Home * People * Robert Hyatt

		Robert Morgan (Bob) Hyatt, an American computer scientist, computer chess researcher, chess programmer, acknowledged computer chess authority, and associate professor at Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, since September 2016 officially retired from UAB [1] . Bob Hyatt is one of the most active researchers in computer chess, being involved from 1968 until the present. He holds a Master of Science from University of Southern Mississippi in 1983 with a thesis on Cray Blitz [2] , and a Ph.D. from UAB in 1988 on the topic of parallel search [3] . His engine Crafty was the strongest open source engine for many years in the 90's and early 00's. He was primary author of Blitz and Cray Blitz, the two-time winner of the World Computer Chess Championship, the WCCC 1983 and the WCCC 1986. Beside research and publications on parallel search, transposition table, time management and book learning, Bob is inventor of rotated bitboards. He is active poster in Computer Chess Forums, served as moderator of CCC, and as member of the Secretariat of ICGA Investigations.
Bob Hyatt [4]

Photos & Games

WCCC 1983

Harry Nelson, Robert Hyatt and Don Beal, Cray Blitz vs BCP, WCCC 1983 [5]

[Event "WCCC 1983"]
[Site "New York, USA"]
[Date "1983.10.22"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Cray Blitz"]
[Black "BCP"]
[Result "1-0"]
 
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nxd5 exd5 6. d4 Nc6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qxd5 Qb6
9. Qd2 O-O 10. Bc4 Re8 11. O-O Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Rxe5 13. Qf4 Qf6 14. Qxf6 gxf6 15. Kh1 d5
16. f4 Rh5 17. Be2 Rh4 18. Bf3 d4 19. g3 Rh3 20. f5 Kg7 21. Kg2 Rh6 22. Bxh6+ Kxh6 23. Bd5
Kg7 24. Rad1 a5 25. Kh1 Ra6 26. Be4 b5 27. Rfe1 Bd7 28. Rd2 Bc6 29. Bxc6 Rxc6 30. Re8 Bb6
31. Rb8 b4 32. Rb7 Kf8 33. Re2 Bc7 34. g4 Rc5 35. Ra7 Bb6 36. Ra6 Rc6 37. Rd2 Rd6 38. Rd3 Kg7
39. c3 Kg8 40. a4 Kg7 41. cxb4 axb4 42. a5 Bc5 43. Rxd6 Bxd6 44. Rxd4 Bc5 45. Rd5 Be3 46. Rd3
Bc5 47. Rd7 Be3 48. a6 h5 49. gxh5 Kf8 50. Rd3 Bc5 51. Rg3 Ke8 52. h6 Bd6 53. a7 Ke7 54. Rd3
Bc7 55. a8=Q Bd6 56. h7 b3 57. Qb7+ Ke8 58. h8=Q+ Bf8 59. Qe4# 1-0

ACM 1988

Nelson, Hyatt, Weiner at the ACM 1988 [6]

[Event "ACM 1988"]
[Site "Orlando USA"]
[Date "1988.11.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Mephisto"]
[Black "Cray Blitz"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
 
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 3.c4 e6 4.Qb3 b6 5.Nc3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 Nf6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.e3 Nbd7 9.Qc6 Bb4
10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Rc1 a6 12.Be2 Ra7 13.Nh4 Bxc3+ 14.Rxc3 Bb1 15.Qa4 Be4 16.O-O Qb8 17.Rfc1
b5 18.Qa5 Nb6 19.f3 Bd5 20.b3 Ba8 21.Rc5 f5 22.g3 Nd5 23.e4 fxe4 24.fxe4 Ne7 25.Bf3 O-O
26.Rg5+ Ng6 27.Rcc5 Rd8 28.Qc3 Qb6 29.Rg4 Rd7 30.Bg2 Bb7 31.Nf3 Ra8 32.Ne5 Rd6 33.Qe3 Kf8
34.Nf3 Ke8 35.e5 Rd7 36.Ng5 Bxg2 37.Kxg2 h5 38.Re4 Qb7 39.Qf3 Rad8 40.Qf2 Re7 41.Kg1 Red7
42.Rc1 Re7 43.Rf1 a5 44.Qf6 Qb6 45.Rd1 Qc6 46.Re2 Qc3 47.Nxf7 Rxd4 48.Rf1 Qd3 49.Ref2 h4
50.Rf3 Qc2 51.R1f2 Qc1+ 52.Kg2 hxg3 53.hxg3 Qb1 54.Nh8 Nxh8 55.Qxh8+ Kd7 56.Rf7 Qe4+
57.Kh2 Rxf7 58.Rxf7+ Kc6 59.Qe8+ Kb6 60.Qb8+ Qb7 61.Qxb7+ Kxb7 62.Kg2 Rd5 63.g4 Rxe5
64.Kf3 Re1 65.Rf4 1/2-1/2

Photos

ACM 1982

Ben Mittman, Monroe Newborn, Ken Thompson and Robert Hyatt, ACM 1982 [7]

London 1984

David Levy and Robert Hyatt, Advances in Computer Chess 4, London 1984 [8]

ACCA 2007

James Swafford, Charles Roberson, Bob and Brian Richardson watching ACCA 2007 [9]

Selected Publications

^{[10] [11]}

1980 ...

