Falcon

Edit 0 32 …
Older Version Newer Version

GerdIsenberg GerdIsenberg Sep 2, 2016 

**[[Home]] * [[Engines]] * Falcon**
|| [[image:falcon_gallery_15_450x300.jpg width="380" link="http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/image_galleries/peregrine_falcon_2009_gallery.shtml?15"]] ||~   || **Falcon**,
a strong private chess engine <ref>[[http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:private_engine_list|Private Engine List]] from [[Ron Murawski|Ron Murawski's]] [[http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=home|Computer-Chess Wiki]]</ref> by [[Omid David]] and successor of Omid's earlier program [[Genesis IL|Genesis]]. Falcon participated at three [[World Computer Chess Championship|World Computer Chess Championships]], the [[WCCC 2003]] in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz|Graz]], the [[WCCC 2004]] in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramat_Gan|Ramat Gan]], and the [[WCCC 2008]] in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing|Beijing]] <ref>[[http://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/program.php?id=108|Falcon's ICGA Tournaments]]</ref>, as well the [[CCT6]] on-line tournament. Book authors were [[Eros Riccio]] in 2004, and [[Erdogan Günes]] in 2008.

Falcon applies [[NegaScout]]/[[Principal Variation Search|PVS]] with [[Null Move Pruning|null move pruning]], [[Internal Iterative Deepening|internal iterative deepening]], [[Move Ordering|dynamic move ordering]] by [[History Heuristic|history]] and [[Killer Heuristic|killer heuristic]], [[Multi-Cut|multi-cut pruning]], [[Extensions|selective extensions]], [[Transposition Table|transposition table]], and [[Futility Pruning|futility pruning]] near [[Leaf Node|leaf nodes]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Search Tuning//. [[ICGA Journal#33_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2]]</ref>, and [[Blockage Detection|blockade detection]] in [[Endgame|endgames]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Ariel Felner]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2004**). //Blockage Detection in Pawn Endgames//. [[ICGA Journal#27_3|ICGA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3]]</ref>.  ||
|| [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon|Peregrine Falcon]] caught [[Pigeon]] at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Cathedral|Manchester Cathedral]] <ref>[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/image_galleries/peregrine_falcon_2009_gallery.shtml?15|Peregrine falcons: in pictures]] - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Cathedral|Manchester Cathedral]] proved a happy hunting ground for the female who caught this [[Pigeon|pigeon]]. [photo taken May 23, 2009 (c) [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/24940353@N03/|Adrian Dancy]]]</ref> ||~   ||^   ||
[[toc]][[#GA]]
=Genetic Algorithm=
Omid David has combined his secret efforts with scientific publications, since Falcon was test-bed and object in research of [[Null Move Pruning#ZugzwangVerification|verified null-move pruning]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2002**). //Verified null-move pruning.// [[ICGA Journal#25_3|ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3]]</ref>, [[Null Move Reductions|extended null-move reductions]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2008**). //[[http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-87608-3_19|Extended Null-Move Reductions]]//. [[CG 2008]], [[http://www.oedavid.com/pubs/nmr.pdf|pdf]]</ref>, and [[Genetic Programming#GeneticAlgorithm|Genetic Algorithms]] in [[Evaluation|evaluation]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2008**). //Genetic Algorithms for Mentor-Assisted Evaluation Function Optimization//. ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference ([[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2008/|GECCO '08]])</ref> <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Jaap van den Herik]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2009**). //Simulating Human Grandmasters: Evolution and Coevolution of Evaluation Functions//. [[ACM]] Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference ([[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2009/|GECCO '09]])</ref> and [[Search|search]] [[Automated Tuning|tuning]] <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Search Tuning//. [[ICGA Journal#33_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2]]</ref>, the latter on optimizing 18 search control parameters packed into a 70-bit [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome|chromosome]]. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_function|fitness function]] is the total [[Node|node]] count up to the solutions found, from the 879 most [[Tactics|tactical]] positions of the [[Test-Positions#ECM|Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames]] <ref>[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Krogius|Nikolai Krogius]], [[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4451033.A_Livsic|A. Livsic]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Parma|Bruno Parma]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Taimanov|Mark Taimanov]] (**1980**). //[[http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Chess-Middlegames-Nikolai-Krogius/dp/B000UNPDTA|Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames]]//. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Informant|Chess Informant]]</ref>, as already used by [[Yngvi Björnsson]] and [[Tony Marsland]] in //Learning Control of Search Extensions// <ref>[[Yngvi Björnsson]], [[Tony Marsland]] (**2002**). //Learning Control of Search Extensions//. Proceedings of the 6th Joint Conference on Information Sciences (JCIS 2002), pp. 446-449. [[http://www.ru.is/faculty/yngvi/pdf/BjornssonM02.pdf|pdf]]</ref>, the lower the fitter. A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossover_%28genetic_algorithm%29#One-point_crossover|one-point crossover]] uses the chromosomes of two [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parent|parents]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection|selected]] based on fitness criterion <ref>[[http://chaos4.phy.ohiou.edu/~thomas/complex/ga.html|Genetic algorithms]]</ref>, and creates two [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offspring|offspring]]. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_%28genetic_algorithm%29|mutation]] operator randomly flips some bits with low probability.

