An improver of chess problems

Computer chess programs achieve outstanding results at playing chess. However, no existing program can compose adequate chess problems. In this paper, we present a model that is capable of improving the quality of some of the existing chess problems. We have formalized a major part of the knowledge needed for evaluating the quality of chess problems. In the model, we attempt to improve a given problem by a series of meaningful chess transformations, using a hill-climbing search, while satisfying several criteria at each step. This model has been implemented in a working system called Improver of Chess Problems (ICP). The results of the experiment we carried out show that the majority of the problems examined were optimal. However, the software has improved almost one-third of the tested problems most of them needing only slight changes. General lessons learned from this research may be useful in other composition domains.