Question to Ferdi/Uly (Aiquiri Related)

[BrendanJNorman]

This post refers to the idea proposed and implemented here:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 47&t=66853

Firstly guys, this idea to combine the ideas of several engines is genius and I find it pretty exciting what the implications of such an adapter could be.

That being said...

I can't get the damn thing to work.

I am using Nucleus_0.0.1_beta.exe with slave1.exe, slave2.exe and master.exe in the same folder and Nucleus_0.0.1_beta will not run as a UCI engine no matter which GUI I try.

I have a few questions (which will probably seem stupid, so plz be patient).

1. Do I need to create a configuration/.ini file to make it run? If so, how?

2. How do I set the time management commands?

3. Can WB engines also be used? (If not, can WB2UCI assist in this?)

4. Can engine personalities/options be set somewhere?

Thanks in advance for any nudges in the right direction, I congratulate you guys on a brilliant idea.

[Ferdy]

This post refers to the idea proposed and implemented here:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 47&t=66853

Firstly guys, this idea to combine the ideas of several engines is genius and I find it pretty exciting what the implications of such an adapter could be.

That being said...

I can't get the damn thing to work.

I am using Nucleus_0.0.1_beta.exe with slave1.exe, slave2.exe and master.exe in the same folder and Nucleus_0.0.1_beta will not run as a UCI engine no matter which GUI I try.

Try to read the readme section b.

Code: Select all

B. Setup
To setup, create a master.exe, slave1.exe and slave2.exe. For
example rename Spark.exe to master.exe, then Andscacs.exe to
to slave1.exe, then Critter.exe to slave2.exe. Then put these
3 files together with Nucleus.exe (Nucleus_0.0.1_beta.exe) in same directory. You can
then install Nucleus.exe (Nucleus_0.0.1_beta.exe) as a uci engine.

Start with Arena GUI.

I have a few questions (which will probably seem stupid, so plz be patient).

1. Do I need to create a configuration/.ini file to make it run? If so, how?

No

2. How do I set the time management commands?

It only supports time/move, see readme file.

3. Can WB engines also be used? (If not, can WB2UCI assist in this?)

No and possibly WB2UCI can be used, have not tried it yet.

4. Can engine personalities/options be set somewhere?

If you want to set personality in the uci engine, set it first as default. The nucleus options is limited to the following so far.

Code: Select all

option name master_threads type spin default 1 min 1 max 512
option name slave1_threads type spin default 1 min 1 max 512
option name slave2_threads type spin default 1 min 1 max 512
option name master_hash type spin default 128 min 128 max 2048
option name slave1_hash type spin default 128 min 128 max 2048
option name slave2_hash type spin default 128 min 128 max 2048
option name master_time_factor type spin default 20 min 0 max 1000
option name slave1_time_factor type spin default 40 min 0 max 1000
option name slave2_time_factor type spin default 40 min 0 max 1000

[velmarin]

Something similar is Chess Combi, if you don't know it.
Part of the readme and link

http://www.mediafire.com/file/su45drg2h ... sscmbi.zip

CHESSCOMBI V1
created by Mark Alba

Release: ChessCombi is distributed free of charge.
ChessCombi may not be distributed as part of any software package,
service or website without prior written permission from Mark Alba.

Support: If you encountered any problems, email me at detective_mark7@yahoo.com.

ChessCombi is a UCI chess engine that combines two UCI chess engines into 1.
It can be used in a typical GUI program that supports UCI.
The combination of 2 chess engine can increase playing style but not necessarily produce better results.
The input from ChessCombi is directly fed to the input of the 2 engines.
But the output of the 2 engines however, is screened so that switching occurs.
The ChessCombi V1 is only available in Windows.

[BrendanJNorman]

(Insert Ferdi's advice here)

Thanks Ferdi,

I figured out my problem.

I'd stupidly typed "slave1.exe" when renaming the engines, which resulted in a filed called "slave.exe.exe"

No wonder it didn't work.

I must say that this is very interesting when combining weaker engines.

Stockfish and co tend to agree on a lot of moves, but when you combine engines of a similar style but in the 2700-3000 range, the playing style is very interesting.

I experimented with much weaker engines...

I played a game against

master: Winter (around 2400)

slave1: Hamster 0.0.6 (around 2180)

slave2: Gaia 2.2a (around 2200)

...this morning.

Using a self-made positional book, it really felt like I was playing one of those passive, but strong and solid club players.

I got a serious advantage pretty early, but since I was only testing, rushed the moves in the critical position and blew it.

[pgn][Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "BRENDANNORMD8A2"]
[Date "2018.04.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Brendan J. Norman"]
[Black "Nucleus Weak Positional Team 1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "2200"]
[ECO "E16"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[WhiteElo "2400"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 { +0.05/9 4 } 5.Bg2 Bb4+ { 0.00/9 5 } 6.Nbd2 O-O { +0.08/9 4 } 7.O-O a5 { +0.03/10 5 } 8.a3 Be7 { -0.01/10 5 } 9.b3 Nc6 { -0.02/10 5 } 10.Bb2 d6 { -0.02/10 5 } 11.Qc2 Qd7 { -0.03/10 5 } 12.Bh3 d5 { -0.05/10 5 } 13.cxd5 Qxd5 { 0.00/10 4 } 14.Rfd1 a4 { +0.02/9 5 } 15.b4 Rfe8 { -0.01/8 5 } 16.Rac1 Bd6 { -0.05/8 4 } 17.Bg2 Qh5 { -0.09/8 5 } 18.e4 Be7 { -0.08/8 4 } 19.h3 Nd7 { -0.14/8 5 } 20.g4 Qh6 { -1.01/10 5 } 21.b5 Na5 { -1.05/10 4 } 22.Qxc7 Red8 { -1.05/9 4 } 23.Qc2 Nb3 { -1.05/10 4 } 24.Nxb3 axb3 { -1.02/10 4 } 25.Qe2 Qf4 { -0.97/9 5 } 26.d5 Bxa3 { -0.06/9 6 } 27.Qd2 Qxd2 { +0.99/10 4 } 28.Rxd2 Bxb2 { +0.08/10 5 } 29.Rxb2 exd5 { +0.96/11 4 } 30.Rxb3 dxe4 { +0.99/11 4 } 31.Ng5 Nc5 { +1.00/11 4 } 32.Re3 Rd4 { +0.99/10 5 } 33.Rce1 Raa4 { +1.00/10 4 } 34.f3 Rab4 { +0.99/10 5 } 35.Nxe4 Bxe4 { +1.00/12 4 } 36.fxe4 Rxb5 { +1.01/11 4 } 37.e5 Ra5 { +1.01/11 5 } 38.Rb1 b5 { +0.99/10 4 } 39.e6 fxe6 { +1.98/10 4 } 40.Re5 b4 { +1.99/10 4 White resigns } 0-1[/pgn]


I called this particular combo Nucleus Weak Positional Team 1 in Arena.

My next plan is to create several teams and have "team matches" between combinations of 3 engines.

So awesome.

BTW...I tested with WB2UCI and it doesn't work (for me). I think the engine seems to keep pondering from the old position, even when you begin a new game. Something like this.