Yace 0.20 available

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 29 June 2000 19:06:35:
at Frank's pages
http://www.in-trier.de/~quisinsky/schac ... ce_020.zip
Thanks Frank.
Probably Dann's horsepower version will be available soon.
Most important changes: table bases and fixed a serious castling bug. More
news appended.
Regards,
Dieter
Version 0.20 29.06.2000
Added table bases, new (Nalimov) format, compressed or uncompressed.
Thanks to Andrew Kadatch for permisson, to use the compression code,
and of course to Eugene Nalimov. With his source and documentation,
it was much easier, than I thought. Also thanks to Mogens Chr. Larson,
Volker Pittlik and Christian Goralsiki, for testing this.
Add a line like
tbldir e:\egtb
to yace.ini. Yace will use 2 Mb of cache for the table bases (should be
adjustable soon).
Yet another try for to fix the buffer overflow of winboard. The
fix advertized for 0.18 was wrong. Now, Yace will post much less
to winboard. The left out parts will be in the yace log.
Got rid of the null_threat command. This is redundant with "inullthreat".
Was never documented, so no problem.
Got rid of some short cuts for hash table hits, when the score was mate.
This worked well, when all the mates were searched, but now, we get some
mates for free from the EGTB tables. Hope, this won't hurt too much.
New KPK evaluation code. Thanks to Dann Corbit for reporting the bug.
Don't post stupid PV's with repeated null moves from the hash table anymore.
Got rid of a small speed enhancement in search, that only speeded up test
positions a tiny little bit and slowed down real games a tiny little bit.
Added rem and ; commands to allow commenting the ini file. Comments must be
on their own lines like
rem This is a comment
; and this also.
REM You can indent comments.
ReM As with all yace commands, rem is case insensitive.
; Due to my lazyness, there must be at least one space character
; after the semicolon.
hash=10M ; This is *not* allowed.
Got rid of an old bug, where Yace sometimes started to think after a
setboard command.
Added a pointer to Mogens Larsen's site for book downloading.
Suggesting to use hash 0 before book creation, to save memory.
Print the version number into test.sum.
Fixed a stupid bug, where Yace could castle through check, when the
checking piece was a pawn. Thanks to Dan Andersson for reporting this
and providing a reproducable test case.

[Pavel]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pavel at 29 June 2000 20:12:18:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 29 June 2000 19:06:35:

at Frank's pages
http://www.in-trier.de/~quisinsky/schac ... ce_020.zip
Thanks Frank.
Probably Dann's horsepower version will be available soon.
Most important changes: table bases and fixed a serious castling bug. More
news appended.
Regards,
Dieter
Version 0.20 29.06.2000
Added table bases, new (Nalimov) format, compressed or uncompressed.
Thanks to Andrew Kadatch for permisson, to use the compression code,
and of course to Eugene Nalimov. With his source and documentation,
it was much easier, than I thought. Also thanks to Mogens Chr. Larson,
Volker Pittlik and Christian Goralsiki, for testing this.
Add a line like
tbldir e:\egtb
to yace.ini. Yace will use 2 Mb of cache for the table bases (should be
adjustable soon).
Yet another try for to fix the buffer overflow of winboard. The
fix advertized for 0.18 was wrong. Now, Yace will post much less
to winboard. The left out parts will be in the yace log.
Got rid of the null_threat command. This is redundant with "inullthreat".
Was never documented, so no problem.
Got rid of some short cuts for hash table hits, when the score was mate.
This worked well, when all the mates were searched, but now, we get some
mates for free from the EGTB tables. Hope, this won't hurt too much.
New KPK evaluation code. Thanks to Dann Corbit for reporting the bug.
Don't post stupid PV's with repeated null moves from the hash table anymore.
Got rid of a small speed enhancement in search, that only speeded up test
positions a tiny little bit and slowed down real games a tiny little bit.
Added rem and ; commands to allow commenting the ini file. Comments must be
on their own lines like
rem This is a comment
; and this also.
REM You can indent comments.
ReM As with all yace commands, rem is case insensitive.
; Due to my lazyness, there must be at least one space character
; after the semicolon.
hash=10M ; This is *not* allowed.
Got rid of an old bug, where Yace sometimes started to think after a
setboard command.
Added a pointer to Mogens Larsen's site for book downloading.
Suggesting to use hash 0 before book creation, to save memory.
Print the version number into test.sum.
Fixed a stupid bug, where Yace could castle through check, when the
checking piece was a pawn. Thanks to Dan Andersson for reporting this
and providing a reproducable test case.

