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'''Mailbox''', (Offset board representation <ref>[http://www.craftychess.com/hyatt/boardrep.html Chess board representations] by [[Robert Hyatt]]</ref>)
a square-centric board representation where the [[Pieces#PieceCoding|encoding]] of every [[Squares|square]] resides in a separately addressable [[Memory|memory]] element, usually an element of an [[Array|array]] for random access. The square number, or its [[Files|file]] and [[Ranks|rank]], acts like an address to a post box, which might be empty or may contain one chess piece. As pointed out by [[Harm Geert Muller]], not only the embedded [[10x12 Board|10x12 board]], but various implementations are all mailbox, independently from elements in the array for padding that can act as a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel_value sentinel value] <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48164 mailbox & CPW] by [[Harm Geert Muller]], [[CCC]], May 31, 2013</ref>.
=Pro & Const=
==Pro==
* Easy, straightforward to understand and implement
Newcomers are suggested to implement their first chess engines using Mailbox thus they can get some basic knowledge and skills before starting more complicated chess projects.
==Const==
* Programming must use many loop and branch commands such as for, while, if
* Hard to store patterns and match them
=Implementations=
