After an 8 year break..

[silentshark]

I have been doing some tinkering with my old chess program, Francesca.

Think I might release a new version, soon. Stuff I've been doing:

- fixed a *horrible* bug in the SEE (meant that SEE was completely broken..)
- minor fix to eval for queens and rooks - relating to king proximity
- more aggressive pruning. This is the stuff that people call 'static null move pruning' these days, but has been around forever.
- lmp implemented (although I'm not happy with it yet)
- draw code improved
- PVS finally implemented

Hello to all the old-timer computer chess folks who are still around and involved

Regards,
Tom

[Guenther]

I have been doing some tinkering with my old chess program, Francesca.

Think I might release a new version, soon. Stuff I've been doing:

- fixed a *horrible* bug in the SEE (meant that SEE was completely broken..)
- minor fix to eval for queens and rooks - relating to king proximity
- more aggressive pruning. This is the stuff that people call 'static null move pruning' these days, but has been around forever.
- lmp implemented (although I'm not happy with it yet)
- draw code improved
- PVS finally implemented

Hello to all the old-timer computer chess folks who are still around and involved

Regards,
Tom

Great news Tom! Still 'MAD' after all those years?

[silentshark]

Well, I came up with the 'MAD' acronym waaaay back, as a tip of the hat to doing something dynamic in the eval function (prior to that, back in the 1990's, everything was basically PST values).

When I added some dynamic king safety, it felt like a big deal (at the time). So I came up with MAD (manic, aggressive, dynamic). That king safety stuff is tuned back a bit these days, as it was fun, but weak.

[Werner]

Welcome back Tom!

Version 0.19 was the strongest version tested here:
Francesca MAD 0.19 2381

good luck and all the best for 2019

[Gabor Szots]

That's great news Tom. Francesca may be 8 years older but so are we so she doesn't have to worry.

[Steve Maughan]

Hi Tom,

Welcome back! Looking forward to testing your new creation!

Steve

[silentshark]

That's great news Tom. Francesca may be 8 years older but so are we so she doesn't have to worry.

Indeed. In fact, Francesca must be about 28 years old now

[silentshark]

Hi Tom,

Welcome back! Looking forward to testing your new creation!

Steve

Thanks, Steve, hopefully release the new version soon. It's showing as over 60 elo up on the last version - the bugfixes gave quite a lot of that

[Graham Banks]

I have been doing some tinkering with my old chess program, Francesca.

Think I might release a new version, soon. Stuff I've been doing:

- fixed a *horrible* bug in the SEE (meant that SEE was completely broken..)
- minor fix to eval for queens and rooks - relating to king proximity
- more aggressive pruning. This is the stuff that people call 'static null move pruning' these days, but has been around forever.
- lmp implemented (although I'm not happy with it yet)
- draw code improved
- PVS finally implemented

Hello to all the old-timer computer chess folks who are still around and involved

Regards,
Tom

Fantastic news Tom!
Looking forward to including a new Francesca in my Amateur Series.

[Dann Corbit]

Good news
Looking forward to the new version