WOW!!
man you are fast!! so many developments in such a small time? how stronger is this version over 0.18?
that all i have to say.. i am scared
good going,
Pavel

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 29 June 2000 20:21:35:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Pavel at 29 June 2000 20:12:18:

WOW!!
man you are fast!! so many developments in such a small time?
how stronger is this version over 0.18?

Perhaps he has a team of people working for him ..
I remember about 2 weeks ago, where Morgan, Pete and a few of other began to sugguest features..So far he has done almost all of them , from Resigning, Parimeter adjustments, and now TB support..
I guess a book learner will be next and/or analysis mode??

It's amazing if this version is much stronger than 0.18..From what I read, it's around the same, except for support of Tablebases..
Anyway, Yace is amazing at tactics now..However, I think there's still room for positional understanding..
Perhaps I will run a few tests that guage "positional" understanding and see how Yace does..
Also, I'm running a few test match between Yace and Goliathv28 using adjusted parameters of Window=60 and PVstat=1.3 as sugguested ..I'll run maybe 20 G15 games with this..Then repeat with Default settings..

[That's a good idea! Thou]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: That's a good idea! Thought: Dann Corbit at 29 June 2000 21:27:29:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 29 June 2000 20:21:35:

WOW!!
man you are fast!! so many developments in such a small time?
how stronger is this version over 0.18?

Perhaps he has a team of people working for him ..
I remember about 2 weeks ago, where Morgan, Pete and a few of other began to sugguest features..So far he has done almost all of them , from Resigning, Parimeter adjustments, and now TB support..
I guess a book learner will be next and/or analysis mode??

It's amazing if this version is much stronger than 0.18..From what I read, it's around the same, except for support of Tablebases..
Anyway, Yace is amazing at tactics now..However, I think there's still room for positional understanding..
Perhaps I will run a few tests that guage "positional" understanding and see how Yace does..
Also, I'm running a few test match between Yace and Goliathv28 using adjusted parameters of Window=60 and PVstat=1.3 as sugguested ..I'll run maybe 20 G15 games with this..Then repeat with Default settings..

You can get a positional EPD test suite from my ftp site, or from the SSDF.
It's called tony-pos.epd on my site.


my ftp site

[Dan Andersson]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dan Andersson at 30 June 2000 01:00:49:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 29 June 2000 20:21:35:
There was a nasty castling bug that made some opening variations sheer sucide. Especially in some sicilans where there is an early pawn storm.

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 17:40:44:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: That's a good idea! Thought: Dann Corbit at 29 June 2000 21:27:29:

Anyway, Yace is amazing at tactics now..However, I think there's still room >>for positional understanding..
Perhaps I will run a few tests that guage "positional" understanding and see >>how Yace does..
Also, I'm running a few test match between Yace and Goliathv28 using adjusted >>parameters of Window=60 and PVstat=1.3 as sugguested ..I'll run maybe 20 G15 >>games with this..Then repeat with Default settings..

You can get a positional EPD test suite from my ftp site, or from the SSDF.
It's called tony-pos.epd on my site.

It doesn't work..I renamed it to "tony.ci" hoping that it would work..Opened Yace and typed "Test Tony.ci"..Not sure if it worked or not..But the files it generated were empty..

