New engine releases & news 2021

[jhonnold]

Stopping by to say Berserk 4.0.0 is available.

Downloads available at: https://github.com/jhonnold/berserk/releases/tag/4.0.0

[voffka]

Igel 3.0.5 at https://github.com/vshcherbyna/igel/releases/tag/3.0.5 (official executable binaries for Windows and IGN net).

This release brings significant improvements in search, time management and evaluation. I accidentally found a strong patch in search which brought around 12 elo in LTC in one shot. Overall strength increase due to search/time management improvements is around 20 elo, strength increase due to new network is 20 elo more. There are also some improvements in SMP mode that were quite good in short time controls: 15 elo, but hard to test on long time control as it will require a lot of computational power.

The new network ign-1-d593efbd is trained from scratch using nnue-pytorch on 12 billions of d8 positions using data from Igel 2.6.0 (HCE), Igel 2.9.0 (NNUE) and Igel 3.0.0 (NNUE) with a validation set of 10 million of d16 data generated using previous network ign-1-139b702b.

Enormous amount of computational power has been used to test this build on OpenBench, I would like to thank Andrew Grant and Bojun Guo (noobpwnftw) for supporting Igel project!

I would like to also thank authors of nnue-pytorch project for helping to make this release possible and more or less 'hassle free' training experience!

What's new:

- Train a new network using Igel 2.6.0 (HCE), Igel 2.9.0 (NNUE) and Igel 3.0.0 (NNUE) data: ign-1-d593efbd
- Better time management in sd time control
- Skip tt cutoff for null moves in search
- Skip null move prunning on tt hit
- Vote for best thread in SMP mode
- Less aggressive time use in non repeated tc

Regression run against Igel 3.0.0:

Long Time Control No Increment

Code: Select all

ELO   | 51.95 +- 2.85 (95%)
SPRT  | 60.0+0.0s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
LLR   | 0.00 (-2.94, 2.94) [0.00, 0.00]
Games | N: 20548 W: 5296 L: 2246 D: 13006

Long Time Control With Increment

Code: Select all

ELO   | 40.20 +- 2.74 (95%)
SPRT  | 60.0+0.6s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
LLR   | 0.00 (-2.94, 2.94) [0.00, 0.00]
Games | N: 20408 W: 4600 L: 2249 D: 13559

P.S. In case of any questions please ask them in the main Igel thread at http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.p ... 13#p891313

[Rebel]

Just released Cheng 4.41
link: http://vlasak.biz/cheng

the improvement is modest this time (I'm playing with fire - no pun intended , estimated +15 against other engines (about half of 4.40 vs 4.39)
(self-play hyperbullet 56% against 4.40 so who knows, I usually get about half of self-play) - my apologies to the testers for not jumping hundreds of Elo points

note that I dropped own book because some people abused it for engine-engine testing (this was never intended) to make Cheng look bad
I'm constantly frustrated and annoyed by computer chess - probably not a hobby I intend to keep, we'll see...

anyway - have fun (hopefully 4.41 will do better in D5 than 4.40 did in D4

In my gambit tournamant I have you in D3

Division Three

40 moves in 2 minutes

Code: Select all

No. Engine              1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8  Score  Games  Perc 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 Seer 2.0.0        xxxx  52.0  61.5  62.0  70.5  60.0  64.0  66.5  436.5 / 700 (62.36%)
 2 Weiss 1.3         48.0  xxxx  61.5  68.5  53.5  58.0  68.5  71.5  429.5 / 700 (61.36%)
 3 Topple 0.8.0      38.5  38.5  xxxx  52.5  48.5  52.5  54.5  60.0  345.0 / 700 (49.29%)
 4 Counter 3.7       38.0  31.5  47.5  xxxx  56.0  56.5  47.0  60.0  336.5 / 700 (48.07%)
 5 Seer 1.2.1        29.5  46.5  51.5  44.0  xxxx  51.0  52.5  57.5  332.5 / 700 (47.50%)
 6 Cheng 4.41        40.0  42.0  47.5  43.5  49.0  xxxx  51.5  58.5  332.0 / 700 (47.43%)
 7 FabChess 1.16     36.0  31.5  45.5  53.0  47.5  48.5  xxxx  56.0  318.0 / 700 (45.43%)
 8 Cheng 4.40        33.5  28.5  40.0  40.0  42.5  41.5  44.0  xxxx  270.0 / 700 (38.57%)

[Guenther]

...
In my gambit tournamant I have you in D3 :D

Division Three

40 moves in 2 minutes

Code: Select all

No. Engine              1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8  Score  Games  Perc 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 Seer 2.0.0        xxxx  52.0  61.5  62.0  70.5  60.0  64.0  66.5  436.5 / 700 (62.36%)
 2 Weiss 1.3         48.0  xxxx  61.5  68.5  53.5  58.0  68.5  71.5  429.5 / 700 (61.36%)
 3 Topple 0.8.0      38.5  38.5  xxxx  52.5  48.5  52.5  54.5  60.0  345.0 / 700 (49.29%)
 4 Counter 3.7       38.0  31.5  47.5  xxxx  56.0  56.5  47.0  60.0  336.5 / 700 (48.07%)
 5 Seer 1.2.1        29.5  46.5  51.5  44.0  xxxx  51.0  52.5  57.5  332.5 / 700 (47.50%)
 6 Cheng 4.41        40.0  42.0  47.5  43.5  49.0  xxxx  51.5  58.5  332.0 / 700 (47.43%)
 7 FabChess 1.16     36.0  31.5  45.5  53.0  47.5  48.5  xxxx  56.0  318.0 / 700 (45.43%)
 8 Cheng 4.40        33.5  28.5  40.0  40.0  42.5  41.5  44.0  xxxx  270.0 / 700 (38.57%)

Ed, are the games available somewhere?

