Pioneer

Home * Engines * Pioneer



Pioneer, (Russian: Пионер) was a Soviet Artificial Intelligence project headed by Mikhail Botvinnik with the aim to develop a chess program to model a Chess Master's Mind, also used as general purpose planning tool to solve economical problems in the Soviet Union. Based on a hierarchical mathematical model consisting of square control, trajectories, sheaves of trajectories, and counter trajectories of attacking and defending pieces, piece chains, and zones, and the intermediate goal to win material within a given horizon, its purpose was a minimax best-first search of extremely narrow but deep game trees. The name Pioneer was chosen in 1977, when the program was invited to play the WCCC 1977 in Toronto. However, Pioneer was never completed in a way that it could play a game of chess in public under tournament conditions.

=Early Ideas= Botvinnik's early ideas on attack maps were already formulated and published the late 50s and 60s. At Moscow Central Chess Club in 1966, with the skeptical Georgy Adelson-Velsky and others attending, he introduced the concept of trajectories and found Vladimir Butenko as supporter and collaborator. Butenko first implemented the 15x15 vector attacks board representation on a M-20 computer, determining trajectories. The table below demonstrates the distance from a square (here c2) on a 8x8 board, superimposed on the 15x15 array in such a way that the from square (c2) coincides with the central square of the 15x15 array, which is the origin, tail, or base of all displacement vectors. ╔════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╗ 210 ║ 7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╔════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╤════╗────┼────╢ 195 ║  7 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 ║  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 180 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  5 |  5 ║  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 165 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  4 ║  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 150 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 ║  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 135 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 ║  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 120 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 ║  2 |  1 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────╔════╗────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢ 105 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 ║  2 |  1 ║  0 ║  1 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╟────┼────╚════╝────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢────┼────╢  90 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 ║  2 |  1 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 ║  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────╚════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╝────┼────╢  75 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 |  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢  60 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  4 |  5 |  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢  45 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  5 |  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢  30 ║  7 |  6 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  5 |  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢  15 ║  7 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  7 ║     ╟────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────╢   0 ║  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 ║     ╚════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╧════╝        0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10   11   12   13   14 Boris Stilman gave following example to generate a set or sheave of trajectories for a king moving from f6 to h1 : D(f6,K)         +  D(h1,K)          =  SUM                 SUM == D(f6,h1) 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 2    7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7     c b a 9 9 9 9 9. . . . . . . . 5 4 3 2 1 1 1 2    7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6     c a 9 8 7 7 7 8. . . . . . . . 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2    7 6 5 5 5 5 5 5     c a 8 7 6|5|6 7. . . . . 1 . . 5 4 3 2 1 1 1 2    7 6 5 4 4 4 4 4     c a 8 6|5 5 5|6. . . . 1 1 1 . 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 +  7 6 5 4 3 3 3 3  =  c a 8 6|5 5 5 5|. . . . 1 1 1 1 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 3    7 6 5 4 3 2 2 2     c a 8 7 6|5 5 5|. . . . . 1 1 1 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1     c a 9 8 7 6|5 5|. . . . . . 1 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5    7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0     c b a 9 8 7 6|5|. . . . . . . 1 =Mathematical Projection= In Botvinnik's hierarchical Mathematical Projection (MP) of chess as a complex system, trajectories build the lowest level of the hierarchy. The concepts of zones as intermediate level of the MP consists of a network of main trajectories conform to attacking or defending plans determined elsewhere, negation trajectories, that is opponent's counter trajectories which may block or combat the primary trajectory in time, and own supporting counter-counter trajectories. The MP controls the growth of a search tree inside a best-first search, and prunes all branches forward which could not reach a goal in time. After Botvinnik introduced the concept of Zones in 1970, Butenko refused further cooperation and began to write his own program, dubbed Eureka.

=Further Research= In the 70s and 80s, a team around Boris Stilman, Alexander Yudin, Alexander Reznitskiy, Michael Tsfasman, Vadim Mirniy and Mikhail Chudakov worked on Pioneer at the State Committee for Science and Technology, Moscow, USSR, the National Research Institute for Electrical Engineering, Moscow, USSR and the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR. Botvinnik and his team proposed a attack map and offset map move generating strategy based on Vector Attacks, and a hierarchical geometrical model based on trajectories, sheaves of trajectories and chains - a set of pieces, each with their trajectories, enjoying the property of aiding or hindering the attack of a piece against a target. Based on this research, Boris Stilman later coined the term Linguistic Geometry, a new type of game theory. Alexander Reznitskiy and Mikhail Chudakov presented the current state of a long development originated by Botvinnik in an 1990 ICCA Journal article.

