for the purpose of encouraging you to do the
programming.  If you lack the programming skills to do so, try
dabbling in it. You might surprise yourself.

We are communal. Happy Communing.


DATA STRUCTURES

The primary data structure of GNU Chess is the bitboard. A bitboard
is a 64-bit GNU C long long. It represents characteristics of a position.
For example, 12 bitboards are sufficient to describe the whereabouts
of all the pieces for both sides, i.e.

	BitBoard board.b[2][6];

So for example with a knight equal to 2 and white equal to 0 all the
knights are located by the reference

	#define white 0
	#define knight 2

	... board.b[white][knight] ...

Testing whether a particular square has a knight on it could be done
with 

	if (BitBoard[B1] & board.b[white][knight]) { ... }

Another set of move arrays is helpful for calculating the simple moves
of a knight or a king

	MoveArray[knight or king][sq]

This returns a bitmap of the squares from which a knight or king
could move from the square sq. Squares are based at 0 for a1 (White's
queen's rook 1) and numbered left to right up until 63 for h8 (Black's
king's rook 1).

Another basic data structure is the board. It is defined in common.h
as the Board typedef:

  typedef struct 
  {
     BitBoard b[2][7];		/* Pieces by side (0 - white, 1 black
				   by piece (1 - pawn ... 6 - king */
     BitBoard friend[2];	/* Friendly (this side's) pieces */
     BitBoard blocker;		/* Enemy pieces */
     BitBoard blockerr90;
     BitBoard blockerr45;
     BitBoard blockerr315;
     short ep;			/* Location of en passant square */
     short flag;		/* Relevant flags relating to castle privs */
     short side;		/* Color of side on move 0 - white 1 - black */
     short material[2];		/* Total material by side not inc. king */
     short pmaterial[2];	/* Total pawn material by side not inc. king */
     short castled[2];		/* True (1) if side is castled */
     short king[2];		/* Location of king 0 - a1 .. 63 - h8 */
  } Board; 

Basic data structure typedefs are defined in common.h and allocated in
main.c for the most part. Please read and understand those files. The
best way to understand data structures is to add new evaluation terms.

MOVE GENERATOR

SEARCH

EVALUATION

Evaluation in this version is quite a bit different than before.
Earlier versions used piece/square tables with some end-leaf
evaluation (but primary pc/sq tables). These are tables filled with
values regarding the importance of having pieces on particular squares.
It was filled once, at the beginning of the search.

The drawback of pc/sq tables is that the information is typically of
less and less importance the deeper a program searches because the
board changes so much. With computers getting faster and faster, deeper
and deeper searches are possible and so the pc/sq tables can provide
misleading direction to the program, resulting in anti-positional moves.

More recently there has been a return by some to what we espouse here:
full end-leaf evaluation. Further, we use bitboards (64-bit quantities)
to represents characteristics of the board. This harkens back, ironically
to the early days of computer chess when giant number-crunching machines
back in the 60's used bitmaps to describe positions.

Bitboards in this version of GNU are defined using the "BitBoard" typedef
defined in common.h. main.c contains most of the bitboards and these
are accessed and used throughout the program and particularly by
the move generator and the evaluator.

The evaluator in eval.c consists of a series of scoring routines like
ScoreP (), ScoreN (), ScoreB (), corresponding to the piece being
scored. The routine evaluates all pieces of that type (P - pawn,
N - knight, B - bishop, etc.) on the current board and returns a
score.

