EXchess v7.51 released

[dchoman]

Hi All,

I've just released version 7.51 of EXchess from

https://sites.google.com/site/experimentalchessprogram/

Changes include fixes to a couple of significant bugs, one of which made singular extensions essentially inoperative. I've also tuned a number of the evaluation parameters and made some changes to extensions and reductions. This version is about 40 elo stronger in self-play, but the gain will probably be less than that against other opponents.

- Dan

[Jim Collins]

Thanks Daniel. Much appreciated.

[Graham Banks]

Hi All,

I've just released version 7.51 of EXchess from

https://sites.google.com/site/experimentalchessprogram/

Changes include fixes to a couple of significant bugs, one of which made singular extensions essentially inoperative. I've also tuned a number of the evaluation parameters and made some changes to extensions and reductions. This version is about 40 elo stronger in self-play, but the gain will probably be less than that against other opponents.

- Dan

Thanks.

[Werner]

Thanks Daniel,
all the best for 2015!

PS: I have a little problem here with time control mainly on move 79:
There are too much games lost in time

Conditions: 40 moves in 8 min, Shredder GUI, Wb2UCI

Shall I try another GUI, e.g. Arena 3.0 ?

regards
Werner

[Wolfgang]

.... This version is about 40 elo stronger in self-play, but the gain will probably be less than that against other opponents.
- Dan

Thanks Dan!

http://cegt.forumieren.com/t277-testing ... -7-51b-x64

+17 after 1000 games

[Werner]

Thanks Daniel,
all the best for 2015!

PS: I have a little problem here with time control mainly on move 79:
There are too much games lost in time

Conditions: 40 moves in 8 min, Shredder GUI, Wb2UCI

Shall I try another GUI, e.g. Arena 3.0 ?

regards
Werner

Maybe it is my fault:
I set

LevelExtend=Progressive

instead

LevelExtend=none

regards

[dchoman]

Thanks Daniel,
all the best for 2015!

PS: I have a little problem here with time control mainly on move 79:
There are too much games lost in time

Conditions: 40 moves in 8 min, Shredder GUI, Wb2UCI

Shall I try another GUI, e.g. Arena 3.0 ?

regards
Werner

Maybe it is my fault:
I set

LevelExtend=Progressive

instead

LevelExtend=none

regards

Hi Werner,

Thanks for letting me know about this.

I do not use the Wb2UCI adapter except rarely, so I don't have much experience with it. However, after looking at both the Winboard documentation and the Wb2UCI documentation, I think that the "None" option for LevelExtend is indeed best. EXchess expects to get the level command just once, and if it gets it again, it will reset all of the time parameters. This is OK, if the level command is sent at exactly the right time (and followed by the 'time' command), but I don't know what Wb2UCI does exactly... if it sends the command a little early or not paired with a 'time' command, then EXchess could indeed be confused about how much time it has left.

So if possible it is best to use an interface that allows the winboard protocol; however, if you need to use Wb2UCI, then I recommend LevelExtend=None.

Thanks for testing EXchess, and Happy New Year!

- Dan

[dchoman]

.... This version is about 40 elo stronger in self-play, but the gain will probably be less than that against other opponents.
- Dan

Thanks Dan!

http://cegt.forumieren.com/t277-testing ... -7-51b-x64

+17 after 1000 games

Cool! Thanks for the update and for testing EXchess so quickly!

- Dan

[Sylwy]

Thanks Daniel,
all the best for 2015!

PS: I have a little problem here with time control mainly on move 79:
There are too much games lost in time

Conditions: 40 moves in 8 min, Shredder GUI, Wb2UCI

Shall I try another GUI, e.g. Arena 3.0 ?

regards
Werner

Maybe it is my fault:
I set

LevelExtend=Progressive

instead

LevelExtend=none

regards

Hi Werner,

Thanks for letting me know about this.

I do not use the Wb2UCI adapter except rarely, so I don't have much experience with it. However, after looking at both the Winboard documentation and the Wb2UCI documentation, I think that the "None" option for LevelExtend is indeed best. EXchess expects to get the level command just once, and if it gets it again, it will reset all of the time parameters. This is OK, if the level command is sent at exactly the right time (and followed by the 'time' command), but I don't know what Wb2UCI does exactly... if it sends the command a little early or not paired with a 'time' command, then EXchess could indeed be confused about how much time it has left.

So if possible it is best to use an interface that allows the winboard protocol; however, if you need to use Wb2UCI, then I recommend LevelExtend=None.

Thanks for testing EXchess, and Happy New Year!

- Dan

Hello !

I always used the following Wb2Uci.eng file for EXchess:

============
[ENGINE]
Name=EXchess 7.xxb
Author=Daniel Homan, USA
Filename=Wb2Uci.exe

[OPTIONS]
Program=EXchess_v7.xxb_win32.exe
Edit=setboard
Hash=128
InitTime=2
LevelExtend=Progressive
MateScore=10000000
OwnBook=true
Ponder=false
Priority=Normal
Protocol=2
UseUndo=true
TerminateHard=true
=============

My tests are at TC=4'+2". And all were OK !

Here are the latest tests with EXchess 7.18b & 7.31b:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 00&t=50060

The next week - my test for EXchess 7.51b !

Cheers,
SilvianR

[dchoman]

Thanks Daniel,
all the best for 2015!

PS: I have a little problem here with time control mainly on move 79:
There are too much games lost in time

Conditions: 40 moves in 8 min, Shredder GUI, Wb2UCI

Shall I try another GUI, e.g. Arena 3.0 ?

regards
Werner

Maybe it is my fault:
I set

LevelExtend=Progressive

instead

LevelExtend=none

regards

Hi Werner,

Thanks for letting me know about this.

I do not use the Wb2UCI adapter except rarely, so I don't have much experience with it. However, after looking at both the Winboard documentation and the Wb2UCI documentation, I think that the "None" option for LevelExtend is indeed best. EXchess expects to get the level command just once, and if it gets it again, it will reset all of the time parameters. This is OK, if the level command is sent at exactly the right time (and followed by the 'time' command), but I don't know what Wb2UCI does exactly... if it sends the command a little early or not paired with a 'time' command, then EXchess could indeed be confused about how much time it has left.

So if possible it is best to use an interface that allows the winboard protocol; however, if you need to use Wb2UCI, then I recommend LevelExtend=None.

Thanks for testing EXchess, and Happy New Year!

- Dan

Hello !

I always used the following Wb2Uci.eng file for EXchess:

============
[ENGINE]
Name=EXchess 7.xxb
Author=Daniel Homan, USA
Filename=Wb2Uci.exe

[OPTIONS]
Program=EXchess_v7.xxb_win32.exe
Edit=setboard
Hash=128
InitTime=2
LevelExtend=Progressive
MateScore=10000000
OwnBook=true
Ponder=false
Priority=Normal
Protocol=2
UseUndo=true
TerminateHard=true
=============

My tests are at TC=4'+2". And all were OK !

Here are the latest tests with EXchess 7.18b & 7.31b:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 00&t=50060

The next week - my test for EXchess 7.51b !

Cheers,
SilvianR

Thanks for this input! I think that for time control with increment (4'+2"), it should not matter what setting is used as there would be no reason for the adapter to send a new level command. But I don't know the detailed behavior of Wb2UCI, so this is only speculation.

For repeating TC, like 40/4, my best guess is that 'None' is the best setting.

- Dan