Abstract
This paper gives a new sequential retrograde analysis algorithm for the construction of large endgame databases that are too large to be loaded entirely into the physical memory. The algorithm makes use of disk I/O patterns and saves disk I/O time. Using our algorithm we construct a set of Chinese-chess endgame databases with one side having attacking pieces. The performance result shows that our algorithm works well even when the number of positions in the constructed endgame is larger than the number of bits in the main memory of our computer. We built the 12-men database KCPGGMMKGGMM, the largest database reported in Chinese chess, which has 8,785,969,200 positions after removing symmetrical positions on a 2.2GHz P4 machine with 1 GB main memory. This process took 79 hours. We have also found positions with the largest DTM and DTC values in Chinese chess so far. They are in the 11-men database KCPGGMKGGMM; the values are 116 and 96, respectively.
Research supported in part by NSC grants 91-2213-E-001-027 and 92-2213-E-001-005.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allis, L.V., van der Meulen, M., van den Herik, H.J.: Databases in awari. In: Levy, D.N.L., Beal, D.F. (eds.) Heuristic Programming in Artificial Intelligence 2: The Second Computer Olympiad, vol. 2, pp. 73–86. Ellis Horwood, Chichester (1991)
Bal, H., Allis, L.V.: Parallel retrograde analysis on a distributed system. In: Proceedings of the 1995 ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference (1995), http://www.supercomp.org/sc95/proceedings/463_HBAL/SC95.HTM
Fang, H.-r., Hsu, T.-s., Hsu, S.-c.: Construction of Chinese chess endgame databases by retrograde analysis. In: Marsland, T., Frank, I. (eds.) CG 2001. LNCS, vol. 2063, pp. 96–114. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Fang, H.-r., Hsu, T.-s., Hsu, S.-c.: Indefinite sequence of moves in chinese chess endgames. In: Schaeffer, J., Müller, M., Björnsson, Y. (eds.) CG 2002. LNCS, vol. 2883, pp. 264–279. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Gasser, R.: Solving nine men’s morris. In: Nowakowski, R. (ed.) Games of No Chance. MSRI, vol. 29, pp. 101–113. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996) ISBN: 0-521-57411-0
Hsu, T.-s., Liu, P.-Y.: Verification of endgame databases. ICGA Journal 25(3), 132–144 (2002)
Karrer, P.: KQQKQP and KQPKQP≈. ICCA Journal 23(2), 75–84 (2000)
Korf, R.E.: Delayed duplicate detection: Extended abstract. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1539–1541 (2003)
Lake, R., Schaeffer, J., Lu, P.: Solving large retrograde-analysis problems using a network of workstations. In: van den Herik, H.J., Herschberg, I.S., Uiterwijk, J.W.H.M. (eds.) Advances in Computer Chess, vol. 7, pp. 135–162. University of Limburg, Maastricht (1994) ISBN: 9-0621-6101-4
Lincke, T.R., Marzetta, A.: Large endgame databases with limited memory space. ICCA Journal 22(4), 131–138 (1999)
Nalimov, E.V., Wirth, C., Haworth, G.M.: KQQKQQ and the Kasparov-world game. ICCA Journal 22(4), 195–212 (1999)
Romein, J.W., Bal, H.E.: Awari is solved. ICGA Journal 25(3), 162–165 (2002)
Schaeffer, J., Björnsson, Y., Burch, N., Lake, R., Lu, P., Sutphen, S.: Building the checkers 10-piece endgame databases. In: van den Herik, H.J., Iida, H., Heinz, E.A. (eds.) Advances in Computer Games: Many Games, Many Challenges, vol. 10, pp. 193–210. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2003) ISBN: 1-4020- 7709-2
Stiller, L.: Parallel analysis of certain endgames. ICCA Journal 12(2), 55–64 (1989)
Thompson, K.: Retrograde analysis of certain endgames. ICCA Journal 9(3), 131–139 (1986)
Thompson, K.: 6-piece endgames. ICCA Journal 19(4), 215–226 (1996)
van den Herik, H.J., Uiterwijk, J.W.H.M., van Rijswijck, J.: Games solved: Now and in the future. Artificial Intelligence 134, 277–311 (2002)
Vitter, J.S.: External memory algorithms and data structures: Dealing with MASSIVE DATA. ACM Computing Surveys 33(2), 209–271 (2001)
Wu, R., Beal, D.F.: Fast, memory-efficient retrograde algorithms. ICCA Journal 24(3), 147–159 (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wu, Ph., Liu, PY., Hsu, Ts. (2006). An External-Memory Retrograde Analysis Algorithm. In: van den Herik, H.J., Björnsson, Y., Netanyahu, N.S. (eds) Computers and Games. CG 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3846. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11674399_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11674399_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-32488-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32489-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)