[Rebel]

...
In my gambit tournamant I have you in D3

Division Three

40 moves in 2 minutes

Code: Select all

No. Engine              1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8  Score  Games  Perc 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 Seer 2.0.0        xxxx  52.0  61.5  62.0  70.5  60.0  64.0  66.5  436.5 / 700 (62.36%)
 2 Weiss 1.3         48.0  xxxx  61.5  68.5  53.5  58.0  68.5  71.5  429.5 / 700 (61.36%)
 3 Topple 0.8.0      38.5  38.5  xxxx  52.5  48.5  52.5  54.5  60.0  345.0 / 700 (49.29%)
 4 Counter 3.7       38.0  31.5  47.5  xxxx  56.0  56.5  47.0  60.0  336.5 / 700 (48.07%)
 5 Seer 1.2.1        29.5  46.5  51.5  44.0  xxxx  51.0  52.5  57.5  332.5 / 700 (47.50%)
 6 Cheng 4.41        40.0  42.0  47.5  43.5  49.0  xxxx  51.5  58.5  332.0 / 700 (47.43%)
 7 FabChess 1.16     36.0  31.5  45.5  53.0  47.5  48.5  xxxx  56.0  318.0 / 700 (45.43%)
 8 Cheng 4.40        33.5  28.5  40.0  40.0  42.5  41.5  44.0  xxxx  270.0 / 700 (38.57%)

Ed, are the games available somewhere?

Sure, sooner or later, but actually later. From the webpage - http://rebel13.nl/misc/gambit-tournament.html

Ratings of chess engines are well established on the known rating lists. Will anything change when we feed engines with only (playable) gambit positions? We carefully created 50 gambit opening positions to find out.

As first step following the established ratings on the CCRL rating list we divide (only active) engines into groups based on their strength and run a robin match. Thus a group of 6 engines will play 500 games each and 1500 games in total. Two time controls CCRL style, 40/2 and 40/15.

As second step with a reasonable number of engines and games we will create a rating list. Games will be available for download when we have created a second set of 50 gambit positions.

Excluded Engines
1. Inactive engines, those engines who haven't been updated for a long time.
2. Known derivatives.

[amanjpro]

A new version of Zahak has arrived:

https://github.com/amanjpro/zahak/releases/tag/2.0.0

Comes with a few search tweaks, and a bit more:

• Getting rid of multi-cut

• Adding Aspiration Window

• Adding Late Move Pruning

• Tweaking pruning parameters

• Removing Extended Futility Pruning

• Adding Futility Pruning in Quiescence Search

• Fixes in UCI protocol

Code: Select all

vs Achilliees:

Score of zahak_next vs Achillees: 74 - 88 - 38  [0.465] 200
...      zahak_next playing White: 44 - 39 - 17  [0.525] 100
...      zahak_next playing Black: 30 - 49 - 21  [0.405] 100
...      White vs Black: 93 - 69 - 38  [0.560] 200
Elo difference: -24.4 +/- 43.6, LOS: 13.6 %, DrawRatio: 19.0 %
Finished match


vs Baisclicka:

Score of zahak_next vs baislicka: 68 - 96 - 36  [0.430] 200
...      zahak_next playing White: 41 - 42 - 17  [0.495] 100
...      zahak_next playing Black: 27 - 54 - 19  [0.365] 100
...      White vs Black: 95 - 69 - 36  [0.565] 200
Elo difference: -49.0 +/- 44.1, LOS: 1.4 %, DrawRatio: 18.0 %
Finished match


vs Gopher_check

Score of zahak_next vs gopher_check: 64 - 75 - 61  [0.472] 200
...      zahak_next playing White: 35 - 38 - 27  [0.485] 100
...      zahak_next playing Black: 29 - 37 - 34  [0.460] 100
...      White vs Black: 72 - 67 - 61  [0.512] 200
Elo difference: -19.1 +/- 40.3, LOS: 17.5 %, DrawRatio: 30.5 %
Finished match

vs Clever Girl (clever girl crashed):