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 19:26:34:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 17:40:44:

You can get a positional EPD test suite from my ftp site, or from the SSDF.
It's called tony-pos.epd on my site.

It doesn't work..
I renamed it to "tony.ci" hoping that it would work..

It won't.
The file extension doesn't matter. The first line of tony-pos.epd looks like
[everything on one line]
1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - - bm Rbc8
; c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, b6=6, b5=5,
Be6=4, h6=3"; id "tony.pos.01";
I don't understand EPD, but the following convertion should work.
title c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, ...
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8
Mail me the resulting test file and your test results
Regards,
Dieter

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 20:42:33:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 19:26:34:

You can get a positional EPD test suite from my ftp site, or from the SSDF.
It's called tony-pos.epd on my site.

It doesn't work..
I renamed it to "tony.ci" hoping that it would work..

It won't.
The file extension doesn't matter. The first line of tony-pos.epd looks like
[everything on one line]
1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - - bm Rbc8
; c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, b6=6, b5=5,
Be6=4, h6=3"; id "tony.pos.01";
I don't understand EPD, but the following convertion should work.
title c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, ...
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8
Be6=4, h6=3"; setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - - solution Rbc8
Mail me the resulting test file and your test results

What's "title co"?
So I should change the first problem to
"positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, b6=6, b5=5,
It will take some time..to change everything..But I since lot of test sets are in EPD , it would be good if yace could support this..


Sure

[Please Sir, I want some m]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Please Sir, I want some more, said: Dann Corbit at 30 June 2000 20:52:26:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 19:26:34:

You can get a positional EPD test suite from my ftp site, or from the SSDF.
It's called tony-pos.epd on my site.

It doesn't work..
I renamed it to "tony.ci" hoping that it would work..

It won't.
The file extension doesn't matter. The first line of tony-pos.epd looks like
[everything on one line]
1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - - bm Rbc8
; c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, b6=6, b5=5,
Be6=4, h6=3"; id "tony.pos.01";
I don't understand EPD, but the following convertion should work.
title c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, ...
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8

Steven J. Edwards wrote the EPD interface for crafty and it's public domain.
You could use it for Yace.
It would really be nice for Yace to read and write standard EPD.
Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Know what I mean?


my ftp site

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 21:59:06:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 19:26:34:

setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8
Mail me the resulting test file and your test results

Sometimes there are 2 numbers following b - - ..Eg

setboard 5rk1/1ppb3p/p1pb4/6q1/3P1p1r/2P1R2P/PP1BQ1P1/5RKN w - - 0 1
Could someone explain what the 2 numbers there represent? The option to castle kingside or queenside existing??

slowly converting..
Dann where is the orginal website you got the tony.epd file? I want to see how the test is supposed to be conducted..
Aaron

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 22:28:02:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 20:42:33:

I don't understand EPD, but the following convertion should work.
title c0 "positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, ...
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8
Be6=4, h6=3"; setboard >1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - - solution >Rbc8

What's "title co"?
So I should change the first problem to
"positional scores are: Rbc8=10, exf4=9, Bc6=7, Rec8=6, b6=6, b5=5,

"co" doesn't mean anything for Yace. I guess, it means comment in the
original. Yace will try to remember the last "title" line, and try
to produce nice machine generated files with this line. Otherwise,
it is totally unrelevant.
No. Change it literally to the three lines cited with ">>" and beginning
with title. Also the quotes are irrelevant. They are just the result
of my cutting and pasting.
Regards,
Dieter

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 22:29:41:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Please Sir, I want some more, said: Dann Corbit at 30 June 2000 20:52:26:

Steven J. Edwards wrote the EPD interface for crafty and it's public domain.
You could use it for Yace.
It would really be nice for Yace to read and write standard EPD.
Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Know what I mean?

