Searching...

The search function (apart from the move generation) is perhaps the most critical piece of code in the entire engine. If the search function is solid, the rest is mere detail (I think I may regret that). OK, so here's the plan:

1. First I need some sort of interface! I've got a nice ASCII board already - but I still need some way to talk to my engine! I'll do WinBoard later.
   
2. A very basic alpha-beta pruning algorithm (once sorting is done, I'll give negascout a try - see point 5!).
3. Simple sorting together with iterative deepening.
   
4. Separating the move generator to generate captures, checks (not sure about this yet) and normal moves separately.
5. Some cleverer and more informed sorting functions.
6. All the other tricks, tips and tweaks.
   
7. International award winning and world-famous chess program.
   

For the rest of this week, I'll focus on 1 and 2. Points 3 is for the weekend, while points 4 and 5 are a for March-April. Point 6 will follow once everything else is done. I don't know how point 7 got there... someone else must have written it! ;)