=Controversy= Botvinnik published abilities of Pioneer and its successor CC Sapiens on selected positions, but they never played a complete game of chess in public. For his publication Three Positions, Botvinnik was heavily criticized by Hans Berliner   , and his old chess rival David Bronstein.

=Photos=

McGill University 1977
Botvinnik's Lecture on Pioneer at McGill University 1977 - any questions? Monty Newborn left

Moscow 1980
A. Reznitskiy, B. Stilman, M. Donskoy (Kaissa), M. Botvinnik, Monty & Amy Newborn

=Timeline=

=Quotes=

Rushton and Marsland
Paul Rushton and Tony Marsland, 1973, in Current Chess Programs : A novel idea has been proposed by Botvinnik. He believes it is important to know which pieces are able to reach a certain square or sector of the board in a set number of half-moves. In this manner it is possible to determine the pieces that one should be concerned with when planning a move and it establishes what Botvinnik calls an "horizon." Thus one could vary the horizon by changing the amount of time pieces are allowed to take in arriving at a given area. At the present time some of his ideas have been programmed, but the successful completion of a program based on Botvinnik's ideas has not yet been announced.

David Kittinger
David Kittinger and Scott McDonald in Computer Chess Digest Annual 1984 on Novag Constellation : The Novag Constellation programs represent a significant evolutionary step in the development of microcomputer chess programs. The program represents the first commercial implementation of the attack map / offset map move generating strategy proposed by former World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik and subsequently refined by myself for faster move generation as pieces come off the board.

Reznitskiy and Chudakov
Alexander Reznitskiy and Mikhail Chudakov in ICCA Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4 : PIONEER has been tested on various positions. For experiments we used an 80386 based computer running at 20 MHz. The outcome shows the approach described in its advantage as well in its disadvantage.

So far PIONEER cannot regarded as a competetive player. The program is not fast enough to play under tournament conditions. It takes up to several hours to complete a search. Moreover, we found out, PIONEER fails to find a solution in some positions (especially in endgames).

Nevertheless, fortunately in mosts cases PIONEER manages to find the strongest move. If so, the program has found this move in a human fashion. It discovers the position's essence, correctly specifies subgoals and directs its search towards these subgoals. In accordance with this, all the trees are small, narrow and deep, and contain only reasonable variations of variable depth, truncated by logical considerations.

Boris Stilman
Boris Stilman in Linguistic Geometry. Acknowledgments : This book was inspired by the results of long and fruitful collaboration in the 70s and 80s with Professor Mikhail Botvinnik, my research adviser and project director. At the very beginning he shaped my thinking about complex search problems. One scientist said that this unimaginably difficult work could have started because Botvinnik, a chess player, did not anticipate the difficulties of programming, while Stilman, a computer scientist, did not anticipate difficulties of playing chess. Every time when the team of researchers experienced serious problems in the development of the project PIONEER, Dr. Botvinnik used to say: “If a human chess master can make it, a computer will make it as well.” He believed in the existence of a general algorithm, or a small collection of general algorithms, used intuitively by all the chess masters and grandmasters in playing chess. Essentially, discovery, simulation and generalization of these algorithms were the goals of the project PIONEER. An attempt to construct and investigate a mathematical model based on those algorithms is the goal of this book. Alexander Yudin, Alexander Reznitskiy, Mikhail Tsfasman, Mikhail Chudakov have worked with me in the 70s and 80s to develop project PIONEER. My friend and colleague, Vadim Mirniy, with whom we worked in the 80s provided major insights and pushed our research and software implementations to much higher level. Also, in the 70s an invaluable technical assistance in software development was provided by Dmitry Lozinskiy, Lidia Poltavets, and Anatoliy Kostrukov. Four major scientists, the founders of computer science and engineering in the former Soviet Union, Academician Viktor Glushkov, Professors Bashir Rameev, Viacheslav Myasnikov and Nikolay Krinitskiy contributed to the establishment of the organizational framework, provided major funding and access to the state-of-the-art computers for project PIONEER.

