EXchess v7.96

[attakinski]

Even installing under ARENA does not work

[MikeB]

Hi Everyone,

I've released a new version of EXchess at

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

v7.96 is considerably stronger than v7.92 in head-to-head testing at bullet time controls, but I haven't tested its strength against other engines. Most of the improvement comes from finding and correcting two bugs in the evaluation and one in the search; however, there are other minor improvements as well.

I had a couple of reports that v7.92 did not work on some older AMD processors, and it was suggested this might be due to compiler options. Unfortunately I do not have any AMD systems for testing, so I could not reproduce this. v7.96 is now compiled with a more recent gcc compiler version 6.2 using mingw without processor specific compiler options (only -O3 -pthread -static). The 64-bit version is compiled with the x86_64 mingw compiler and the 32-bit version with the i686 mingw compiler. I don't know if this will solve the problem on those older processors or not.

As always the source code is included so an alternative is to compile on your own system directly.

- Dan

Very nice - you even have a macOS version precompiled!

[MikeB]

Hi Everyone,

I've released a new version of EXchess at

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

v7.96 is considerably stronger than v7.92 in head-to-head testing at bullet time controls, but I haven't tested its strength against other engines. Most of the improvement comes from finding and correcting two bugs in the evaluation and one in the search; however, there are other minor improvements as well.

I had a couple of reports that v7.92 did not work on some older AMD processors, and it was suggested this might be due to compiler options. Unfortunately I do not have any AMD systems for testing, so I could not reproduce this. v7.96 is now compiled with a more recent gcc compiler version 6.2 using mingw without processor specific compiler options (only -O3 -pthread -static). The 64-bit version is compiled with the x86_64 mingw compiler and the 32-bit version with the i686 mingw compiler. I don't know if this will solve the problem on those older processors or not.

As always the source code is included so an alternative is to compile on your own system directly.

- Dan

Very nice - you even have a macOS version precompiled!

The macOS version did not work on my machine, but it compiled very easily using your instructions.

Very unscientific match below, since I also let them use their own book and of course not very many games.

Code: Select all

32 rounds and 96 games completed...
time control: 1500+25
Date: 02/01/17 : 00:03:34
96 game(s) loaded
Rank Name            Rating   Δ     +    -     #     Σ    Σ%     W    L    D   W%    =%   OppR 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1 Arasan 20.0      3171   0.0   43   43    64   42.0  65.6   30   10   24  46.9  37.5  3064 
   2 Crafty-25.2      3083  88.0   43   43    64   29.5  46.1   17   22   25  26.6  39.1  3108 
   3 EXchess v7.96b   3046  37.7   43   43    64   24.5  38.3   13   28   23  20.3  35.9  3127 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

[Modern Times]

Thanks!
It works on an Amd Fx-8350, not very old though.

Thanks for the report!

- Dan

Yes works in console mode on my FX8350, and on my X6 1090T as well.

[Gregory Owett]

Even installing under ARENA does not work

Same for me !

[jswaff]

Wow, has Arasan overtaken Crafty now? I haven't paid attention in so long, but both of those (and EXchess too) have been favorites for a long time.

[Graham Banks]

Runs okay under ChessGUI on my i5.

[JVMerlino]

I have a 7-year old AMD 9650 Quad, and it works fine. On the initial position in analysis mode it reaches depth 21 in 20 seconds at one core and depth 23 at four cores.

jm

[dchoman]

Thanks for the test! My MacOS version is very new, so it was probably a library thing. Good to hear it compile with no problems.

- Dan

Hi Everyone,

I've released a new version of EXchess at

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

v7.96 is considerably stronger than v7.92 in head-to-head testing at bullet time controls, but I haven't tested its strength against other engines. Most of the improvement comes from finding and correcting two bugs in the evaluation and one in the search; however, there are other minor improvements as well.

I had a couple of reports that v7.92 did not work on some older AMD processors, and it was suggested this might be due to compiler options. Unfortunately I do not have any AMD systems for testing, so I could not reproduce this. v7.96 is now compiled with a more recent gcc compiler version 6.2 using mingw without processor specific compiler options (only -O3 -pthread -static). The 64-bit version is compiled with the x86_64 mingw compiler and the 32-bit version with the i686 mingw compiler. I don't know if this will solve the problem on those older processors or not.

As always the source code is included so an alternative is to compile on your own system directly.

- Dan

Very nice - you even have a macOS version precompiled!

The macOS version did not work on my machine, but it compiled very easily using your instructions.

Very unscientific match below, since I also let them use their own book and of course not very many games.

Code: Select all

32 rounds and 96 games completed...
time control: 1500+25
Date: 02/01/17 : 00:03:34
96 game(s) loaded
Rank Name            Rating   Δ     +    -     #     Σ    Σ%     W    L    D   W%    =%   OppR 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1 Arasan 20.0      3171   0.0   43   43    64   42.0  65.6   30   10   24  46.9  37.5  3064 
   2 Crafty-25.2      3083  88.0   43   43    64   29.5  46.1   17   22   25  26.6  39.1  3108 
   3 EXchess v7.96b   3046  37.7   43   43    64   24.5  38.3   13   28   23  20.3  35.9  3127 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

[dchoman]

Even installing under ARENA does not work

Thanks for the second test! Does your Arena configuration use Wb2UCI as well?

When I asked about the console version, I meant running it without putting it through another interface at all. If it runs in pure console mode, then the problem might be with the configuration of how it talks to those programs. It works with Fritz 13 (with Wb2UCI) and Arena 3.1 (as a winboard engine) under my intel systems, but the possibilities for configuring those interfaces are quite large so it might not be easy to track down. Here is the Wb2UCI.eng that I modified from another talkchess post from long ago and use on my system, but I am not an expert at all in how Wb2UCI works...

[ENGINE]
Name=EXchess v7.96b 64-bit
Author=Dan Homan
Filename=Wb2Uci.exe

[OPTIONS]
Program=EXchess_v7.96b_win64.exe
HashCommand=hash %i
HashOnCommandline=true
MateScore=10000000
OwnBook=true
Priority=high
Protocol=2
SlowDown=1
LevelExtend=None
UseUndo=true
TerminateHard=true
InitTime=2