2 Moves Engine Book
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:32 am
Probably I will be sorry for posting this, many people will laugh, etc., but that is how things have developed with my relations to opening lines:
I have created a 2 moves opening book in simple doc format, downloadable from here: http://www.freeuploadsite.com/do.php?id=27429. The book is written in simple text following the tree approach, and should contain some 2000 different lines. Now, I would like very much to somehow convert the book to a format (for example bin) easily usable by fans and tournament organizers. My problem is I am having a bit of tough time with programming tools, and, if I manage at all to convert the book to the necessary format, I will have to take great pains with familiarising myself with software and functions that might be a bit difficult to grasp. And even if I am successful in my attempt, there is always the chance that something will go wrong because of my inexperience. Therefore I would like to ask if someone is willing to help with converting the book to a engine-usable format?
Why did I create the book and what would be the possible use of its application? For the simple fact that, by following different engine tournaments, even at LTC, it is easily observable that a large portion of the lines played, frequently going to as much as 50%, are a bit, more, or even very much unequal, favouring some of the sides more than would be creditable for a game between top engines to proceed normally without an unnecessary bias. There are cases where the engine is already lost right after book, and for me that is disastrous.
The second reason is that nowadays engines of top quality play as a rule chess better, or significantly better than humans, so that it would be quite normal to leave a larger portion of the chess game to be authentically played by engines, instead of just relying on premade opening lines of dubious quality.
The third reason is of course the desire to see engines play a bigger share of the game themselves. When a book, even if good, ends at move 8, 10, 15, etc. (but for me, even 5 is too much), this basically means that a significant amount of the game is already played by the book, and usually opening is one of the most interesting stages. Why not leave the opening lines up to the decision of engines themselves? I have observed that, precisely because engines are developed and tuned starting from opening positions maybe after move 8, as a general rule engines play weaker the opening stage if left without book. I.e., it is still possible to tune eval and search significantly better for the opening, where engines lag far behind from the knowledge they have later on.
Concerning the 2 Moves book itself:
- it should contain some 2000 distinct opening lines (probably there are doubles in the positions arising with transpositions after move 2, I do not know how many, it would be nice to delete them)
- I think 95% of the openings should be equal within the range of evaluation of 20-30 centipawns for one of the sides; there are no opening lines that are winning for one of the sides, maybe less than 1%
- 2000 lines would allow testing under most standard conditions
- I have included lines that are very much unpopular among chess players of whatever calibre, but perfectly playable; for example, I have included a line like 1.d3 d5 2. c3 e5, which is by no way lost for white, although some engines might have big black scores, and also 1. b3 and even 1.h3, also perfectly playable, but have absolutely excluded any lines starting with 1. g4, 2. b4, etc., which already are very controversial, as they expose white too much.
Why not proceed with simply creating a 2 moves book out of chess players' games? If GM games are chosen, my feeling is that your 2 move book will end up with fewer than some 300-400 main lines. That could be insufficient for a good testing book. If you choose a wider range of players to create a 2 moves book, with all probability there will be too many suboptimal lines (like 1.g4 and 1. b4 for example), so that you will stilll have to go over all the lines manually to correct the book. The idea is good of course and someone might try it, but I have done this more or less in this book without having recourse to any specific games played.
Any comments, but before all any help with converting the book so that it could later be offered for download for use in engine events, would be very much appreciated. In case of need, you can leave me of course a PM.
PS. I guess you will have some hard time with converting to bin format the opening lines written in a tree approach, as possibly this approach does something not in line with specific protocol requirements, but that is why I need your help. I think the book could be an useful tool if accomplished.
I have created a 2 moves opening book in simple doc format, downloadable from here: http://www.freeuploadsite.com/do.php?id=27429. The book is written in simple text following the tree approach, and should contain some 2000 different lines. Now, I would like very much to somehow convert the book to a format (for example bin) easily usable by fans and tournament organizers. My problem is I am having a bit of tough time with programming tools, and, if I manage at all to convert the book to the necessary format, I will have to take great pains with familiarising myself with software and functions that might be a bit difficult to grasp. And even if I am successful in my attempt, there is always the chance that something will go wrong because of my inexperience. Therefore I would like to ask if someone is willing to help with converting the book to a engine-usable format?
Why did I create the book and what would be the possible use of its application? For the simple fact that, by following different engine tournaments, even at LTC, it is easily observable that a large portion of the lines played, frequently going to as much as 50%, are a bit, more, or even very much unequal, favouring some of the sides more than would be creditable for a game between top engines to proceed normally without an unnecessary bias. There are cases where the engine is already lost right after book, and for me that is disastrous.
The second reason is that nowadays engines of top quality play as a rule chess better, or significantly better than humans, so that it would be quite normal to leave a larger portion of the chess game to be authentically played by engines, instead of just relying on premade opening lines of dubious quality.
The third reason is of course the desire to see engines play a bigger share of the game themselves. When a book, even if good, ends at move 8, 10, 15, etc. (but for me, even 5 is too much), this basically means that a significant amount of the game is already played by the book, and usually opening is one of the most interesting stages. Why not leave the opening lines up to the decision of engines themselves? I have observed that, precisely because engines are developed and tuned starting from opening positions maybe after move 8, as a general rule engines play weaker the opening stage if left without book. I.e., it is still possible to tune eval and search significantly better for the opening, where engines lag far behind from the knowledge they have later on.
Concerning the 2 Moves book itself:
- it should contain some 2000 distinct opening lines (probably there are doubles in the positions arising with transpositions after move 2, I do not know how many, it would be nice to delete them)
- I think 95% of the openings should be equal within the range of evaluation of 20-30 centipawns for one of the sides; there are no opening lines that are winning for one of the sides, maybe less than 1%
- 2000 lines would allow testing under most standard conditions
- I have included lines that are very much unpopular among chess players of whatever calibre, but perfectly playable; for example, I have included a line like 1.d3 d5 2. c3 e5, which is by no way lost for white, although some engines might have big black scores, and also 1. b3 and even 1.h3, also perfectly playable, but have absolutely excluded any lines starting with 1. g4, 2. b4, etc., which already are very controversial, as they expose white too much.
Why not proceed with simply creating a 2 moves book out of chess players' games? If GM games are chosen, my feeling is that your 2 move book will end up with fewer than some 300-400 main lines. That could be insufficient for a good testing book. If you choose a wider range of players to create a 2 moves book, with all probability there will be too many suboptimal lines (like 1.g4 and 1. b4 for example), so that you will stilll have to go over all the lines manually to correct the book. The idea is good of course and someone might try it, but I have done this more or less in this book without having recourse to any specific games played.
Any comments, but before all any help with converting the book so that it could later be offered for download for use in engine events, would be very much appreciated. In case of need, you can leave me of course a PM.
PS. I guess you will have some hard time with converting to bin format the opening lines written in a tree approach, as possibly this approach does something not in line with specific protocol requirements, but that is why I need your help. I think the book could be an useful tool if accomplished.