Author: John Merlino
Date: 14:06:46 11/21/00
Go up one level in this thread
On November 21, 2000 at 16:19:14, Jason Williamson wrote: >On November 21, 2000 at 15:58:24, John Merlino wrote: > >>On November 17, 2000 at 03:55:18, Jason Williamson wrote: >> >>>On November 16, 2000 at 21:56:41, John Merlino wrote: >>> >>>>On November 16, 2000 at 21:53:44, Jason Williamson wrote: >>>> >>>>>On November 16, 2000 at 20:00:53, John Merlino wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>On November 16, 2000 at 19:25:39, Garry Evans wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>>On November 16, 2000 at 19:22:44, Garry Evans wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Just go to bestbuy they have it on sale for 21 $ although the box says 39.95 >>>>>>>>You can't go wrong purchasing this product. The newer chessmaster feels >>>>>>>>incredibly strong, so far i haven't lost a game with it at icc. It still has >>>>>>>>it's basically tactical and agressive style in the tradition of Tal. It also >>>>>>>>still moves almost instantly after it's opponent moves ( I have never seen a >>>>>>>>program that moves as fast as CM no matter the level). I am not sure if the >>>>>>>>opening book has been expanded. So far I had none of the bad expierences >>>>>>>>associated with Michael Cummings Post, I think he is just rubishing chessmaster, >>>>>>>>what a traitor!!. Anyway folks you just can't lose with this purchase, I am >>>>>>>>from the old school when programs were a hundred bucks and more!! >>>>>>>>These prices are a welcome relief!! >>>>>>> >>>>>>>I forgot to mention that chessmaster 8000 rates itself at 2843!! on my athlon >>>>>>>550, obviously too high, unless they mean uscf, and then its still probally too >>>>>>>high. >>>>>> >>>>>>Yes, the ratings are USCF. >>>>>> >>>>>>jm >>>>> >>>>>Based on my first tournament, using the Fritz 6 Rating thingy, CM8000 got a >>>>>rating of 2710. Not shabby. >>>> >>>>What is the speed of your CPU? >>>> >>>>jm >>> >>>Dual Celeron 400. As to the ratings, they are relative of course. The actual >>>value is not useful outside the realm of my little engine tournaments, but you >>>can use it to get a rough comparisson of the strength of the engines on my >>>computer. >>> >>>Here is my top ten: >>> >>>Junior 6.0 2760 - based on 263 games >>>Fritz 6a 2750 - based on 325 games >>>Hiarcs 7.32 2718 - based on 184 games >>>Chessmaster 2712 - based on 12 games >>>Fritz 5.32 2703 - based on 75 games >>>Junior 5.0 2678 - based on 60 games >>>Shredder 2663 - based on 153 games (mostly winboard version 3.0) >>>Crafty 2634 - based on 2693 games >>>Nimzo 2634 - based on 1299 games (mostly wbnimzo 2000) >>>LG2000 2567 - based on 2481 games >>> >>>The last three had a lot of games played from winboard tournaments run by other >>>people. I used the large pgn of winboard engine tournaments as a base for the >>>rating list. >>> >>>Seriously though, if Chessmaster hired a GM to work the opening book (and there >>>are lots of them in the US that would probably do it too ;)) it would be MUCH >>>stronger especially in engine vs engine play. Of course, I understand that this >>>isn't the focus of the engine, or the main use that your market is going to use >>>it for. But as a realtivly strong player myself, that is the ONE draw back that >>>makes chessmaster slight inadequte of a study tool. >>> >>>Suggestions for winboard engine vs engine stuff also: >>> >>>Add the ability to see the output of the engines in tournaments. >>>Add the ability to see CM variations in engine vs engine tournaments. >>>Add the ability to adjudicate games in engine vs engine tournaments (annoying >>>wating for the 50 move rule to take effect in a RvR ending). >>>Add the result of the previous game to the starting next game window ie: >>> >>>Previous game ended in a draw, in the window that announces the next pairing >>>state the result of the game ... draw by repitiion or whater. >>> >>> >>> >>>JW >> >>Regarding your comments/suggestions: >> >>-- It is quite likely that GM Larry Evans is going to completely rewrite the >>opening book for next year's version of Chessmaster. >>-- The engine output windows could be added to the tournament room, but turning >>them on would lower performance, which is probably an undesired side-effect. >>-- What do you mean by "see CM variations in engine vs. engine tournaments"? >>-- Adjudication is probably a good idea. I'll see if I can talk the development >>team into putting it into the patch. >>-- The result of the previous game is also a good idea... ditto the above >>comment. >> >>jm > >Glad to hear about the book, that is a big weakness for chessmaster atm. > >As to the performance hit on the xboard window, well I suppose it is an issue, >but if it were an option then well, it would be the users choice to sacrifice >the few % of cpu power to do it. > >As to the CM varations, what i mean is it would be nice to see the evaluation of >Chessmaster (and other engines) when they are playing engine vs engine. > >Question concerning PGN files and the opening book: Is there a limit to the max >size of the pgn and how tolerent is the PGN reader to slight problems in the >pgn? > >For example, Yace awhile back had problems reading pgns with \ in the header. >This was a result of the really ugly database I have, and some tournament >headers had \ in it. IE: [Site "Blah blah \blah"], the result being yace would >drop the ] and since it dropped it, it would assume the rest of the pgn is part >of the header. That made for some small books. ;) Anyway, I get a crash when >I try to readi in this pgn into chess master. This pgn has about 600,000 games >is just under 1 gig in size. > >JW In general, the Tournament Room is where everything is done "by the book", as it were, so it would be considered "rude" (these are my own words, not those of the development team), to be able to spy on an engine's output. So, the "Xboard Engine Output" and the "Thinking Lines" windows are therefore not available in that room. Turning on the latter of those two windows for both engines would be an even bigger CPU hit. As for the PGN problem, well, honestly, 1 GB is a pretty big file, but I do not know of any problems or issues with attempting to read such a large file. However, what you would be presented with is a listbox with 600,000 items in it, asking you which game you wanted to load. That's probably not what you are looking for. Also, of course, it would take QUITE some time just to parse that file and present you with the titles of the games. But, for the most part, Chessmaster's PGN reader is thorough and does do SOME attempt at being "smart" at trying to figure out what was MEANT by the contents of some questionable move entries. If you have any specific issues, I can ask the development team about them. I know that Yahoo and Excite chess sent their users "pseudo-PGN" files that some non-PGN data that Chessmaster 7000 could choke on, but these problems were resolved for CM8000. I don't know, specifically, about '\' characters, and I believe that they are valid, so they should work. jm
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