124 lines
6.3 KiB
Groff
124 lines
6.3 KiB
Groff
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GNU Chess: Experiences Learned
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with Communal Sharing
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by Stuart Cracraft
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(and contributors to the GNU Project)
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Limited sharing has characterized the computer chess community
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for the past two decades. Occasional research articles give hints
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and suggestions for useful features, but rarely reveal the real
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details of the critically important advances. We will here
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describe an effort underway (titled "GNU Chess") to create a more
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open and friendly environment of sharing.
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GNU Chess is part of Project GNU, a large-scale effort in which
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the philosophical goals are far-reaching. We will not go into any
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great depth about these goals as they relate to the larger pro-
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ject, because these are described elsewhere [1]. However, we will
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mention the basic issues and the changes we hope to encourage.
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The start of the GNU Chess project was a natural result of the
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experiences gleaned in writing a chess program. While the author
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was at a progressive academic location [2], he was able to con-
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ceive the idea of a communal chess program only after much heart-
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ache. During the period of writing the initial version (which
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has since undergone many improvements and whole revisions), it
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became clear that the best features and most useful hints, the
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very best of the heuristics, were hidden and difficult to find in
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the literature.
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Sprinkled across many books, research papers, magazine articles,
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accumulated in the community, during the past 25 years, there was
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literally a void of true, empirical programs. Locating usable
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programs was difficult. Many programs were the result of academic
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work in "ivory towers", and hence were inaccessible to the common
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man. Other programs were sequestered in research think-tanks. Na-
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turally, developers of commercial programs carefully guarded
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their source in order to protect their investment. On the other
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hand, a few chess program source listings had actually been pub-
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lished, but these were not really very strong, often written in a
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non-general language, and frequently more pedantic than practi-
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cal.
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The idea of a reasonably strong communal program solidified.
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When we refer to a communal program, we do not regard this as
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public-domain software. Rather, we refer to a program which is
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under the shared authority of a number of individuals, the prin-
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cipal contributors. These individuals have experienced and real-
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ized the positive results of a sharing community and the rapid
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improvements that come through contributing in such a community.
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Further, these individuals devote time and energy to coordinating
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the contributions of other individuals. While they exercise a
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certain editorial right, this is usually not exercised arbitrari-
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ly; instead, a discussion is often undertaken.
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Eventually, a working C program that played chess was available.
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The coordinating institution for Project GNU [3], accepted our
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suggestion of inclusion of a chess program in the GNU distribu-
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tion. Initial distribution of GNU Chess commenced in October of
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1986. Interest in the project increased rapidly.
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Contributions came in from many places and people. Interfaces to
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X-windows and SUN-windows were donated, thus allowing very fancy
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chess fonts on bit-mapped screens. Also, contributions involving
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large portions of opening books such as MCO and collections of
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master games were added to the distribution. Additionally,
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tree-search modifications and heuristics were provided, and occa-
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sionally even entire rewrites.
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The program advanced in strength by several USCF class intervals
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during a period of less than one year. During this time, many
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unusual features and enhancements were added to the program, usu-
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ally under the coordination of two or more people, with one work-
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ing in a distant-advisory capacity to the other. Frequently, gra-
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duate students would give up significant time from their thesis
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work to devote energy to contributing. Their corporate counter-
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parts would often give up project time to make their donation.
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Contributors would often enter the project in a very forceful way
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and then having made their contribution, learn the viability of
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communal sharing once others had stepped in and contributed to
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them, thus providing considerable reinforcement. Frequently, con-
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tributors would then go into "hibernation" for a long period of
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time, but most of them remained open to contributing and were
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helpful when asked to reprogram their particular contribution in
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a more recent version.
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GNU Chess has made great strides in relatively little time. It
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has run on many different hardware architectures and has been
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compiled by a number of C compilers [4]. A sampling of the com-
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puters on which the program has run is: National 32032, Vax
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11/750, 8550, 8600, 8650, Motorola 68020, CCI 5/32, CCI 6/32
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(tahoe), Cray XMP.
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It is our belief that GNU Chess will stimulate graduate research
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in computer chess theory and practice. When students are able to
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easily obtain a state-of-the-art program in order to test out
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their ideas, they will no longer need to reinvent the wheel. The
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students will be able to investigate their research areas much
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more thoroughly, because they will spend more time on the specif-
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ic research areas they are concerned about. Basically, GNU Chess
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"frees up" time in order to get on to more fundamental issues.
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We also feel that as other researchers gain trust in the GNU
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Chess project, they will be more likely to release their results
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directly and rapidly, through journal articles, or directly to
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the GNU project, and in fact become contributors and join the
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present list [5]. At the very least, a communal, ever-growing
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program will encourage the few "closeted" researchers to be some-
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what more open in their approach to disseminating advances.
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In whatever form it takes, the progress toward elaboration of
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machine chess is ongoing, and we hope that GNU chess will be
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helpful to the community. Copies of GNU Chess source and "book",
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as well as additional experimental code are available from the
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Free Software Foundation [3] or the author [6].
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[1] The GNU Manifesto, Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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[2] University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute.
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