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=Purposes=Perft works mainly with functions: move generators, make move, unmake move. They all are basic and vital for chess engines. By comparing perft results developers can find out if those functions work correctly or not. If they are incorrect developers can narrow quickly which branches are wrong, then call Perft for those branches with lower depth, repeat until finding direct positions gives the wrong result. =History=
Supposably, perft was first implemented within the [[Cobol]] program [[RSCE-1]] by [[Rolf C. Smith#RCSmith|R.C. Smith]], submitted to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chess_Federation USCF] for evaluation, and subject of an [[Timeline#1978|1978]] [[Computerworld]] article <ref>[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=849&dat=19780417&id=h8lOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DEoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6180,1080528 Written in Cobol - Program Written as Chess Buff's Research Aid] by Brad Schultz, [[Computerworld]], April 17, 1978, Page 37</ref> . RSCE-1's purpose was not to play chess games, but position analysis, to find forced [[Checkmate|mates]], and to perform a move path enumeration of up to three [[Ply|plies]], with the [[Perft Results|perft(3) result]] of 8,902 from the [[Initial Position|initial position]] already mentioned <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41373 Perft(3) from 1978, with a twist!] by [[Steven Edwards]], [[CCC]], December 08, 2011</ref>. [[Ken Thompson]] may have calculated perft(3) and perft(4) earlier than this date with [[Belle]]. [[Steven Edwards]] suggested the move path enumeration in 1995 as implemented in [[Spector]] <ref>[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.chess.computer/M8V1AzkfOok/YV9lcfOlfgIJ Re: Speed of Move Generator] by [[Steven Edwards]], [[Computer Chess Forums|rgcc]], August 16, 1995</ref> and has since been actively involved in Perft computations, while the term "Perft" was likely coined by a [[Crafty]] command, despite its initial implementation was not conform to the above definition <ref>[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.chess.computer/2nqtCdHC-r0/ENqomE2u51kJ Re: complete opening tree stats] by [[Robert Hyatt]], [[Computer Chess Forums|rgcc]], February 05, 1998</ref>.
