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Subject: Re: Chest executable (Dann?)

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 12:27:20 05/14/01

Go up one level in this thread


On May 14, 2001 at 15:01:10, Heiner Marxen wrote:

>On May 14, 2001 at 13:50:51, leonid wrote:
>
>>On May 14, 2001 at 12:57:07, Heiner Marxen wrote:
>>
>>>On May 14, 2001 at 08:47:07, leonid wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hi, Heiner!
>>>>
>>>>This time one personal demand. Can you send me your mate solver? I tried two
>>>>times to do this by going into your site but something I did in a wrong way.
>>>>
>>>>I use Windows ME. If you have somewhere executive file, it will be the best. If
>>>>whatever you will need to find in my program, you will just ask and my response
>>>>will be instant.
>>>
>>>I myself do not offer any executables.  Windows executables are not even
>>>constructible for me.  But Dann Corbit has made a WIN32 executable,
>>>and offers all my sources, together with the EXE as
>>>   ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/chest/CHEST319.ZIP (674k)
>>>If you want just the EXE (and the READMEs):
>>>   ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/chest/chest319.exe  (268k)
>>>   ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/chest/README_LONG    (30k)
>>>   ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/chest/README_QUICK
>>>   ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/chest/README
>>
>>
>>Thanks, Heiner! Before I download not from this sources. I went directly to your
>>site and can be that I download something for different system.
>>
>>
>>>You should be able to download the above URLs with any browser or ftp program.
>>>I suspect that Windows ME does happily execute WIN32 executables, so the
>>>exe should be directly usable for you.
>>
>>Windows Me is not that simple to use. Or I myself screw somehow my Windows ME,
>>or it is very prone to instability. It hung all the time. Last time just before
>>I came here.
>
>Hi Leonid,
>
>I have no experience whatsoever with any Windows Version.
>
>Hi Dann,
>
>Can you tell whether the chest319.exe from your ftp site will run
>on Windows ME without any trouble?  Or whether it can be used from old DOS?
>(Excuse me if these are stupid questions)

I must admit that Windows ME is a botched bletcherous attempt at an operating
system.  Everyone I know who has installed it has despised it for many reasons
soon thereafter.  I have Windows 2000 on all of my personal machines and on my
work machines.  However, we do have WinME here and I have successfully run Chest
on it.

>>>Chest is a console application.  For usage and examples please read README_LONG.
>>>
>>>>Now I am in changing few thing in my mate solver and for this I need some
>>>>excellent mate solver as reference. It is not that simple to find as somebody
>>>>could imagine. Before I had the impression that Genius 2 could do the work but
>>>>later found that its moves number is fixed by 99 limit. The same is true for
>>>>other best chess programs and even, to my susprise, for mate solver Mate 2.0.
>>>>Mate 2.0 (he is in the package with Hiarcs program) do not permit to indicate
>>>>directly number of moves that you would like for him to see. Its number of moves
>>>>is once again limited to 99. He do not indicate the time when he think.
>>>>It could be that I don't know how to use it. Hiarcs is not very talkative as
>>>>programe in general. The best in its openess, between all program that I ever
>>>>used, is Rebel. If I will one day end my chess program then I will try to make
>>>>everything in my program as clear and accessible as this program did.
>>
>>>Is the limit 99
>>>(a) for the number of legal moves in a (single) position, or
>>>(b) for the depth of the search?
>>
>>As far as I could understant it is limit for legal number of moves that initial
>>position contain. As I could see, when initial position had 54 moves then this
>>number was exactly 54. But when I asked for solving  position that have initial
>>moves 112 (just example), then number was indicated as 99. In the same time
>>program indicate how many from those initial moves it already have seen.
>
>Fine, that is case (a).  Chest is fine, here.
>
>
>>>If (a): ok, Chest does better (222)
>>
>>I still must put my numbers as far. For now it is only 200.
>>
>>>If (b): sorry, Chest is limited even lower (30, with recompile: 63)
>>
>>If you speak about maximum number of moves to see, then you have one more
>>advantange. Mine can go as far as 13. This is why all my positions never goes
>>beyond 13 moves. Probably, I even will not change this limit very soon.
>
>Yes, that is what I spoke about.
>And yes, 13 is nearly always enough.
>That can change dramatically, once you have a hash table.
>Then depthes beyond 20 are sometimes quite accessible, most notably
>with pawn endgames.
>
>> My goal
>>is to go to my chess part as soon, as I will find some way to speed my code when
>>working with mate solver. Only when efficency of my chess part will reach mate
>>solver code, then it will have sense to extend those 13 moves. For now my chess
>>part is deadly slow. Its brute force can only slightly overrun other programs in
>>10 plys search. In mate solver (forgetting about your that is wonderful
>>exception) speed of mine for mate can go easely between 10 and 100 times beyond
>>every best programs speed. I must absolutly recuperate part of it  into my chess
>>playing part. Mate solver is the best spot to see how much real speed you can
>>obtain but not the first place to use it. I hope that you will do the same. You
>>have bright chances to succeed. When you will do this, we will have even more
>>things in commune to speak about.
>
>Do you want me to also extend my program to really play chess?
>If so, I'm sorry.  I have absolutely no plans to do so.  I'm specialized
>in mate problems, and as far as I can see, that will remain so.
>May be some special ideas which I will implement for my mate solver are
>adaptable to playing programs, but most probably I will not do so myself.

I think it is a mistake to make chest play chess.  I think what it does is
entirely adequate and making a hybrid will be more work for little gain.  Your
planned extension to tablebase files will give me all that I should ever want
from such a tool.

I think (however) that Chest can be used to play chess, but not as some people
might think.  On a multiple CPU machine, you could have chest buzzing away on
the root position.  Often, it will salvage a mate that other programs simple
won't discover for a very, very long time.  Hence, it could offer advice to
chess programs.  This could make them play better chess.  Also, general purpose
chess programs could very much benefit from a mate solving mode.  The methods of
a program like chest could be employed in such a case.



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