Project PIONEER and the first theoretical generalizations related to the origin of LG would have never succeeded without constant support of numerous Soviet scientists. I am grateful to all of them. Here, I would like to acknowledge those whose decisive support came at the most difficult times. They are Academician Nikolay Krasovsky, Academician-correspondent, Lenin Prize Winner Yakov Tsipkin, Academician-correspondents Yury Rudenko and Hermogen Pospelov, Professors Dmitry Pospelov, David Yudin, Vladimir Yakubovich, Georgy Adelson-Velsky, Yuriy Shakarian, Gavriil Shalit, Lev Mamikoniants and Dr. Mikhail Donskoy.

Scientific exchange with researchers from around the world allowed our team to overcome isolation of the former Soviet Union. A list of major participants of this exchange includes Professor Monty Newborn from McGill University, Canada, Professors Tony Marsland and Randy Goebel from the University of Alberta, Canada, Professor Jaap van den Herik from the University of Limburg, The Netherlands, Professor Ben Mittman from Northwestern University, USA, Dr. David Cahlander from CDC Corp., USA, Ken Thompson from Bell Labs, USA, Dr. Hans Meuer from the University of Mannheim, Germany, Dr. H.-J.Appelrath from the University of Dortmund, Germany, David Levy from London, UK.

=See also=
 * CC Sapiens

=Selected Publications=

1968 ...

 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1968). Algoritm igry v shakhmaty. (The algorithm of chess)

1970 ...

 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1970). Computers, Chess and Long-Range Planning. Springer, reviews from goodreads
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1975). O Kiberneticheskoi Celi Igri. (On the Cybernetic Goal of Games), Soviet Radio, Moscow
 * Boris Stilman (1975). Formirovanie Mnozestva Puchkov Traektorii. (Formation of the Set of Trajectory Bundles), pp. 70-78


 * Alexander Yudin (1975). Biblioteka endšpilya EVM. (An Endgame Library for a Computer) Šahmaty v SSSR, 1975, No. 7
 * Alexander Yudin (1976). Programma poiska informacii v dvumernoǐ tablice s subordinacieǐ vhodov (Biblioteka posiciǐ endšpilya). (Program for Information Search in a Two-Dimensional table with Subordination of Entires, A Library of Endgame Positions) Programmirovanie 1976, No. 4
 * Mikhail Botvinnik, Boris Stilman, Alexander Yudin (1978). Iskusstvennyǐ šahmatnyǐ Vestnik. (An Artificial chess master) Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSSR, 1978, No. 4
 * Harry Shershow (1979). On Botvinnik's Program. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 51
 * Harry Shershow (1979). A Russian Algorithm for Chess. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 6, pp. 77
 * Editor (1979). A Russian View of Chess Computers. Personal Computing, Vol. 3, No. 9, pp. 64
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1979). O Reshenii Netochnih Prebornih Zadach. (On Solving Inexact Search Problems), Soviet Radio, Moscow
 * Boris Stilman (1979). Zoni Igri. (Fields of Play). pp.70-104.
 * Boris Stilman, Michael Tsfasman (1979). Pozicionnaja Ocenka i Prioriteti. (Positional Value and Assignment of Priorities). pp. 104

1980 ...

 * Mikhail Botvinnik, Boris Stilman, Alexander Yudin, Alexander Reznitskiy, Michael Tsfasman (1980). Thinking of Man and Computer. Proc. of the Second International Meeting on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1-9, Repino, Leningrad, Russia.
 * Tony Marsland, Monty Newborn (1981). A brighter future for Soviet computer chess? ICCA Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 1, pdf
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1982). Decision Making and Computers. Advances in Computer Chess 3
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1982). Meine neuen Ideen zur Schachprogrammierung. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. (German)
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1983). The Game of Chess: Its past, present and future. ICCA Journal, Vol. 6, No. 3
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1984). Computers in Chess: Solving Inexact Search Problems. Springer
 * Michael Tsfasman, Boris Stilman (1984). The Positional Estimate and Assignment of Priorities.


 * Vadim Mirniy, A. G. Roizner, Mikhail Chudakov, Boris Stilman (1986). Instrumentalnaia systema podderzky razrabotky i otladky bolshikh program na Fortrane ES EVM. (CASE System for Development and Debugging of Large-scale FORTRAN Program). Programming, No. 5, The USSR Academy of Sciences
 * Vadim Mirniy, Mikhail Chudakov, Boris Stilman (1988). ARM Programmista na osnove integrirovannoi systemy upravlenia versii program (Programmer's Workbench on the Basis of Integrated System for Software Configuration Management). Programmnaia Ingeneria

1990 ...

