Introduction | p. 5 |
Why Games and Why Chess? | p. 7 |
Game Characteristics | p. 7 |
The Suitability of Chess | p. 7 |
Checkers | p. 8 |
Go | p. 8 |
Chosen Game | p. 9 |
A Brief History of Computer Chess | p. 10 |
Machack | p. 10 |
Chess 3.0 | p. 11 |
Cray Blitz | p. 12 |
Belle | p. 12 |
Hitech | p. 13 |
The 'Deep' Range | p. 13 |
How Computers Play Chess | p. 15 |
Machine Representation of the Chess Board | p. 15 |
The Move Generator | p. 15 |
Evaluation | p. 16 |
Piece Ratio Exchange | p. 17 |
Search | p. 17 |
Pruning the Search | p. 18 |
Horizon effect | p. 18 |
Techniques for Improving search | p. 18 |
Opening Books | p. 19 |
Endgame database | p. 19 |
Killer Moves | p. 19 |
Transposition Tables | p. 20 |
Human Chess Playing Methods | p. 21 |
Perception | p. 21 |
Chunks | p. 22 |
Contrasting Human and Computer Methods | p. 23 |
Principles of Beauty | p. 25 |
Successfully Violate Heuristics | p. 25 |
Use the Weakest Possible Piece | p. 26 |
Use All of the Piece's Power | p. 26 |
Give More Aesthetic Weight to the Critical Pieces | p. 27 |
Use One Giant Piece in Place of Several Minor Pieces | p. 28 |
Employ Themes | p. 28 |
Avoid Bland Stereotopy | p. 29 |
Neither Strangeness nor difficulty produce beauty | p. 30 |
A Discussion of Margulies' Paper | p. 31 |
Applying Margulies Principles to Chess Puzzles | p. 32 |
Accepted Principles | p. 32 |
Rejected Principles | p. 33 |
All Pieces | p. 34 |
Implementing Heuristics in Chess | p. 35 |
Standard Heuristics | p. 35 |
Beauty Heuristics | p. 36 |
The Program | p. 37 |
Object Orientated Design | p. 37 |
Output data | p. 38 |
Favoured Moves and the '[lambda]' Parameter | p. 39 |
Improved Results from 'Favoured Moves' | p. 40 |
Testing | p. 40 |
Complexity in Mating Problems | p. 41 |
Source of Test Data | p. 41 |
Method of Testing | p. 42 |
Standard Deviation | p. 43 |
Results | p. 44 |
Results for twenty two puzzlies | p. 45 |
Chosen Problems | p. 47 |
Mate in 2 problems | p. 48 |
Mate in 3 problems | p. 49 |
Two extra Mate in 4 and 5 problems | p. 50 |
Results for Twenty two problems (with 'Favoured Moves') | p. 52 |
Chosen Problems (with 'Favoured Moves') | p. 54 |
Mate in 2 problems (with 'Favoured Moves') | p. 55 |
Mate in 3 problems (with 'Favoured Moves') | p. 56 |
Two extra Mate in 4 and 5 problems (with 'Favoured Moves') | p. 57 |
Factors Arrising From the Results | p. 58 |
Complexity | p. 58 |
Performance of Individual Heuristics | p. 60 |
Aggression | p. 61 |
Conclusion | p. 62 |
Bibliography | p. 64 |
The Chess Board | p. 69 |
Computer Representation | p. 71 |
Heuristics | p. 73 |
Sample Text Output | p. 76 |
Summary Tables | p. 80 |
All the Puzzles in Detail | p. 83 |
Tables of Results | p. 108 |
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |

Beautiful Mates : Applying Principles of Beauty to Computer Chess Heuristics
by Walls, Ben P.-
Free Shipping on All Orders!
*excludes Marketplace items.
Buy New
Rent Textbook
Used Textbook
We're Sorry
Sold Out
eTextbook
We're Sorry
Not Available
How Marketplace Works:
- This item is offered by an independent seller and not shipped from our warehouse
- Item details like edition and cover design may differ from our description; see seller's comments before ordering.
- Sellers much confirm and ship within two business days; otherwise, the order will be cancelled and refunded.
- Marketplace purchases cannot be returned to eCampus.com. Contact the seller directly for inquiries; if no response within two days, contact customer service.
- Additional shipping costs apply to Marketplace purchases. Review shipping costs at checkout.
Table of Contents
An electronic version of this book is available through VitalSource.
This book is viewable on PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and most smartphones.
By purchasing, you will be able to view this book online, as well as download it, for the chosen number of days.
Digital License
You are licensing a digital product for a set duration. Durations are set forth in the product description, with "Lifetime" typically meaning five (5) years of online access and permanent download to a supported device. All licenses are non-transferable.
More details can be found here.
A downloadable version of this book is available through the eCampus Reader or compatible Adobe readers.
Applications are available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Windows Mobile platforms.
Please view the compatibility matrix prior to purchase.