ChessBrainVB

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ChessBrainVB,
an open source chess engine by Roger Zuehlsdorf, written in Visual Basic to run under 32-bit Windows, first announced and released in September 2015 ¹. The common source subset could either compiled using Visual Basic 6.0 to create a WinBoard compliant executable - or, albeit about 15 times slower, may be interpreted by Visual Basic for Applications to run under Microsoft Office applications, that is Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, along with an own GUI based on Windows Forms.

ChessBrainVB was initially based on the source code of LarsenVB by Luca Dormio, which in turn was inspired by the C program Faile 0.6 by Adrien M. Regimbald. Still using the 10x12 mailbox board representation, ChessBrainVB's search ² and evaluation subsequently improved influenced by ideas from open source programs such as CuckooChess, Sjeng, Protector and Stockfish combined with own ideas ³.

Screenshot

ChessBrainVBA ⁴

Features

⁵.

Board Representation

• 10x12 Board
• Piece-Lists

Search

• Iterative Deepening
• Aspiration Windows
• Principal Variation Search
• Transposition Table
• Move Ordering

Hash Move

Internal Iterative Deepening

In Check

Countermove Heuristic

Counter Moves History

Killer Heuristic

MVV/LVA

Piece-Square Tables

SEE

• Selectivity

Check Extensions

Futility Pruning

Mate Distance Pruning

Null Move Pruning

Late Move Reductions

Razoring

• Quiescence Search

Evaluation

• Tapered Eval
• Material
• Piece-Square Tables
• Center Control
• Mobility

Trapped Pieces

Rooks on (Semi) Open Files

• Pawn Structure

Backward Pawn

Doubled Pawn

Isolated Pawn

Phalanx

• Passed Pawns
• King Safety

Pawn Shelter

Pawn Storm

Square Control

• Tempo

See also

• :Category:Brain
• Chess Brain
• ChessBrain

Forum Posts

• My new exotic engine: ChessBrainVB for OfficeVBA (1950 ELO) by Roger Zuehlsdorf, CCC, September 20, 2015
• ChessBrainVB V2.0 released (WB 2600 ELO, Office VBA 2100ELO) by Roger Zuehlsdorf, CCC, February 24, 2016
• ChessBrain VB 3.02 - release by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, December 12, 2016
• ChessBrain VB 3.20 released by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, March 13, 2017
• ChessBrainVB 3.30 released by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, June 06, 2017
• ChessBrainVB 3.31 (WB-Engine) release by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, June 17, 2017
• WinBoard 4.8.0 and ChessBrainVB by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, June 17, 2017
• ChessBrainVB 3.60 by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, December 17, 2017

External Links

• GitHub - RZulu54/ChessBrainVB: Chess engine with GUI for Excel / Word VBA - plus VB6 (Visual Basic 6) edition as winboard engine
• ChessBrainVB 3.20 in CCRL 40/4

References