program: Alex 1.85 (Winboard or UCI - Use EGBB from Daniel Shawul)
Author:  Normand Marcel Blais
Date:    April 20, 2007
Email:   &blais_normand@msn.com (use this address without the & sign)

v1.85  - Reduced the size of the pawn hash table...Egbb problems??...modify iteration functions...modify pawn evaluations
v1.84  - A lot of small modifications and experiments (too many), but mostly removing bugs from the evaluation function.
v1.78  - Fixed a bug in root_search 
v1.77  - Fixed bugs in make/move generations/hash 
v1.76  - Fixed pondering under UCI
v1.75  - Clean time management and iterative deepening codes (Winboard only - pondering disabled under UCI)
v1.74  - Clean pondering management code (Winboard only - pondering disabled under UCI)
v1.73b - Time management problem fixed !? + many others changes
v1.73  - Tix bug in hash size - Thanks to Olivier Deville

A - How to create an opening book for Alex from Chess games in pgn format?

1- Rename old book (optional)
2- Run Alex in console mode.
3- Type: book <pgn file name and path> <enter>
4- Answer the questions:
	Number of moves deep (the number will be translated into plies)
	Minimun number of games per move 
	Draw games yes or no 
5- Wait
6- When finished, restart Alex and the new book will be used.

(Keep bin, exe, ini files in the same directory)

!!!!WARNING: STARTING WITH VERSION 1.67.03 THE OPENING BOOK FORMAT HAS CHANGED (Sep 4, 2005)

B - Some features:

Bitboard engine
Opening Book (new v1.70)
Init file (new v1.71)
Pondering
Force mode
PVS
Transposition table and pawn hash
Static exchange evaluation
Internal iterative deepening
late Move reduction
Lazy eval
bitbase (new!! v1.70) (Thanks to Daniel Shawul)
No analysis mode 
Written in C++ (MSV C++ 6.0)
No source code (Change all the time)
Strength: Class A to Expert
Alex will resign in hopeless situations (see Alex.ini)
Alex understands 4 cases of draw: stalemate, fifty-move, 3-fold repetition, insuffisiant material

Comunication: UCI and Winboard compatible (tested mostly with Winboard and Arena)

Type: "help" in consol mode to see more commands

The moves are entered in coordinate notations (e2e4, e1g1, f7f8q...)                
                
Thanks,

Marcel Normand Blais


   