Typically a loop is used of the form

    short sq;	/* Location of the piece of this type */
    short s;	/* Score value for all pieces
    BitBoard b;	/* Stores the bitboard representing location of the piece */
    s = 0;	/* Score starts out as zero */
    b = board.b[side][knight];
    while (b) {
      sq = leadz(b);
      CLEARBIT (b, sq);
      if (piece on sq has some property)
	s += SOME_BONUS_OR_PENALTY;    /* defined in eval.h */
    }
    return(s);

As you can see, this routine locates each piece in the 64-bit map
where the corresponding square of the 64 is set to 1 meaning a piece
is there. Hence for example in the opening position, board.b[white][bishop]
would have the 3rd and 7th low-order bits set corresponding to the original
locations of bishops in a game on C1 and F1. Likewise the values
BitPosArray[C1] and BitPosArray[F1] can be used to return 64-bit
quantities for checking specific matches as in

   if (BitPosArray[A1] & board.b[side][bishop])
	s += SOME_VERY_NEGATIVE_PENALTY_FOR_BISHOP_IN_A1_CORNER

Writing evaluation code comes very naturally using these methods. Try
to avoid too many specific square checks as those are expensive. Ideas
as shown in the CTL() routine can be used to check for piece placement
on specific squares being advantageous or disadvantageous.

Primary evaluation is done with Evaluate(). Certain specifics are
calculated which are deemed very important such as king evaluation
and pawn evaluation. Then a "lazy evaluation" scenario is checked
for which can save time. Otherwise other pieces are also evaluated.

Very important for evaluation is the ability to see what board you
are evaluating. Typically this should be sufficient when you add
the new term:

	/* ... new logic ... */
	{
	  s += SOME_NEW_BONUS (define in eval.h)
	  printf("The condition is triggered:\n");
	  ShowBoard ();
	  getchar();
	}

This lets you see the board at the point the condition is triggered
which adds the bonus or penalty to the evaluation score.


BOOK

The opening book is implemented as a simple binary file consisting of
a set of sequential records of struct hashtype as defined in the module
book.c. This data structure is simply two part, a 64-bit HashType (see
common.h) and a 32-bit score. 

The binary book stored in book.dat is compiled from the file book.pgn
using the "book compile" into the sequential set of binary records in
the format as described above. book.pgn is simply a set of game records.
A set of master games may be used or specific openings programmed this
way for a user-changeable opening book.

Each record in the book.dat has a "score" and a "position". The score
is what the program judged the worthiness or unworthiness of the position
to be at the time the .dat file was compiled from the .pgn file. It did
this by conducting a short 1-ply deep search with full quiescence.

That score goes with the position "key". That is a 64-bit hashed GNU C
long long. Please see the section on "Hash Table" for how this is calculated.
When it is time for the program to move, it takes the current position's
key (which is always available and calculated after every move in the game)
and checks the opening book to see if any successors to that key (each key
after all legal moves are made) are in the opening book. If so, it chooses
from amongst them, typically based on ordering in the book but also possibly
randomly or based on the score stored with the position, in this way playing
what the program likes to play. Right now, we have this "preferred" style
where the score is used to pick the opening book move to play. The idea is
that the program can play into positions it likes.

At some places in the opening book file book.pgn you may see "!" or "?" next
to the move. These increase and reduce the score associated with the
position after that move by a half-pawn respectively each.


HASH TABLE

The hash table is simply an area of memory where information about
positions is stored. In this version of the program there are two
types of hash tables: general and pawn. 

The general hash table size is controlled by the variable HASHSLOTS
as defined in common.h. Likewise the pawn hash table size is controlled
by the variable PAWNSLOTS in common.h.

Typically middle-game searches are sped up by 25%-50% by the general
hash table and by much more in endgames where there are few pieces
(because so many of the positions turn out to be cached already in
the hash table.)

Pawn evaluation is traditionally expensive because there are so many 
things to evaluate. The pawn hash table remembers all the different
pawn structures in the search. Typically pawn structure evaluation
(without reference to pieces) may be calculated by simple table
lookup this way 90-99% of the time. Hence, any amount of pawn logic
that is pure-pawn and not related to pieces may be added without guilt.
On the other hand, pawn structure that relates to pieces must be
recalculated for every position. See ScoreP() in eval.c


AUXILLARY FILE FORMATS

.dat - binary book format, simply a 64-bit position hash and a 32-bit score
.pgn - game listing like 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 etc.
.epd - epd-style format using FEN notation. See tests subdirectory for example.
log.nnn - record of an entire game from computer's viewpoint (thinking, etc.)
game.nnn - record of an entire game, similar to .pgn but auto-generated

The .dat file format is a simple binary format for the compiled book
which is read by the program when it is using book. See the section BOOK
for more detail.

