MBChess

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**MBChess**,
a chess program by [[Marc Boulé]], written in [[C]]. It was primarily used as test-bed for hardware based [[FPGA]] [[Move Generation|move generation]], which was subject of Boulé's Masters thesis in 2002 <ref>[[Marc Boulé]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. Masters thesis, [[McGill University]], (Supervisor: [[Zeljko Zilic]], Co-Supervisor: [[Monroe Newborn|Monty Newborn]]), [[http://www.iml.ece.mcgill.ca/%7Emboule/files/mbthesis02.pdf|pdf]]</ref>. The FPGA approach performs a [[Belle#Hardware|Belle]] like move generation method with find **victim** and find **aggressor** cycles in [[MVV-LVA]] manner. The move generator includes a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI|PCI]] interface to connect it to the PC running MBChess. Communication is done via different commands, such as to instruct the move generator to [[Unmake Move|undo]] the currently stored move, generate and return the next move and [[Make Move|execute]] that move on its internal FPGA [[Board Representation|board representation]]. In total, 10,804 out of 18,816 [[FPGA#LC|logic cells]] of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xilinx|Xilinx]] XCV800 <ref>[[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=292813|Re: Attention - Slater Wold]] by [[Marc Boulé]], [[CCC]], April 10, 2003</ref> were used, 10,104 as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookup_table#Hardware_LUTs|LUT]], 700 as RAM <ref>[[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=251005|Re: Thesis by Marc Boule]] by [[Marc Boulé]], [[CCC]], September 08, 2002</ref>. 
|| [[image:FPGAChessSquares.JPG]] ||
|| A block diagram of a chess square with transmitter (TX) and the receiver (RX) <ref>[[Marc Boulé]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. Masters thesis, [[McGill University]], (Supervisor: [[Zeljko Zilic]], Co-Supervisor: [[Monroe Newborn|Monty Newborn]]), [[http://www.iml.ece.mcgill.ca/%7Emboule/files/mbthesis02.pdf|pdf]]</ref> ||

=Hardware vs. Software=
MBChess is a very basic chess program, without [[Opening Book|opening book]], only rudimentary [[Evaluation|evaluation]], i.e. almost no [[King Safety|king safety]], and without [[Null Move Pruning |null move pruning]]. The reported ratings obtained on [[FICS]] are 1844 and 1692 for MBChess+FPGA and MBChess respectively <ref>[[Marc Boulé]], [[Zeljko Zilic]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. [[ICGA Journal]], Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 8, [[http://iml.ece.mcgill.ca/~mboule/files/icga02.pdf|pdf]]</ref>. Marc Boulé further concluded a bit disappointing results <ref>[[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=221124|A Response From Marc Boule]] by [[Slater Wold]], [[CCC]], April 02, 2002</ref>. Even though the pure move generation speed is almost 5 times faster, when using full heuristics, this drops to about 2 times faster. He found that his FPGA move generator, can at best, make/unmake 10M moves a second, which due to PCI bus saturation, will not even transfer from FPGA to PC. [[Crafty]] could already make/unmake 30M moves a second on that machine, which implies the only way to speedup Crafty would be to make an FPGA with search and evaluation.

=Publications= 
* [[Marc Boulé]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. Masters thesis, [[McGill University]], (Supervisor: [[Zeljko Zilic]], Co-Supervisor: [[Monroe Newborn|Monty Newborn]]), [[http://www.iml.ece.mcgill.ca/%7Emboule/files/mbthesis02.pdf|pdf]]
* [[Marc Boulé]], [[Zeljko Zilic]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. [[McGill University]],[[http://www.iml.ece.mcgill.ca/%7Emboule/files/cicc02.pdf|pdf]]
* [[Marc Boulé]], [[Zeljko Zilic]] (**2002**). //An FPGA Move Generator for the Game of Chess//. [[ICGA Journal]], Vol. 25, No. 2, [[http://iml.ece.mcgill.ca/~mboule/files/icga02.pdf|pdf]]

=Forum Posts=
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=221124|A Response From Marc Boule]] by [[Slater Wold]], [[CCC]], April 02, 2002
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=250746|Re: Thesis by Marc Boule]] by [[Marc Boulé]], [[CCC]], September 07, 2002
* [[http://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=251005|Re: Thesis by Marc Boule]] by [[Marc Boulé]], [[CCC]], September 08, 2002

=External Links=
* [[http://www.ficsgames.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?player=mbchess;statsyear=9999|FICS Games Database - Statistics for mbchess]]

=References= 
<references />
=What links here?= 
[[include page="MBChess" component="backlinks" limit="20"]]
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