KingsRow is a strong

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

and

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

engine. It was released by Ed Gilbert in 2000. The checkers engine can be used with the

CheckerBoard A checkerboard (American English) or chequerboard (British English; see spelling differences) is a board of checkered pattern on which checkers (also known as English draughts) is played. Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of altern ...

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

. The engine is available as freeware.

History

In the only Computer Checkers World Championship, KingsRow took second place behind

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ( grc, Ῥαμνουσία, Rhamnousía, the goddess of Rhamnous), was the goddess who personifies retribution, a central concept in the Greek world view. Etymology The n ...

. KingsRow was stronger than Cake++ in the early years. Cake++ finally caught up with KingsRow and gradually became stronger. It competed a 624-game match against Cake++ on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

2004; Cake++ won 3 to 1, with 620 games ending in a draw. On July 17, 2005, Ed Gilbert completed building a 10-piece

endgame database An endgame tablebase is a computerized database that contains precalculated exhaustive analysis of chess endgame positions. It is typically used by a computer chess engine during play, or by a human or computer that is retrospectively analysin ...

for use with KingsRow. A version for Italian checkers with a nine-piece endgame tablebase is available, too.

Draughts version

A 10x10 version of KingsRow was started in 2007. In 2009, an eight-piece endgame tablebase was finished. With checkers solved, and all top engine matches ending in draws only; KingsRow only focuses on 10x10 draughts today.

External links

KingsRow Webpage
Computer draughts players 2000 software {{Board-game-stub