Tong Kwong-Bun. / Thesis submitted in: December 2002. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-[80]). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- An Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Tree Search --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Minimax Algorithm --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- The Alpha-Beta Algorithm --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Alpha-Beta Enhancements --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- Selective Search --- p.9 / Chapter 1.3 --- Construction of Evaluation Function --- p.16 / Chapter 1.4 --- Contribution of the Thesis --- p.17 / Chapter 1.5 --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.19 / Chapter 2 --- The Probabilistic Forward Pruning Framework --- p.20 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Generalized Probabilistic Forward Cuts Heuristic --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3 --- The GPC Framework --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Alpha-Beta Algorithm --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The NegaScout Algorithm --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- The Memory-enhanced Test Algorithm --- p.27 / Chapter 2.4 --- Summary --- p.27 / Chapter 3 --- The Fast Probabilistic Forward Pruning Framework --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Fast GPC Heuristic --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Alpha-Beta algorithm --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The NegaScout algorithm --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- The Memory-enhanced Test algorithm --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Determination of the Parameters --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Result of Experiments --- p.38 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.42 / Chapter 4 --- The Node-Cutting Heuristic --- p.43 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2 --- Move Ordering --- p.43 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Quality of Move Ordering --- p.44 / Chapter 4.3 --- Node-Cutting Heuristic --- p.46 / Chapter 4.4 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Determination of the Parameters --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Result of Experiments --- p.50 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.55 / Chapter 5 --- The Integrated Strategy --- p.56 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.56 / Chapter 5.2 --- "Combination of GPC, FGPC and Node-Cutting Heuristic" --- p.56 / Chapter 5.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.58 / Chapter 5.4 --- Summary --- p.63 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusions and Future Works --- p.64 / Chapter 6.1 --- Conclusions --- p.64 / Chapter 6.2 --- Future Works --- p.65 / Chapter A --- Examples --- p.67 / Chapter B --- The Rules of Chinese Checkers --- p.73 / Chapter C --- Application to Chinese Checkers --- p.75 / Bibliography --- p.77

Acredita-se que a polaridade do jogo de xadrez encontra-se enraizada na matéria ficcional de Guimarães Rosa sob matizes diversificados, desdobrando-se em outros jogos, como o do olhar, que delineia, por sua vez, interesses variados, relacionados ao amor, à sedução, ao erotismo, ao interesse político e ao interesse privado, sendo o jogo da linguagem aquele que alicerça a todos. A análise desse discurso ideológico priorizou dois contos de momentos enunciativos distintos (1946 e 1956, respectivamente) na produção rosiana, justamente para tentar aclarar a perspectiva enxadrística de uma maneira mais enfática em um, e mais subjacente em outro: Minha gente e Buriti. No tabuleiro destas duas estórias, o viés mítico, atado ao feminino, e o psicanalítico freudiano, em especial, aparecem, quando convocados pelo texto literário, para embasar a análise. / It is believed that the polarity of a game of chess is embedded in the fictional work of Guimarães Rosa under varied hues, unfolding in other games, as the eye that outlines, in turn, varied interests, related, for example, to love, to seduction, to eroticism, to the political interest, to the private interest, while the game of the language underpins all of them. The analysis of the mechanisms of this discourse of aesthetic and ideological implications prioritized two tales of distinct moments (1946 and 1956 respectively) in Rosa\'s production, in order to clarify the white side and the black side from the dynamic of a game of chess: Minha genteand Buriti. In the board of these two stories, the mythical bias, attached to the female, and in special the Freudian psychoanalytic appear, when convened by the literary text, to support the analysis.

The Queen’s domination problem has a long and rich history. The problem can be simply stated as: What is the minimum number of queens that can be placed on a chessboard so that all squares are attacked or occupied by a queen? The problem has been expanded to include not only the standard 8x8 board, but any rectangular m×n sized board. In this thesis, we consider both paired and total domination versions of this renowned problem.

An influential theory of chess skill holds that expertise in chess is not due to greater depth of search by experts but, rather, to the ability to recognize familiar patterns of pieces. Although there is evidence that experts search deeper than non-experts, the data are not consistent. In this thesis, I propose “key-position theory” which states that only in a small number of key positions is it necessary to search deeply and it is these positions that experts search deeper than non-experts. Study 1 found, consistent with key-position theory, that the distribution of moves times is extremely skewed with some moves taking much longer than others. This pattern was more pronounced for the stronger players. Study 2 found that the errors made by weaker players involved less search than the errors made by stronger players. These findings suggest that search is an important component of chess expertise.