• Robert Hyatt (1980). A Southern Blitz. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 93 » Blitz
• Robert Hyatt (1981). The Cray-1 Plays Chess (Part 1). Personal Computing, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 83
• Robert Hyatt (1981). The Cray-1 Plays Chess (Part 2). Personal Computing, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 95 » Cray Blitz, Cray-1
• Robert Hyatt (1981). Checkmate: The Cray-1 Plays Chess. Part 1. Cray Channels, Vol. 3, No. 1. pdf from The Computer History Museum
• Robert Hyatt (1981). Checkmate: The Cray-1 Plays Chess. Part 2. Cray Channels, Vol. 3, No. 2. pdf from The Computer History Museum
• Robert Hyatt (1981). A Table-Driven Hashing Algorithm. Proceedings of ACM SE Regional Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Robert Hyatt (1983). Cray Blitz - A Computer Chess Playing Program. Master's Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi
• Robert Hyatt (1984). Using Time Wisely. ICCA Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1
• Robert Hyatt (1984). Cray Blitz versus David Levy. ICCA Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2

1985 ...

• Robert Hyatt, Albert Gower, Harry Nelson (1985). Cray Blitz. Advances in Computer Chess 4
• Robert Hyatt (1985). Parallel Chess on the Cray X-MP/48. ICCA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2
• Robert Hyatt, Albert Gower, Harry Nelson. (1985). Using Time Wisely, revisited (extended abstract). Proceedings of the 1985 ACM annual conference on The range of computing: mid-80's perspective, p. 271, Denver, Colorado. ISBN 0-89791-170-9.
• Robert Hyatt, Harry Nelson, Albert Gower (1986). Cray Blitz - 1984 Chess Champion. Telematics and Informatics Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 299-305. Pergammon Press Ltd.
• Robert Hyatt (1988). A High-Performance Parallel Algorithm to Search Depth-First Game Trees. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Harry Nelson, Robert Hyatt (1988). The Draw Heuristic of Cray Blitz. ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1
• Robert Hyatt, Bruce W. Suter, Harry Nelson (1989). A Parallel Alpha-Beta Tree Searching Algorithm. Parallel Computing, Vol. 10, No. 3.

1990 ...

• Robert Hyatt, Albert Gower, Harry Nelson (1990). Cray Blitz. Computers, Chess, and Cognition
• Robert Hyatt, Harry Nelson (1990). Chess and supercomputers: details about optimizing Cray Blitz. Supercomputing '90, pdf
• Robert Hyatt (1994). The DTS high-performance parallel tree search algorithm.

1995 ...

• Robert Hyatt (1995). Still more Fritz vs. Deep Blue: Opening Book vs, Opening Book. Computer Chess Reports Vol. 5 No. 2 pp. 22, WCCC 1995
• Robert Hyatt (1995). The 8th WCCC - A Perspective. Computer Chess Reports Vol. 5 No. 3+4 pp. 21
• Robert Hyatt (1997). The Dynamic Tree-Splitting Parallel Search Algorithm. ICCA Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1
• Robert Hyatt, Monroe Newborn (1997). CRAFTY Goes Deep. ICCA Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2
• Robert Hyatt (1999). Book Learning - a Methodology to Tune an Opening Book Automatically. ICCA Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1
• Robert Hyatt (1999). Rotated Bitmaps, a New Twist on an Old Idea. ICCA Journal, Vol. 22, No. 4

2000 ...

• Aubrey E. Hill, Warren T. Jones, Robert Hyatt, J. Michael Hardin (2001). Parallel Automated Knowledge Acquisition of Case-Based Semantic Networks from Relational Databases. Journal of Systems Integration, Vol. 10, No. 4
• Robert Hyatt, Tim Mann (2002). A lock-less transposition table implementation for parallel search chess engines. ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 » Lock-less Hashing
• Yibing Wang, Robert Hyatt (2002). A Distributed Task Scheduler for Cluster Computing. PDPTA'02
• Robert Hyatt, Anthony Cozzie (2005). The Effect of Hash Signature Collisions in a Chess Program. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 » Key Collisions

2010 ...

