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Centaur

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'''[[Main Page|Home]] * [[Engines]] * Centaur'''

[[FILE:Heinrich Kley - Jugend - Front page 1910 volume 5.jpg|border|right|thumb|
[[:Category:Heinrich Kley|Heinrich Kley]] - Centaur illustration, 1910 <ref>The front page of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugend_(magazine) Jugend magazine] 1910, Vol. 15, featured this illustration by [[:Category:Heinrich Kley|Heinrich Kley]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons Wikimedia Commons], source[[https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/jugend1910_1/0095/image Jugend: Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben (15.1910, Band 1 (Nr. 1-26))] from [https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/helios/digi/digilit.html Heidelberg University Library: Heidelberg historic literature – digitized] </ref> ]]

'''Centaur''' (Russian: Кентавр),<br/>
a chess program by primary author [[Victor Vikhrev]] and [[Alexey Manjakhin]]. Centaur won the [[First Soviet Computer-Chess Championship 1988]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulan-Ude Ulan-Ude], and further competed at the [[First International Chess-Computer Tournament in the USSR 1989]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow Moscow], at three [[World Computer Chess Championship|World Computer Chess Championships]], the [[WCCC 1989]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton Edmonton], the [[WCCC 1992]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid Madrid], and the [[WCCC 1999]] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paderborn Paderborn], four [[World Microcomputer Chess Championship|World Microcomputer Chess Championships]] <ref>[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/program.php?id=57 Centaur's ICGA Tournaments]</ref> , two [[Uniform-Platform Computer Chess Championship|Uniform-Platform Computer Chess Championships]], and three [[Aegon Tournaments|Aegon Man-Machine Tournaments]] <ref>[http://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121&Itemid=50 CSVN Aegon 1995 site]</ref> <ref>[http://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=50 CSVN Aegon 1996 site]</ref> <ref>[http://www.csvn.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=123&Itemid=50 CSVN Aegon 1997 site]</ref>.

Centaur, along with some code units incorporated from [[Mirage]] by [[Vladimir Rybinkin]] and [[Yuri Shpeer]], further evolved to the [[Dragon (Chess Assistant)|Dragon]] analysis engine of [[ChessOK|Convekta's]] [[Chess Assistant]] database <ref>[http://chessok.com/?page_id=19894 Chess Assistant] - [[ChessOK]]</ref>, not to confused with the original [[Dragon RU|Dragon]] engine by Yuri Shpeer <ref>[http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=26:39751-20#308 Заставить работать машину клиента! [20] - Конференция iXBT.com], September 01, 2009</ref>.

=Screenshot=
[[FILE:centauer.gif|none|border|text-bottom|640px|link=http://www.septober.de/chess/index.htm]]
Centaur Screen <ref>[http://www.septober.de/chess/index.htm Septober - Computerschach] by [http://www.septober.de/impressum.htm Herbert Marquardt]</ref>

=Photos & Games=
[[FILE:CentauerVsMini1999.jpg|none|border|text-bottom|640px]]
[[WCCC 1999]]: [[Centaur]] vs. [[Mini]], [[Victor Vikhrev]] and [[Harald Prokop]]
<pre>
[Event "WCCC 1999"]
[Site "Paderborn, Germany"]
[Date "1999.06.19"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Centaur"]
[Black "Mini"]
[Result "0-1"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.O-O Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6
10.cxd5 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Qxd5 12.Qxd5 Nxd5 13.Nc3 Ndb4 14.Be4 Nxd4 15.Bf4 Ne6 16.a3 Nd3
17.Bxd3 Nxf4 18.Bf5 Kf8 19.Rad1 g6 20.Be4 Ne621.Bd5 Nd8 22.Re2 c6 23.Bc4 b5 24.Bb3 f5
25.Rd7 Bf6 26.a4 a6 27.h3 Rb8 28.Red2 Bg5 29.f4 Bf6 30.axb5 axb5 31.Kh2 Ke8 32.Rc7 h5
33.Rd6 Rf8 34.Nd1 Rb6 35.g3 Rb8 36.Rh7 c5 37.Bd5 c4 38.Rh6 Ke7 39.Ra6 Rc8 40.Rxg6 h4
41.gxh4 Rc5 42.Ra7+ Kd6 43.Bg2 Ne6 44.Kg3 b4 45.Ne3 c3 46.Ra6+ Kd7 47.Bd5 Nc7 48.Rgxf6
Rxf6 49.Rxf6 Nxd5 50.bxc3 Nxf6 51.cxb4 Rc3 52.Kf2 Ke6 53.b5 Rb3 54.Nc4 Nh5 55.Nd2 Rxb5
56.Nf3 Rb2+ 57.Ke3 Rb3+ 58.Kf2 Kd5 59.Ng5 Nxf4 60.Nf3 Nxh3+ 61.Ke2 f4 62.Nd2 Re3+ 63.Kd1
Nf2+ 64.Kc1 Ne4 65.h5 Re1+ 66.Kb2 Re2 67.Kb3 Nxd2+ 68.Kb2 Kc4 69.h6 Nb3+ 70.Ka3 Nc1
71.Ka4 0-1
</pre>

=Descriptions=
==1989==
based on the [[WCCC 1989]] booklet <ref>[http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=doc-434fea055cbb3 Kings Move - Welcome to the 1989 AGT World Computer Chess Championship.] Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Courtesy of [[Peter Jennings]], from [[The Computer History Museum]], [http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/3-1%20and%203-2%20and%203-3%20and%204-3.1989_WCCC/1989%20WCCC.062302028.sm.pdf pdf]</ref> :
Centauer is a new chess-playing program with the heuristic search to consider the decisive series of moves. The algorithms is based on the probability logic and uses a fuzzy value of positions. The depth of the search is not limited. The whole information about all the series of moves is kept in [[Memory#RAM|RAM]] and is used to determine the decisive series of moves. Centaur features a low number of position analyzed. This is compensated with thoroughness of the [[Evaluation|position evaluation]].