Manqala games are played in large parts of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, South-America and some parts of Europe. Bao is the variation which is found on the East African coast, and only in the Swahili speaking areas. Ways of playing Bao though differ along the coast, and de Voogt focused his research on the sophisticated variant of Zanzibar. The author deals with this Zanzibar variation of Bao in analogy to chess. The first aim of his research project was to find out what distinguishes a master of Bao from an ordinary player. Psychological methods, derived from the study of chess playing are his main methodological instruments, which make the book a remarkable study in the psychology of players, and the role of memory and calculation. His second aim is to introduce Bao to the field of computer games, comparable to computer-based chess.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed November 17, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is concerned with the validation of chess endgame strategies. It is also concerned with the synthesis of strategies that can be validated. A strategy for a given player is the specification of the move to be made by that player from any position that may occur. This move may be dependent on the previous moves of both sides. A strategy is said to be correct if following the strategy always leads to an outcome of at least the same game theoretic value as the starting position. We are not concerned with proving the correctness of programs that implement the strategies under consideration. We shall be working with knowledge-based programs which produce playing strategies, and assume that their concrete implementations (in POP2, PROLOG etc.) are correct. The synthesis approach taken attempts to use the large body of heuristic knowledge and theory, accumulated over the centuries by chessmasters, to find playing strategies. Our concern here is to produce structures for representing a chessmaster's knowledge wnich can be analysed within a game theoretic model. The validation approach taken is that a theory of the domain in the form of the game theoretic model of chess provides an objective measure of the strategy followed by a program. Our concern here is to analyse the structures created in the synthesis phase. This is an instance of a general problem, that of quantifying the performance of computing systems. In general to quantify the performance of a system we need,- A theory of the domain. - A specification of the problem to be solved. - Algorithms and/or domain-specific knowledge to be applied to solve the problem.

The eye movements of expert and novice chess players were recorded by electrooculography (EOG) technique as they attempted to find the mate in fifteen tactically active simple chess positions. In the analysis part of the data gathered from EOG recordings, the effect of the drift, which is an important problem for EOG, was reduced. The processed data were converted into coordinates of the display on which the chess positions were demonstrated. In the test phase, the players were asked to fixate the white king which appeared on a different square on an empty chess board for one second. It was predicted on which square the subject fixated by the method developed. The predictions and the actual location of the white king were compared and the results revealed that EOG technique can be used reliably to track the eye movements of the chess players while they fixated on a chess board. It has been revealed that experts produced more fixations on the relevant squares than did the novices as the fixations were investigated. The difference between fixation duration was not significant across skill groups. The results provide evidence for an early perceptual encoding advantage for expert players attributable to chess experience.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, August 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Η συγκεκριμένη διπλωματική εργασία διαπραγματεύεται τη συμπίεση των βάσεων του Nalimov με μεθόδους data mining. Είναι βάσεις σκακιστικών φινάλε, οι οποίες παρέχουν πληροφορίες, ανάλογα με την τοποθέτηση των κομματιών για το ποιος νικάει κάθε φορά σε ένα φινάλε τριών ή περισσοτέρων κομματιών συμπεριλαμβανομένων και των δύο βασιλιάδων. Η προσπάθεια γίνεται με το έτοιμο πρόγραμμα Weka, το οποίο διατίθεται δωρεάν στο internet και προσφέρεται για εφαρμογές του data mining. Η συμπίεση προσφέρει ευελιξία στην αποθήκευση, ίσως και κατανόηση από τον άνθρωπο, όπως πάντα γίνεται στο data mining. Αρχικά, μελετήθηκε το φινάλε με βασιλιά και ένα πιόνι εναντίον του μαύρου βασιλιά. Έγινε μελέτη από διάφορες πλευρές και με διαφορετικά χαρακτηριστικά (attributes) που ορίζονται από το χρήστη και αποσκοπούν στην καλή εκπαίδευση ενός ταξινομητή, ο οποίος λέει ποιος νικάει ή αν έχουμε ισοπαλία. Ενδιαφέρουσα ήταν και η προσπάθεια για αύξηση της απόδοσης ώστε να πλησιάσει κατά το δυνατόν το 100% στο συγκεκριμένο φινάλε, άλλοτε με ανάθεση μεγαλύτερης προσπάθειας στον υπολογιστή και άλλοτε καθαρά από τον ανθρώπινο παράγοντα, με διόρθωση λαθών και επανεπισκόπηση των χαρακτηριστικών για τη δημιουργία καταλληλοτέρων δεδομένων. Ακολούθως, μελετήθηκαν τα φινάλε με βασίλισσα ή πύργο αντί για πιόνι και γίνονταν σχόλια σε καίρια σημεία. Τέλος, η μελέτη επεκτάθηκε και σε φινάλε τεσσάρων κομματιών, όπου είχαμε την ευκαιρία να δούμε τα φινάλε KBBK και KRKN, τα οποία παρουσιάζουν ενδιαφέρον, καθώς αυξάνονται οι υπολογιστικές απαιτήσεις. / This diploma dissertation deals with the compression of the Nalimov bases using methods of data mining. They are chess endgame databases, which provide information, depending on the placement of the men, about who wins in an endgame of three or more pieces, including the two kings. The work was made by means of the open-software program Weka, which is available free on the internet and is ideal for applications of data mining. This compression aims to provide flexibility in storage and perhaps understanding by the users, as is always the case in data mining. At first, the endgame with one king and a pawn vs the black king was studied. A study was done from different perspectives and with quite different characteristics (attributes), which are specified by the user and designed in order that a good classifier should be trained, a classifier that should finally say who wins or if it is a tie. Also, something interesting that was done was an attempt to increase efficiency to close as possible to 100% in this endgame, sometimes shifting the whole work to the computer and sometimes mainly by the human factor. Of course, the latter was managed by correcting errors and reconsidering the attributes for creating the most appropriate data possible. Then, we studied the endgames with a queen and then, with a rook instead of a pawn, with comments made at key points. Finally, the study was expanded to endgames with four men, where we had the opportunity to see the endgames KBBK and KRKN, which are interesting as the computational requirements increase.