Aurora Borealis (program)

Aurora Borealis (from lat. - "Northern Lights") - a computer checker program. Developer Alexander Svirin, Yakutsk . In fact, the first widespread program for working with batch bases in 64-cell checkers is similar to the chess Chess Base ( Fritz ), the Russian Chess Assistant. At the time of the creation of the first DOS version (1999), there was already a program for the bases of parties in Russian drafts of SPIRT Sergey Bobrovsky, the author of the game program Agafonov Draughts, but the project, having not received distribution, quickly ceased to exist. Meanwhile, other types of checkers are added to Aurora, first 64-cell, then 100, 144 and 80, and a Windows version appears. A distinctive feature of the program is that all types of drafts are collected in one module of the program, while in other projects different types of drafts are separate programs (for example, the Plus ^[1] , WinDames ^[2] series of programs, more modern Tornadoes, Edeon).

Aurora borealis
Type of	Drafts program
Author	Alexander Svirin
Written on	Delphi
Interface	graphic
operating system	Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS
Interface languages	Russian and others
Latest version	3.8.6 (Professional), 4.2 (Lite) (June 2018)
License	Proprietary : commercial and free software
Site	aurora.draughtsworld.com

The current version (3.7 - January 2016) already works with 14 checker systems, the most popular in the world:

• on a 64-cell board - Russian , Brazilian , Italian , Czech , American pool , Anglo-American checkers , Spanish , Thai, Turkish;
• on an 80-cell plank - “ damsels ”;
• on a 100-cell board - international , international killer, Frisian ;
• on a 144-cell board - Canadian checkers ;

The closest analogue in functionality for working with bases is the Dutch Turbodambase Klaas Bora, which is popular mainly in 100-cell checkers. At present, Russian drafts also have several programs that have developed means of working with party bases (Edeon, Tornado, Tosha).

Size of the database of games in checkers at the present (2015) time:

• Russian drafts - about 110 thousand games (the main contribution to the development of the base was made by mgr Alexander Kandaurov , the project shashki.com, later this base also began to be used by all other programs in Russian drafts),
• checkers (English checkers) - more than 30 thousand (based on the OCA project - Open Checkers Archive),
• Brazilian drafts - about 19 thousand (project of the Brazilian Drafts Federation),
• Italian drafts - about 6.5 thousand.,
• Czech drafts - 2.2 thousand,
• international drafts - more than 260 thousand games (probably based on Turbodambase based on previous versions).

The game’s own game and analytic engine is relatively weak (nevertheless, it is among the ten best checkers programs), but the program allows you to connect other, more powerful external modules for games and analysis (other programs, only in version 2.x) -

• Kallisto , developer Igor Korshunov - for playing Russian, Brazilian checkers, pool,
• KingsRow , developer Ed Gilbert, for playing Anglo-American , Italian drafts .

Aurora has its own endgame bases, one of the largest in the world:

• in 64-cell checkers (Russian, Brazilian) - full 10-figured bases, in other types - 9-figured
• into 80-cell checkers - the only 8-figure base in the world
• into 100-cell checkers - at the time of creation, the world's second full 8-figure base (after the KingsRow program)

When generating endgame bases, the classic backtracking algorithm was used, but a different indexing scheme was used than was used previously to generate the extra large checker endgame bases described in the Chinook project. In the case of Aurora, endgames with simple checkers are not divided into classes according to the most advanced checker, but according to the tempo number of positions.

The program is widely distributed in the former USSR, in Italy ^[3] , Brazil ^[4] . In 2008, she was nominated for the "Software of the Year" award from mail.ru ^{[5] [6]} .