Critter 1.6a

[EmilV]

http://www.vlasak.biz/critter/

[Marek Soszynski]

Unfortunately this new Critter still crashes on my 64-bit Linux system under Scid when using tablebases. (It's fine otherwise.)

When tablebase usage is set to Everywhere then (with the endgame in sight) it quickly crashes: The analysis engine terminated without exit code:""

When tablebase usage is set to Root then (in an endgame) the analysis window doesn't refresh - so the old analysis remains even when a game is stepped-through and new analysis added. It seems odd in other ways too.

[IWB]

Hello Richard (In case you are reading this)

Do you see any need to retest 1.6a if the 1.6 was already tested? Do you expect any difference in playing strength or are the fixes just "cosmetic"?

How about substituting 1.6 with 1.6a from now on?

Thanks and bye
Ingo

[rvida]

http://www.vlasak.biz/critter/

This is a bugfix release. The following bugs were fixed:
1) engine freezing with dual-socket systems
2) same line displayed 2x in multipv mode
3) occasional crashes with tablebases
4) proper range checking of the depth parameter in "sf store" command
5) linux version now runs on older distributions

as a bonus there is a new UCI option for king safety weight.

Unfortunately I cannot guarantee the ELO performance being same as v1.6. Bug #2 was deep inside the move generator code and caused some moves to be searched twice (not just at the root, but everywhere in the search tree) with an associated performance hit.

[rvida]

Unfortunately this new Critter still crashes on my 64-bit Linux system under Scid when using tablebases. (It's fine otherwise.)

When tablebase usage is set to Everywhere then (with the endgame in sight) it quickly crashes: The analysis engine terminated without exit code:""

When tablebase usage is set to Root then (in an endgame) the analysis window doesn't refresh - so the old analysis remains even when a game is stepped-through and new analysis added. It seems odd in other ways too.

Weird. I'm using Scid 4.3 on 64bit Ubuntu 12.04 and was not able to reproduce the crash. Neither the problem with analysis window not refreshing.

[Eelco de Groot]

Hello Richard (In case you are reading this)

Do you see any need to retest 1.6a if the 1.6 was already tested? Do you expect any difference in playing strength or are the fixes just "cosmetic"?

How about substituting 1.6 with 1.6a from now on?

Thanks and bye
Ingo

Also in the Shredder GUI you could see sometimes that: two times the same move in the movelist, as Richard describes it was not in MultiPV mode, I saw it in Analysis mode but the way Richard describes it it probably was in game mode as well . It is not very likely that was optimal for performance, it may not have hurt much but I think that is a bugfix that would require some new testing...

Regards, Eelco

[zullil]

Unfortunately I cannot guarantee the ELO performance being same as v1.6. Bug #2 was deep inside the move generator code and caused some moves to be searched twice (not just at the root, but everywhere in the search tree) with an associated performance hit.

Although this will force testers to retest the engine, it's hard to imagine the bug fix resulting in a decrease in ELO.

Thanks again for your work, Richard.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Works fine now

What are the estimated values of the king safety option

I mean the range of values

[Ajedrecista]

Hello Dr.:

Works fine now

What are the estimated values of the king safety option

I mean the range of values

I use Arena 2.0.1: in the engine configuration window, the range is from 0 to 100, being 32 as default (the same default value as many weights in Houdini, when HoudiConfig tool is used).

I do not know if increasing king safety weight makes Critter play more safer/conservative, and decreasing this weight just the opposite... thanks in advance for the possible answers.

Thank you very much for your effort, Richard! Good luck.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Hello Dr.:

Works fine now

What are the estimated values of the king safety option

I mean the range of values

I use Arena 2.0.1: in the engine configuration window, the range is from 0 to 100, being 32 as default (the same default value as many weights in Houdini, when HoudiConfig tool is used).

I do not know if increasing king safety weight makes Critter play more safer/conservative, and decreasing this weight just the opposite... thanks in advance for the possible answers.

Thank you very much for your effort, Richard! Good luck.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

Thanks for the info....

I think Richard can shed more light related to this issue....
Dr.D