Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 20:53:08 05/16/04
All those on the list should receive this email. Leo should also have on his site by the morning. Best, Michael ====================================================================== May 16, 2004 Crafty 19.13 SE Release With great pleasure, I announce the release of Crafty 19.13 SE (Special Edition). This modified chess program is based on Bob Hyatt’s great chess program “Crafty” and is distributed with his permission. See the bottom of this message for his Copyright notice. In case you do not know, Bob is one of the all time great chess programmers, and when they get around to starting the “Chess Programmers Hall of Fame”, he will certainly be inducted in the inaugural class as one the all time great contributors to the science of chess programming. In terms of my personal pastimes, I enjoy computer chess best and Bob Hyatt has been one of the major reasons why I have enjoyed it so much. A “Special Thanks” to you Bob, from all of us computer chess enthusiasts. As in the past, this is being automatically email to those who have signed us for the distribution of these modified Crafty SE release. Email to mfbyrne_pa@msn.com with the word “include”. If your email changes, just send me another email. If for some reason you have e-mailed me and do not get it within 24 hours, try another email after 24 hours. If after 24 hours, you still do not have it (please do wait for the 24 hours) – post here underneath this message with your e-mail address and the request for the copy. Please be patient, as my schedule may not permit me to check this forum as frequently as I would like to. My spam filter is very aggressive and I may have to add you to my safe list. The good news is that I now get no spam at all, but I do miss a legitimate email now and then. But please make sure your email address can take a 1 MB file – if it bounces back as undeliverable, your address gets deleted. On a disappointing note, I lost my system this week and I did not have a backup of Intel 7 Compiler – since I have moved to Intel 8 – a replacement executable for me is not available. My distributed exe will work on almost all processors, but it is optimized best for the Intel 4 ( I do not have an AMD machine - sorry). The upside is that e-mail is lot smaller! Now for the good news. * First we have 4 new GM personalities, bringing total number of GM personalities up to 24. Gligoric -- second only to Korchnoi in recorded games played, he is my all-time favorite chess author. He is listed in the top 15 for 15 straight years – 1949 to 1964. He is the inventor of the King’ Indian Mar del Plata opening – an opening that computers do not play well. Korchnoi – in my view, the best player ever not to be World Champion. Polgar - three sisters that have made Chess History, with Judith, the youngest, a bona fide contender for the World Championship. I would love to see her maker chess history and take the title. Staunton - perhaps more famous for the chess pieces that he promoted , he was one of the strongest chess player in the pre World Championship era. * New Command “rsd” – Random Search Depth The new "rsd" command will vary the search depth randomly based on the user inputed values. Place in the crafty.rc file – do not type the quotes. Examples: “rsd 2 5 5 10” will randomly select between 2 and 5 plies in the opening/middle and between 5 & 10 in the endgame. “rsd 3 3 5 10” will search 3 plies in the opening/middle and between 5 & 10 in the endgame. “rsd 1 5 8 8” will randomly select between 1 and 5 plies in the opening/middle and search 8 plies in the endgame. “rsd 0 x 0 x “ (x any number) will not be limited in search by search depth at all in opening/middle/endgame “rsd 1 5 0 x “(x any number) will randomly select between 1 and 5 plies in the opening/middle and not be limited in endgame “rsd 3 3 5 5” will search 3 plies in the opening/middle and search 5 plies in the endgame. “rsd 3 5 3 5” will randomly select between 3 and 5 plies in the opening/middle and endgame "rsd 3 3 3 3" == "sd 3" * New command "dsd" sets a dynamic search depth depending on how Crafty is evaluating the game - increasing or decreasing the search depth. It will increase the search depth if losing or decrease it if winning. Designed for playing Crafty with a set search depth or using the new “rsd” command above. May be used with GM personalities. Takes the argumenets “on” and “off” Example: Place in the crafty.rc file – do not type the quotes. “dsd on” * New Command “rint” Random Intensity Command It takes two arguments – a low value and a high value. 10000= 100% processing power ; 500 – 5% processing power; 100 – 1% processing power; etc. Crafty will select a random value between range and that will be the processing power used for that move. Note: These weakening options are also designed to be used with “dm on” or “Delay Move “ if you wish Crafty not to move instantly. “dm on” will have Crafty used the appropriate time per the game time selected and yet not have Crafty used all it’s time calculating on a position during this time. It will automatically self adjust itself in the game depending on the time you select. Example: Place in the crafty.rc file – do not type the quotes. usage: rint <low intensity> <high intensity> “rint 50 100” These can be used together or separately. (Note : “dynint” must be used with either “rint” OR “intensity” rint (Random Intensity Command) set a command sets a random intensity level for each move. * New Command “dynint” Dymanic Intensity Command (Note : “dynint” must be used with either “rint” OR “intensity” "dnyint" command sets a dynamic intensity level depending how Crafty is evaluating the game - increasing or decreasing the intensity depending on the score of the game as Crafty sees it. “dnyint” takes up to 4 arguments, the first two , a minimum and maximum intensity settings are required. If you do not enter the 3rd and 4th arguments for losing and winning thresholds in centipawns, the 3rd and 4th arguments will fall to a default of 50 and 150 centipawns respectively. Example: Place in the crafty.rc file – do not type the quotes. usage: dynint <min intensity> <max intensity> <losing threshold> <winning threshold> “dnyint 20 5000 50 150” valid ranges for the two arguments