Hi all!
I just got into the hobby of chess engines, and I am finally happy enough with the start of this engine to release it. It is heavily based on Vice by bluefever, but it should play around 2200 ELO. It is written in C, and is UCI compliant.
the GitHub link: https://github.com/bctboi23/seeChess
Any feedback you have is much appreciated!
New engine: seeChess
Moderators: hgm, Rebel, chrisw
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Re: New engine: seeChess
Um.....I think there was/is already a engine named See Chess...v0.6.9....here is a copy...not a bad chess engine..bctboi23 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:33 pm Hi all!
I just got into the hobby of chess engines, and I am finally happy enough with the start of this engine to release it. It is heavily based on Vice by bluefever, but it should play around 2200 ELO. It is written in C, and is UCI compliant.
the GitHub link: https://github.com/bctboi23/seeChess
Any feedback you have is much appreciated!
https://www.4shared.com/s/ferplqpqPea
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Re: New engine: seeChess
Gosh dangit! I guess great minds think alikesupersharp77 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 8:28 pmUm.....I think there was/is already a engine named See Chess...v0.6.9....here is a copy...not a bad chess engine..bctboi23 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:33 pm Hi all!
I just got into the hobby of chess engines, and I am finally happy enough with the start of this engine to release it. It is heavily based on Vice by bluefever, but it should play around 2200 ELO. It is written in C, and is UCI compliant.
the GitHub link: https://github.com/bctboi23/seeChess
Any feedback you have is much appreciated!
https://www.4shared.com/s/ferplqpqPea
I didn't see an engine with this name anywhere (not on the CCRL either). @supersharp77 Is there another list of engines somewhere?
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Re: New engine: seeChess
The old version of SEE is on the CCRL rating list. It is just called SEE 0.6.9 there, and is only on the blitz rating list, not the 40/15 list. Technically, your engine name is slightly different, because see is all lower case, and there is no space in the name of your engine.
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Re: New engine: seeChess
I have added your engine to the XB/UCI chronology. (see link in my signature)bctboi23 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:33 pm Hi all!
I just got into the hobby of chess engines, and I am finally happy enough with the start of this engine to release it. It is heavily based on Vice by bluefever, but it should play around 2200 ELO. It is written in C, and is UCI compliant.
the GitHub link: https://github.com/bctboi23/seeChess
Any feedback you have is much appreciated!
Currently I took your first github release from 2020-01-03 (version 1.0) as first release, because your github tells so.
Ofc I can change this, if you like that your announced version should be named as first official release.
[Collectors type of people will still dig out all versions available, if they find them ;-)]
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Re: New engine: seeChess
Great, thanks!Guenther wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:41 amI have added your engine to the XB/UCI chronology. (see link in my signature)bctboi23 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:33 pm Hi all!
I just got into the hobby of chess engines, and I am finally happy enough with the start of this engine to release it. It is heavily based on Vice by bluefever, but it should play around 2200 ELO. It is written in C, and is UCI compliant.
the GitHub link: https://github.com/bctboi23/seeChess
Any feedback you have is much appreciated!
Currently I took your first github release from 2020-01-03 (version 1.0) as first release, because your github tells so.
Ofc I can change this, if you like that your announced version should be named as first official release.
[Collectors type of people will still dig out all versions available, if they find them ]
I would prefer to have v1.2 looked at as the first official release. I delayed creating an account and posting this engine until now because I thought it was still a practical copy of Vice until v1.2, so in my opinion, v1.2 is the first release because it is the first time that seeChess is different enough to be considered a different engine. Of course, a LOT of code is still from Vice, and I hope to be changing that very soon (next project is overhauling the evaluation function).
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Re: New engine: seeChess
Friendly advice, don't start with the evaluation function.
The real magic is in search. A simplistic eval with half-decent values will do the job as you improve the search code, and clean other parts like movegen to be more efficient.
Even a very good eval would still net you a weak engine if the search and other parts aren't up to par.
You should also use SPRT to validate your changes, don't just rely on how you feel about a change or limited (and thus unreliable) tests.
The real magic is in search. A simplistic eval with half-decent values will do the job as you improve the search code, and clean other parts like movegen to be more efficient.
Even a very good eval would still net you a weak engine if the search and other parts aren't up to par.
You should also use SPRT to validate your changes, don't just rely on how you feel about a change or limited (and thus unreliable) tests.
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Re: New engine: seeChess
Another periphery question:
Is there some sort of procedure to get an engine on a rating list (like CCRL)? Do I have to submit the source to another forum or something?
@Alayan, I will definitely keep that in mind! The plan right now is to add some better piece square tables and a tapered eval, and then work on pruning even more. Right now, I feel the evaluation is too bare bones to do any more pruning than I have already added.
Also, what is SPRT? I have been doing tests on my machine (1000 games against a couple engines around the 2200 level), is SPRT a better way to test?
Is there some sort of procedure to get an engine on a rating list (like CCRL)? Do I have to submit the source to another forum or something?
@Alayan, I will definitely keep that in mind! The plan right now is to add some better piece square tables and a tapered eval, and then work on pruning even more. Right now, I feel the evaluation is too bare bones to do any more pruning than I have already added.
Also, what is SPRT? I have been doing tests on my machine (1000 games against a couple engines around the 2200 level), is SPRT a better way to test?
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Re: New engine: seeChess
All you have to do is announce that you have a release version of your engine here. Most of the CCRL testers come here regularly.
Tapered eval is useful and easy to add. It gave me a nice Elo boost when I added it to my engine.bctboi23 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 5:30 am @Alayan, I will definitely keep that in mind! The plan right now is to add some better piece square tables and a tapered eval, and then work on pruning even more. Right now, I feel the evaluation is too bare bones to do any more pruning than I have already added.
Take a look at https://www.chessprogramming.org/Match_Statistics for a description.
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Re: New engine: seeChess
To remove the ambiguity of naming (SEE is a little to close to See imo) I renamed the engine to "CeeChess"
I added the tapered eval with some new piece square tables (Ludmyil's PSQTs are great!) and got an extra 100 ELO selfplay.
@Guenther, would you be able to change the name in the spreadsheet? Sorry for the inconvenience, I just feel like it should fix the name issue
I added the tapered eval with some new piece square tables (Ludmyil's PSQTs are great!) and got an extra 100 ELO selfplay.
@Guenther, would you be able to change the name in the spreadsheet? Sorry for the inconvenience, I just feel like it should fix the name issue