Shura-Bura's Program

Home * Engines * Shura-Bura's Program

Shura-Bura's Program,
an early Soviet chess program supposedly developed by a group of scientists at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics headed by Mikhail R. Shura-Bura. A brief description of the program was given in an interview with Shura-Bura on computer chess by V. Tomanov, published as part in the 8th Bulletin of the Botvinnik Tal 1961 revenge-match for the world chess championship - entitled "The best move in 58 seconds", cited in Jaap van den Herik's Ph.D. thesis Computerschaak, Schaakwereld en Kunstmatige Intelligentie . Further, two games of the program were published. However, it seems, the program mentioned by Shura-Bura was not his own program, but a forerunner of the ITEP Chess Program developed by Georgy Adelson-Velsky et al., also due to Shura-Bura's quote, not mentioning his own chess program, and more recently, suggested by Sergei S. Markoff .

Description

The program is reported without any search to select the best move with the help of a static evaluation function, which had seven distinct components:

1. Material (Pawn 1; Knight, Bishop 3.5; Rook 5; Queen 9.5; King 109)
2. Mobility
3. Static Exchange Evaluation
4. Pawn Structure
5. Center Control
6. King Safety - Patterns
7. King Safety - Pawn Shield

See also

• ITEP Chess Program

Publications

• V. Tomanov (1961). The best move in 58 seconds. in the 8th Bulletin of the Botvinnik Tal 1961 revenge-match (Russian)
• Jaap van den Herik (1983). Computerschaak, Schaakwereld en Kunstmatige Intelligentie. Ph.D. thesis, Delft University of Technology. Academic Service, The Hague. ISBN 90 62 33 093 2 (Dutch), 2.2.9. Sjoera-Boera

Forum Posts

• Re: The mystery of Alex Bernstein by Sergei S. Markoff, CCC, June 08, 2019 » Alex Bernstein

External Links

• Schachcomputer - Geschichte - 6 by Karsten Bauermeister (German)
• Computerschach - ein Überblick von Mathias Grontzki (German)

References

Up one level