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Created page with "'''Home * Engines * Searcher''' FILE:Searcher ronquil.jpg|border|right|thumb| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymaster_signatus Searcher (Bathymaster si..."
'''[[Main Page|Home]] * [[Engines]] * Searcher'''
[[FILE:Searcher ronquil.jpg|border|right|thumb| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymaster_signatus Searcher (Bathymaster signatus)] <ref>Photo by Jan Haaga, from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Oceanic_and_Atmospheric_Administration NOAA's] [http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/kodiak/photo/fishsearcher.htm Alaska Fisheries Science Center], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymaster_signatus Bathymaster signatus from Wikipedia]</ref> ]]
'''Searcher''',<br/>
a [[Chess Engine Communication Protocol]] compliant, private <ref>[http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:private_engine_list Private Engine List] from [[Ron Murawski|Ron Murawski's]] [http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=home Computer-Chess Wiki]</ref> chess engine written by [[Frank Phillips]]. It is a [[Bitboards|bitboard]] engine, although it didn't used [[Rotated Bitboards]] for [[Move Generation|move generation]] <ref>[https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=317184 Re: Simple questions about bitboards] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 22, 2003</ref>. In 2008, Frank implemented [[Magic Bitboards]], and started to rewrite and improve his "ancient code" <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21543 magic move - bitboard orientation] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], June 01, 2008</ref>.
=Tournament Play=
Searcher played four consecutive, strong [[CCT Tournaments]], the [[CCT3]] (5th/32), [[CCT4]] (6th/46), [[CCT5]] (15th/45), and the [[CCT6]] (12th/54).
=Quotes=
[[Frank Phillips]] in his [[CCT3]] report on Searcher <ref>[https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=172027 CCT3 day2] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 28, 2001</ref>:
My chess program (before then there was a knight tour, connect4, [[Othello|simple othello]] and others to learn [[Recursion|recursion]] and [[Search|search]] etc) started as my expanded interpretation of [[TSCP]], helped by articles on the internet (particularly [[Tony Marsland|Marsland's]] excellent summary of the anatomy of a chess program) <ref> [[Tony Marsland]] ('''1995'''). ''[http://ilk.uvt.nl/icga/games/chess/anatomy.php The Anatomy of Chess Programs]''. [http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=doc-431614f6cd6ed 8th World Computer Chess Championship] pp. 4-6, [http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/3-1%20and%203-2%20and%203-3%20and%204-3.1995_WCCC/1995%20WCCC.062303014.sm.pdf pdf] from [[The Computer History Museum]], Courtesy of [[Monroe Newborn]]</ref> and of course by members of [[CCC]] and particulalry [[Robert Hyatt|Bob Hyatt]]. Now its origins are unrecognisable, although [[Mailbox|mailbox]] is still used to precompute [[Table-driven Move Generation|move tables]] - simply because I had already written that code. The last major rewrite, two years or so ago introduced [[Bitboards|bitboards]] (because they looked interesting and Bob is always talking about them) to use mainly in [[Evaluation|evaluation]]. [[Move Generation|Move generation]], [[King Pattern#KingAttacks|king attacks]], is a [[Square Attacked By|square attacked]], [[Static Exchange Evaluation|SEE]] etc is a mixture of bitboards for the easy cases (knights, pawns, king) and offset precomputed arrays for the sliders. Like [[Dan Newman]] (I think), I also use bitboards to screen for _potential_ slider attacks etc to reduce work, but do not precompute the rank, file or diagonal states to give an index to a bitboard of the first square attacked. Full and [[Rotated Bitboards|rotated bitboards]] implementation next time. Maybe after an IQ transplant, or to get cheap [[Mobility|mobility]]. Move generation is not a massive drain in my program, so bitboards are more valuable for their other benefits. Search is pretty standard [[Crafty]] type approach. Tried and discarded [[Dark Thought]] type [[Pruning|pruning]]. But will try again after listening to [[Bruce Moreland|Bruce]] on [[CCT3]]. [[Extensions]] as recommended by Bob and limited as recommend by Bruce, although I still have [[Recapture Extensions|recapture extension]] because it seems to help me and do a bit extra for [[Passed Pawn Extensions|passed pawns]]. Tested other and other variations of extensions without much impact. All sorts of daft ideas. [[Transposition Table|Trans/ref hash]] and [[Pawn Hash Table|hashing of basic pawn structure]] elements. [[Nalimov Tablebases|Nalimov EGTBs]] (3 years to generate all 5 man on and off, on a variety of machines. Thanks [[Eugene Nalimov|Eugene]]), primitive [[Book Learning|book learning]] and [[Learning|positional learning]]. The evaluation has become increasingly sophisticated (voluminous anyway) with time. Playing on the [[Chess Server|chess servers]], even for a brief time, has certainly caused me to add stuff.
