Extracting Information from Endgame Databases¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Nunn, John

Affiliations: London, England

Note: [1] This is a revised version of the paper delivered under the same title on July 1, 1993, at the 7th Conference on Advances in Computer Chess, Maastricht, the Netherlands. It will be published in extended form in the Proceedings of that Conference.

Abstract: The present paper categorizes the uses of endgame databases as tools, stressing their services to human users. A characterization is given of their use for checking and correcting extant endgame theory, for the analysis of over-the-board endings ex post facto, for interactive exploration of endgames to extend theory (where mutual zugzwang positions have a key role), for discovering such general rules as may be of wide though not universal application and, finally, for reducing (simple) positions to a form which a human researcher might memorize. Endgame studies are also discussed as among the results capable of being generated by suitable human exploration of available databases.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1993-16402

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 191-200, 1993