Wanted: Engine Recommendation

[Peter McKenzie]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:
Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...
thanks,
Peter

[Mogens Larsen]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Mogens Larsen at 25 June 2000 00:07:05:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...

What about AnMon or Comet? I don't how well they'll do with only 2Mb hash, but there's only one way to find out. I would probably try AnMon, because you only need three files: book, executable and settings and WinBoard. Try this link:
http://www.in-trier.de/~quisinsky/schac ... ad_top.htm
There's several versions and several books available.
Best wishes...
Mogens


MCL

[José Carlos]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: José Carlos at 25 June 2000 00:20:53:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Mogens Larsen at 25 June 2000 00:07:05:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...

What about AnMon or Comet? I don't how well they'll do with only 2Mb hash, but there's only one way to find out. I would probably try AnMon, because you only need three files: book, executable and settings and WinBoard. Try this link:
http://www.in-trier.de/~quisinsky/schac ... ad_top.htm
There's several versions and several books available.
Best wishes...
Mogens

Cannot say for sure without testing, but I guess Anmon will not do it very well with small hash tables, cause MTD(f) needs hash tables much more than normal Alfa-Beta Programs.
José C.

[pete]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: pete at 25 June 2000 00:24:45:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...
thanks,
Peter

Try Bringer1.7 ( probably released during this weekend ) or Bringer1.6 dowloadable at http://www.reubold.onlinehome.de
just use default settings ( this means about 2 MB ) or lessen them .
just put "Bringer /winboard" in your winboard.ini.
ok
download the medium.bok from the above sight ; it is quite decent ; if you are really looking for more decent ones I could also provide a more decent one ; in fact it is very easy to make it as decent as wanted for yourself though .
ok
hmm , it is unclear if it is better than Chop so probably this criterium is missing
ok

[A Tanner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: A Tanner at 25 June 2000 01:51:34:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:
www.borgstaedt.de
little goliath is excellent in the endgame and doesn't support tablebases
lg2000 v2.8 and tournament book 1meg
the following was snipped from goliath.cfg
HASHSIZE [2 - 384 MB]=2
COMBINATION [ON or OFF]=OFF
CHESS KNOWLEDGE [ON or OFF]=ON
-----------------------------
BOOK [ON or OFF]=ON
LEARNING [ON or OFF]=ON
LOG-FILE [ON or OFF]=OFF
-----------------------------

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...
thanks,
Peter

[Pete Galati]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pete Galati at 25 June 2000 02:10:38:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...
thanks,
Peter

I think Comet probably fits the bill pretty well. It's very strong, and very dependable program, I don't know of any bugs at the moment. And it's not one of those programs with the irritating install programs, so setting it up's not even going to mess with your computer's settings at all.
Pete

[Peter McKenzie]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Peter McKenzie at 25 June 2000 06:29:02:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:
I downloaded LG2000 from www.borgstaedt.de and it suited my needs perfectly. Nice web page too. I now have a test match going, will report results when available.
I had tried Anmon and Comet, but couldn't get them working for some reason...
Might try the new Bringer next...
cheers,
Peter

[Peter McKenzie]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Peter McKenzie at 25 June 2000 09:05:59:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Thanks geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 25 June 2000 06:29:02:
Well, LG2000 scored 70% in a 25 game bullet match vs LambChop. Not really surprising since LG is known as a fast searcher and games were on P133 at 2 2 time limit (2min + 2sec inc). Hopefully Chop will do better at long time controls, but time will tell...
Something strange I noticed about LG, after it resigns a game playing white it resigns the very next game on move 1. Has anyone else seen this problem? Some sort of winboard compatability problem I perhaps, I'm using 4.0.3 so I should probably upgrade to the latest.
Peter

[Mogens Larsen]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Mogens Larsen at 25 June 2000 09:24:28:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Result LG vs LC geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 25 June 2000 09:05:59:

Well, LG2000 scored 70% in a 25 game bullet match vs LambChop. Not really surprising since LG is known as a fast searcher and games were on P133 at 2 2 time limit (2min + 2sec inc). Hopefully Chop will do better at long time controls, but time will tell...
Something strange I noticed about LG, after it resigns a game playing white it resigns the very next game on move 1. Has anyone else seen this problem? Some sort of winboard compatability problem I perhaps, I'm using 4.0.3 so I should probably upgrade to the latest.

If your program has a lot of endgame knowledge, then it has a good chance of doing better with more time.
That is not a new problem and it also exists with 4.0.7. I suggest adding /-reuse /-reuse2 as additional options under the startup dialog to force a reloading of engines.
Best wishes...
Mogens


WinBoard page

[Dann [not glowing] Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann [not glowing] Corbit at 26 June 2000 03:07:03:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
- allow small hash tables (1 or 2 MB).
- easy to set up!
- should not require the cygnus dll or similar.
- there should be a decent book available (hopefully not more than a few MB).
- should play OK without tablebases.
- the stronger the better.
- preferably not crafty (I see enough crafty games on servers).
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...

I think it is a big mistake to play only against one or two engines. It is not at all unusual for an engine to "have the number" of a different engine and dominate it. If you play a spectrum of strong engines you will get a much better idea of the real strength.
Also, you will find out which engines can pick you to pieces. This will show areas that need improvement.


My FTP site

[Stefano Gemma]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Stefano Gemma at 26 June 2000 19:48:26:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Wanted: Engine Recommendation geschrieben von: / posted by: Peter McKenzie at 24 June 2000 23:49:46:

Hi,
I am looking for a winboard engine to use for testing my program LambChop. The program should meet the following criteria, in order of importance:
I guess these are alot of criteria, so I'm not surprised I haven't found what I'm looking for
Any suggestions appreciated...

[...]
Raffaela satisfy almost all of your requirement:
- dont't use hash tables at all
- no setup needed
- no dll needed
- sorry: it don't use books
- no tablebases needed
- no stronger as i would...
- the algorithm are all completly originals, no crafty-like
Ciao!!!
PS: i think the ELO is about 1500