Hacker News Reader

Full thread

josephernest

Is it only this code and nothing else?

https://github.com/mcostalba/Stockfish/tree/ONE_PLY/src

Is there no DB or machine learning inside?

View on HN

It's actually https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tree/master

No, SF doesn't use machine learning, it's entirely heuristic.

Doesn't it use a database? From README:

> If the engine is searching a position that is not in the tablebases (e.g. a position with 7 pieces)

and it speaks a lot about tablebases. What is it?

Okay, I'll concede that one, my apologies. A tablebase is essentially a precomputed endgame solution for all positions with that many pieces. Likewise, it has an opening book, which is a database that contains moves for the first few turns of the game.

It's still a heuristic searcher when it's not using those though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com