Dann, you already hinted this once. I have noted it (at least in my brain) and
I hope that this will work some time in the future. As you are well aware, I do
know the Crafty source. A "wc epd*.c epd*.h" showed that the EPD code of Crafty
needs the same order of magnitude of source lines, that the whole Yace source
needs. So, this will need some time, and will be delayed until july 23rd. (Guess
what this date means)
In the mean time, you may be able to give a pointer to a formal description of
the EPD format.
Regards,
Dieter

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 30 June 2000 22:50:56:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 30 June 2000 22:29:41:

Steven J. Edwards wrote the EPD interface for crafty and it's public domain.
You could use it for Yace.
It would really be nice for Yace to read and write standard EPD.
Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Know what I mean?

Dann, you already hinted this once. I have noted it (at least in my brain) and
I hope that this will work some time in the future. As you are well aware, I do
know the Crafty source. A "wc epd*.c epd*.h" showed that the EPD code of Crafty
needs the same order of magnitude of source lines, that the whole Yace source
needs. So, this will need some time, and will be delayed until july 23rd. (Guess
what this date means)
In the mean time, you may be able to give a pointer to a formal description of
the EPD format.

It's part of the PGN standard by Steven J. Edwards. A web search will turn up bazillions of copies. If you have trouble finding one, let me know and I will email one to you.


my ftp site

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 01 July 2000 00:34:35:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 21:59:06:

setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
solution Rbc8
Mail me the resulting test file and your test results

Sometimes there are 2 numbers following b - - ..Eg

setboard 5rk1/1ppb3p/p1pb4/6q1/3P1p1r/2P1R2P/PP1BQ1P1/5RKN w - - 0 1
Could someone explain what the 2 numbers there represent? The option to castle kingside or queenside existing??
slowly converting..
Dann where is the orginal website you got the tony.epd file? I want to see how the test is supposed to be conducted..

Go here:
http://home.interact.se/~w100107/welcome.htm
Then to here (or just go directly):
http://home.interact.se/~w100107/fentest.htm

my ftp site

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 01 July 2000 12:23:55:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 30 June 2000 22:50:56:

It's part of the PGN standard by Steven J. Edwards. A web search will turn up
bazillions of copies.

I found the following:
|EPD_Spec: Extended Position Description Specification
|Revised: 1995.11.26
Is this current?
Reading it seems to indicate that support for test positions shouldn't
be difficult. Even easier might be a tool to convert EPD data into the test
format Yace/Crafty can read. Such a tool might be created with the help of Yacc (Yet another compiler compiler), the program that has inspired Yace's name,
and so might be a nice companion program for Yace.
Does such a tool already exist?
OTOH, full support for EPD will be quite a big task. Alone the "glueing code"
of Crafty is over 3500 lines.

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 01 July 2000 13:45:43:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 30 June 2000 21:59:06:

Sometimes there are 2 numbers following b - - ..Eg

setboard 5rk1/1ppb3p/p1pb4/6q1/3P1p1r/2P1R2P/PP1BQ1P1/5RKN w - - 0 1
Could someone explain what the 2 numbers there represent?
The option to castle kingside or queenside existing??

I think they are the number for repetition of the position, and the half
moves since the last pawn push or capture. Yace currently ignores these
numbers.
The first slash above is for casling rights. When both sides may castle
long and short, the slash would be changed to KQkq (uppercase for white).
The second slash is the e.p. target (i.e. b3).
Regards,
Dieter

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 01 July 2000 15:21:44:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: EPD geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 01 July 2000 12:23:55:

Reading it seems to indicate that support for test positions shouldn't
be difficult. Even easier might be a tool to convert EPD data into the test
format Yace/Crafty can read.
Does such a tool already exist?
OTOH, full support for EPD will be quite a big task. Alone the "glueing code"
of Crafty is over 3500 lines.

exactly, I was wondering about the very same thing. Doing it manually is quite troublesome..
Dieter I have a problem..
I changed the tony.epd into this ..