==Falcon Breeding==
Falcon's GA procedure as pseudo code <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Search Tuning//. [[ICGA Journal#33_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2]], 4.2 Generic Algorithms</ref>:
[[code]]
1. initialization: randomly generate n 70-bit chromosomes
2.   evaluate fitness of each chromosome of a population 
3.   if (N generations is reached OR fitness value > threshold ) terminate
     repeat until n offspring are generated
  a.   select pair of parents from current population based on fitness criterion
  b.   with probability p, apply crossover to generate two offspring
  c.   mutate the two offspring by randomly flipping some bits
4.   replace the old population with the newly generated population
5.   goto 2     
[[code]]
==Learning Result==
With a population size of 10, a crossover rate of 0.75, mutation rate of 0.05, and 50 generations, following search parameters were [[Learning|learned]] after 35 hours, as noted, not necessarily the best parameter set for every chess program <ref>[[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Search Tuning//. [[ICGA Journal#33_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2]], 5. Experimental Results</ref>:
||~ Parameter ||~ Value range ||~ Bits ||~ Learned ||~ Unit ||
|| [[Null Move Pruning|Null-move]] use ||> 0-1 ||> 1   ||~ 1 ||> Boolean ||
||= Null Move [[Depth Reduction R|R]]  ||> 0-7 ||> 3   ||~ 4 ||> [[Ply|plies]] ||
||= Null Move [[Null Move Pruning#AdaptiveNullMovePruning|adaptivity]] ||> 0-1 ||> 1 ||~ 1 ||> Boolean ||
||= Null Move adaptivity depth <ref>if (adaptivity && depth <= adaptivity_depth) use R-1</ref> ||> 0-7 ||> 3 ||~ 6 ||> plies ||
|| [[Futility Pruning|Futility]] depth ||> 0-3 ||> 2 ||~ 3 ||> plies ||
||= Futility threshold depth-1  ||> 0-1023 ||> 10 ||~ 106 ||> [[Centipawns|centipawns]] ||
||= Futility threshold depth-2  ||> 0-1023 ||> 10 ||~ 219 ||> centipawns ||
||= Futility threshold depth-3  ||> 0-1023 ||> 10 ||~ 512  ||> centipawns ||
|| [[Multi-Cut|Mult-cut]] use ||> 0-1 ||> 1 ||~ 1 ||> Boolean ||
||= Mult-cut R ||> 0-7  ||> 3 ||~ 4 ||> plies ||
||= Mult-cut depth <ref>Apply Mult-cut only if depth >= Mult-cut_depth</ref> ||> 0-7 ||> 3 ||~ 6  ||> plies ||
||= Mult-cut M  ||> 0-31 ||> 5 ||~ 14 ||> number of moves ||
||= Mult-cut C ||> 0-7 ||> 3 ||~  3 ||> number of moves ||
|| [[Check Extensions|Check extension]] ||> 0-4 ||> 3 ||~ 2 ||> [[Depth#FractionalPlies|quarter plies]] ||
|| [[One Reply Extensions|One-reply extension]] ||> 0-4 ||> 3 ||~ 4 ||> quarter plies  ||
|| [[Recapture Extensions|Recapture extension]] ||> 0-4 ||> 3 ||~ 2 ||> quarter plies  ||
|| [[Passed Pawn Extensions|Passed pawn extension]], 7th ||> 0-4 ||> 3 ||~ 3 ||> quarter plies  ||
|| [[Mate Threat Extensions|Mate thread extension]] ||> 0-4  ||> 3 ||~ 1 ||> quarter plies  ||
||~ ||~  ||> 70 || bit ||~ ||
=Selected Games= 
[[WCCC 2004]] round 11, [[Falcon]] - [[Shredder]] <ref>[[http://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/round.php?tournament=24&round=11&id=5|Ramat-Gan 2004 - Chess - Round 11 - Game 5 (ICGA Tournaments)]]</ref>
[[code]]
[Event "WCCC 2004"]
[Site "Ramat Gan, Israel"]
[Date "2004.07.12"]
[Round "11"]
[White "Falcon"]
[Black "Shredder"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5
8. g4 h6 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 d5 12. Bh3 b4 13. Na4 dxe4
14. g5 hxg5 15. hxg5 exf3 16. g6 Rxh3 17. Rxh3 Qa5 18. b3 Ne5 19. gxf7+
Kxf7 20. Bg5 Ne4 21. Qf4+ Kg8 22. Nxe6 Ng6 23. Rh8+ Nxh8 24. Rd7 Nf6
25. Bxf6 Ng6 26. Qd4 Qf5 27. Nxf8 Qxf6 28. Qxf6 gxf6 29. Nh7 Ne5
30. Nxf6+ Kf8 31. Nh7+ Kg8 32. Nf6+ Kf8 33. Nh7+ Kg8 34. Nf6+ 1/2-1/2
[[code]]
=See also= 
* [[Various Classifications#Bird|Bird]]
* [[Genesis IL|Genesis]]

