* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Additions: Significant Changes in average rating of the program on * ICS's are noted in the form [chessnet, FICS]. * ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * April 21st, 1998. - Major modifications to variable structures made * to ease future additions. Move history now saved * for up to 50 moves each side. * April 23rd, 1998. - Castling & en passent are now valid moves. * April 28th, 1998. - Move Lists implemented and History Converted so * there is no longer a limited # of moves * April 28th, 1998. - Implemented the MiniMax Algorithm * May 1st, 1998. - Implemented the Alpha-Beta algorithm * May 15th, 1998. - Implemented Move Undo's and changed the position * back to a global structure for speed reasons. * May 16th, 1998. - Interfaced the Program with xboard/winboard * June 8th, 1998. - Fixed various bugs and made minor * performance enhancements v1.0. * June 26th, 1998. - Basic Opening Book Completed v1.2 * [1450, 1300] * October 25th, 1998. - Better endgame king positioning. ICS Status * whispers. v1.3 * November 23rd, 1998. - Draw by repetition is now considered. v1.4 * January 14th, 1999. - Implemented Underpromotion * January 16th, 1999. - Algebraic Notation is accepted as input. * January 17th, 1999. - Phased move generation added. * January 17th, 1999. - Dynamic piece-square scoring added. * January 21st, 1999. - Partial quiescence search implemented. v1.5 * [version did not play on ICS due to bugs] * April 15th, 1999. - Completed the conversion to bitboard move * generation. Also made minor speed enhancements * such as king tracking. * April 18th, 1999. - Changed the value of the queen in the PCSQ * tables from 8 to 9. It was in error. * - Added an analysis command,... which scores * every possible move and gives it's best return. * April 20th, 1999. - "Look for Check" algorithm was rewritten and * program speed increased slightly. * April 21st, 1999. - FEN positional notation is accepted as input * for starting positions or to run tests from * files. * April 23rd, 1999. - Pierre can now output Algebraic Notation. * - Implemented the xboard 'hint' command. * April 24th, 1999. - Full PGN Support added. Reading, Writing and * building the opening book from them are all * now supported. * June 2nd, 1999. - Search now returns a whole PV instead of just * the move to be made. * June 3rd, 1999. - Implemented iteritive deepening with the * previous PV being searched first. * - Converted from depth based to time based * searching. Updated the analysis function to * reflect this change. * June 5th, 1999. - Completed the zero-width PV search for inner * calls after the Principle Variation is searched. * - Implemented Aspiration Search. Window size * defaults to 1/2 pawn but can be set in centi- * pawns from the command line. * June 22nd, 1999. - Switched from using clock() to using * gettimeofday() for internal timings. It is now * accurate! * June 26th, 1999. - Modified the analysis function to support * Xboard's "show thinking" option. Also added * support for the "book" menu item. * June 27th, 1999. - Fixed pgn logging. Date, time, time controls * are now logged and log file can be specified * on the command line. * July 22nd, 1999. - Added some king safety into the evaluation. * July 24th, 1999. - Switched to dynamic position checksums. Also * fixed a bug in repetition detection. It was * actually looking for 4 reps because it wasn't * including the first occurence. * -----------------------------------------------------------------------