Solving Large Retrograde Analysis Problems Using a Network of Workstations

Chess endgame databases, while of important theoretical interest, have yet to make a significant impact in tournament chess. In the game of checkers, however, endgame databases have played a pivotal role in the success of our World Championship challenger program Chinook. Consequently, we are interested in building databases consisting of hundreds of billions of positions. Since database positions arise frequently in Chinook’s search trees, the databases must be accessible in real-time, unlike in chess. This paper discusses techniques for building large endgame databases using a network of workstations, and how this data can be organized for use in a real-time search. Although checkers is used to illustrate many of the ideas, the techniques and tools developed are also applicable to chess.

[1]  H. Jaap van den Herik,et al.  The Construction of an Omniscient Endgame Data Base , 1985, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[2]  Ingo Althöfer,et al.  Data Compression Using an Intelligent Generator: The Storage of Chess Games as an Example , 1991, Artif. Intell..

[3]  Ken Thompson,et al.  Retrograde Analysis of Certain Endgames , 1986, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[4]  Lewis Stiller,et al.  Group graphs and computational symmetry on massively parallel architecture , 1990, Proceedings SUPERCOMPUTING '90.

[5]  Jonathan Schaeffer,et al.  Man versus Machine for the World Checkers Championship , 1993, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[6]  Chien-Ping Paul. Lu,et al.  Parallel search of narrow game trees , 1993 .

[7]  K. H. Warren,et al.  The 1992 MPCI yearly report: Harnessing the killer micros , 1992 .

[8]  H. Jaap van den Herik,et al.  A Six-Men-Endgame Database: KRP(a2)KbBP(a3) , 1987, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[9]  Ivan Bratko,et al.  Ideas on Knowledge Synthesis Stemming from the KBBKN Endgame , 1987, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[10]  H. Jaap van den Herik,et al.  Complexity Starts at Five , 1987, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[11]  H. J. van den Herik,et al.  Thompson: Quintets with Variations , 1993, J. Int. Comput. Games Assoc..

[12]  Ralph Gasser,et al.  Applying Retrograde Analysis to Nine Men's Morris , 1990 .

[13]  Jonathan Schaeffer,et al.  A World Championship Caliber Checkers Program , 1992, Artif. Intell..

[14]  Robert Lake,et al.  Man Versus Machine for the World Checkers Championship , 1993, AI Mag..