Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

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Jim Ablett
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Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Jim Ablett »

Image
Chenard 1.1.36 JA
Author : Don Cross


Chenard Homepage:
http://web.archive.org/web/200012040758 ... enard.html
Chenard Web Edition: (Java applet)
http://cosinekitty.com/chess/index.html

Introduction (from original Chenard readme)

I have written a chess program called Chenard.
Though it is not in the same league as commercial programs,
it plays a fairly strong game.
The name is derived from Dr. Channard in Clive Barker's Hellraiser movies.
Chenard is written totally in C++ and the code is portable to just about
any operating system. The code has a built-in opening library, special
endgame tactics, and the usual min-max search algorithm. One of the more
interesting features of Chenard is that it automatically learns new
openings and does not have to spend time thinking when it re-encounters
any position in the first 15 moves of a game.
Don Cross.

Version 1.1.36 JA
-------------------
1. Added winboard protocol 2 support.
2. Removed gui code completely.
3. New logo.

Instructions:
-------------
Chenard doesn't need any command line
options to run, just install as a standard
winboard engine. It features an internal
opening book and also opening book learning
for the first 15 moves. A learning file
called 'chenard.tre' is created in the
engines folder when Chenard is first run.
To remove learning at any time, just delete
the file.

Chenard is also capable of speaking it's own
chess moves. To do this copy ALL the sound files
from the 'CHENWAV' folder into the engine folder.
If any sound file is missing, speech support will
be disabled, so to disable speech just delete one
or all of the sound files from the engine folder.
I would advise you not to play games shorter than
about 6 mins with speech as it creates about +5 secs
per move overhead, which will probably cause Chenard
to timeout.

Info
----
Chenard was first written by Don Cross in 1993,
and the last update was in 1999. A very nice
(non-winboard) Windows gui version can still be
downloaded from the homepage (link above) and you
can also play an online Java-applet version (link
also above). Playing strength is around TSCP level.

Available from my homepage.

Jim Ablett
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Graham Banks
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Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Graham Banks »

Nice logo! :)
gbanksnz at gmail.com
Tony Thomas

Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Tony Thomas »

Is this the strongest engine you have ever ported?
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Jim Ablett
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Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Jim Ablett »

Tony Thomas wrote:Is this the strongest engine you have ever ported?
It's about the same strength as ZZZZZZ.
The speaking moves function is a novelty though.

Jim.
pavel

Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by pavel »

Chenard was one of my favorite engine, I have played many many games with it. I am not too crazy about the winboard support, but I liked it's own GUI and fact that it had a learning feature where it used learn from the first 15 moves from its games against the opponents.

It also has a benchmark, here is what I get on the quadcore (obviously not using all cores, but interesting nontheless):

Image

58 times faster Yohooooooo!! :)

Also I remember at one point the author was trying to sell the source, but I guess there wasn't any takers.
Tony Thomas

Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Tony Thomas »

I would like to report the first problem. Chenard always loses on time in 1m+1sec time cotnrol.
Dann Corbit
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Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Dann Corbit »

Tony Thomas wrote:I would like to report the first problem. Chenard always loses on time in 1m+1sec time cotnrol.
Do you have sound turned on?
Tony Thomas

Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Tony Thomas »

Dann Corbit wrote:
Tony Thomas wrote:I would like to report the first problem. Chenard always loses on time in 1m+1sec time cotnrol.
Do you have sound turned on?
No, I removed all the sound files before I ran the games due to the fast time control.
swami
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Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by swami »

Wow! Thanks a lot, Jim. I used to play some games with Chenard 10 years go. It's how I came across other engines and finally found computer chess.
:wink:
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Jim Ablett
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Re: Chenard 1.136 with Winboard support available

Post by Jim Ablett »

Tony Thomas wrote:I would like to report the first problem. Chenard always loses on time in 1m+1sec time cotnrol.
That's too fast for it I'm afraid - 3 mins minimum should be safe. I couldn't do much with the time management, C++ is difficult for me - all
classes and stuff. Maybe Dann can have a look at it (c++ sources included).

Jim.