A little bit about AnMon:

AnMon downloads are available on WBEC Ridderkerk!
Leo Dijksman (WBEC Ridderkerk)

I really like to look back to those days I exchange eMails over eMails with Prof. Dr. Djordje Vidanovic with infos about amateur chess-engines. So one night, Djordje told me a story about AnMon, a totally unknown engine for me and I get really curious. Djordje must told me every Info he has. Well, that’s long ago and about those days I have also the bad days in mind while Djordje and his family was in big danger because of the rumours in Serbia. So I have different minds about those times. Before the rumours, I think it was the best time in my life about chess, exchanging informations with Djordje. Espescially AnMon was the program which spend me and Djordje some wonderful hours.

AnMon plays sharp tactical chess and is not easy to get oversearched. In the last versions there was a little mistake so that AnMon plays much worser with activated permanent brain in engine-engine contests compared with disactivated permanent brain. AnMon strength is very near to crafty and it is for sure one of the best winboard-engine. The pleasant and popular programmer from france has had the last month very less time for his program because he has a hard and time consuming task at work. Anyway he wrote me, that he knows that AnMon must be improved in endgames. Here is the point where Christian wants to start further improvements. I think endgame strength is often the secret why the so called TOP-programs are still superior to the amateurs.

The biggest success in the life of AnMon (apart from the win of the france-open in Massy 2000 ahead of Chess Tiger !) was the success over GM Joel Lautier at a simul on four boards with longer time controls. After just 31 moves GM Joel Lautier (FRA, 2638 ELO) must give up the game. I don’t know any chess program which defeat a GM (even on a 4 board-simul) so fast. The game is also in the MEGA-2001 database of Chessbase (I am very happy about it).

Well, again I must think back to the times with Djordje. When there came an eMail from Christian BARRETEAU it didn’t took much time that we again was in contact and follow our vocation. For Christian BARRETEAU chess-programming is just a hobby and Christian allways like it when users show interest and are working with it. This is usually the same with other programmers but I am writing now about AnMon.

I really hope that Christian will stay with us winboarders still for a long time, AnMon is my absolut favorit and I think it is again time to exchange information about it with Djordje. :-))

Oh, AnMon is the subject:
The playing style is not easy to describe. Sometimes AnMon loses quite fast but also AnMon could beat ANY TOP program after just a couple of moves. As SOS and Socrates AnMon uses the MTD-algorithm. This search technics is not so easy to program and many programers wrote me that the code is very hard to write and that it is not easy to adjust the engine to the needs of MTD. Just look at AnMon’s search and the PV. On fast computers it is nearly impossible to follow AnMon and how fast it shows different PVs.

Well, at this point Frank asks me to write something about MTD... hm, I do not know much about it, I know only that MTD uses a very small window, allways 1 or so... I was told that the algorithm is quite easy to understand, maybe easier then alpha-beta, but not easy to program, maybe I will add here a little bit more in the future ...

Once Christian Barreteau wrotes to me:
"The program AnMon (half ANgel, half deMON) is written in C and C++. And The move generator does not use bit  boards. It was developed as a hobby for many years. It is based on MTD() and  uses null-move pruning and uses: selective extensions, transposition tables,  killer, quiescence search ... AnMon is a tactical program."

One last point:
Prof. Dr. Djordje Vidanovic and of course Berthold Seifritz (earlier Gambit-Soft) are the fathers of the amateur chess programs. Both have tried to get amateur-chess interessting. Because of Djordje, Berthold and Christian BARRETEAU I get interested to do something on my own with amateur-chess-engines. Together with Volker Pittlik this was the starting point to develop many ideas and I think I really got something in motion. So AnMon is my favorit program from many point of views because it starts my personal interests in amateur-chess-engines. I wish Christian Barreteau many years of fun with his program and that he keeps on to provide many new AnMon-versions.