=Publications= 
* [[Omid David]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2002**). //Verified null-move pruning.// [[ICGA Journal#25_3|ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Ariel Felner]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2004**). //Blockage Detection in Pawn Endgames//. [[ICGA Journal#27_3|ICGA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2008**). //[[http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-87608-3_19|Extended Null-Move Reductions]]//. [[CG 2008]], [[http://www.oedavid.com/pubs/nmr.pdf|pdf]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2008**). //Genetic Algorithms for Mentor-Assisted Evaluation Function Optimization//. [[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2008/|GECCO '08]]
* [[Omid David]] (**2009**). //Genetic Algorithms Based Learning for Evolving Intelligent Organisms//. Ph.D. Thesis
* [[Omid David]], [[Jaap van den Herik]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2009**). //Simulating Human Grandmasters: Evolution and Coevolution of Evaluation Functions//.[[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2009/|GECCO '09]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //[[http://www.springerlink.com/content/3346t8432n718821|Expert-Driven Genetic Algorithms for Simulating Evaluation Functions]]//.
* [[Omid David]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]], Yoav Rosenberg, Moshe Shimoni (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Classification of Moving Objects//. [[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2010/|GECCO '10]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2010**). //Genetic Algorithms for Automatic Search Tuning//. [[ICGA Journal#33_2|ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2]]
* [[Omid David]], [[Jaap van den Herik]], [[Moshe Koppel]], [[Nathan S. Netanyahu]] (**2014**). //Genetic Algorithms for Evolving Computer Chess Programs//. [[IEEE#EC|IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation]], [[http://www.genetic-programming.org/hc2014/David-Paper.pdf|pdf]] <ref>[[http://www.liacs.nl/nieuws/jaap-van-den-herik-wint-humies-award-2014/|Jaap van den Herik wint Humies Award 2014 - LIACS - Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science]]</ref> <ref>[[http://www.sigevo.org/gecco-2014/humies.html|GECCO 2014]]</ref>