=Selected Games=
[[CCT4]], round 11, [[Searcher]] - [[Goliath|Goliath-Blitz]] <ref>PGN download from [http://www.vrichey.de/cct4/ CCT4] hosted by [[Volker Richey]]</ref>
<pre>
[Event "CCT4"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2002.01.27"]
[Round "11"]
[White "SearcherX"]
[Black "Goliath-Blitz"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7
8.O-O O-O 9.Be3 Be6 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Bf5 12.f4 e4 13.c3 Re8 14.Nd2
h6 15.Bg4 Qc8 16.Bxf5 Qxf5 17.Qb3 Nd7 18.Qxb7 Reb8 19.Qc6 Rc8 20.Qa4 Nf6
21.Bd4 Nxd5 22.Rae1 Bh4 23.g3 e3 24.Bxe3 Nxe3 25.Rxe3 Bf6 26.Ne4 Be7
27.Nf2 Bf6 28.Rd1 Rab8 29.Re2 Rb6 30.Rdd2 g6 31.Qe4 Qd7 32.Qd5 Bg7 33.Ne4
Rcc6 34.a4 Kh7 35.Rf2 f5 36.Nc5 Qc8 37.Ne6 Rb8 38.Rfe2 Qb7 39.Nxg7 Kxg7
40.Re6 Rf8 41.Rxd6 Qb6+ 42.Kg2 Rxd6 43.Qxd6 Rf6 44.Qxb6 Rxb6 45.b4 Kf6
46.Rd4 Ke6 47.Kf3 Rb7 48.Ke3 Rb8 49.Rc4 Kd6 50.Kd4 h5 51.Rc5 Kd7 52.Ra5
Rb6 53.c4 Rxb4 54.Rxa6 Rb2 55.h4 Ra2 56.Rxg6 Ke7 57.Rg5 Ke6 58.Rxh5 Rxa4
59.Rh6+ Ke7 60.h5 Ra3 61.Rg6 Ra2 1-0
</pre>
=See also=
* [[Various Classifications#Fish|Fish]]
=Forum Posts=
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=171919 CCT3 Day 1 reflections] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 27, 2001 » [[CCT3]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=172027 CCT3 day2] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 28, 2001
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=179706 A fun game between Searcher and PostModernist] by [[Andrew Williams]], [[CCC]], July 14, 2001 » [[PostModernist]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=216120 3 fold repetiton (Seacher v Postmodernist)] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], March 02, 2002 » [[Repetitions]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=317184 Re: Simple questions about bitboards] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 22, 2003 » [[BitScan]]
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=114674&t=13426 Re: Speedup with bitboards on 64-bit CPUs] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], April 28, 2007
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21543 magic move - bitboard orientation] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], June 01, 2008 » [[Magic Bitboards]]
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40448 xboard and engine match using remote machine] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 18, 2011 » [[XBoard]]
=External Links=
* [http://www6.chessclub.com/finger/SearcherX SearcherX] at [[Internet Chess Club|ICC]]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searcher Searcher (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers The Searchers (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers_%28film%29 The Searchers (film) from Wikipedia]
* [[:Category:The Searchers|The Searchers]] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweets_for_My_Sweet Sweets For My Sweet] (1963), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube YouTube] Video
: {{#evu:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLGROTIEXZU|alignment=left|valignment=top}}
=References=
<references />
'''[[Engines|Up one level]]'''
[[Category:WinBoard]]
[[Category:XBoard]]
[[Category:The Searchers]]
[[FILE:Searcher ronquil.jpg|border|right|thumb| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymaster_signatus Searcher (Bathymaster signatus)] <ref>Photo by Jan Haaga, from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Oceanic_and_Atmospheric_Administration NOAA's] [http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/kodiak/photo/fishsearcher.htm Alaska Fisheries Science Center], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathymaster_signatus Bathymaster signatus from Wikipedia]</ref> ]]
'''Searcher''',<br/>
a [[Chess Engine Communication Protocol]] compliant, private <ref>[http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:private_engine_list Private Engine List] from [[Ron Murawski|Ron Murawski's]] [http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=home Computer-Chess Wiki]</ref> chess engine written by [[Frank Phillips]]. It is a [[Bitboards|bitboard]] engine, although it didn't used [[Rotated Bitboards]] for [[Move Generation|move generation]] <ref>[https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=317184 Re: Simple questions about bitboards] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 22, 2003</ref>. In 2008, Frank implemented [[Magic Bitboards]], and started to rewrite and improve his "ancient code" <ref>[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21543 magic move - bitboard orientation] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], June 01, 2008</ref>.
