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        !             2: 
        !             3:                  GNU Chess: Experiences Learned
        !             4:                       with Communal Sharing
        !             5:                        by Stuart Cracraft
        !             6:               (and contributors to the GNU Project)
        !             7: 
        !             8: 
        !             9: Limited sharing has characterized the  computer  chess  community
        !            10: for the past two decades. Occasional research articles give hints
        !            11: and suggestions for useful features, but rarely reveal  the  real
        !            12: details  of  the  critically  important  advances.  We  will here
        !            13: describe an effort underway (titled "GNU Chess") to create a more
        !            14: open and friendly environment of sharing.
        !            15: 
        !            16: GNU Chess is part of Project GNU, a large-scale effort  in  which
        !            17: the philosophical goals are far-reaching. We will not go into any
        !            18: great depth about these goals as they relate to the  larger  pro-
        !            19: ject, because these are described elsewhere [1]. However, we will
        !            20: mention the basic issues and the changes we hope to encourage.
        !            21: 
        !            22: The start of the GNU Chess project was a natural  result  of  the
        !            23: experiences  gleaned in writing a chess program. While the author
        !            24: was at a progressive academic location [2], he was able  to  con-
        !            25: ceive the idea of a communal chess program only after much heart-
        !            26: ache.  During the period of writing the initial  version  (which
        !            27: has  since  undergone  many improvements and whole revisions), it
        !            28: became clear that the best features and most  useful  hints,  the
        !            29: very best of the heuristics, were hidden and difficult to find in
        !            30: the literature.
        !            31: 
        !            32: Sprinkled across many books, research papers, magazine  articles,
        !            33: accumulated in the community, during the past 25 years, there was
        !            34: literally a void of true,  empirical  programs.  Locating  usable
        !            35: programs was difficult. Many programs were the result of academic
        !            36: work in "ivory towers", and hence were inaccessible to the common
        !            37: man. Other programs were sequestered in research think-tanks. Na-
        !            38: turally, developers  of  commercial  programs  carefully  guarded
        !            39: their  source  in order to protect their investment. On the other
        !            40: hand, a few chess program source listings had actually been  pub-
        !            41: lished, but these were not really very strong, often written in a
        !            42: non-general language, and frequently more pedantic  than  practi-
        !            43: cal.
        !            44: 
        !            45: The idea of a  reasonably  strong  communal  program  solidified.
        !            46: When  we  refer  to  a communal program, we do not regard this as
        !            47: public-domain software. Rather, we refer to a  program  which  is
        !            48: under  the shared authority of a number of individuals, the prin-
        !            49: cipal contributors.  These individuals have experienced and real-
        !            50: ized  the  positive  results of a sharing community and the rapid
        !            51: improvements that come through contributing in such a  community.
        !            52: Further, these individuals devote time and energy to coordinating
        !            53: the contributions of other individuals.  While  they  exercise  a
        !            54: certain editorial right, this is usually not exercised arbitrari-
        !            55: ly; instead, a discussion is often undertaken.
        !            56: 
        !            57: Eventually, a working C program that played chess was  available.
        !            58: The  coordinating  institution  for Project GNU [3], accepted our
        !            59: suggestion of inclusion of a chess program in the  GNU  distribu-
        !            60: tion.  Initial  distribution of GNU Chess commenced in October of
        !            61: 1986. Interest in the project increased rapidly.
        !            62: 
        !            63: Contributions came in from many places and people. Interfaces  to
        !            64: X-windows  and SUN-windows were donated, thus allowing very fancy
        !            65: chess fonts on bit-mapped screens. Also, contributions  involving
        !            66: large  portions  of  opening books such as MCO and collections of
        !            67: master games  were  added  to  the  distribution.   Additionally,
        !            68: tree-search modifications and heuristics were provided, and occa-
        !            69: sionally even entire rewrites.
        !            70: 
        !            71: The program advanced in strength by several USCF class  intervals
        !            72: during  a  period  of  less than one year. During this time, many
        !            73: unusual features and enhancements were added to the program, usu-
        !            74: ally under the coordination of two or more people, with one work-
        !            75: ing in a distant-advisory capacity to the other. Frequently, gra-
        !            76: duate  students  would give up significant time from their thesis
        !            77: work to devote energy to contributing. Their  corporate  counter-
        !            78: parts would often give up project time to make their donation.
        !            79: 
        !            80: Contributors would often enter the project in a very forceful way
        !            81: and  then  having made their contribution, learn the viability of
        !            82: communal sharing once others had stepped in  and  contributed  to
        !            83: them, thus providing considerable reinforcement. Frequently, con-
        !            84: tributors would then go into "hibernation" for a long  period  of
        !            85: time,  but  most  of  them remained open to contributing and were
        !            86: helpful when asked to reprogram their particular contribution  in
        !            87: a more recent version.
        !            88: 
        !            89: GNU Chess has made great strides in relatively little  time.   It
        !            90: has  run  on  many  different hardware architectures and has been
        !            91: compiled by a number of C compilers [4]. A sampling of  the  com-
        !            92: puters  on  which  the  program  has  run is: National 32032, Vax
        !            93: 11/750, 8550, 8600, 8650, Motorola  68020,  CCI  5/32,  CCI  6/32
        !            94: (tahoe), Cray XMP.
        !            95: 
        !            96: It is our belief that GNU Chess will stimulate graduate  research
        !            97: in computer chess theory and practice.  When students are able to
        !            98: easily obtain a state-of-the-art program in  order  to  test  out
        !            99: their  ideas, they will no longer need to reinvent the wheel. The
        !           100: students will be able to investigate their  research  areas  much
        !           101: more thoroughly, because they will spend more time on the specif-
        !           102: ic research areas they are concerned about.  Basically, GNU Chess
        !           103: "frees up" time in order to get on to more fundamental issues.
        !           104: 
        !           105: We also feel that as other researchers  gain  trust  in  the  GNU
        !           106: Chess  project, they will be more likely to release their results
        !           107: directly and rapidly, through journal articles,  or  directly  to
        !           108: the  GNU  project,  and  in fact become contributors and join the
        !           109: present list [5]. At the very  least,  a  communal,  ever-growing
        !           110: program will encourage the few "closeted" researchers to be some-
        !           111: what more open in their approach to disseminating advances.
        !           112: 
        !           113: In whatever form it takes, the  progress  toward  elaboration  of
        !           114: machine  chess  is  ongoing,  and  we hope that GNU chess will be
        !           115: helpful to the community. Copies of GNU Chess source and  "book",
        !           116: as  well  as  additional experimental code are available from the
        !           117: Free Software Foundation [3] or the author [6].
        !           118: 
        !           119: 
        !           120: [1] The GNU Manifesto, Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        !           121: 
        !           122: [2] University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute.
        !           123: 

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