EPD and PGN require little introduction. These are the uniformly accepted
standards for position recording and game recording.

Note that log.nnn and game.nnn files are written at the end of a game
when you use the "name" command to give the computer your name. It is
highly recommended to do this since the resulting two files that match
in a monotonically-increasing extension numbered suffix may be used for
reporting bugs and keeping track of your games.


UNIVERSAL BOARD

This version has the capability to use the Novag Universal Board 
(www.novag.com).

The universal board is a three-dimensional wooden chess-board. The advantage
is that you don't need to use a mouse or a keyboard in order to play against
the program. Just move your pieces naturally on a real board.

The Novag Universal Board interface is controlled with the "INTERFACE="
variable in the Makefile. It must have the setting

	INTERFACE=-DUNIVERSAL

or you must instead (and preferably) run the make with

	make INTERFACE=-DUNIVERSAL k2u

The name of the executable is "k2u" as opposed to "gnuchess" to
distinguish the Universal and non-Universal versions. The reason why
we don't always just compile Universal code in is that it involves
the SVA library in the SVASYNC subdirectory of SRC. This code is PC only.
So it would not work on Unix/Linux. Plus, you must use the GNU C compiler
by DJGPP, not the Cygnus nor others. Of course you're welcome to test
others but they haven't been tested.

The SVA library controls the COM port. By default, COM1 is used. If you
use some other port, you will have to adjust the SVA library accordingly.
Note: the SVASYNC\TERM*.* modules are useful since these can be compiled
standalone, with the library, to permit debugging with the COM ports until
you are correctly reading the Universal Board.


CAVEATS

book:
  The opening book presently has no way to remove specific positions
  or drastically alter their score without recompiling the opening book.
  And even in that case, all occurrences of any move-sequence leading
  to that position would have to be found, not an easy chore. In the
  future, a simple command to "maintain book" might be created that 
  would simply take the current position and ask the user to input a
  score for it.

thinking on opponent's time:
  This version doesn't have it yet. It would be a relatively cheap way
  to get a good strength improvement.


COMPILERS

  We like GNU C in all its various forms. For Unix and Linux, use GNU C.

  For the PC, use GNU C in the following forms: for use with Universal,
  use DJGPP GNU C. For use on ICS, use CYGNUS 32-BIT. For regular PC
  use, either will do.


INTERNET

  GNU CHESS 5.00 has been tested substantially on the Free Internet Chess
  Servers (freechess.org) with Winboard which is included along with various
  scripts we use. We made no attempt to have these immediately user-ready
  but you could tinker around with it if you're an hobbyist.

  One caveat: you must use CYGNUS 32-BIT GNU C under WINBOARD. Do not try
  to use DJGPP as that will fail (last time we tried.)


XBOARD/WINBOARD

  Running the program with the "xboard" command line parameter sets it
  to produce output acceptable to and accept input suitable for xboard
  and winboard, the graphical display front-ends with mouse interface.


INSTALLATION

The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
various system-dependent variables used during compilation.  It uses
those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package.
It may also create one or more `.h' files containing system-dependent
definitions.  Finally, it creates a shell script `config.status' that
you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file
`config.cache' that saves the results of its tests to speed up
reconfiguring, and a file `config.log' containing compiler output
(useful mainly for debugging `configure').

If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try
to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail
diffs or instructions to the address given in the `README' so they can
be considered for the next release.  If at some point `config.cache'
contains results you don't want to keep, you may remove or edit it.

The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
called `autoconf'.  You only need `configure.in' if you want to change
it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.