=Tournament Play=
Searcher played four consecutive, strong [[CCT Tournaments]], the [[CCT3]] (5th/32), [[CCT4]] (6th/46), [[CCT5]] (15th/45), and the [[CCT6]] (12th/54).
=Quotes=
[[Frank Phillips]] in his [[CCT3]] report on Searcher <ref>[https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=172027 CCT3 day2] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 28, 2001</ref>:
My chess program (before then there was a knight tour, connect4, [[Othello|simple othello]] and others to learn [[Recursion|recursion]] and [[Search|search]] etc) started as my expanded interpretation of [[TSCP]], helped by articles on the internet (particularly [[Tony Marsland|Marsland's]] excellent summary of the anatomy of a chess program) <ref> [[Tony Marsland]] ('''1995'''). ''[http://ilk.uvt.nl/icga/games/chess/anatomy.php The Anatomy of Chess Programs]''. [http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/full_record.php?iid=doc-431614f6cd6ed 8th World Computer Chess Championship] pp. 4-6, [http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/3-1%20and%203-2%20and%203-3%20and%204-3.1995_WCCC/1995%20WCCC.062303014.sm.pdf pdf] from [[The Computer History Museum]], Courtesy of [[Monroe Newborn]]</ref> and of course by members of [[CCC]] and particulalry [[Robert Hyatt|Bob Hyatt]]. Now its origins are unrecognisable, although [[Mailbox|mailbox]] is still used to precompute [[Table-driven Move Generation|move tables]] - simply because I had already written that code. The last major rewrite, two years or so ago introduced [[Bitboards|bitboards]] (because they looked interesting and Bob is always talking about them) to use mainly in [[Evaluation|evaluation]]. [[Move Generation|Move generation]], [[King Pattern#KingAttacks|king attacks]], is a [[Square Attacked By|square attacked]], [[Static Exchange Evaluation|SEE]] etc is a mixture of bitboards for the easy cases (knights, pawns, king) and offset precomputed arrays for the sliders. Like [[Dan Newman]] (I think), I also use bitboards to screen for _potential_ slider attacks etc to reduce work, but do not precompute the rank, file or diagonal states to give an index to a bitboard of the first square attacked. Full and [[Rotated Bitboards|rotated bitboards]] implementation next time. Maybe after an IQ transplant, or to get cheap [[Mobility|mobility]]. Move generation is not a massive drain in my program, so bitboards are more valuable for their other benefits. Search is pretty standard [[Crafty]] type approach. Tried and discarded [[Dark Thought]] type [[Pruning|pruning]]. But will try again after listening to [[Bruce Moreland|Bruce]] on [[CCT3]]. [[Extensions]] as recommended by Bob and limited as recommend by Bruce, although I still have [[Recapture Extensions|recapture extension]] because it seems to help me and do a bit extra for [[Passed Pawn Extensions|passed pawns]]. Tested other and other variations of extensions without much impact. All sorts of daft ideas. [[Transposition Table|Trans/ref hash]] and [[Pawn Hash Table|hashing of basic pawn structure]] elements. [[Nalimov Tablebases|Nalimov EGTBs]] (3 years to generate all 5 man on and off, on a variety of machines. Thanks [[Eugene Nalimov|Eugene]]), primitive [[Book Learning|book learning]] and [[Learning|positional learning]]. The evaluation has become increasingly sophisticated (voluminous anyway) with time. Playing on the [[Chess Server|chess servers]], even for a brief time, has certainly caused me to add stuff.
