CCRL update (18th April 2008)

[Graham Banks]

The April 18th update of the CCRL Rating Lists and Statistics is now available for viewing at:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

The list gets updated periodically during the week and these updates can be viewed here:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040.live/
Please be aware that no game downloads are available from this live link.

The links to the various rating lists can be found just beneath the default Best Versions list.
For example there is a 32-bit Single CPU list.

Our standard testing is at 40 moves in 40 minutes repeating and our blitz testing is at 40 moves in 4 minutes repeating, both adjusted to the AMD64 X2 4600+ (2.4GHz).
We have abandoned our 40/12 testing and the link will soon be removed. It is already a mammoth task trying to do a decent job with the other lists.

Currently active testers are:
Graham Banks, Ray Banks, Shaun Brewer, Kirill Kryukov, Tom Logan, Charles Smith, George Speight, Chuck Wilson and Gabor Szots.
A few other testers are currently taking a break, but remain on our team.


40/40 Notes

There are currently 116,385 games in our 40/40 database.

Many engines on our list have few games and in many cases their ratings are likely to fluctuate (markedly for some) until a lot more games are played. Therefore no conclusions should be drawn about their strength yet.
To illustrate this point, when an engine has 200 games played, the error margin is still approximately +-40 ELO, after 500 games +-25 ELO, after 1000 games +-17 ELO and even after 2000 games there is a +-13 ELO error margin!
This of course highlights the importance of looking at other rating lists that are also available in order to draw comparisons and get a more accurate overall picture.


4CPU 64-bit Engines

Hiarcs 12 was yet again the focus of our testing this week, especially with the default Sharpen PV Off settings to get a comparison with the suggested Sharpen PV On for longer time controls.

Now with 500+ games Hiarcs 12 Sharpen PV=On (recommended for 40/40 time controls and longer) continues to lag behind Rybka 2.3.2a, Zappa Mexico II, Naum 3 and Deep Shredder 11, just ahead of Deep Fritz 10.1 and Toga II 1.4 beta5c.
Hiarcs 12 Sharpen PV=Off (default setting) also remains slightly ahead of the Sharpen PV=On setting.

Loop M1-T is next in the pecking order, ahead of the evenly matched pair of Glaurung 2.0.1 and Bright 0.3a.

Deep Junior 10, Deep Sjeng 2.7 and Scorpio 2.0 are the other well tested engines in this category.


2CPU Engines

With the emphasis of our multi-cpu testing on 4CPU as opposed to 2CPU, there are gaps in this list and some of the engines also require further games.
We would welcome applications from further testers prepared to focus on 2CPU, so that we could present a more worthwhile rating list in this category.

Not a lot to report this week because the testing of Hiarcs 12 has been held off until we've completed our 4CPU testing.

Rybka 2.3.2a holds top spot in this category with a 50+ ELO lead.

Naum 3 has cemented its edge over Zappa Mexico for second spot.

Deep Shredder is next, comfortably ahead of Deep Fritz 10 and Loop M1-T.
The current ratings of both Hiarcs 12 and Toga II 1.4 beta5c mean little as they require more games.
Deep Fritz 10.1 hasn't been tested in this category, but is likely to be better than Deep Fritz 10 as demonstrated quite clearly in the 4CPU ratings and by other rating lists.

Glaurung 2.0.1, Bright 0.3a and Deep Junior 10 are closely grouped and have a sizeable advantage over Chessmaster 11.

Pharaon 3.5.1 is the only other engine with a reasonable number of games.


Single CPU Engines

Rybka 2.3.2a has an impressive 100 ELO lead over the the closely grouped Deep Shredder 11, Naum 3, Zappa Mexico II and Fritz 11.
Deep Shredder 11 1CPU is 64-bit as opposed to Shredder 11 which can only be run as a 32-bit engine.

Toga II 3.1.2SE (currently the highest rated of the Togas tested in this category) currently holds an edge over Hiarcs 12 Sharpen PV=On.
Hiarcs 12 could well be stronger with its default Sharpen PV Off setting, but many more games will be required to ascertain this.

Next come Loop 13.6 and Fruit 2.3.1, with a comfortable gap between them and the closely grouped and Deep Sjeng 2.7, Spike 1.2 Turin, Glaurung 2.0.1, Junior 10 and Bright 0.3a.
Thinker 5.1c Passive has only 31 games and its current rating means little.

There is a good distance back to Ktulu 8.0, Chess Tiger 2007.1, SmarThink 1.00 and Frenzee Feb08.