==1991==
from [[Don Beal|Don Beal's]] [[WMCCC 1991]] report <ref>[[Don Beal]] ('''1991'''). ''Report on the [[WMCCC 1991|11th World Microcomputer Chess Championship]]''. [[ICGA Journal#14_2|ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2]]</ref> :
Centaur is the outstanding exception in the current pattern. It uses a much more human like approach, and despite its eventual losses, actually played well most of the time. For instance, it had a draw against [[Gideon]] for a long time, only going astray in the endgame.
Written by Victor Vikhrev and Alexey Manjakhin, and winner of the first Moscow computer-chess tournament, this program is highly unconventional, and does not use [[Alpha-Beta|alpha-beta]], [[Iterative Deepening|iterative search]]. Instead, it grows a [[Search Tree|selective tree]], kept fully in [[Memory|memory]], on a [[Best-First|best-first]] basis. Position [[Evaluation|evaluation]] is not reduced to one number - instead a vector of values is produced from which 3 optimistic and 3 pessimistic evaluations are made under different assumptions. These 6 values determine a probability distribution of results for a position, which is used to guide tree growth and ultimately to choose a move. Victor Vikhrev describes his approach as intermediate between conventional programs and the even more selective approach of [[Mikhail Botvinnik|Botvinnik's]] program, [[Pioneer]].

==1993==
from [[Don Beal|Don Beal's]] [[UPCCC 1993]] report <ref>[[Don Beal]] ('''1993'''). ''Report on the QMW 1993 Uniform-Platform Computer-Chess Championship.'' [[ICGA Journal#16_3|ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3]]</ref> <ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chess/browse_frm/thread/51267e26536fa912 QMW computer chess] by [[Don Beal]], [[Computer Chess Forums|rec.games.chess]], August 19, 1993</ref> :
Written by Victor Vikrev, a nuclear physicist in Moscow, as a major hobby over the past 30 years, plus Alexei Manjakhin. It is remarkable for being very different in design from all the other programs that do well in championships. It explores only a few future positions (instead of millions), but analyses them in more detail. In this respect its thinking is more human-like than any other program. It scored 2 from 5 in the [[WCCC 1992|last "unlimited machine" championship]], and placed 17.

==1999==
from the [[ICGA]]-site <ref>[https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/program.php?id=57 Centaur's ICGA Tournaments]</ref> :
Centaur is a highly selective program, originated from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurchatov_Institute Kurchatov Institute] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow Moscow]. It is a completely unique program. Despite the lighting speed of its hardware it only examines about 500 positions per second. Centaur has a rating of 2,266 at AEGON97.

Centaur uses 5 values for estimation of chess position (one realistic, two pessimistic and two optimistic). All 5 values of a position are saved in memory of computer and are used for choice of direction of investigation of position.

Last modification of Centaur uses some code units from program [[Mirage]], which is made in Russia. Principles of Centaur are described in [[ICGA Journal|ICCA Journal]] 1996, 2 <ref>[[Victor Vikhrev]] ('''1996''') ''The Choice of a Research Direction''. [[ICGA Journal#19_2|ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2]]</ref>

=See also=
* [[Cheiron]]
* [[Chiron]]

=Publications=
* [[Victor Vikhrev]] ('''1996''') ''The Choice of a Research Direction''. [[ICGA Journal#19_2|ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2]]

=Forum Posts=
* [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chess/browse_frm/thread/51267e26536fa912 QMW computer chess] by [[Don Beal]], [[Computer Chess Forums|rec.games.chess]], August 19, 1993 » [[UPCCC 1993]]
* [http://www.foro.meca-web.es/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72&start=50#p8510 Re: La Máquina Preservadora. Programas de Ajedrez] by Tibono, [[Computer Chess Forums|Meca Foro]], October 09, 2015 (Spanish)
* [http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8323 Centaur] by [[Fernando Villegas|Fernando]], [[Computer Chess Forums|Hiarcs Forum]], March 16, 2017

=External Links=
* [https://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/program.php?id=57 Centaur's ICGA Tournaments]
* [http://adamant1.fromru.com/centaur.html Кентавр] (Russian)
: [http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=de&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://adamant1.fromru.com/centaur.html&usg=ALkJrhh9ykrIOkFOeXrwD7waeVgWzKCkQA Centaur], translated by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Translate Google Translate]
* [http://www.top-5000.nl/cp.htm Download Chess Programs] hosted by [[Ed Schroder|Ed Schröder]]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Chess Advanced Chess from Wikipedia] (Centaur chess)
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_%28disambiguation%29 Centaur (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur Centaur from Wikipedia] ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology Greek mythology])

=References=
<references />
'''[[Engines|Up one Level]]'''
[[Category:Heinrich Kley]]
[[Category:Mythology]]

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