Over the Easter weekend, I've had some more time to put into AHEM (Adam's Happy Electronic Morabaraba), and it's shaping up nicely. I've made some serious improvements to the engine, including:

• improved quiescence
• transposition tables
• killer heuristic
• null-move proving
• knowledge enhancements
• Used the Intel C Compiler to build the DLL which ships with the GUI - this on its own brings a significant speed boost

Also a key bugfix which was impairing the search in key positions. All in all, the current unreleased code makes AHEM 0.5 look like a beginner, performing deeper, faster and smarter searches. I was planning on adding a bunch of UI features for release 0.6 but I'm tempted to just bundle up these engine enhancements and ship it - the engine is really beginning to look strong, like something that might actually not be embarrassed by competition!

Speaking of which: AHEM has never been tested against serious Morabaraba players. I have long since been unable to compete with AHEM, but that reflects more closely on my ineptness than it does on AHEM's strength. However, the great strides which AHEM has taken this year suggests that AHEM will hopefully be able to hold its own against strong players; this is a theory which I would dearly like to test. If you regard yourself as a strong Morarabaraba player, please email me so that I can arrange a game - I am convinced that there is a great deal for me (and AHEM!) to learn from real Morabaraba experts.