=Selected Games=
[[CCT4]], round 11, [[Searcher]] - [[Goliath|Goliath-Blitz]] <ref>PGN download from [http://www.vrichey.de/cct4/ CCT4] hosted by [[Volker Richey]]</ref>
<pre>
[Event "CCT4"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2002.01.27"]
[Round "11"]
[White "SearcherX"]
[Black "Goliath-Blitz"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7
8.O-O O-O 9.Be3 Be6 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Bf5 12.f4 e4 13.c3 Re8 14.Nd2
h6 15.Bg4 Qc8 16.Bxf5 Qxf5 17.Qb3 Nd7 18.Qxb7 Reb8 19.Qc6 Rc8 20.Qa4 Nf6
21.Bd4 Nxd5 22.Rae1 Bh4 23.g3 e3 24.Bxe3 Nxe3 25.Rxe3 Bf6 26.Ne4 Be7
27.Nf2 Bf6 28.Rd1 Rab8 29.Re2 Rb6 30.Rdd2 g6 31.Qe4 Qd7 32.Qd5 Bg7 33.Ne4
Rcc6 34.a4 Kh7 35.Rf2 f5 36.Nc5 Qc8 37.Ne6 Rb8 38.Rfe2 Qb7 39.Nxg7 Kxg7
40.Re6 Rf8 41.Rxd6 Qb6+ 42.Kg2 Rxd6 43.Qxd6 Rf6 44.Qxb6 Rxb6 45.b4 Kf6
46.Rd4 Ke6 47.Kf3 Rb7 48.Ke3 Rb8 49.Rc4 Kd6 50.Kd4 h5 51.Rc5 Kd7 52.Ra5
Rb6 53.c4 Rxb4 54.Rxa6 Rb2 55.h4 Ra2 56.Rxg6 Ke7 57.Rg5 Ke6 58.Rxh5 Rxa4
59.Rh6+ Ke7 60.h5 Ra3 61.Rg6 Ra2 1-0
</pre>
=See also=
* [[Various Classifications#Fish|Fish]]
=Forum Posts=
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=171919 CCT3 Day 1 reflections] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 27, 2001 » [[CCT3]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=172027 CCT3 day2] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], May 28, 2001
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=179706 A fun game between Searcher and PostModernist] by [[Andrew Williams]], [[CCC]], July 14, 2001 » [[PostModernist]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=216120 3 fold repetiton (Seacher v Postmodernist)] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], March 02, 2002 » [[Repetitions]]
* [https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=317184 Re: Simple questions about bitboards] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 22, 2003 » [[BitScan]]
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=114674&t=13426 Re: Speedup with bitboards on 64-bit CPUs] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], April 28, 2007
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21543 magic move - bitboard orientation] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], June 01, 2008 » [[Magic Bitboards]]
* [http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40448 xboard and engine match using remote machine] by [[Frank Phillips]], [[CCC]], September 18, 2011 » [[XBoard]]
=External Links=
* [http://www6.chessclub.com/finger/SearcherX SearcherX] at [[Internet Chess Club|ICC]]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searcher Searcher (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers The Searchers (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers_%28film%29 The Searchers (film) from Wikipedia]
* [[:Category:The Searchers|The Searchers]] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweets_for_My_Sweet Sweets For My Sweet] (1963), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube YouTube] Video
: {{#evu:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLGROTIEXZU|alignment=left|valignment=top}}
=References=
<references />
'''[[Engines|Up one level]]'''
[[Category:WinBoard]]
[[Category:XBoard]]
[[Category:The Searchers]]
