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Subject: "El Rey": a new personality for CM8K

Author: Antonio Senatore

Date: 09:36:24 04/14/01


After trying and trying I believe that finally I have found the parameters of a
very strong Chessmaster personality. I have called it "El Rey" and got (at least
in my system) fantastic results against other Chessmaster personalities, against
winboard engines (like Crafty 18.07 and Yace 0.99) and against top programs
(like Deep Fritz, Fritz 6 and Junior 6) as much in blitz as in long games.

These are the parameters of "El Rey":

-Style
----------------------------
Attacker/Def    =     0
Strenght        =   100
Random          =     0
MaxSearch       =    99
SelectSearch    =     6
Contempt        =     0
TransTable      =    32

-Positional
----------------------------
Mat/Pos         =    20
ContrCent       =   125
Mob             =   130 (*)
KingSaf         =   120
PassPawn        =   125
PawnWeak        =   100

-Material
----------------------------
Own Queen     =	   12.4
Oppposing Queen =  12.1
Rook          =	    6.6
Bishop        =	    4.4
Knight        =	    4.2
Pawn          =	    1.1

(*) If you want to see a very aggressive (and less solid too) try here a value
of 150 but the value 130 is the best.

This personality doesn't doubt in sacrificing pawns or quality for getting
attack or powerfull pased pawns. The next game against Fritz 6 (blitz at 10
min/game) shows perfectly the style of "El Rey":

[White "Fritz 6"]
[Black "El Rey"]
[TimeControl "600"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. d4 c5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. g3 Nf6 7. Bg2 Be7 8. O-O
O-O 9. Bg5 c4 10. Ne5 Be6 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. b3 Qa5 13. Na4 Rfd8 14. e3 c5 15.
Bxf6 gxf6 16. bxc4 cxd4 17. exd4 dxc4 18. Bxa8 Rxa8 19. Qc2 Bh3 20. Rfe1 Bb4 21.
Re3 Qd5 22. Qe4 Qxe4 23. Rxe4 Rc8 24. a3 Bd2 25. Nc5 c3 26. Re2 Bg4 27. Re7 Be6
28. Ne4 Kf8 29. Rxa7 c2 30. Nxf6 Bc3 31. Rc1 Bb2 32. Rxc2 Rxc2 33. Nxh7+ Kg7 34.
Ng5 Bd5 35. Kf1 Bc4+ 36. Kg2 Bxd4 37. Ra4 Rxf2+ 38. Kh3 Bf1+ 39. Kh4 Rxh2+ 40.
Kg4 Be3 41. Re4 Be2+ 42. Nf3 Bc1 43. a4 f5+ 44. Kxf5 Rh5+ 45. Ke6 Bxf3 46. Rd4
Ra5 47. Rb4
Ra6+ 0-1

But finding values for those parameters was half of the work; the other half was
to build a decent openings book according to the style of the personality. I
believe that reasonably I have gotten it (inside the limit of 128 Kb imposed by
Chessmaster) and the result was my PowerBook.obk (I can send it to you if you
want).

And here a few results of "El Rey" with "PowerBook":

Ponder off - 5 minutes per game
------------------------------------------------------
El Rey (PowerBook.obk)	  +8 =1 -1		8.5
Chessmaster (CM8000.obk)  +1 =1 -8		1.5

El Rey (PowerBook.obk)	  +6 =2 -2		7.0
Crafty 18.07 (CM8000.obk  +2 =2 -6		3.0
and 5-man tablebases)


------------------------------------------------------
Ponder off - 10 minutes per game
------------------------------------------------------
El Rey (PowerBook.obk)	  +7 =2 -1		8.0
Chessmaster (CM8000.obk)  +1 =2 -7		2.0

El Rey (PowerBook.obk)	  +6 =2 -2		7.0
Crafty 18.07 (CM8000.obk  +2 =2 -6		3.0
and 5-man tablebases)


I have also tested "El Rey" against other custom personalities but I didn't
believe that it was correct to include those results here; so it will be for you
discovering like "El Rey" behaves against them.

Finally and after the analysis that I carried out for the conformation of the
personality I want to say you the following:

1. TheKing.exe is an extraordinarily strong engine but regrettably Mindscape has
wasted its potential. It seems to be that they have alone worried about the
Chessmaster GUI.

2. An appropriate openings book is fundamental for the achievement of good
results and none of the Chessmaster's books is adapted for a top chess program.

3. It is indispensable for TheKing to use Nalimov's tablebases.

4. TheKing (version 3.12c) continues playing too quick and doesn't keep in mind
its rival's time.

5. TheKing doesn't learn of its errors like other chess programs and should do
it.

If Mindscape corrects these "weak points", I believe that TheKing would win
30-50 elo points.


Regards and have fun.


Antonio



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