"Tord Kallqvist Romstad" wrote

OliThink is not as strong, but much, much more readable than Crafty
and gnuchess. The entire source code consists of just 1556 lines
(version 4.10, there may be newer versions which are somewhat longer
or shorter).

I have download the source, thanks.

On the other hand, I am not sure using bitboards is a good idea for a
complete beginner. Bitboards are rather advanced stuff, and I still
don't feel anywhere near competent enough to use them in my own engine
(rated 2620 on ICC).

Well 2620 elo points is a lot indeed!

Now, I understand your advice, but ....
I am doing this program for 2 reasons:
- passion
- university final project

Now, using a int[8][8] for the board or, slightly better, the int[12][12] or
whatever other iprovement will still *not* be the most effective and the
most up to date.
In my final year project I am supposed to evaluate and analyse and compare
current approaches and algorithms in computer chess (emh, this is an excuse
to write a chess program...;-) If I use a data structure which is not used
anymore by the best programs.... well what kind of up-to-date report is it
going to be?

Now, I am a complete beginner, you are right ;-) Unfortunately I am !
I only started programming a chess programs at the end of september, not
much time ago ;-)

I made a simple int[8][8] chess program, which supported everything the game
has (en-passant, castling, promotion, stalemate, checkmate,etc..) and it
used alphabeta, iterative deepening and move ordering (that's it). I then
applied quiescence and .... decided to start (now that I have a bit more
knowledge of the problem) another one with rotated bitboards.
Having said this my program was fully functional, GUI-wise and engine-wise.
It could reach ply 6 full-width on average, but... I think it only had about
1300 elo points. It was (without quiescence) analysing 600 KNodes/sec on
average on a AMD XP 2200+. It lacked of a good evaluation function (only
analysed the material advantage) and it did not have any advaced features
like : null move, transposition tables etc...
You might think 1300 elo point is really bad, I agree... but still I
consider my program a success. I have done it in one month only and quite
easily!

I have read the article written by Robert M. Hyatt and I have to admit it is
very easy to follow.... I understand the topic is not easy, but I think I
can do it ... At least I hope so;-)
If not, I will go back to my old one (8x8) and start making it stronger....

Tommy