Rodent 1.2 released

[PK]

and available at http://www.pkoziol.cal24.pl/rodent/rodent_download.htm

Changes include:

- LMR tuning (now some reduction is done also in PV nodes)
- new king safety function
- razoring added
- polyglot book support

Self play shows 50 Elo gain, but since my last prediction proved off the mark, I don't want to promise anything strength-wise. Yet I can state that Rodent 1.2 is finally capable of sacrificing material for initiative and has much better understanding of king safety.

Switching to polyglot book format meant two things: I was able to delete a lot of ugly code, and of course old big book had to go. rodent.bin is only a full weekend's worth of work, so it is bound to contain glitches, blunders and inferior lines. I have tried to make it as solid as possible, generating it from long drawn games of IM+ strength players, from games between 2700+ players and from games which repeat up to 16, 18 and 20 ply, but without a couple months of tuning it's not enough. the release of a real, hand-tuned book is scheduled for New Year's Eve.

I also promised myself to take a break from programming, as it requires a lot of energy, which is a bit hard to come by during the Polish autumn. In other words, I feel a bit tired and need to recharge.

As usual, I must ask if some kind soul can provide a Linux compile.

regards,

Pawel Koziol

[carldaman]

Thanks a lot, Pawel -- your work is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
CL

[Graham Banks]

and available at http://www.pkoziol.cal24.pl/rodent/rodent_download.htm

Thanks Pawel. Enjoy your break.

[Graham Banks]

I have a problem creating Rodent 1.2 as an engine in ChessGUI.
I get an address violation message pop up and can't go any further.
Sorry to be a bother.

[PK]

Graham, which compile are You using?

[Graham Banks]

Graham, which compile are You using?

The same issue occurs with both 64-bit exes.

[PK]

Strange, I will try to recompile them tomorrow. What is their reaction if You type "bench" in a console mode?

[Graham Banks]

Strange, I will try to recompile them tomorrow. What is their reaction if You type "bench" in a console mode?

[PK]

Bug fixed, and patched version uploaded. Thank You Graham for confirming that benchmark runs OK, as it allowed me to narrow down the possible reasons for a bug. After installing ChessGUI and running it it transpired that it was the most absurd consequence of a small error I have ever encountered - ChessGUI refused to run Rodent because of... missing space between engine id and author id. Arena and Scid vs PC weren't so nit-picking :p

thanks for quick responses and sorry for inconvenience!

[Graham Banks]

Bug fixed, and patched version uploaded. Thank You Graham for confirming that benchmark runs OK, as it allowed me to narrow down the possible reasons for a bug. After installing ChessGUI and running it it transpired that it was the most absurd consequence of a small error I have ever encountered - ChessGUI refused to run Rodent because of... missing space between engine id and author id. Arena and Scid vs PC weren't so nit-picking :p

thanks for quick responses and sorry for inconvenience!

No problem Pawel.
Thanks for your quick response.