CookieCat

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CookieCat,
an educational open source chess program by Steven Edwards designed for pedagogical purposes, written in Free Pascal [1]. CookieCat evolved from the earlier Bozochess project [2] announced in October 2011 [3], renamed in December 2011 [4], and first released in January 2012 [5] under the permissive BSD License. However, Steven's wish that his CookieCat should be easily searchable on the net without too many false positives didn't fulfill when Steven Universe came up with a fictional character [6] and ice cream [7] in 2013.
Spooky [8]

Description

CookieCat utilizes bitboards as basic data structure to represent the board. Inside CookieCat's source code [9], there are three groups of routines named after some of Steven's feline companions. There are the Lucky positional evaluator routines, the Smokey mate finder routines, and the Spooky general search routines. The names were chosen not so much to be cute, but rather to make it easier for others to identify the program's functional organization [10]. CookieCat features five hash-tables, beside the main transposition table, an endgame tablebase cache, a pawn hash table, evaluation hash table, and a dedicated perft hash table, and can further probe an opening book [11] and Edwards' tablebases.

Bitboard Infrastructure

Bitboards are defined as union (variable structure) of four 16-bit words and one 64 bit value:
    bbtype =
      record
        case Boolean of
          False: (wvec: array [bbwtype] of bbwspantype); { Array of bitboard words }
          True:  (bv64: ui64type)                        { Unsigned 64 bit value }
      end;
Population count and BitScan rely on 16-bit lookups:
  function BbCount(var bb: bbtype): cctype; inline;
    var
      myresult: cctype;
      bbw: bbwtype;
  begin
    with bb do
      begin
        myresult := 0;
        for bbw := bbwmin to bbwmax do
          myresult := myresult + bitcountvec[wvec[bbw]]
      end;
    BbCount := myresult
  end; { BbCount }
 
  function BbFirstSq(var bb: bbtype): sqxtype; inline;
    var
      myresult: sqxtype;
      bbwindex: Integer;
      wordfirstbit: Integer;
  begin
    with bb do
      begin
        myresult := sqnil;
        bbwindex := 0;
        while (myresult = sqnil) and (bbwindex < bbwlen) do
          begin
            wordfirstbit := bitfirstvec[wvec[bbwindex]];
            if wordfirstbit >= 0 then
              myresult := sqxtype(wordfirstbit + (bbwindex * bbwbitlen))
            else
              Inc(bbwindex)
          end
      end;
    BbFirstSq := myresult
  end; { BbFirstSq }

Spooky

CookieCat's search dubbed Spooky is implemented as iterative search using a finite-state machine as nested procedure inside SpookyFindMove, which structure is outlined in following snippet:
  { ***** Spooky search routines ***** }
  procedure SpookyFindMove(var ssc: ssctype);
    procedure SpookyPrepareRoot;
    procedure SpookyIterationSequence;
      procedure SpookyIterate;
        procedure SpookySearch;
          procedure SpookyLimitTestNode;
          procedure SpookyMovePick;
            procedure SpookyOrderMoves;
            procedure SpookyPickThis(index: Integer);
          procedure SpookyMinimax;
        begin  { SpookySearch }
          with ssc do
            while pirvec[ply].nss <> nssexit do
              case pirvec[ply].nss of
                nssplystart:    { Search state: Initialize processing at this node }
                nssfirdrawtest: { Search state: Draw tests for fiftymoves/insufficient/repetition }
                nsstbprobe:     { Search state: Probe the tablebases }
                nssstandtest:   { Search state: Gainer (QSearch ed.) search stand-pat evaluation and test }
                nssgenerate:    { Search state: Move generation }
                nssmovepick:    { Search state: Move pick }
                nssexecute:     { Search state: Execute the move and advance one ply }
                nssretract:     { Search state: Retreat one ply and retract the move }
                nsspostscan:    { Search state: Post move scan operations }
                nssplyfinish:   { Search state: Final processing for this node }
        end;  { SpookySearch }
      end; { SpookyIterate }
    end; { SpookyIterationSequence }
  end; { SpookyFindMove }

Smokey

Smokey is CookieCat's iterative mate finder with nested procedures outlined below:
  { ***** Smokey mate finder routines ***** }
  procedure SmokeyFindMate(var ssc: ssctype; fmvc: Integer);
    procedure SmokeySearch;
      procedure SmokeyApplyKillerBonus;
    begin
      with ssc do
        while pirvec[ply].nss <> nssexit do
          case pirvec[ply].nss of
            nssplystart:
            nsstermtest:
            nssgenerate:
            nssmovepick:
            nssexecute:
            nssretract:
            nsspostscan:
    end; { SmokeySearch }
 end; { SmokeyFindMate }

Lucky

Lucky, CookieCat's evaluation function with evaluation hash table and pawn hash table considers material, pawn structure with focus on passed pawns [12], and piece mobility.

Download

[13]

See also


Forum Posts

2011

2012 ...


External Links


References

  1. ^ Free Pascal wiki
  2. ^ Release date target by Steven Edwards, CCC, October 16, 2011
  3. ^ Announcement: The Bozochess Project by Steven Edwards, CCC, October 05, 2011
  4. ^ The name change by Steven Edwards, CCC, December 16, 2011
  5. ^ CookieCat source via the net by Steven Edwards, CCC, January 26, 2012
  6. ^ Cookie Cat (character) | Steven Universe Wiki
  7. ^ Cookie Cat | Steven Universe Wiki
  8. ^ Image from The first Spooky and the fifth Smokey (April 7, 1935) from The Birth of Smokey Stover - First Puffs (1935), Bill Holman Comics, Copyright, 1935, by Chicago Tribune, New York News Syndicate Inc., supplied by Carl Linich, posted by Paul Tumey, April 24, 2012
  9. ^ Description is based on the source code - CookieCat.pas
  10. ^ CookieCat and Cookie Cat by Steven Edwards, CCC, January 08, 2012
  11. ^ CookieCat's opening book implementation by Steven Edwards, CCC, January 05, 2012
  12. ^ CookieCat's pawn structure code by Steven Edwards, CCC, January 07, 2012
  13. ^ Source code courtesy Steven Edwards
  14. ^ A018214 - OEIS | Alkane (or paraffin) numbers

What links here?

Page Date Edited
BitScan Sep 10, 2017
Bobcat Jun 27, 2017
Chess 0.5 Nov 20, 2016
CookieCat Nov 15, 2016
Endgame Tablebases Mar 6, 2018
Engines Mar 10, 2018
Murka Nov 11, 2016
Myopic Nov 11, 2016
Opening Book Feb 26, 2018
Pascal Nov 28, 2016
Spector Nov 11, 2016
Steven Edwards Aug 26, 2017
Symbolic May 8, 2017
WildCat Nov 11, 2016

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