A chess mating combinations program

Abstract

The program reported here is not a complete chess player; it does not play games. Rather, it is a chess analyst limited to searching for checkmating combinations in positions containing tactical possibilities. A combination in chess is a series of forcing moves with sacrifice that ends with an objective advantage for the active side. A checkmating combination, then, is a combination in which that objective advantage is checkmate. Thus the program described here---dubbed MATER---given a position, proceeds by generating that class of forcing moves that put the enemy King in check or threaten mate in one move, and then by analyzing first those moves that appear most promising.