General overview of chess algorithms -

i trying understand basic chess algorithms. have not read literature in depth yet after cogitating here attempt:

1) assign weight values pieces(i.e. bishop more valuable pawn)

2) define heuristic function attaches value particular move

3) build minimax tree store possible moves. prune tree via alpha/beta pruning.

4) traverse tree find best move each player

is core "big picture" idea of chess algorithms? can point me resources go more in depth regarding chess algorithms?

following overview of chess engine development.

1. create board representation.

in object-oriented language, object represent chess board in memory. options @ stage are:

1. bitboards
2. 0x88
3. 8x8

bitboards recommended way many reasons.

2. create evaluation function.

this takes board , side-to-evaluate agruments , returns score. method signature like:

int evaluate(board boardposition, int sidetoevaluatefor); 

this use weights assigned each piece. use heuristics if desire. simple evaluation function add weights of sidetoevaluatefor's pieces , subtract weights of opposite side's pieces. such evaluation function of course naive real chess engine.

3. create search function.

this be, said, on lines of minimax search alpha-beta pruning. of popular search algorithms are:

1. negamax
2. negascout
3. mtd(f)

basic idea try different variations maximum depth , choose move recommended variation results in highest score. score each variation score returned evaluation method board position @ maximum depth.

for example of chess engine in c# have @ https://github.com/bytefire/shutranj put recently. better open source engine @ stockfish (https://github.com/mcostalba/stockfish) written in c++.