The simplest way to compile this package is:

  1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
     `./configure' to configure the package for your system.  If you're
     using `csh' on an old version of System V, you might need to type
     `sh ./configure' instead to prevent `csh' from trying to execute
     `configure' itself.

     Running `configure' takes awhile.  While running, it prints some
     messages telling which features it is checking for.

  2. Type `make' to compile the package.

  3. Optionally, type `make check' to run any self-tests that come with
     the package.

  4. Type `make install' to install the programs and any data files and
     documentation.

  5. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the
     source directory by typing `make clean'.  To also remove the files
     that `configure' created (so you can compile the package for a
     different kind of computer), type `make distclean'.

Compilers and Options
=====================

   Some systems require unusual options for compilation or linking that
the `configure' script does not know about.  You can give `configure'
initial values for variables by setting them in the environment.  Using
a Bourne-compatible shell, you can do that on the command line like
this:
     CC=c89 CFLAGS=-O2 LIBS=-lposix ./configure

Or on systems that have the `env' program, you can do it like this:
     env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-s ./configure

Using a Different Build Directory
=================================

   You can compile the package in a different directory from the one
containing the source code.  Doing so allows you to compile it on more
than one kind of computer at the same time.  To do this, you must use a
version of `make' that supports the `VPATH' variable, such as GNU
`make'.  `cd' to the directory where you want the object files and
executables to go and run the `configure' script.  `configure'
automatically checks for the source code in the directory that
`configure' is in and in `..'.

Installation Names
==================

   By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
`/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc.  You can specify an
installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
option `--prefix=PATH'.

   You can specify separate installation prefixes for
architecture-specific files and architecture-independent files.  If you
give `configure' the option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use
PATH as the prefix for installing programs and libraries.
Documentation and other data files will still use the regular prefix.

   If the package supports it, you can cause programs to be installed
with an extra prefix or suffix on their names by giving `configure' the
option `--program-prefix=PREFIX' or `--program-suffix=SUFFIX'.

Optional Features
=================

   Some packages pay attention to `--enable-FEATURE' options to
`configure', where FEATURE indicates an optional part of the package.
They may also pay attention to `--with-PACKAGE' options, where PACKAGE
is something like `gnu-as' or `x' (for the X Window System).  The
`README' should mention any `--enable-' and `--with-' options that the
package recognizes.

   For packages that use the X Window System, `configure' can usually
find the X include and library files automatically, but if it doesn't,
you can use the `configure' options `--x-includes=DIR' and
`--x-libraries=DIR' to specify their locations.

Specifying the System Type
==========================

   There may be some features `configure' can not figure out
automatically, but needs to determine by the type of host the package
will run on.  Usually `configure' can figure that out, but if it prints
a message saying it can not guess the host type, give it the
`--host=TYPE' option.  TYPE can either be a short name for the system
type, such as `sun4', or a canonical name with three fields:
     CPU-COMPANY-SYSTEM

See the file `config.sub' for the possible values of each field.  If
`config.sub' isn't included in this package, then this package doesn't
need to know the host type.

   If you are building compiler tools for cross-compiling, you can also
use the `--target=TYPE' option to select the type of system they will
produce code for and the `--build=TYPE' option to select the type of
system on which you are compiling the package.

Sharing Defaults
================

   If you want to set default values for `configure' scripts to share,
you can create a site shell script called `config.site' that gives
default values for variables like `CC', `cache_file', and `prefix'.
`configure' looks for `PREFIX/share/config.site' if it exists, then
`PREFIX/etc/config.site' if it exists.  Or, you can set the
`CONFIG_SITE' environment variable to the location of the site script.
A warning: not all `configure' scripts look for a site script.

Operation Controls
==================

   `configure' recognizes the following options to control how it
operates.

`--cache-file=FILE'
     Save the results of the tests in FILE instead of `config.cache'.
     Set FILE to `/dev/null' to disable caching, for debugging
     `configure'.

