New engine releases & news 2021

[abulmo2]

I released Amoeba 3.3 today on github:
https://github.com/abulmo/amoeba/releases/tag/v3.3
Version 3.3 is just a compilation of small code enhancements, simplifications and bug fixes. I expect it to be about 30 Elo stronger than Version 3.2 and I hope you will enjoy using it.

[Gabor Szots]

I released Amoeba 3.3 today on github:
https://github.com/abulmo/amoeba/releases/tag/v3.3
Version 3.3 is just a compilation of small code enhancements, simplifications and bug fixes. I expect it to be about 30 Elo stronger than Version 3.2 and I hope you will enjoy using it.

Thank you, Richard.

[mvanthoor]

I released Amoeba 3.3 today on github:
https://github.com/abulmo/amoeba/releases/tag/v3.3
Version 3.3 is just a compilation of small code enhancements, simplifications and bug fixes. I expect it to be about 30 Elo stronger than Version 3.2 and I hope you will enjoy using it.

Thanks, I'll have a look through the code. I encountered the engine in some threads, but never really looked into it.

[Gabor Szots]

New open source engine: Megalodon.

https://github.com/megalodon-chess/megalodon

On my machine the downloadable exe requires DLL's. I have compiled a Haswell stand-alone executable and uploaded it here:

[mvanthoor]

New open source engine: Megalodon.

https://github.com/megalodon-chess/megalodon

On my machine the downloadable exe requires DLL's. I have compiled a Haswell stand-alone executable and uploaded it here:

Over 1200 commits in less than 10 days. That's crazy...

I took a quick look through the code. In some places, it's so eerily similar to Rustic's structure and naming conventions that I could almost believe a C++ port of Rustic is underway, if it wasn't for the fact that it (already...) seems to have some pruning features that Rustic doesn't, and these developers don't have a problem with files 800 lines long and massive if/else statements, while I do.

[jshriver]

I released Amoeba 3.3 today on github:
https://github.com/abulmo/amoeba/releases/tag/v3.3
Version 3.3 is just a compilation of small code enhancements, simplifications and bug fixes. I expect it to be about 30 Elo stronger than Version 3.2 and I hope you will enjoy using it.

Congrats!

[Gabor Szots]

Over 1200 commits in less than 10 days. That's crazy...

I took a quick look through the code. In some places, it's so eerily similar to Rustic's structure and naming conventions that I could almost believe a C++ port of Rustic is underway, if it wasn't for the fact that it (already...) seems to have some pruning features that Rustic doesn't, and these developers don't have a problem with files 800 lines long and massive if/else statements, while I do.

You don't have to worry, Marcel. The engine has no time management, can only play at fix depth and after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 it chose Ke7 as its move.

[mvanthoor]

You don't have to worry, Marcel. The engine has no time management, can only play at fix depth and after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 it chose Ke7 as its move.

I don't worry about anything; everybody writes their engine in their own way. The only goal I have for my engine is for it to be bug free, and get as much playing strength out of each feature as I can with my current knowledge.

The one thing I would find a pity is when we end up with an engine again that has a lot of features, but also lots of bugs, and thus low playing strength, or lots of crashes. Such engines tend to get abandoned by their authors, because it's very hard to find bugs if there are many across different functions.

[Guenther]

New open source engine: Megalodon.

https://github.com/megalodon-chess/megalodon

On my machine the downloadable exe requires DLL's. I have compiled a Haswell stand-alone executable and uploaded it here:

You could have spared your time it will not be able to make any game yet ;-)

[mvanthoor]

Hi

Rustic Alpha 2 has been released:

https://github.com/mvanthoor/rustic/releases

In this release, the transposition table, and sorting on the TT Move have been implemented.
The expected rating increase is about 105 Elo compared to Alpha 1.

New Features:
- Transposition table for search and perft.
- Ordering on transposition table move.
- Set TT size through --hash option or UCI parameter.

Improvement:
- Move check extension higher up in the search routine, to prevent
quiescence search while in check.

Changes:
- seldepth: report max ply reached during the search, instead of
selective depth at last completed iteration.
- Count all nodes visited, instead of only nodes which generated moves.
- Change random number generator from SmallRng to ChaChaRng for
reproducible behavior between platforms/OS's/architectures/versions.

Cleanup
- Change Root PV handling to remove redundant code.
- Miscellaneous small renames, refactors, and cleanups.
- Add rand_chacha and remove SmallRng number generators.
- Update Rand library to 0.8.3.

I've also released version Alpha 1.1, which fixes the forfeits on time in MoveTime mode. This fix is obviously also in Alpha 2. I'll add the binaries for Alpha 1.1 tomorrow (probably).

...

@ The CCRL people: thanks again for testing, whomever is going to do this. As lithander said somewhere else: without you, it wouldn't be half as fun