Minimum Test Driver is a great tree-culling algorithm. That said, my implementation is broken, so mtd(f) can go to hell.

So, the tree culler that Aske Plaat came up with is pretty damned fast. I snapped it into my Highly Crappy™ chess algorithm, and sure enough I got about a 7% cull increase over the old iterative deepening Alpha Beta culler.

Yeah, except it’s got a small problem, is the problem. For reasons I don’t yet understand, it’s playing the wrong side of the tree. It walks and evaluates the tree correctly, but instead of playing the best move it can find, it plays the worst. (Actually I’m keeping it around for misere games, and it’s not half bad at them, but that’s not the point.)

The point is, what the hell is wrong with my code?

I’ll release the revised mtd(f) code Real Soon Now; I just need to, you know, get it to work. (Oddly, there’s another version of that page on his old academic web page, except it seems to be out of date, and as a result is missing several bug-fixes.)

Still, it’s just amazing watching this game play. It’s fantastically good at sucking. I can’t not beat it.