Score of zahak_next vs clever-girl: 78 - 73 - 47  [0.513] 198
...      zahak_next playing White: 45 - 29 - 25  [0.581] 99
...      zahak_next playing Black: 33 - 44 - 22  [0.444] 99
...      White vs Black: 89 - 62 - 47  [0.568] 198
Elo difference: 8.8 +/- 42.4, LOS: 65.8 %, DrawRatio: 23.7 %
Finished match

vs Zahak 1.0.0, Vice, Rustic

Rank Name                          Elo     +/-   Games    Wins  Losses   Draws   Points   WWins  WLoss.  WDraws   BWins  BLoss.  BDraws
   0 zahak_next                    256      30     600     437      61     102    488.0     229      27      44     208      34      58
   1 zahak-darwin-amd64-latest    -164      44     200      29     117      54     56.0      17      54      29      12      63      25
   2 vice                         -285      58     200      20     155      25     32.5      11      72      17       9      83       8
   3 rustic                       -350      66     200      12     165      23     23.5       6      82      12       6      83      11

Finished match

With Bayeselo

Rank Name                       Rating   Δ     +    -     #     Σ    Σ%     W    L    D   W%    =%   OppR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1 baislicka                   3238   0.0   38   37   200  114.0  57.0   96   68   36  48.0  18.0  3186
   2 Achillees                   3212  26.5   37   37   200  107.0  53.5   88   74   38  44.0  19.0  3186
   3 gopher_check                3204   7.5   36   36   200  105.5  52.8   75   64   61  37.5  30.5  3186
   4 zahak_next                  3186  17.8   15   15  1398  863.0  61.7  721  393  284  51.6  20.3  3088
   5 clever-girl                 3178   8.6   37   37   198   96.5  48.7   73   78   47  36.9  23.7  3186
   6 zahak-darwin-amd64-latest   3031 146.8   37   39   200   56.0  28.0   29  117   54  14.5  27.0  3186
   7 vice                        2902 129.3   44   48   200   32.5  16.2   20  155   25  10.0  12.5  3186
   8 rustic                      2849  52.8   48   54   200   23.5  11.8   12  165   23   6.0  11.5  3186
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Δ = delta from the next higher rated opponent
  # = number of games played
  Σ = total score, 1 point for win, 1/2 point for draw

The above tests show me that the elo for 2.0.0 should be around 2150 or something, but I don't dare to say anymore after my false statement for Zahak 1.0.0

[connor_mcmonigle]

I've released a new minor version of Seer (2.0.1) which hopefully resolves the cyclical TM issues people were experiencing:https://github.com/connormcmonigle/seer ... tag/v2.0.1. More information can be found in the release description. Sorry testers.

Thanks,
Connor

[Damir]

Igel 3.0.5 at https://github.com/vshcherbyna/igel/releases/tag/3.0.5 (official executable binaries for Windows and IGN net).

This release brings significant improvements in search, time management and evaluation. I accidentally found a strong patch in search which brought around 12 elo in LTC in one shot. Overall strength increase due to search/time management improvements is around 20 elo, strength increase due to new network is 20 elo more. There are also some improvements in SMP mode that were quite good in short time controls: 15 elo, but hard to test on long time control as it will require a lot of computational power.

The new network ign-1-d593efbd is trained from scratch using nnue-pytorch on 12 billions of d8 positions using data from Igel 2.6.0 (HCE), Igel 2.9.0 (NNUE) and Igel 3.0.0 (NNUE) with a validation set of 10 million of d16 data generated using previous network ign-1-139b702b.

Enormous amount of computational power has been used to test this build on OpenBench, I would like to thank Andrew Grant and Bojun Guo (noobpwnftw) for supporting Igel project!

I would like to also thank authors of nnue-pytorch project for helping to make this release possible and more or less 'hassle free' training experience!

What's new:

- Train a new network using Igel 2.6.0 (HCE), Igel 2.9.0 (NNUE) and Igel 3.0.0 (NNUE) data: ign-1-d593efbd
- Better time management in sd time control
- Skip tt cutoff for null moves in search
- Skip null move prunning on tt hit
- Vote for best thread in SMP mode
- Less aggressive time use in non repeated tc

Regression run against Igel 3.0.0:

Long Time Control No Increment

Code: Select all

ELO   | 51.95 +- 2.85 (95%)
SPRT  | 60.0+0.0s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
LLR   | 0.00 (-2.94, 2.94) [0.00, 0.00]
Games | N: 20548 W: 5296 L: 2246 D: 13006

Long Time Control With Increment

Code: Select all

ELO   | 40.20 +- 2.74 (95%)
SPRT  | 60.0+0.6s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
LLR   | 0.00 (-2.94, 2.94) [0.00, 0.00]
Games | N: 20408 W: 4600 L: 2249 D: 13559

P.S. In case of any questions please ask them in the main Igel thread at http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.p ... 13#p891313

Volodymyr I am experiencing time problems with Igel. After 32 moves engine stopped responding and lost on time in a 16+0 game....

No Network File in Igel parameter: https://www.solidfiles.com/v/y6RPMGgd674MM
Igel lost on time: https://www.solidfiles.com/v/dN87ZRB3gN7PM

[Guenther]

Stashs' 30th birthday release ;-)

Stash 30.0 released
https://gitlab.com/mhouppin/stash-bot/-/releases

Bagatur 2.2b released
https://github.com/bagaturchess/Bagatur

[Rebel]

Bagatur 2.2b released
https://github.com/bagaturchess/Bagatur

Do you know if these JAVA engines run smoothly with cutechess + concurrency ?