I was very pleased with the results of Uptown 1.5 in Sedat's Prize Tournament I. 5th place is a great accomplishment, especially given the quality of competitors present. However, in reviewing the games played, I've started to become disillusioned / frustrated with the current "standard" opening of B90.
It seems we have two options currently. Continue to play the B90 game, and compete with the many authors who continue to tweak and perfect the existing lines, or to search out new land to explore. For the next SCCT Prize Tournament, I've chosen the latter, and have created a new tournament book, called 'Midtown'.
As far as the fate of the "Uptown" book series, I'm undecided. I do enjoy adding new lines to the book, and sharing them with the community, but I won't be able to dedicate my time to it 100% as I was previously. Right now I do plan to update "Uptown" but the updates may be slow and few.
SCCT Prize Tournament II is scheduled in ~ 2 weeks, so I'll know more when see how Midtown performs.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
How to test engine strength
I've seen a few people share their engine tests, and I just wanted to mention the concept of test suites, as this is the most accurate way of testing an engine.
When you test engines, you want to remove as many variables as possible. Many people will test engines with an opening book, which is a mistake. Unless the opening book is 100% neutral (meaning that every line ends with an evaluation of +0.00) then the test will be inaccurate. The easiest way to remove that problem is to not use opening books. However, this means the engines have to take time trying to evaluate e2-e4 or basic opening moves. This means they will have less time to evaluate the positions that really make a difference.
That is where test suites come in. Suites are special opening books that start games in certain positions in order to measure engine strength. This removes the need for traditional opening books, and also allows the engines to put their full power into processing important positions, and avoid wasting time on such basic positions such as e2-e4, etc.. Another important aspect of test suites is that the results are able to be reproduced 100%, using the same hardware. Playing a standard engine match is not, as an engine may choose to open with e2-e4 one time, and then choosing to open with c2-c4 the next time.
If you really want to get an accurate measurement of engine strength, using test suites is the best way to test engines against each other.
Currently, I use the Silver Openings Suite test suite, but I believe Fritz also ships with a test suite that comes pre-installed, called the Nunn test suite (named after its author, GM John Nunn).
Here's a good article that covers the basics, and gives step by step instructions on how to use the Silver Openings Suite.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6147
Just as a side note, I finished test Firebird 1.1 against Rybka 3 using the Silver Openings Suite, with controls of 4+2. Results were +31=51-11, in favor of Firebird 1.1
When you test engines, you want to remove as many variables as possible. Many people will test engines with an opening book, which is a mistake. Unless the opening book is 100% neutral (meaning that every line ends with an evaluation of +0.00) then the test will be inaccurate. The easiest way to remove that problem is to not use opening books. However, this means the engines have to take time trying to evaluate e2-e4 or basic opening moves. This means they will have less time to evaluate the positions that really make a difference.
That is where test suites come in. Suites are special opening books that start games in certain positions in order to measure engine strength. This removes the need for traditional opening books, and also allows the engines to put their full power into processing important positions, and avoid wasting time on such basic positions such as e2-e4, etc.. Another important aspect of test suites is that the results are able to be reproduced 100%, using the same hardware. Playing a standard engine match is not, as an engine may choose to open with e2-e4 one time, and then choosing to open with c2-c4 the next time.
If you really want to get an accurate measurement of engine strength, using test suites is the best way to test engines against each other.
Currently, I use the Silver Openings Suite test suite, but I believe Fritz also ships with a test suite that comes pre-installed, called the Nunn test suite (named after its author, GM John Nunn).
Here's a good article that covers the basics, and gives step by step instructions on how to use the Silver Openings Suite.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6147
Just as a side note, I finished test Firebird 1.1 against Rybka 3 using the Silver Openings Suite, with controls of 4+2. Results were +31=51-11, in favor of Firebird 1.1
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tablebases
If you are a serious computer chess user, end-game tablebases are required. The 3-4-5 bases are widely available for download and are (relatively) small at about ~7GB. However, the 6-man bases are much, much larger. As I do not have 1TB of disk space to devote to the full 6-man set, I use a selected set of them. I have found this subset to be very good at covering many end-game scenarios, so I wanted to share them with you. The set I currently use is as follows.
krppkr > kqrpkr > kqqrkr = 10.91gb
krpkrp > kqrkrp > kqrkqr = 12.77gb
kppkpp > kqpkpp > kqpkqp > kqqkqp > kqqkqq =12.15gb
kpppkn,b > kqppkn,b > kqqpkn,b = 11.53gb
knppkr > kqnpkr > kqqnkr = 11.48gb
kbppkr > kqbpkr > kqqbkr = 12.45gb
rrp vs. q > qrr vs. q = 7.2gb
This entire subset requires about 80GB of space, and provides a good amount of coverage for frequently played 6-man scenarios.
You can download the full 6-man set (or whichever portions you would like) from Steinar H. Gunderson's website below.
Please note - Do not use a "download accelerator" or any other program that will download more than 1 file at a time! If you have more than 1 concurrent download, you will be banned. Please use responsibly.
http://tablebase.sesse.net/
Brandon
krppkr > kqrpkr > kqqrkr = 10.91gb
krpkrp > kqrkrp > kqrkqr = 12.77gb
kppkpp > kqpkpp > kqpkqp > kqqkqp > kqqkqq =12.15gb
kpppkn,b > kqppkn,b > kqqpkn,b = 11.53gb
knppkr > kqnpkr > kqqnkr = 11.48gb
kbppkr > kqbpkr > kqqbkr = 12.45gb
rrp vs. q > qrr vs. q = 7.2gb
This entire subset requires about 80GB of space, and provides a good amount of coverage for frequently played 6-man scenarios.
You can download the full 6-man set (or whichever portions you would like) from Steinar H. Gunderson's website below.
Please note - Do not use a "download accelerator" or any other program that will download more than 1 file at a time! If you have more than 1 concurrent download, you will be banned. Please use responsibly.
http://tablebase.sesse.net/
Brandon
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
LesChats & Monferrat
Jordi has released two new versions of his books, LesChats and Monferrat. Very impressive work, as usual. You can download them at Jordi's website.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Back!
I'm back, and slightly sunburned, but a good time was had by all.
Working very quickly to update Uptown with some changes, a number of very strong books were released while I was gone. Looking forward to getting the new version over to Sedat for the next round of the SCCT 2010 tournament.
Working very quickly to update Uptown with some changes, a number of very strong books were released while I was gone. Looking forward to getting the new version over to Sedat for the next round of the SCCT 2010 tournament.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Uptown 1.2
1.2 for public release. Download link over there.. --->
Please let me know how you like it, and if you have the time I'd appreciate any games you could send me. PGN works best, but I'll take it however you can send it.
Brandon
Please let me know how you like it, and if you have the time I'd appreciate any games you could send me. PGN works best, but I'll take it however you can send it.
Brandon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)