Ananse

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Ananse, a chess program by Walter Bannerman, which played various World Microcomputer Chess Championships, International Paderborn Computer Chess Championships and four consecutive Aegon Tournaments from 1993 to 1996. While Ananse did quite well against humans, in computer tournaments it often suffered from bugs, also due to premature, not well enough tested program changes between rounds, once even running Ananse under a debugger with breakpoints enabled (WMCCC 1995). Competing programmers, who seemed obligated to win with their programs, often got nervous when Ananse played a good book line and opening, for instance during the WMCCC 1996 in Jakarta, Frans Morsch in the game of Ananse versus Fritz.

=Description= given in 1997 from the ICGA site : 200K code, 62K data. Basic alpha-beta search with several special routines providing a 'human touch'. Plays very much like a human player, even in the middle game. Search depth : 6 to 15 ply. No hash tables.

Best tournament results : 2 and a half points at Aegon 1993 and 2 points at Aegon 1994, plus several misses in Jakarta '96 (due to bugs) and a good game against Fritz 4. The current version is the best ever. Many improvements with the help of participants in Geneva the last 2 human tournaments in Geneva, where Ananse was the only participating program.

=The Fritz Game= [Event "14th World Microcomputer Chess Championship"] [Site "Jakarta, Indonesia"] [Date "1996.10.??"] [Round "4"] [White "Ananse"] [Black "Fritz"] [Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Qc7 11.Bd2 e6 12.O-O-O Ngf6 13.Ne4 O-O-O 14.g3 Be7 15.Nxf6 Nxf6 16.Bf4 Qa5 17.Qc4 Qd5 18.Qxd5 Nxd5 19.Bd2 Nf6 20.Be3 Ng4 21.Ne5 Nxe3 22.fxe3 Rhf8 23.Rhf1 Bf6 24.Ng4 Bg5 25.Rd3 f6 26.Rf3 f5 27.Ne5 Kc7 28.g4 fxg4 29.Rxf8 Rxf8 30.Nxg4 Rf3 31.Kd2 Rh3 32.Ne5 Rxh5 33.Nf3 Bf6 34.e4 g5 35.e5 Be7 36.c3 g4 37.c4 gxf3 38.Rxf3 c5 39.Kd3 cxd4 40.Rf7 Kd7 41.Kxd4 Rh2 42.Kc3 h5 43.Rh7 h4 44.Rh8 Re2 45.Rb8 Bd8 46.Rxb7+ Bc7 47.Kd3 h3 48.Kxe2 h2 49.Rxa7 0-1

=Forum Posts=
 * Info on Ananse by Willie Wood, CCC, November 06, 1997

=External Links=

Chess Engine

 * Ananse's ICGA Tournaments
 * Comp Ananse chess games - 365Chess.com

Misc

 * Anansi from Wikipedia
 * Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith

=References= Up one level