Re: On-line engine blitz tournament September

Modern Times · Post by **Modern Times** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 6:18 pm

Still having issues, I'll try Stockfish.

Maybe it can be solved by ditching winboard and using something else, but I don't know what that something else would be. The other options look complex, e.g. Josh's solution, and that itself it relatively untested. So I'm stuck there.

Modern Times · Post by **Modern Times** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 6:49 pm

Same problem running Stockfish under Winboard. Looks like it may be a winboard-specific issue with the new server. I'll have to sit out future tournaments until I can find and learn how to use an alternative GUI for these tournaments.

mar · Post by **mar** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 7:18 pm

Modern Times wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2026 6:49 pm Same problem running Stockfish under Winboard. Looks like it may be a winboard-specific issue with the new server. I'll have to sit out future tournaments until I can find and learn how to use an alternative GUI for these tournaments.

well, that's unfortunate since I'm using Winboard too. Is there some chance that it's the new server problem instead?
since Winboard never failed me before. I guess I'll pass until the problem is resolved or at least traced.

going ponder off is going to cost some 60 elo and would also influence the pace of the game, so that's not an option for me.

it looks like perhaps some kind of a race condition related to pondering, but I thought it's solely the client that's responsible for pondering,
I may be wrong however and perhaps it requires some sort of interaction with the server.

Stockfish is 100% reliable when it comes to pondering, so definitely not an engine problem.

Maarten Claessens · Post by **Maarten Claessens** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 7:30 pm

WaDuuttie (xboard-protocol) played a couple of games using Winboard 4.8.0 on the new server without any problems. So maybe it's an UCI related problem.

mar · Post by **mar** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 7:42 pm

well, no idea. Winboard uses polyglot for uci engines - but again I don't remember any problems before the new server, so I guess
there's still a nonzero chance that it's some kind of a server problem

I could switch to xboard protocol to see if it helps, but not everyone is fortunate to support both protocols. only tried a single game
on the new server (uci) and didn't experience any problems, but one game isn't much

Joost Buijs · Post by **Joost Buijs** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 7:49 pm

Modern Times wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2026 6:49 pm Same problem running Stockfish under Winboard. Looks like it may be a winboard-specific issue with the new server. I'll have to sit out future tournaments until I can find and learn how to use an alternative GUI for these tournaments.

I play with Winboard 4.8.0b, I've run many games, and I didn't had a single problem.

We made some changes to the server this afternoon, and can find exactly 1 game played by PlentyChessRB after that time, and that was won by you. I see in de mail you sent me that Winboard expects a move from black, but black is checkmated and cannot move. I will try to find the problem in the server logs, but it would be of help if you can turn debug in Winboard on and mail me the winboard.debug file when it happens again.

Edit: I've looked at the log, and there was a time-seal ping message sent in the same millisecond as the checkmate message, I've changed it now, the ping message will be delayed somewhat after a game has been finished. I will update the server with it tomorrow morning Dutch time.

Can you tell me if you work with or without time-seal?

Modern Times · Post by **Modern Times** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 8:13 pm

I cannot see any option in Winboard to turn on debugging.

I'm not sure which version of Winboard I'm running, it may not be the vey last one but it is fairly recent. And as Martin says, no problems previously with either Plenty Chess or Stockfish. Nothing has changed at my end.

I'll do some more testing when I'm finished work.

Modern Times · Post by **Modern Times** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 8:16 pm

Yes I use timeseal.

mar · Post by **mar** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 8:19 pm

just had the same problem that Ray described - got an unrated draw against nightmare, but suddenly no move from the opponent.
could it be it was adjudicated as a draw but the result didn't arrive from the server somehow?

I didn't have debug mode on, but I'm using Winboard 4.8.0b if it's any help

sadly - in the current state it seems unusable, clock is ticking as a write this but the game is long over it seems.

Joost Buijs · Post by **Joost Buijs** » Thu Oct 15, 2026 8:33 pm

mar wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2026 8:19 pm just had the same problem that Ray described - got an unrated draw against nightmare, but suddenly no move from the opponent.
could it be it was adjudicated as a draw but the result didn't arrive from the server somehow?

I didn't have debug mode on, but I'm using Winboard 4.8.0b if it's any help

sadly - in the current state it seems unusable, clock is ticking as a write this but the game is long over it seems.

Indeed, now I saw it happen here as well. On the server the game is drawn. We suspect that Winboard has a problem with the time-seal ping, I will add a patch for it tomorrow morning.