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Subject: Re: Chessmaster caught with his hand in the cookie bin

Author: john watson

Date: 21:40:13 11/16/00



The communication between The King and the main app is identical to the
communication between any WinBoard engine and the main app. Therefore, there is
no "time bonus", because The King is not a "native" personality. The "pipes" are
identical.

Nor does Chessmaster "hog the PC". In testing, the development team found that
both engines (whether or not they are The King) receive between 45 and 49%
(fluctuating, with an average of 47 or 48%) of the CPU at all times, assuming
that pondering is on for both engines. When pondering is OFF for both engines,
than it is between 90 and 98% for the engine that is thinking and 1% for the
engine that is waiting. Other applications (including the CM main app) account
for the remainder.

If Gandalf was making poor moves, then Gandalf was probably not initialized
properly. Chessmaster's default IS to have pondering on, but it is up to the
user to change this, obviously. If Gandalf's pondering was off, and
Chessmaster's was on, then this is obviously a discrepancy that must be dealt
with before a reasonable tournament can be run.

As for the operator being "asked to call the game a draw", I really have no idea
what you are talking about here. Who is this operator? Who was asking for the
draw? The King will NEVER offer a draw, NOR will it resign. Nor, in a comp vs.
comp game, can the human moderator DECLARE a game a draw within the Chessmaster
GUI (for example, by using the "Offer Draw" menuitem), because this feature does
not work if it is not a human's turn to move. Therefore, you need to clarify
this statement before I can comment on it.

jm

Gandalf's pondering was off, I checked it.
I'll run another round with ponder on.
The King.exe (Oct 18,123Kb) works without a hitch in Winboard and Chessbase Gui
but there its performance is much weaker.

The Chessmaster Gui displayed a splash box saying: Chessmaster Yes  No
I clicked Yes and Chessmaster started the next game.
Afterwards on the game list that game was a draw.

Chessmaster's graphics are superb, though.




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