Jean-Christophe Weill

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Jean-Christophe Weill, a French computer scientist and computer chess and games programmer. He introduced the NegaC* search algorithm as a Negamax implementation of Kevin Coplan's C*. He also created the ABDADA non-synchronized, distributed search algorithm, apparently used in Frenchess. His 1995 Ph.D. thesis in French, Programmes d'Échecs de Championnat: Architecture Logicielle Synthèse de Fonctions d'Évaluations, Parallélisme de Recherche, covers history of computer chess, a broad range of search algorithms and evaluation, audited beside others by Tony Marsland and Jacques Pitrat.

=Chess Programs= Jean-Christophe Weill already had experience in programing Othello, when he decited to develop a chess program for the upcoming 1st Computer Olympiad in 1989. He found his friend and chess player Marc-François Baudot, who already made first trials in chess programming, to help him with the positional evaluation to start their successful collaboration with following chess programs :
 * Échec
 * Cumulus
 * Écume
 * Joker
 * Frenchess, with Jean-Luc Seret and Michel Gondran
 * Virtua Chess
 * Virtual Chess
 * Virtual Kasparov

=Selected Publications=
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1989). Contribution a la Programmation des Jeux de Reflexion. Memoire de d.e.a., Université Paris 8, Vincennes. (French.)
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1991). Experiments With the NegaC* Search - An Alternative for Othello Endgame Search. Heuristic Programming in AI 2
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1992). The NegaC* Search. ICCA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1994). How Hard is the Correct Coding of an Easy Endgame? Advances in Computer Chess 7, zipped ps
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1995). Programmes d'Échecs de Championnat: Architecture Logicielle Synthèse de Fonctions d'Évaluations, Parallélisme de Recherche. Ph.D. Thesis. Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis, zipped ps (French)
 * Marc-François Baudot, Jean-Christophe Weill, Jean-Luc Seret, Michel Gondran (1995). Frenchess: A Cray T3D at the 8th World Computer Chess Championship. First European Cray-T3D Workshop, Citeseerx
 * Jean-Christophe Weill (1996). The ABDADA Distributed Minimax Search Algorithm. ACM Computer Science Conference, ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, zipped ps

=Forum Posts=
 * Nintendo 64 Chess by Jean-Christophe Weill, rgcc, January 06, 1998 » Virtual Chess
 * Ed's real life by Jean-Christophe Weill, rgcc, August 15, 1998 » Ed Schröder

=External Links=
 * Jean-Christophe Weill's homepage
 * A Short Story of JCW's Computer Chess Program


 * Jean-Christophe Weill's ICGA Tournaments

=References= Up one level