Better algorithms and Evaluation function

 

11 Oct 2022

long time no see

3 am

• well, there's a lot of small and big changes. i'll try to explain by checking the diff.
• AI part:
  • replaced minimax with alpha-beta (similar to negamax version)
  • TODO: implement quiescence search
  • added piece-square table scoring in eval function
  • reduced branching in code
• move generation part:
  • bugfix: moves like e1c1 were always interpreted as castling, fixed
  • changed board representation from string to char[64]
  • now king positions are incrementally saved, so faster to find kings
  • several optimizations in move generation
• general:
  • now engine trys to avoid moves leading to repetitions (but it is not always optimal, so should do something better)
  • fixed several gui bugs in promotion and flipping
  • gui supports (some) premoves
  • fixed some bugs in move hints, still some remaining ig
  • faster makefile
• BIGGEST UPDATES:
  • uci protocol working!
  • made a lichess bot running this engine!