"random mover" chess programs

[Isaac]

Don't forget that a random mover engine will checkmate another random mover engine in above 15% of games. Which means that if an engine doesn't avoid checkmates in 1, there is a non negligible chance that it loses vs a random mover engine.

[Laskos]

I have done a version of Andscacs that can move random:

www.andscacs.com/andscacs_r087007.zip

Code: Select all

Andscacs R0.87007 by Daniel Jose
uci
id name Andscacs R0.87007
id author Daniel Jose
option name Ponder type check default false
option name Hash type spin default 128 min 1 max 16384
option name Clear Hash type button
option name NullMove type check default true
option name MultiPV type spin default 1 min 1 max 100
option name Threads type spin default 1 min 1 max 32
option name AlwaysFullPv type check default false
option name Random type spin default 1 min 1 max 10000

Seting Random to 10000 will play all the moves random. Setting it for example at 153 will play 153 random moves of each 10000.

If you don't set it, it will not play random moves.

Thanks! I used this Andscacs to see the progress from total random to total Andscacs at ultra-fast time controls:

Code: Select all

   # PLAYER         : RATING    POINTS  PLAYED    (%)
   1 Random 0%      : 2697.0     935.0    1000   93.5%
   2 Random 10%     : 2229.8    1033.0    2000   51.6%
   3 Random 20%     : 1632.3     970.0    2000   48.5%
   4 Random 30%     : 1156.3     582.0    2000   29.1%
   5 Random 40%     : 1142.2    1217.0    2000   60.9%
   6 Random 50%     :  961.6    1148.0    2000   57.4%
   7 Random 60%     :  604.0     820.5    2000   41.0%
   8 Random 70%     :  450.9    1097.5    2000   54.9%
   9 Random 80%     :  204.7     872.0    2000   43.6%
  10 Random 90%     :   76.6    1115.0    2000   55.8%
  11 Random 100%    : -155.6     210.0    1000   21.0%

[nimh]

CCRL 40/4 has a random move maker BrutusRND. It is placed last, as you could expect, but, surprisingly, it has a positive rating - 210.

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/40 ... t_all.html

I have played several games against it trying to deliberately lose to it. Mostly it has managed to avoid stalemates with the bare king against almost an intact army. Looks like the rating difference between the worst possible play and a random mover is ca 200 elo. I don't know if it is conicidental...

BrutusRND achieved 64 draws, most of which were due to flaws with its opponents. Several opponents could not checkmate even with an overwhelming material advantage.

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/40 ... Brutus_RND

That's typical of non-search engines. To properly avoid stalemates and find mates even with near-full amount of material requires a some sort of search. As a result' the rating gap cannot be very large.

However, I'd like to know which engine on the CCRL is the lowest-rated, and the strongest-rated.

[Norbert Raimund Leisner]

What´s about EchoChess current version?

It is now UCI or CECP-compatible or just an incomplete application?

http://echochess.pw/downloads/

Best wishes,
Norbert

[mclane]

It should be possible to create a chess program that is not creating a search tree and is only evaluating and doing statically analysis about the position,
Or do few extensions , static exchange evaluations or whatever.

I do believe that AI can replace search tree.

Isn't Mephisto III a good example for an idea where THINKING replaces search tree ?

Mephisto III is doing 1-3 NPS and can play chess on a level that was state of the art in 1984.

They even got a champion title with the Motorola 16 bit version doing 5-10 NPS against the other brute force programs.

Of course knowledge can replace search tree

But it is more complicate to program,

[hgm]

You can certainly do far better than N.E.G., in this respect. N.E.G. only has the most primitive algorithm. The main weakness that jumps out is that it does not pay attention to soft pins, and this could be easily fixed.

[mclane]

You can certainly do far better than N.E.G., in this respect. N.E.G. only has the most primitive algorithm. The main weakness that jumps out is that it does not pay attention to soft pins, and this could be easily fixed.

You should fix this. Would be interesting to find out how strong such a program can be.
I remember Wolfgang delmare also had such an engine, he called it chat, a dos program.

https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Chat

I still have chat somewhere on my machines