The American Checker Federation

hi ed, thanks for an interesting position. i'm not so sure about the 10pc db and 4 hours - i will see in a few months when i finally have the database and 10-piece-cake :-) but of course that's not really the point - and i'm not discounting humans at all - all i was saying is that the programs are v...

The simple fact is, they will not allow a person to have his entire library to be able to look up his moves in his books. He can't even use his own manuscript as an aid in a tournament game. The computers cannot play at the master level without using their opening and engame "books". I do...

Murray was alive and well in march of this year - I exchanged a couple of emails with him. He said he was still working on Nemesis 2.

cheers
Martin

Aloha! I don't think I agree with anything at all written about computer programs in this thread Jim, I wonder: what kind of computer and what kind of program are you using? Cake Manchester with 8pc db on my Core Duo laptop says: depth 1/4/1.8 time 0.00s value=10 nodes 23 2kN/s db 0% pv 11-16 20x11 ...

mday wrote:Instead of ranking programs, the forum should rank players.

Why not do both? Ranking programs is just much easier

cheers
Martin

I go to the Database menu on Checkerboard to build the 6pc DB. A window opens for a moment to, what it seems. would be used to build the DB - but he closes in less than a second. Does this mean anything? Yes, that means it isn't working! Also, on the bottom on CB, it says "There is enough free...

Unfortunately it's true, CB crashes with the 7-piece database if the 5- and 6-piece database are not present. I'll have to add a warning to only use the 7pc db if the 5- and 6-piece databases have been generated.

cheers
Martin

Aloha!

There are two new downloads on my checkers website: An improved opening book for Cake, and the 7-piece endgame database.

The 8-piece database will follow, but I have to put up the downloads one by one to make sure I'm not going to exceed my bandwidth limitations.

cheers
Martin

The problem with Chinook is that it has retained its name throughout - while evolving very significantly. The first versions of Chinook were good, but nowhere near the best humans (I'll call this "Early Chinook"). Then came 8-piece databases and Martin Bryant's Colossus opening book, and s...

Hi Ryan, However, I have concluded (since I do talk with other checkers players about this), that IF Chinook were a "commercial" program, it would be the superior (and the favorite) program by far. this is totally wrong. I have no idea what you - and other checkers players - do to conclude...

It is just like cycling the Tour de France with a motor bike. Hi Ingo, that is not true at all. It is more like building a motor bike and then competing in the Tour de France! Of course, nobody is suprised that these openings are draws. The whole excercise is about proving that the game of checkers...

Hi Lindus, let me put this in perspective - my perspective, of course In 2002, Nemesis won the computer world championship in Las Vegas. It won by a very narrow margin, finishing +1=47, Kingsrow finished +1-1=46, and Cake finished +1-2=45. All programs were using the 8-piece endgame database, and bi...

Two years ago I entered the Welsh Postal Championship naively believing that I was certain to win it being in possession of several powerful computers loaded with the greatest programs in the world. On the 10-14, 22-18, 12-16 against George Miller I used a program (still rated as the best in the wo...

Hi Jason, thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear it really works As for windows-64-bit - I am waiting for a stable release too. As a student, I still had enough time to waste to install all kinds of unstable and useless OSes (like OS/2, for example), just to see if it worked. Now, all I want is som...

Aloha!

I put up the OCA for download from my checkers website. I hope Hans won't mind that I'm mirroring it until he solves his hosting problems.

cheers
Martin