`--help'
     Print a summary of the options to `configure', and exit.

`--quiet'
`--silent'
`-q'
     Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.

`--srcdir=DIR'
     Look for the package's source code in directory DIR.  Usually
     `configure' can determine that directory automatically.

`--version'
     Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
     script, and exit.

`configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options.


COMMAND LIST

  ^C
	Typically the interrupt key stops a search in progress,
	makes the move last considered best and returns to the
	command prompt

  quit
  exit
	These quit or exit the game.

  help
	Produces a help blurb corresponding to this list of commands.

  book
	compile - compiles book.dat from book.pgn
	on - enables use of book
	off - disables use of book

  version
	prints out the version of this program

  pgnsave FILENAME
	saves the game so far to the file from memory

  pgnload FILENAME
	loads the game in the file into memory

  force
  manual
	Makes the program stop moving. You may now enter moves
	to reach some position in the future.
   
  white
	Program plays white

  black
	Program plays black

  go
	Computer takes whichever side is on move and begins its
	thinking immediately

  easy (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
	Disables thinking on opponent's time

  hard (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
	Enables thinking on opponent's time

  post
	Arranges for verbose thinking output showing variation, score,
	time, depth, etc.

  nopost
	Turns off verbose thinking output

  name NAME
	Lets you input your name. Also writes the log.nnn and a
	corresponding game.nnn file. For details please see
	auxillary file format sections.

  result
	Mostly used by Internet Chess server.

  activate

	This command reactivates a game that has been terminated automatically
	due to checkmate or no more time on the clock. However, it does not
	alter those conditions. You would have to undo a move or two or
	add time to the clock with level or time in that case.

  rating COMPUTERRATING OPPONENTRATING
	Inputs the estimated rating for computer and for its opponent

  new
	Sets up new game (i.e. positions in original positions)

  time
	Inputs time left in game for computer in hundredths of a second.
	Mostly used by Internet Chess server.

  otim (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
	Mostly used by Internet Chess server.

  random (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
	Randomizes play by perturbing the evaluation score slightly.
	The degree of perturbation is adjustable.

  hash
	on - enables using the memory hash table to speed search
	off - disables the memory hash table

  hashsize N
	Sets the hash table to permit storage of N positions

  null
	on - enables using the null move heuristic to speed search
	off - disables using the null move heuristic

  xboard
	on - enables use of xboard/winboard
	off - disables use of xboard/winboard

  universal
	on - enables using the universal chess board (if compiles with
	     INTERFACE=-DUNIVERSAL by GNU CC on a PC with SVASYNC library
	off - disables using the universal chess board

  depth N
	Sets the program to look N ply (half-moves) deep for every
	search it performs. If there is a checkmate or other condition
	that does not allow that depth, then it will not be 

  level MOVES MINUTES INCREMENT
	Sets time control to be MOVES in MINUTES with each move giving
	an INCREMENT (in seconds, i.e. Fischer-style clock).

  load
  epdload
	Loads a position in EPD format from disk into memory.

  save
  epdsave
	Saves game position into EPD format from memory to disk.

  switch
	Switches side to move

  solve FILENAME
  solveepd FILENAME
	Solves the positions in FILENAME

  remove
	Backs up two moves in game history

  undo
	Backs up one move in game history

  show
	board - displays the current board
	time - displays the time settings
	moves - shows all moves using one call to routine
	escape - shows moves that escape from check using one call to routine
	noncapture - shows non-capture moves
	capture - shows capture moves
	eval [or score] - shows the evaluation per piece and overall
	game - shows moves in game history
	pin - shows pinned pieces

  test
	movelist - reads in an epd file and shows legal moves for its entries
	capture - reads in an epd file and shows legal captures for its entries
	movegenspeed - tests speed of move generator
	capturespeed - tests speed of capture move generator
	eval - reads in an epd file and shows evaluation for its entries
	evalspeed tests speed of the evaluator

