5. Game-Playing Subsystem : Summary and Conclusions

 

5.1 Areas Open for Expansion

  All of the most important areas for expansion were mentioned elsewhere in this document: improving the evaluation function, running the search in parallel on multiple machines, and en passant captures.

5.2 Review of Objectives

  To conclude, let's review the project's goals and evaluate whether we've been successful.
  • The system must understand the basic rules of chess.
    Success, expect for certain obscure positions.

  • The system must know when the game is over for wins, losses, and draws.
    Success.

  • The system must always choose moves that will maximize the strength of its own position. This includes finding all checkmate combinations within some pre-specified depth of search.
    Success. Testing of the alpha-beta search shows that all checkmate positions within the search depth

  • The system must choose each move in two minutes or less.
    Success, for most board positions. The most complex and dynamic positions sometimes take considerably longer.
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