Now
Now Screen [1] Now,
a chess program by Mark Lefler, competing at one World Computer Chess Championship, the WCCC 1999 in Paderborn, and two World Microcomputer Chess Championships, the WMCCC 1991 and WMCCC 1993. Now further played the ACM 1990, ACM 1993 and ACM 1994, all three editions of Don Beal’s Uniform-Platform Computer Chess Championship, the IPCCC 1994 and five Aegon Tournaments.
Now tied with first place among all chess programs at the Aegon 1996 Tournament, receiving 4.5 out of 6 points. This tied the program with other world class programs such as Fritz, and it beat Grandmaster Larry Christiansen [2] . Now was written in Pascal, running on PCs with MS-DOS operating system. In 2007, Mark started a rewrite using C [3] .
1991
from Don Beal’s WMCCC 1991 report [4] :
Written by Mark Lefler, who has spent two full-time years developing his program, and competed in [last year's ACM tournament](ACM_1990 "ACM 1990"). The [evaluation](Evaluation "Evaluation") is mostly [piece values](Point_Value "Point Value"), with positional scores sometimes worth up to two Panws. [Search](Search "Search") techniques used include [iterative deepening](Iterative_Deepening "Iterative Deepening"), with [check extensions](Check_Extensions "Check Extensions"), no singular extensions, and [hung-piece](Hanging_Piece "Hanging Piece") extensions at depth zero.
1993
from Don Beal’s UPCCC 1993 report [5] [6]
This proginated as a [shareware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware) program by Mark Lefler, possibly going to be re-released with the latest version. The program scored equally with [GNU](GNU_Chess "GNU Chess") in the ["uniform platform" tournament last year](UPCCC_1993 "UPCCC 1993"). NOW has specialized knowledge about some Pawn and Bishop endgames. Its [search](Search "Search") mechanism includes [extensions](Extensions "Extensions") for certain [tactical](Tactics "Tactics") threats, and is [selective](Selectivity "Selectivity") in its last 3 [plies](Ply "Ply").
1999
from the ICGA tournament site [7] :
General [alpha beta](Alpha-Beta "Alpha-Beta") searcher, with lots of [knowledge](Knowledge "Knowledge"). Has done well against humans, as evidenced by the [Aegon matches](Aegon_Tournaments "Aegon Tournaments").
See also
Forum Posts
- QMW computer chess by Don Beal, rec.games.chess, August 19, 1993 » UPCCC 1993
- Is this rule safe (how has K&Ps vs K&Ps databases? …) by Mark Lefler, CCC, June 20, 2007 » KPK, Pawn Endgame
- If You Were Starting From Scratch by Mark Lefler, CCC, August 22, 2007
External Links
- Now’s ICGA Tournaments
- Albert Mangelsdorff-Quintett - Now Jazz Ramwong (1964), YouTube Videos
Günter Lenz, Ralf Hübner, Günther Kronberg, Heinz Sauer, Albert Mangelsdorff
References
- ↑ Image from no longer available DOS Museum - Download NOW, A Computer Chess Program
- ↑ Zillions of Games - Who Are We?
- ↑ If You Were Starting From Scratch by Mark Lefler, CCC, August 22, 2007
- ↑ Don Beal (1991). Report on the 11th World Microcomputer Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2
- ↑ Don Beal (1993). Report on the QMW 1993 Uniform-Platform Computer-Chess Championship. ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 166-171.
- ↑ QMW computer chess by Don Beal, rec.games.chess, August 19, 1993
- ↑ Now’s ICGA Tournaments