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I'm not interested in tiny optimizations giving few percents of the speed. I'm interested in the most important heuristics for alpha-beta search. And most important components for evaluation function.
I'm particularly interested in algorithms that have greatest (improvement/code_size) ratio. (NOT (improvement/complexity)).
Thanks.
PS Killer move heuristic is a perfect example - easy to implement and powerful. Database of heuristics is too complicated.
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One particular type of search algorithm used in computer chess are minimax search algorithms, where at each ply the "best" move by the player is selected; one player is trying to maximize the score, the other to minimize it.
In most chess engines, a searching algorithm along with a heuristic function gives the chess AI the main insight into the best moves to play. The bulk of the programming and most of the “brains” behind this is the heuristic function.
A chess engine uses a complicated formula, called an algorithm, to evaluate a position. Going back to our chess tree example, a computer would look at the position after 4. Bxc6 and then refer to its algorithm to come up with a numerical evaluation of the position.
They are able to play so well due to the large amount of information that has been gathered and collected and put into a computer. An opening database, an end game where the computer will perfectly and knows the end result given if only a certain number of pieces are still left on the board.
Not sure if you're already aware of it, but check out the Chess Programming Wiki - it's a great resource that covers just about every aspect of modern chess AI. In particular, relating to your question, see the Search and Evaluation sections (under Principle Topics) on the main page. You might also be able to discover some interesting techniques used in some of the programs listed here. If your questions still aren't answered, I would definitely recommend you ask in the Chess Programming Forums, where there are likely to be many more specialists around to answer. (Not that you won't necessarily get good answers here, just that it's rather more likely on topic-specific expert forums).
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