Alibaba (Dennis Breuker - 1995) with winboard support

[Jim Ablett]

AliBaba 1.0wb JA by Dennis Breuker
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ebreukerd/chess/index.html
http://cap.connx.com/Alibaba/

Chess Engine: AliBaba
Author : Dennis Breuker
Version : 1.0wb JA
Date (orig) : 24th Jan 1995
Date (mod) : 31st Dec 2008
Platform: : Windows
Compiler : Msvc++ 2008

I've finally added basic winboard protocol support to this old
chess engine (1995) which was written for testing various hashing algorithms.

Although Dennis Breuker wrote AliBaba as a testbed program, I'm pleasantly
surprised by how well it can play as a proper chess engine. I estimate it's
strength level around 1700-1800 elo, so should provide a challenging game to a
club-level strength human player.

Tested ok in Arena and Winboard chess interfaces and can use gui opening books.

Changes:
-------
1. Added Winboard protocol support.
2. Fixed castling bug.
3. New logo.

ToDo:
----
Add better time-controls. (probably)
Fix bugs that I've missed. (definitely!)

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2rmjn2zqawn

Jim Ablett

[Dann Corbit]

Marvelous, magnificent, miraculous, majestic, monumental and magnanimous.

IOW, thanks.

[tmokonen]

Thanks for resurrecting another oldie, Jim, it's always appreciated.

Have a happy new year.

Tony

[swami]

Thanks, Jim. Although I haven't heard of the program when it appeared or years later, I respect reviving back all the oldies now with added winboard support. and especially thank you a lot for making an optimised working compile!

[Jim Ablett]

Update:

AliBaba 1.1wb JA by Dennis Breuker

Changes (1.1wb):
-------
1. Added better (clock-based) time control
2. Fixed reluctance of AliBaba to castle by adding big bonus incentive to the eval.
3. Increased hash table size to 40mb
4. Level and draw offer winboard commands added.
4. Tweaks to the evaluation.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zwzljnrkyxl

Jim.

[Jim Ablett]

AliBaba update:

AliBaba 1.2wb JA by Dennis Breuker

Changes (1.2wb):
-------

1. Added piece square eval tables for each piece.
2. Small adjustments to time control
3. Fixed possible castling problem.
4. Implemented the new Winboard protocol command 'memory'.
With the latest Winboard versions it is possible to set the hash size for the
engine from within the gui.

Allowed hash sizes in AliBaba >

3mb 6mb 12mb 22mb 32mb 84mb 164mb

If other hash size is selected AliBaba will choose hash size
which is closest in range >
e.g if 50mb is selected in Winboard, AliBaba will set the hash size to
the nearest it will use, 32mb.

If memory command is not used, or AliBaba is used in another chess gui which
doesn't support the 'memory' command such as Arena, AliBaba will used the default
hash which is set at 32mb.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2zkmyw00w3g

Jim.

[Jim Ablett]

Update:

Changes (1.3wb):
-------
Bad checkmate bug fixed. (AliBaba would crash if checkmated.)

http://www.mediafire.com/?ymmmigfzgjh

Jim.