Using Gui Checkers v1.05

by Jonathan Kreuzer
www.3dkingdoms.com/checkers.htm

Files:

You should unzip all the files to the same directory, then run guicheckers.exe.

• guicheckers.exe - the checkers program with a graphical user interface.
• guicheck.dll - the same checkers engine, in a format that can only be run by CheckerBoard.
• opening.gbk - the opening book, it contains a database of opening positions to play into.
• database.jef - an endgame database for 2v2 pieces or fewer.

If you want to use the .dll in CheckerBoard, you should copy to your checkerboard directory, guicheck.dll, opening.gbk, and database.jef.
For the newest CheckerBoard and Gui 1.05, copy everything to the engines directory instead of the base directory.
Gui Checkers will run without complaining even without opening.gbk and database.jef in the same directory, but won't be able to use them.

Search Info Display:
Depth: 20/30 (0/8) Eval: -101 Move: 24-20 Time: 2.03s KNodes: 5500 KN/sec: 2730

This line means the computer started searching depth 20 but got information back from 0 of 8 moves, so it only completed up to depth 18. The 30 is the depth of the longest line it searched.
For the Evaluation, negative values are good for white, positive good for black, and 100 is about equal to one checker.
Also given is the best move found so far, the amount of time spent searching, and amount of kilonodes searched, and the number of kilonodes searched per second.

Bottom Right Buttons:

From the bottom right bar you can review the game, or tell the computer to move now.

Go: If the computer idle, the computer will be set to the side to move and begin thinking about its move.
If the computer is currently thinking, this will cause the computer to move now ('m' is the keyboard shortcut for move now)

Retract: If you decide you didn't like your last move, this will retract it so you can make a different one.

<| : Go to the beginning of the game.
< : Step backwards in the game.
> : Step forwards in the game.
|> : Go to the end of the game.

Menu Options:

Game->Save Game: Save the game as a .pdn file. If the file exists, it will be written over.
Game->Load Game: Load the game from a .pdn file.

Edit->Position Edit: Set a new start position for this game. Detailed instructions appear in the bottom window.
Edit->Copy FEN: Copy a position to the clipboard as a text FEN string. FEN is a standard format.
Edit->Paste FEN: Paste a FEN position from the clipboard.
Edit->Copy PDN: Copy a full game to the clipboard as a PDN string. PDN is a standard checkers game format.
Edit->Paste PDN: Paste a PDN game from the clipboard.

Level->Beginner: The computer will search at most 2 ply.
Level->Advanced: The computer will search at most 8 ply.
Level->Expert: The computer will search as far as possible in the time given.
Level->x Secs/Move: The computer will think for about number of seconds, almost never more than twice this number.
Level->User Defined: Type in max search depth and max seconds per move.

Options->Flip Board: Toggle between white or black pieces on the bottom.
Options->Computer Off: The computer won't move any pieces, you'll play both sides.

Development Menu Options: (you probably won't use these features)

Options->Hashing Toggle: Turn off hashing, slowing down the search.
Options->Clear Hash: Clear the hash table, this is needed to research a test position from scratch, etc.
Right-Click on Board: Show evaluation of the current board.

You can add/alter positions in the opening book in memory with the keyboard. You can then manually save the book.
Positions have a value associated with them on whether they're neutral '0', good for white, or good for red.
The computer will randomly choose from positions which are good for it, or neutral if there are no good positions. It will ignore bad positions.

'3' - Add Current Board position / adjust towards '0'
'2' - Add/Adjust to being good for red
'4' - Add/Adjust to being good for white
'6' - Remove Position
'C' - Clear Opening Book in memory
'S' - Save Opening Book

Version History:

• v1.05: Added a bitboard representation on top of the current program. This has resulted in a speed increase of 50%-100% (varies with position.)
  I made the engine a separate thread from the interface. Now you can start and stop the search at any time, and the information updates regularily.
  Slight changes to the search extensions. Evaluation also isn't exactly the same. A few adjustments to the opening book were made.
• v1.00: This is the first version to have an opening book, having a book yielded much better results in test matches. The GUI now supports PDNs, along with other smaller changes. No changes of note to the search or evaluation.
• v0.99: The engine is definitely stronger and the GUI has been updated with more options. The evaluation and search have been improved, and I corrected a few bugs. I made my own endgame database for 4-pc and less endings.
• v0.90, v.80, v.75.... older versions, changes not logged.

Miscellaneous:

Future Plans:
Someday I may write a better book learning algorithm and recompute the book.
Add an analysis mode.
Maybe add all the standard search tricks I know of.

Why is it named Gui Checkers?
The first version had a ASCII interface and a simple engine, and was called "simple checkers." (Not a very original name, I have later found 3 other programs with that name.) When I added the graphical user interface, I changed the name to "Gui Checkers."