Chessmaster 11, Scorpio 2.0, Movei 00.8.438 (10 10 10), Alaric 707 and Booot 4.14.0 comprise the next group of engines ahead of E.T Chess 13.01.08, WildCat 8, SlowChess Blitz WV2.1, Ruffian 2.1.0 and Delfi 5.2.

For Chessmaster enthusiasts, we have carried out some extensive testing of various CM11 settings:
http://kirr.homeunix.org/chess/discussi ... f=7&t=3054


Free Single CPU Engines

Toga II 3.1.2SE (the latest version of Toga that we've so far tested at 40/40 has possibly overtaken Rybka 1.0 as the top free engine, but it is very close.

Fruit 2.3.1 (the strongest publicly available version at present) comes in third ahead of Spike 1.2 Turin, Glaurung 2.0.1 and Bright 0.3a.
Thinker 5.1c Passive is still in the early stages of testing, but could well be up with the latter three.

Naum 2.0 and Frenzee Feb08 are 30+ ELO further back.

Scorpio 2.0, Movei 00.8.438 (10 10 10), Alaric 707 and Booot 4.14.0 come in next, ahead of E.T Chess 13.01.08, WildCat 8, SlowChess Blitz WV2.1, Zappa 1.1 and Delfi 5.2.

We test a very extensive range of amateur engines (currently ranging down to the 2000 ELO level) through a range of tournaments, all of which can be followed in our public forum.
Our aim is of course to ensure that all engines lower on our lists get 200+ games.


Blitz Notes

There are currently 268,029 games in our 40/4 database.

The latest ratings can be found at one of the following links:
http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/
http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404.live/

An enormous amount of work goes into the blitz list and it is well worth a visit.

Of special interest to some will be the best free 1CPU engines list which is being constructed through a systematic testing approach as mentioned here:
http://kirr.homeunix.org/chess/discussi ... f=7&t=3271


FRC Notes

Still no further news on this front.
There are currently 26,100 games in the FRC 40/4 database.

Ray tests only those engines that can play FRC through the Shredder Classic GUI.
If engine authors have a new and stable version of their engine that will run under this GUI, they should contact Ray if they wish to see it tested.

Hiarcs 12 comes in third amongst the available engines behind Shredder 11 and Naum 3 (remembering of course that the top engine, Rybka 2.3.2 FRC, has remained private).

For FRC the best list to look at is the pure list.
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/


Stats/Presentation Notes

The LOS (likelihood of superiority) stats to the right hand side of each rating list tell you the likelihood in percentage terms of each engine being superior to the engine directly below them.

A list of games played this week per engine can be found in the update thread in the CCRL public forum.

All games are available for download by engine, by month or by ECO code.
ELO ratings are now saved in all game databases for those engines that have 200 games or more.

Clicking on an engine name will give details as to opponents played plus homepage links where applicable.

Custom lists of engines can be selected for comparison.

An openings report page lists the number of games played by ECO codes with draw percentage and White win percentage. Clicking on a column heading will sort the list by that column.

[ozziejoe]

Hiarcs looks to be a bit disappointing in its level of improvement? Or do other lists strongly disagree with CCRL on this point (i.e., less than 30 pnt improvement)

[Graham Banks]

Hiarcs looks to be a bit disappointing in its level of improvement? Or do other lists strongly disagree with CCRL on this point (i.e., less than 30 pnt improvement)

Not sure how it compares with other lists, but it's still early days in our single-cpu testing.

[Spock]

Hiarcs looks to be a bit disappointing in its level of improvement? Or do other lists strongly disagree with CCRL on this point (i.e., less than 30 pnt improvement)

Other lists with similar testing conditions are very much in agreement with CCRL. CEGT is a good example where the results are pretty similar. Although on their 40/120 list they are currently showing Quad Hiarcs 12 with the exact same rating as Quad Hiarcs 11.2. I suspect with more games they should start to see some improvement

[S.Taylor]

Hiarcs looks to be a bit disappointing in its level of improvement? Or do other lists strongly disagree with CCRL on this point (i.e., less than 30 pnt improvement)

Sometimes, e.g. HAS been known to quicklt release a next version, i.e. Hiarcs 13, when a preious upgrade had seemed below what was hoped for. (e.g. I think it was hiarcs 5 which followed very soon after with Hiarcs 6). So who knows!

[Spock]

Sometimes, e.g. HAS been known to quicklt release a next version, i.e. Hiarcs 13, when a preious upgrade had seemed below what was hoped for. (e.g. I think it was hiarcs 5 which followed very soon after with Hiarcs 6). So who knows!

Yes, there was Hiarcs 11.1 after Hiarcs 11. I think the chances are good of a Hiarcs 12.1 in a few months time