 * Alexander Reznitskiy (1990). Pioneer Approach to Chess Programming. Praxis der Informationverarbeitung und Kommunikation, 3/90, pp. 151-157, K.G. Saur Verlag, Munich.
 * Alexander Reznitskiy, Mikhail Chudakov (1990). Pioneer: a Chess Program Modelling a Chess Master's Mind. ICCA Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4
 * Mikhail Botvinnik (1993). Three Positions. ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2
 * Mikhail Botvinnik, Evgeniĭ Dmitrievich Cherevik, Vasily Vladimirov, Vitaly Vygodsky (1994). Solving Shannon's Problem: Ways and Means. Advances in Computer Chess 7
 * Boris Stilman (1994). A Linguistic Geometry of the Chess Model. Advances in Computer Chess 7, pdf draft
 * Marty Hirsch (1995). Botwinnik und die Schachprogrammierung. Computerschach und Spiele, June-July 1995 (German)

2000 ...

 * Boris Stilman (2000). Linguistic Geometry - From Search to Construction. Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series. Springer US, ISBN: 978-0-7923-7738-2

=Forum Posts=

1993 ...

 * Kasparov missed Beautiful win; Botvinnik's Program muffs analysis by Hans Berliner, rec.games.chess, July 9, 1993
 * Botvinnik article by Jonathan Schaeffer, rgcc, October 23, 1996
 * Re: Botvinnik article by Peter Gillgasch, rgcc, October 23, 1996
 * Re: Botvinnik article by Marc-François Baudot, rgcc, November 07, 1996 » Advances in Computer Chess 7


 * Botvinniks Chess Algorithm ?? by Bruce Moreland, rgcc, October 05, 1997

2000 ...

 * What is Botvinnik's legacy to computer chess? by Drazen Marovic, CCC, February 20, 2000
 * "The Tale of a Small Tree" by M.M.Botvinnik [fragment] by José Antônio Fabiano Mendes, CCC, March 09, 2000 » Réti Endgame Study
 * Re: KAISSA for PC, I'm the proud owner by Eugene Nalimov, CCC, February 01, 2002 » Kaissa, Siberian Chess

2010 ...

 * М. Ботвинник. Проект "ПИОНЕР" by Kashchey the Deathless, immortalchess, March 10, 2010
 * Pioneer by Henk van den Belt, CCC, September 09, 2016

=External Links=

Chess Program

 * Лингвистическая Геометрия Бориса Штильмана, (Linguistic Geometry Boris Stilman) by Alexander Timofeev
 * Энциклопедия шахмат - Ботвинник В.Линдер, И.Линдер, (The Encyclopedia of Chess - Botvinnik) B. Linder, J. Linder
 * По стопам ПИОНЕРа (In the footsteps of Pioneer)


 * Computers, Chess and Long-range Planning by Botvinnik by John L. Jerz
 * Über Stand und Entwicklung seines Computer-Schachprogramms "Pionier" referierte Prof. Michael Botwinnik (67), UdSSR, auf einer einwöchigen Vortragsreise durch die Bundesrepublik, April 04, 1978, Computerwoche 15/1978 (German)
 * "Pionier" rüstet sich zum Wettkampf, July 21, 1978, Computerwoche (German)
 * "Pionier" rüstet sich zum Wettkampf (Fortsetzung), July 28, 1978, Computerwoche (German)
 * Martin Meuer: "I Wanted to Do Something Different in Conjunction with Computers" | chess-news.ru, June 28, 2012
 * The Adventure of Chess Programming (Part 2) by Frederic Friedel, ChessBase News, February 12, 2019

Misc

 * Pioneer from Wikipedia
 * Пионер — Википедия (Russian)
 * Pioneer program from Wikipedia
 * Pioneer anomaly from Wikipedia
 * Pioneer species from Wikipedia
 * Pioneer movement from Wikipedia
 * Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia
 * Young Pioneer camp from Wikipedia
 * Category:Pioneer movement - Wikimedia Commons


 * Pioneers Palace from Wikipedia
 * Can - Unfinished, 1975, YouTube Video

=References=

Up one Level