• Robert Hyatt (2014). A Solution to Short PVs Caused by Exact Hash Matches. ICGA Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3 » Transposition Table, Separate TT for the PV
• Monroe Newborn, Robert Hyatt (2014). Computer Chess Endgame Play with Pawns: Then and Now. ICGA Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4 » Peasant, Crafty

Forum Posts

1993 ...

• Cray Blitz Evaluation by Robert Hyatt, rgc, March 05, 1993 » Cray Blitz, Evaluation
• bitboard move generation by Robert Hyatt, rgc, October 25, 1994 » Bitboards
• bitboard position evaluations by Robert Hyatt, rgc, November 17, 1994 » Bitboards, Evaluation

1995 ...

• Rotated bitboards - experiment and result by Robert Hyatt, rgcc, February 28, 1996 » Rotated Bitboards
• "How to write a computer chess program" by Robert Hyatt, rgcc, April 04, 1996
• auto232 help needed by Robert Hyatt, rgcc, March 3, 1997
• computer chess "oracle" ideas... by Robert Hyatt, rgcc, April 1, 1997 » Oracle
• Re: New(?) search idea by Robert Hyatt, CCC, January 22, 1998 » Minimax Wall

2000 ...

• Re: ICC Connection Closings ??? by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 23, 2002
• Re: BitBoard Tests Magic v Non-Rotated 32 Bits v 64 Bits by Robert Hyatt, CCC, August 25, 2007 » Magic Bitboards
• Re: Lemming Poll by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 22, 2008 » Tapered Eval, LearningLemming
• copy/make vs make/unmake test results by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 19, 2009 » Unmake Move vs. Copy-Make

2010 ...

• Re: Full Principal Variation Retrieval by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 07, 2010 » Separate TT for the PV
• Final results - Crafty - hardware vs software by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 13, 2010
• hardware doubling number for Crafty by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 15, 2010
• working! by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 17, 2010 » Separate TT for the PV
• search extensions by Robert Hyatt, CCC, November 08, 2014 » Extensions, Singular Extensions

2015 ...

• parallel speedup and assorted trivia by Robert Hyatt, CCC, June 05, 2015 » Crafty, Parallel Search
• There are compilers and there are compilers by Robert Hyatt, CCC, June 24, 2015
• Parallel search once more by Robert Hyatt, CCC, June 25, 2015
• New "smoothing" issue by Robert Hyatt, CCC, July 20, 2015 » Late Move Reductions
• New SMP stuff (particularly Kai) by Robert Hyatt, CCC, July 20, 2015

2016

• NUMA 101 by Robert Hyatt, CCC, January 07, 2016 » NUMA
• Crafty SMP measurement by Robert Hyatt, CCC, April 04, 2016 » Crafty, Parallel Search
• Re: Around Crafty dev. ... by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 01, 2016
• syzygy users (and Ronald) by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 29, 2016 » BitScan, Population Count, x86-64

External Links

• Robert Hyatt from Wikipedia
• Robert Hyatt's ICGA Tournaments
• The Mathematics Genealogy Project - Robert Hyatt
• Robert Hyatt - University of Alabama Birmingham - RateMyProfessors.com
• Meet the Authors by Ed Schröder
• Interview with Robert Hyatt by Frank Quisinsky, May 11, 2002 ^[12]
• Les Paul & Chet Atkins - Fabulous Version of Avalon (Live), YouTube Video ^[13]
  

References

1. ^ Re: Around Crafty dev. ... by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 01, 2016
2. ^ Robert Hyatt (1983). Cray Blitz - A Computer Chess Playing Program. Master's Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi
3. ^ Robert Hyatt (1988). A High-Performance Parallel Algorithm to Search Depth-First Game Trees. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham
4. ^ Dr. Robert Hyatt's UAB homepage (dead link)
5. ^ László Lindner, A SZÁMÍTÓGÉPES SAKK KÉPEKBEN című melléklete - The pictures of the Beginning of Chess Computers
6. ^ Photo courtesy of Monroe Newborn, The Computer History Museum (wrong text)
7. ^ Photo from The Computer History Museum
8. ^ László Lindner, A SZÁMÍTÓGÉPES SAKK KÉPEKBEN című melléklete - The pictures of the Beginning of Chess Computers
9. ^ The 2007 Second Annual ACCA Americas' Computer Chess Chamionships Site Pics from UAB
10. ^ ICGA Reference Database (pdf)
11. ^ DBLP: Robert M. Hyatt
12. ^ Interview with Robert Hyatt hosted by Ed Schröder
13. ^ Re: asynchronous search, by Robert Hyatt, CCC, April 08, 2010

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