GullChess 2.1

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

Hello,

GullChess 2.1 is out -
http://www.sdchess.ru/download_engines.htm

Here are the changes in reference to former versions:

Gull 2.1 @ 17.06.2013
Evaluation weights are optimized with the use of automated tuning (source code included).
Gull's evaluation is no longer almost identical to that of Ivanhoe.
Minor search & time management & SMP efficiency enhancements.

On SMP & Hyper-Threading:
By default Gull limits the number of processes to the number of phisical CPU cores availible.
This is done in order to avoid ELO drop due to significant SMP search overhead at bullet time controls.
However for long games & analysis it is recommended to turn HT on and manually set the number of processes (UCI option "Threads")
to equal the number of logical CPUs.

On the automated tuning (technical):
Tuning is done in two steps:
1. an estimate of the gradient is calculated;
2. line search is performed.
SPSA (just move a bit along the gradient direction instead of performing a line search) may also be quite effective,
though it's difficult to pick good parameters.
Fairly simple exit criteria are used for the line search. I don't employ SPRT because it's guaranteed to be optimal only for
elo=elo1 vs elo=elo0 hypothesis, whereas in this case we are interested in elo>elo0 vs elo<=elo0 test. However it's still possible
for SPRT (or some other test) to be better for some elo-elo0 values. Shouldn't be very difficult to run a numerical comparision
between various tests.

Best wishes,
Norbert

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

but Gull 2.1 exe does not run on Windows XP 3 (32-bit)

error message (translated from German) :
Gull 2.1 exe is not an allowed win32-application

[velmarin]

but Gull 2.1 exe does not run on Windows XP 3 (32-bit)

error message (translated from German) :
Gull 2.1 exe is not an allowed win32-application

Probe now, ThinkingALot in Inmortal Forum:

Code: Select all

Re: Gull
I recompiled the 32-bit version so it doesn't require any additional DLLs now. Gull 2.1.zip file on sourceforge is updated.
Last edited by ThinkingALot; Today at 07:54.

[geots]

Hello,

GullChess 2.1 is out -
http://www.sdchess.ru/download_engines.htm

Here are the changes in reference to former versions:

Gull 2.1 @ 17.06.2013
Evaluation weights are optimized with the use of automated tuning (source code included).
Gull's evaluation is no longer almost identical to that of Ivanhoe.
Minor search & time management & SMP efficiency enhancements.

On SMP & Hyper-Threading:
By default Gull limits the number of processes to the number of phisical CPU cores availible.
This is done in order to avoid ELO drop due to significant SMP search overhead at bullet time controls.
However for long games & analysis it is recommended to turn HT on and manually set the number of processes (UCI option "Threads")
to equal the number of logical CPUs.

On the automated tuning (technical):
Tuning is done in two steps:
1. an estimate of the gradient is calculated;
2. line search is performed.
SPSA (just move a bit along the gradient direction instead of performing a line search) may also be quite effective,
though it's difficult to pick good parameters.
Fairly simple exit criteria are used for the line search. I don't employ SPRT because it's guaranteed to be optimal only for
elo=elo1 vs elo=elo0 hypothesis, whereas in this case we are interested in elo>elo0 vs elo<=elo0 test. However it's still possible
for SPRT (or some other test) to be better for some elo-elo0 values. Shouldn't be very difficult to run a numerical comparision
between various tests.

Best wishes,
Norbert

Let me be sure I have this correct. On my 6-Core i7, I run all matches with HT disabled. If I want to run a 4-Core match and set this Gull to use 4 Cores, will it only use 4 of the 6 true Cores available- or will it attempt to grab all 6 and use them. You would be surprised at the number of engines that attempt this- so I have to run them on one of my i5 4-Core systems, because they cannot take what aint there.

I ask because at the moment I do not have time to install it and check myself. One last thing- would you just make a ballpark guess as to the elo increase for this version. Trust me- I hold you to nothing. I WILL NOT be coming back and saying, "But you told me blah, blah."

Talking to others here- not you. Please don't be telling me how I need to use HT- not interested.



All the best to you Norbert,

george

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

InterlockedCompareExchange64 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... s.85).aspx was not found in kernel 32.dll

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gullchess/

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... p/ms683562

[Sylwy]

So the 32-bit compile is not fully 32-bit.

Now it's OK !

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gullchess/

SilvianR

[velmarin]

On my machine does not work correctly, (win 7, AMD Phenom)
on Fritz, if work,
but processes remain open after removing the engine.
It causes paralysis of the machine.

[velmarin]

Now I can not try more, was very short test.
Compiling 64-bit does not have this problem.
I'll report to the Author.

By the way he has done a great job,
my thanks to ThinKingALot.

[Mike S.]

Gull 1.2 x64
Intel i5-3210M dualcore CPU
2.5...2.9 GHz, 1024 MB hash
time to depth 22 plies
large pages off
Shredder Classic interface

times in seconds

Code: Select all

  Pos.#  2 threads  kN/s  4 threads  kN/s  % time  % nps
---------------------------------------------------------
    1      122      3172     94      3956    77      125
    2      148      5932     74      6106    50      103
    3      130      2997    119      3761    92      125
    4       25      3370     27 ??   4251   108      126
---------------------------------------------------------
                                        Ø    82%     120%

#1 r1bq1rk1/2ppbppp/p1n2n2/1p2p3/4P3/1B3N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQR1K1 w - -
#2 5k2/6p1/2p2p2/P7/1Q6/2P1pqPP/7K/8 b - - bm c5; id Quick-19;
#3 starting position
#4 r5k1/p2r1bpp/2p2p2/8/n1P5/P5B1/5PPP/2R1RBK1 w - - bm c5; id "Mike's Test 2.2, Nr. 26";

Bingo!