An Integrated-Bounds-and-Values (IBV) Numeric Scale for Minimax Searches

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Beal, D.F.^{; *}

Affiliations: London, England

Note: [*] Department of Computer Science, Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK. E-mail: Don.Beal@dcs.qmw.ac.uk.

Abstract: Search procedures generally discover bounds as partial results before a final value is obtained. In particular, chess programs typically store such bounds in a hash table, along with any exact results, for every position processed. These values save computing time if the position is encountered again. For chess programs, upper bounds, lower bounds or exact values may occur. This paper shows how upper bounds, lower bounds and exact values can conveniently be represented using a single numeric scale, which enables program code to be slightly simpler, and avoids the necessity of a separate data item to distinguish bounds from exact values.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1995-18203

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 77-81, 1995