New engine releases & news 2021

[Damir]

Lila 3.0.1

Thanks to the Author Stylex Tv slt

https://github.com/StylexTV/Lila/releases/tag/v3.0.1

ila is a free, open source chess engine written in Java.

A runnable binary can be found here.

How do I run it?
This project is a UCI chess engine, which means that it does not contain an interface/gui, but is purely text-based.
You can either run it from the command prompt via java -jar lila.jar or use a chess GUI (e.g. Cute Chess) in order to use it more conveniently.

[Damir]

Loki 3.5.0.
Download
Thanks to the Author Niels Abildskov xrf01

https://github.com/BimmerBass/Loki/releases/tag/v3.5.0

This new version of Loki has been released for stability purposes.

Major changes:
- Reworked UCI. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, it removes the biggest source of Vice influence, and thus increases the originality of Loki. Secondly, it is written in a more C++ like manner, which will hopefully increase the homogeneity of Loki's code.
- Additionally the fgets function in uci.cpp was unstable on Linux, so it needed to be removed.
- Bench command. This has been added in order for Loki to qualify for OpenBench testing. OpenBench is a distributed testing framework written by Andrew Grant, creator of Ethereal. Thanks to the creator of Berserk, who has generously offered me to join his server and thus test on his hardware, the testing of Loki will from now on be more rigouros and reliable.

-Minor changes:
- Loki now has a logo! True to the origin of the name, it is a viking shield. An icon has also been added, but it is not added to the executable by default yet.
- Fixed duplicate killers bug. This increases move ordering.
- Added aspiration windows. (+10 elo)

[Guenther]

Lila 3.0.1

Thanks to the Author Stylex Tv slt

https://github.com/StylexTV/Lila/releases/tag/v3.0.1

ila is a free, open source chess engine written in Java.

A runnable binary can be found here.

How do I run it?
This project is a UCI chess engine, which means that it does not contain an interface/gui, but is purely text-based.
You can either run it from the command prompt via java -jar lila.jar or use a chess GUI (e.g. Cute Chess) in order to use it more conveniently.

Thanks god it's anonymous. I never post and announce 'anonymous engines' for good reasons, they are excluded from my chronology.
A quick look shows a lot of SF eval...and as it is anonymous, no need for me to check closer anyways.

[Guenther]

New:

SlowChess Classic 2.54 dev released
https://www.3dkingdoms.com/chess/slow.htm

Tom-Thumb 0.3 (2) released - I added the (2), because 0.3 was already released once.
I see no real infos except that it is updated since today. The site is a blackbox to me...
http://tomthumbchess.com/

Vanished:

Several google downloads are gone.

- all Isa downloads from Google links - 2.064 is still available from github - (I will add all I have and upload to my download site until tomorrow)
- several Allie downloads from Google links

[Damir]

Guenther where exactly do you see SlowChess 2.54 dev?... All I see is SlowChes 2.5 released over a year ago on Jan 17th 2020. There is no newer updated version in the link you put...

[Damir]

Ahh now I saw it.. please ignore my post.

[jonkr]

I was wondering if someone would notice the SlowChess web page update before I mentioned it.
(I forgot to update the year when changing the date, both are 2021)

https://www.3dkingdoms.com/chess/slowDev.html
2.54 is the about the same as 2.5 but with an updated and very slightly larger net that scores +20 elo to 2.5 in my tests. The gain is from running more overnight matches for a few weeks to get more training data. (Still haven't decided if I will buy an extra computer for chess.) I figured it would be good to release since it's been a while and if I work more I will probably experiment with different net structures and retraining so could get weaker or might do experiments that break some things for a time. It's up to rating lists if they want to include it, +20 isn't enough to definitely overcome error bars, and right now no idea when a 2.6 might come.

[Modern Times]

I was wondering if someone would notice the SlowChess web page update before I mentioned it.
(I forgot to update the year when changing the date, both are 2021)

https://www.3dkingdoms.com/chess/slowDev.html
2.54 is the about the same as 2.5 but with an updated and very slightly larger net that scores +20 elo to 2.5 in my tests. The gain is from running more overnight matches for a few weeks to get more training data. (Still haven't decided if I will buy an extra computer for chess.) I figured it would be good to release since it's been a while and if I work more I will probably experiment with different net structures and retraining so could get weaker or might do experiments that break some things for a time. It's up to rating lists if they want to include it, +20 isn't enough to definitely overcome error bars, and right now no idea when a 2.6 might come.

The NetPath is a new UCI parameter. Should that be left blank, or set to the same folder the engine is installed in ?

[jonkr]

- Net path option should be left blank, it was accidentally left in (I thought it was in 2.5 too?)
- 2.54 can only use the nets it comes with, the 2.5 general net isn't compatible
- I forgot to mention that 2.54 and 2.5 are equally bad at FRC compared to 2.4 (the nets trained on standard chess.)

[Modern Times]

Ah yes it was indeed in 2.5, I was comparing to 2.4