=Forum Posts= 
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=362359|Objective proposal Falcon - Crafty]] by [[Vincent Diepeveen]], [[CCC]], April 29, 2004
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=362605|Diep and Falcon #2 and 3]] by Chessfun, [[CCC]], April 30, 2004
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=376363|Re: Are you planning to make an SMP version of Falcon?]] by [[Omid David]], [[CCC]], July 13, 2004
* [[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41768|Falcon by Omid David Tabibi]] by [[Norbert Raimund Leisner]], [[CCC]], January 03, 2012

=External Links= 
* [[http://www.game-ai-forum.org/icga-tournaments/program.php?id=108|Falcon's ICGA Tournaments]]
* [[http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=29489|The chess games of Falcon]] from [[http://www.chessgames.com/index.html|chessgames.com]]
==Falcon Chess Variant==
* [[http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/falcon.html|Falcon Chess]] from [[http://www.chessvariants.org/|The Chess Variant Pages]]
* [[http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/falcon.html|Falcon Chess]] by [[Harm Geert Muller]] <ref>[[http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22411|Falcon Chess]] by [[Harm Geert Muller]], [[CCC]], July 17, 2008</ref>
==Falcons==
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_%28disambiguation%29|Falcon (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon|Falcon from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley-Ahlquist_taxonomy_of_birds|Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy of birds from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconiformes|Falconiformes from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconidae|Falconidae from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falconidae|List of Falconidae]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Kestrel|Common Kestrel from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrfalcon|Gyrfalcon from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon|Peregrine Falcon from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saker_Falcon|Saker Falcon from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Peregrine_Falcon|BBC Nature - Peregrine falcon videos, news and facts]]
* [[http://www.ntu.ac.uk/ecoweb/biodiversity/falcons/index.html?campaignid=falcons|Falcons - EcoWeb - Nottingham Trent University]]
* [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-13358253|BBC News - Rare peregrine falcons raise four chicks in Nottingham]]
* [[http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php|News - CMNH Falcon Cam]]
* [[http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/index.htm|Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at UCSC - HOME]]
* [[http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/nestcamSF.htm|SCPBRG: Peregrine Falcon Web Cam, San Francisco]]
* [[http://www.nickdunlop.com/|Nick Dunlop Photography]]
==Falconry==
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry|Falconry from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_arte_venandi_cum_avibus|De arte venandi cum avibus]] by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor|Frederick II - Wikipedia]]
* [[http://www.falconry.ca/index.htm|Falconry Canada]]
* [[http://www.davidmaritz.com/stories/falconry/falconry.htm|Falconry]] by [[http://www.davidmaritz.com/bio/bio.htm|David Maritz]]
* [[http://www.nicolas-falcons.com/|Falconry - Falkenhorst Schloss Aschbach]]
* [[http://www.falconry.com/|Falconry Information Clearinghouse]]
* [[http://www.nad.ae/|Nad Al Shiba Falcons]]
* [[http://www.scottish-falcon-breeders.com/|Scottish Falcon Breeders]]
==The Maltese Falcon==
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon|The Maltese Falcon (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_%28novel%29|The Maltese Falcon (novel) from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_%281941_film%29|The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_%28yacht%29|The Maltese Falcon (yacht) from Wikipedia]]
==Misc==
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falc%C3%B3n_%28disambiguation%29|Falcón (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]
> [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falc%C3%B3n|Falcón from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_%28programming_language%29|Falcon (programming language) from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Northwest|Falcon Northwest from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Crest|Falcon Crest from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkenberg_%28disambiguation%29|Falkenberg (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkenburg|Falkenburg (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkenburg|Valkenburg (disambiguation) from Wikipedia]]

=References= 
<references />
=What links here?= 
[[include page="Falcon" component="backlinks" limit="50" ]]
**[[Engines|Up one Level]]**