Hi,
normally I won't post anything about an engine after seeing only 1 game but I wanted to point out that there is a slight mistake in Frank's detail page : Francesca seemed to ponder very well on my computer ( means used permanent brain )
1st game I saw was quite impressive :
[Event "40moves/40minutes"]
[Site "unbekannt"]
[Date "2000.03.10"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Francesca ( PII300 ) "]
[Black "Der Bringer ( PIII500 ) "]
[Result "Weiß gewinnt"]
1. d4 Nf6 { 0.00 0:00:00.0 } 2. c4 e6 { 0.00 0:00:00.0 } 3. Nc3
Bb4 { 0.00 0:00:00.0 } 4. e3 c5 { 0.00 0:00:00.0 } 5. Bd3
d5 { 0.00 0:00:00.0 } 6. a3 cxd4 { 0.21/8 0:00:40.3 } 7. exd4
dxc4 { 0.16/8 0:00:39.7 (PB: 0:00:39.4 ) } 8. Bxc4 Bd6 { 0.00/8 0:00:46.8 (PB: 0:00:46.5 ) }
9. Nf3 O-O {-0.05/9 0:01:53.1 (PB: 0:01:52.8 ) } 10. O-O Bd7 {-0.02/9 0:00:52.9 }
11. d5 exd5 { 0.14/10 0:02:16.1 } 12. Nxd5 Nxd5 { 0.15/10 0:00:39.3 }
13. Bxd5 Bc6 { 0.06/11 0:02:37.1 (PB: 0:02:36.8 ) } 14. Ba2
Qc7 { 0.19/9 0:01:25.8 } 15. Kh1 Na6 { 0.09/9 0:01:12.5 (PB: 0:00:04.0 ) }
16. Nd4 Bd7 { 0.00/9 0:01:36.4 (PB: 0:01:36.1 ) } 17. Be3 Rad8 {-0.06/8 0:00:49.9 (PB: 0:00:49.7 ) }
18. Qh5 Qc5 {-0.09/8 0:00:44.6 } 19. Qh4 Qc7 {-0.47/9 0:02:02.3 }
20. Bb1 g6 {-0.49/9 0:01:55.8 } 21. Rc1 Qb8 {-0.59/10 0:01:20.9 }
22. Nf3 Rc8 {-1.02/8 0:00:53.3 } 23. Rd1 Nc5 {-1.16/8 0:00:48.7 }
24. Qf6 Ne6 {-1.99/10 0:01:32.0 } 25. Bh6 Ba4 {-1.89/10 0:01:18.4 (PB: 0:00:03.7 ) }
26. Ba2 Bf4 {-2.71/10 0:01:22.8 } 27. Bxf8 Bxd1 {-1.76/11 0:00:51.0 }
28. Rxd1 Rxf8 {-3.05/11 0:03:12.4 (PB: 0:03:12.1 ) } 29. Bxe6
fxe6 {-3.32/12 0:03:32.4 (PB: 0:03:32.3 ) } 30. Qxe6+ Kh8 {-3.32/11 0:00:58.0 (PB: 0:00:57.8 ) }
31. Rd7 Qe8 {-3.32/10 0:01:08.4 (PB: 0:01:08.2 ) } 32. Qd5
Bg5 {-3.44/9 0:02:51.2 (PB: 0:01:03.0 ) } 33. Qxb7 Bf6 {-3.42/11 0:01:30.9 (PB: 0:00:27.4 ) }
34. Rxh7+ Kg8 {-3.42/1 0:00:00.1 } 35. b3 Rf7 {-3.18/11 0:01:57.8 }
36. Qxf7+ Qxf7 {-3.17/1 0:00:00.1 } 37. Rxf7 Kxf7 {-3.24/17 0:01:57.7 }
38. Ne1 Ke6 {-3.23/16 0:03:40.2 } 39. Kg1 Ke5 {-3.29/16 0:04:11.6 }
40. Nc2 a5 {-3.33/16 0:03:52.7 }
Weiß gewinnt
Francesca showed good understanding of piece mobility here , and well exploited Bringer's weaknesses on the king's wing .
In fact I am very happy this game happened as it brought the bad time usage of Bringer in moves/minutes back to my memory ( fisher and blitz time control much better ) ; Bringer played much too fast and only started to use more time when it was much too late already .
Also Bringer underevaluated the weak kingside here .
Francesca played in a convincing way ; it seems to be a fast searcher calculating quite deep ; by watching it thinking it might be a little weaker in long time controls because the branching factor in higher plies seemed to decrease much ( but this _really_ is a wild guess ) .
Another amazingly strong free prog ; it seems chessprograms that want to sell sooner or later will be able to safely concentrate on features now when the free programs ( major example crafty ) have come so close in strength that it makes no sense for ordinary earthlings to wish them being even stronger ...
After this 1st game I already expect Francesca to be one of the programs I will like
pete