Configure Arena Linux 1.1 with engines of certain ELO

[ydebilloez]

Dear all,

I tried configuring Arena Linux 64 bit with a number of engines to play at a certain ELO. Given my CPU is different from others, it is really important to get ELO levels right. I have Wine installed so I can add windows engines running alongside linux engines.
Goal is to measure level on my engine by putting it alongside other engines in its elo range. I would like to have multiple engines in the 1000-1800 range with a fairly accurate elo rating. I typically play 0 5 0 or 0 2 12 for fast measuring.
I did not manage to get accurate playing strength configured right. Engines seem to behave differently from one run to another, sometimes playing strong, sometimes playing badly. The % setting of the engine in Arena does not seem to behave well.
Has anyone any experience with it or example configurations?

Regards,

[royb]

Dear all,

I tried configuring Arena Linux 64 bit with a number of engines to play at a certain ELO. Given my CPU is different from others, it is really important to get ELO levels right. I have Wine installed so I can add windows engines running alongside linux engines.
Goal is to measure level on my engine by putting it alongside other engines in its elo range. I would like to have multiple engines in the 1000-1800 range with a fairly accurate elo rating. I typically play 0 5 0 or 0 2 12 for fast measuring.
I did not manage to get accurate playing strength configured right. Engines seem to behave differently from one run to another, sometimes playing strong, sometimes playing badly. The % setting of the engine in Arena does not seem to behave well.
Has anyone any experience with it or example configurations?

Regards,

Sadly, there are quite a few major bugs in the Linux version of Arena. I stopped trying to use it long ago and have since forgotten what they were, but at least one bug is definitely related to the use of opening books (no book for second engine sticks in my mind but I could be mistaken).

I instead use Arena 3.5 and run via Wine. There are still bugs in that version, but not ones that stop me from running engine-vs-engine tournaments.

[ydebilloez]

Thanks,

Installed Arena 3.5.1 in wine in Linux 64 bit (mint). It works fine for windows engines, but does not seem to take linux engines (32/64 bit).

e.g.
2017-07-21 13:48:08,252*1*--------------------------Starting engine 1 Arasan--------------------------
2017-07-21 13:48:08,267*1*Configured Engine 1 Type: UCI
2017-07-21 13:48:08,267*1*Arasan: Invalid command line

Solution would really be to configure engines in Arena 1.1 linux. It takes windows and linux engines without any restriction.

An engine allowing to limit its elo is e.g. Ufim802. Did configure it by putting weak=50 in the ini file and configuring the desired elo through its UCI settings in Arena. Not sure if this is the right configuration.

[hgm]

That is a general Wine problem. Once a process runs under wine, anything else it starts must also run under Wine, i.e. be a Windows .exe. It must be that way, because Wine emulates Windows, and this is what Windows would do. There is no such thing as 'unwine' for Windows.

[Ras]

The % setting of the engine in Arena does not seem to behave well.

What else would you expect from a bug-ridden GUI that doesn't even get resigning engines right without restarting them?

[ydebilloez]

I wonder if there is any board or issue tracker where we can post issues against Arena. I love the program but some improvements are welcome:
Bugs:
- after end of game, following commands are required: force, new
- sometimes the german interface comes up in linux version
- when adding an engine to a tournament that has no elo being set, the windows version prompts for elo, the linux version does not
...
Feature requests:
- swiss tournaments
- set elo level in engine configuration screen
- where to request updates to engines.ini ?
...

[Guenther]

I wonder if there is any board or issue tracker where we can post issues against Arena. I love the program but some improvements are welcome:
Bugs:
- after end of game, following commands are required: force, new
- sometimes the german interface comes up in linux version
- when adding an engine to a tournament that has no elo being set, the windows version prompts for elo, the linux version does not
...
Feature requests:
- swiss tournaments
- set elo level in engine configuration screen
- where to request updates to engines.ini ?
...

Much easier would be to use xboard or cutechess under linux and
instead of simulating rating ranges using real programs at max strength for the desired rating.

[ydebilloez]

Thanks Guenther,

This was the first option I was looking at, but not with any good results until now. I seek a few engines that perform at 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 elo...
Failing to find some that actually perform nowadays with WB/UCI with this strength, I tried configuring stronger ones at that strength.

Regards,

[hgm]

But Elo-limiting is an engine option, not? If a engine doesn't have an option for that, the only thing the GUI can do is shorten the thinking time. So why do you need a specific GUI for doing that? Any GUI should allow you to set the engine options, or speed up the time control.

[Guenther]

Thanks Guenther,

This was the first option I was looking at, but not with any good results until now. I seek a few engines that perform at 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500 elo...
Failing to find some that actually perform nowadays with WB/UCI with this strength, I tried configuring stronger ones at that strength.

Regards,

I guess the main problem is stability and lack of testing/games for engines in this region? Probably you have already looked at the chronology?

May be Vincent Lejeunes GURL and my effort based on it GURL-2 might help you, because here are a lot of rating pools combined
(also from the past, when people tested a wider range of programs - also due to the fact that the number of available programs was smaller)
and weaker programs also have a lot of games played.

It is linked from my main rwbc site, anyway here is a direct link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... gMQ4eqT71c

Guenther