Fire 3.0 released

[kranium]

is Fire derived from another engine?

I believe it's derived from both Ivanhoe and Robbolito.

Yes of course it's a direct Ippolit derivative...it started as Firebird (myself along with Milos S.)
complete history is here: http://www.chesslogik.com/fire.htm

Considering IvanHoe, I believe the problem was that the authors got much too caught up adding features
(monte carlo, robbobases, GUIs, etc., etc.)
That software is incredibly feature rich! They never concentrated on, or worked sufficiently at adding strength IMO
I also spent far too much time adding features to Fire 2.2, (170 configurable parameters, etc.)
because it seems most users judge the success of a release by ELO

Anyway, I've worked on Fire 3.0 privately most of this year since closing the source code, running tests on 2 6 core i7s 24/7 and concentrating on strength only...
I have made some progress with 3.0, but it remains to be seen how these improvements translate (scale) to longer TCs

PS - I strongly advise against anyone trying to develop or improve an existing chess engine unless they can endure endless and incredibly tedious work
recording tests in a spreadsheet, making a small change, compiling, setting up the test, waiting for results, and repeating this process over and over for many months, even years...yuck! (well i guess there's worse things)
Don D. said it best: people who develop chess engines don't have a life

IMO that's why people like Don Daily, Larry Kaufman, R. Houdart, Marco C. and the Stockfish team, deserve real kudos for their exceptional dedication and effort in this regard!

Ok my ramblings aside:

I just posted 4 more compiles
Fire 3.0 GEN
these are (generic) binaries should work on most systems that don't support AVX or SSE42
http://chesslogik.wix.com/fire

[velmarin]

This last relase GEN, works fine on my Phenom II

Thanks Norman, and good luck and satisfaction.

greetings, Jose.

[Max]

I just posted 4 more compiles
Fire 3.0 GEN
these are (generic) binaries should work on most systems that don't support AVX or SSE42
http://chesslogik.wix.com/fire

Hi Norman,
all 32-bit versions crash with this error while loading on my Mac via wine 1.7.7. Likely the same with wine on Linux.

Code: Select all

Unhandled exception: unimplemented function KERNEL32.dll.GetLargePageMinimum called in 32-bit code (0x7bc44528).
Register dump:
 CS:001b SS:0023 DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:1007 GS:000f
 EIP:7bc44528 ESP:0033fd5c EBP:0033fdc0 EFLAGS:00000202(   - --  I   - - - )
 EAX:00452a24 EBX:0033fd68 ECX:ffffffff EDX:00000000
 ESI:00000000 EDI:0043cad9
Stack dump:
0x0033fd5c:  00000000 00761308 004b9f8c 80000100
0x0033fd6c:  00000001 00000000 7bc44528 00000002
0x0033fd7c:  00452b56 00452a24 00000000 00000000
0x0033fd8c:  7b8665fc 0033fdb0 0000000f 0033fdc8
0x0033fd9c:  7b86549b 00000000 00000000 00000000
0x0033fdac:  7b86549b 00761308 00000000 00000000
0200: sel=1007 base=7ffc0000 limit=00000fff 32-bit rw-
Backtrace:
=>0 0x7bc44528 (0x0033fdc0)
  1 0x0034000f (0x0033fe68)
  2 0x0043ca83 in fire 3.0 w32 (+0x3ca82) (0x0033feb0)
  3 0x7b850e2c in kernel32 (+0x40e2b) (0x0033fec8)
  4 0x7b854687 in kernel32 (+0x44686) (0x0033ff08)
  5 0x7bc6d47c (0x0033ff28)
  6 0x7bc6e52a (0x0033ffa8)
  7 0x7bc6d442 (0x0033ffc8)
  8 0x7bc44bce (0x0033ffe8)

Would it be possible to create 32-bit versions of Fire 3.0 without (the not by wine supported) large pages?

Thanks,
Max

[kranium]

Hi Max-
yes, NP
I could do that...

I was actually thinking last night of doing a native Linux compile
(got a couple email requests for such)

Give me some time and I'll do one or the other..

Best Regards-
Norm

[CositasBuenas]

Pretty please a native linux compile!

[kranium]

Hi all-

I noticed a mistake in the GEN FRC (Generic Fischer Random Chess) compiles that I posted yesterday, and have just now uploaded corrected binaries

If you are using the GEN compiles, please click here to get the corrected versions:

http://www.chesslogik.com/downloads/Fire_3.0_GEN.rar

Norm

[carldaman]

Even the Win 64-bit versions could use an on-off switch for the large pages, in my opinion.

A big thanks to Norman for continuing work on Fire. Maybe it was those Firenzina fellas that spurred him on ?!

Regards,
CL

[kranium]

Hi Norman,
all 32-bit versions crash with this error while loading on my Mac via wine 1.7.7. Likely the same with wine on Linux.

Would it be possible to create 32-bit versions of Fire 3.0 without (the not by wine supported) large pages?

Thanks,
Max

Hi Max-

I just uploaded a set of compiles targeted for Windows XP...
can you please try these with Wine as you suggested

http://chesslogik.wix.com/fire

or direct:
http://www.chesslogik.com/downloads/Fire_3.0_NLP.rar

thx,
Norm

[shrapnel]

I've checked out Fire 3.0 in my own way...playing Engine-Engine matches against online opponents.
Fire 3.0's play reminds me of playing with Houdini 3 at Contempt 0...few wins, no losses and LOTS of draws !
Fire 3.0 appears to be extremely defensive in its approach, taking NO risks whatsoever...so very difficult to beat, but also very few wins !
I'd suggest making the Engine a tad more aggressive to get more wins.
Just my 2 cents.

[Max]

I just uploaded a set of compiles targeted for Windows XP...
can you please try these with Wine as you suggested

http://chesslogik.wix.com/fire

or direct:
http://www.chesslogik.com/downloads/Fire_3.0_NLP.rar

thx,
Norm

Yes Norm, I can confirm that the new 32 bit NLP-version works now on OS X and wine!

Well done and thanks,
Max