title position 001
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
Solution Rbc8
title position 002
setboard r1bk1bnr/ppp2ppp/8/4n3/2P5/P3B3/1P3PPP/RN2KBNR w - -
Solution Nf3
title position 003
setboard 8/7p/3k2p1/6P1/4KP2/8/7P/8 w - -
Solution h4
title position 004
setboard r1b1r1k1/1p1n1pbp/2p1n1p1/q1P1p3/4P3/1PN1BNPP/2Q2PB1/1R1R2K1 w - -
solution Rb2
title position 005
setboard 1rN1r1k1/1pq2pp1/2p1nn1p/p2p1B2/3P4/4P2P/PPQ1NPP1/2R2RK1 b - -
solution Rexc8
title position 006
setboard 3r1rk1/p1q2pbp/1np1p1p1/1p2P3/5P2/2N2Q1P/PPP3P1/3RRBK1 b - -
solution Rxd1
title position 007


Then i run yace.exe . Type "st 600" type "test tony.ci" ..However, Yace just skips the first 4 problems..I wonder what is going on..
Also what are the files below generated about?
eg
clean.ci
eclean.ci
hairy.ci
lost.ci
rh.ci
testsum.ci

I was hoping that a file would be generated that showed which move was chosen by Yace . (not in testsum.ci??)
Since for positional tests, marks are awarded not only for the best moves, but for other moves as well..
Currently, I have to monitor the program, to see which move Yace finally settles on..

Okay..

[Brice BOISSEL]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Brice BOISSEL at 01 July 2000 15:55:24:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 29 June 2000 19:06:35:
Hello Dieter,
Yace is a fantastic program, but could you implemente the "Move Now fonction ?"
So, Yace can participate in my tournament BB17...
Well cordially,
brice.boissel2@wanadoo.fr

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 01 July 2000 17:14:39:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: Yace 0.20 available geschrieben von: / posted by: Brice BOISSEL at 01 July 2000 15:55:24:

... could you implemente the "Move Now fonction ?"
So, Yace can participate in my tournament BB17...

Done. If you want to test it, leave me a note.
Also, I think I have solved a problem reported for playing on FICS.
I personally do not intend to play on FICS, so if anybody wants to
try ...
But why do you need this for a tournament?
Regards,
Dieter

[Dieter Buerssner]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dieter Buerssner at 01 July 2000 17:16:23:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: EPD geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 01 July 2000 15:21:44:

I changed the tony.epd into this ..

title position 001
setboard 1r2r1k1/1pqbbppp/p2p1n2/4p3/P3PP2/2N1BB2/1PP2QPP/R4R1K b - -
Solution Rbc8
Also what are the files below generated about?
clean.ci
eclean.ci
hairy.ci
lost.ci
rh.ci
testsum.ci
I was hoping that a file would be generated that showed which move was chosen >by Yace . (not in testsum.ci??)

This should be solution. Other than the interactive commands, the test
commands are case sensitive.
These were all to optimize my private testing.
Yace has found the solution of these positions, and didn't loose it
again after more than 20000 nodes. Very easy positions (less than 10000
nodes) are not included.
Same, including also easy positions.
Solution not found or more than 10000 Nodes needed.
Solution not found
Solution not found or more than 200000 Nodes needed.
It's called test.sum and is a summary of all tests done so far, including
engine parameters, version number and more.
Just look at the log file. You may want to type
log tony.log
before doing the test.
You can also automate testing by redirecting input. Put Something like
; Default parameters
log tony.log
st 600
test tony.ci
; Try out this
pval 1.2
window 60
test tony.ci
quit
into tonytest.inp and then run
yace < tonytest.inp
or do
input tonytest.inp
at the Yace prompt.
For testing on a loaded machine, I suggest using
nodes 10M
or similar, instead of st, because this will give reproducable results.
Feel free to contribute a better description of testing for Yace
Regards,
Dieter