Pioneer: A Chess Program Modelling a Chess Master’s Mind

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Reznitsky, A. | Chudakoff, M.

Affiliations: All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Power Engineering, Moscow, USSR

Abstract: This paper presents the current state of a long development originated by M.M. Botvinnik, the former World Chess Champion, since 1970. Botvinnik’s (1970, 1975, 1984, 1989) PIONEER program is an attempt to follow techniques in use by chess masters for scoring positions, ordering moves, pruning trees and truncating searches. The model focusses on positions and consists of chains which are groups of pieces with their goal-directed trajectories, the grouping being done under well-defined rules. While too slow to play under tournament conditions, the experiments with PIONEER indicate that this technique selects moves and follows lines in the same manner as a highly-rated chess-player would.

DOI: 10.3233/ICG-1990-13403

Journal: ICGA Journal, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 175-195, 1990