are between 1 and 10000. The 3rd and 4th arguments tell crafty when to increase or decrease the intensity based on the score. If the losing threshold is reached, Crafty will double the intensity and keeps doubling the intensity for reaching every multiple of the initial score until the max intensity of 10,000 is reached . The winning threshold works in the same fashion. “dnyint 20 5000 50 150” using this setting , Crafty will double the intensity once it believes it is 50 points behind. At 100 points behind, it will double the intensity again or be 4x of the original intensity. One it reaches 200 points behind it will double the intensity again or be 8x of the original intensity set by the user through the “intensity” command or set by the “rint” (random intensity ) command. It will continue in that doubling sequence for every multiple reached of the losing threshold until the maximum intensity of 10000 (100% CPU processing power) is reached. The winning threshold works in the same manner except it is cutting in half the intensity for every multiple of the winning threshold reached. You will note the defaults are 50 points (centipawns) for the losing threshold and 150 points for the winning threshold . So the losing threshold defaults are quick to kick in to strengthen Crafty then the winning threshold are to weaken Crafty. One interesting “dynint” setting to try is this: “dnyint 1 10000 1 1” In this setting – Crafty will reach full intensity either way within 28 centipawns (or less) of each other. If Crafty is up by 14 centipawns, it will drop down to the lowest intensity setting of 1, if is behind by 14 centipawns it will be playing full strength. That is because it is doubling the intensity for every centipawns it is behind and 2^14 takes to Crafty to 10000 intensity. So as long as Crafty is winning, it is playing a weak game – but should it sense it is behind – it will take no prisoners until it is winning again. * The intensity command was modified to accept the “move now” command (?). As a reminder the intensity command controls how long Crafty will evaluate at a position and still use all of its allotted time before declaring its move. It was specifically designed to be used with the “dm” command to prevent Crafty from moving instantaneously while playing on a weaker setting. It will use all of allotted clock time, but just a position of its allotted time on actually calculating on the position. 10000= 100% processing power ; 500 – 5% processing power; 100 – 1% processing power; etc. Crafty will select a random value between range and that will be the processing power used for that move. Note: These weakening options are also designed to be used with “dm on” or Delay Move command. * A user may now override all or just a few of the random evaluation settings with you’re your evaluation settings. For example, say you always want to have the asymmetry valued at 0. Type "evaluation asymmetry 0" in the crafty.rc file or command prompt and when you used "Jekyll and Hyatt" random setting personality, you will always get the value of “0” for the asymmetry. "evaluation bscale 100" would lock the block pawn scale at 100. All the other evaluation factors will still be chosen at random. Type “help evaluation” at the command prompt to learn more about setting evaluation settings. “dgtboard” command was changed to “boarddgt” , It takes the arguments “on” and “off”. It was changed because it superceded the “display” command, which I did not like. ( I like just being able to hit “d” to see the board in command mode. ) The purpose is to activate speech while using Crafty with a DGT board in Winboard. Example “boarddgt on” * Logo is Smarty Jones winning the Kentucky Derby. The horse is from a Philadelphia area racetrack. Best of luck to Smarty in the Belmont! * Other cosmetic changes that you may or may noticed. e.g. Winboard/Arena will now display the personality correctly in the GUI, addition info in the logs regarding the new commands above etc. * Included is one sample crafty.rc file. * Crafty SE is a direct derivative of "Crafty" and both Crafty and Crafty SE are owned and copyrighted by Dr. Robert Hyatt. It is with Dr. Hyatt's permission that I am able to distribute this software for free. At the bottom of this file is the text of the Crafty Copyright notice. Best Regards, Michael Byrne ================================================================== Copyright Notice ================================================================== Crafty and Crafty SE, copyright 1996-2004 by Robert M. Hyatt, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham. All rights reserved. No part of this program may be reproduced in any form or by any means, for other than your personal use, without the express written permission of the author. This program may not be used in whole, nor in part, to enter any computer chess competition without written permission from the author. Such permission will include the requirement that the program be entered under the name "Crafty" so that the program's ancestry will be known. Copies of the source must contain the original copyright notice intact. Any changes made to this software must also be made public to comply with the original intent of this software distribution project. These restrictions apply whether the distribution is being done for free or as part or all of a commercial product. The author retains sole ownership and copyright on this program except for 'personal use' explained below. Personal use includes any use you make of the program yourself, either by playing games with it yourself, or allowing others to play it on your machine, and requires that if others use the program, it must be clearly identified as "Crafty" to anyone playing it (on a chess server as one example). Personal use does not allow anyone to enter this into a chess tournament where other program authors are invited to participate. IE you can do your own local tournament, with Crafty + other programs, since this is for your personal enjoyment. But you may not enter Crafty into an event where it will be in competition with other programs/programmers without permission as stated previously. ==================================================================
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