Bitscores

Bitscores are a concept primarily found in the context of the game of chess, specifically in chess engines and rating systems that utilize bitboards for efficient representation and manipulation of the chess board. A bitscore, in this context, is not a universally defined or standardized term with a single meaning. Instead, it generally refers to a numerical value that represents the evaluation of a particular chess position by an engine. This evaluation is derived from the engine's internal assessment of material balance, pawn structure, king safety, piece activity, and other strategic and tactical factors.

Different chess engines may use their own proprietary algorithms to calculate these bitscores, and the range and interpretation of these scores can vary. For example, some engines might express scores in centipawns, where a score of +100 typically indicates an advantage of one pawn for the side with the higher score. Other engines might use different scales. The term "bitscore" is sometimes used colloquially by programmers or advanced users of chess engines to refer to the raw output of an engine's evaluation function, especially when those engines are implemented using bitboard techniques. These bitboard representations allow for extremely fast calculations of legal moves and position evaluations, which are crucial for strong chess play. Therefore, a bitscore is essentially the engine's opinion of who is winning and by how much, expressed as a number.