Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 10:34:29 06/24/98
Go up one level in this thread
On June 24, 1998 at 12:13:07, Bruce Moreland wrote: > >On June 24, 1998 at 11:04:35, Don Dailey wrote: > >>I'm actually considering the possibility, there a two things holding >>me back, one is that I can't get a machine whenever I want because our >>big SMP Alphas are in demand. >> >>Another problem is that I don't want it to suck my time away. I am >>working only part time on the chess project, I have to babysit our >>network the rest of the time and solve problems for people. > >If it starts to suck your time away, you can stop, or if you run on a crusty >machine, you can find someone else with a machine thats equal to or better to >that machine and let them run it for you. > >Vincent has two guys running Diep for him, both of them might have a better >machine than he does. > >Even if you run on your own machine, the actual time spent by you,once you get >it running, doesn't have to be anything more than the time spent connecting to >the net and typing an incantation. You don't have to watch the games if you >don't want to. > >That said, I spend a lot of time watching mine, but that's my problem. > >>I am first considering doing an older program of mine, but one that >>is pretty good and running it on a single machine. I could probably >>run it pretty much constantly. This will give me an idea of what is >>involved without going to huge trouble on a big machine I can rarely >>get. I could also do a single processor Cilkchess on a pentium. >>But this program is pretty much a dog on a Pentium. It was written >>for 64 bit machines and on a 64 bit machine and we never tried to >>make it fast on a pentium. >> >>Finally I don't know how to set this up so I would have to spend >>some time working through this. It looks like xboard has some >>support for this though. If my program runs with the xboard >>interface is it already ready to go on ICC? > >For a while I used winboard, which is supposedly the same as xboard. > >Bob uses winboard and xboard now. > >If you have it fully hooked up to xboard already, it should just be a matter of >passnig in some command-line switches, and it should connect and play >automatically. > >You'll need an account on a chess server, from my point of view preferably ICC, >and it will involve a little bit of time to set this up, and to get the lag >compensator (timestamp) installed. You'll also need some advice about which >environment variables to set so that the humans can do stupid things like do >time or material odds, or only play white, or think forever without worrying >about you calling their flag. > >ICC will try to charge you money for this account, but they won't actually take >any from you for a week, and during that week I can probably find someone who >will exempt your account from the fee, since it is an automatic computer account >of a guy who was world champion, a genius researcher at MIT, and it's not "yet >another crafty", blah blah. > >Xboard/winboard used to have a gross protocol for resuming an adjourned game, I >don't know how well it works now, but within a day or two of getting going, >you'll need to get this going. > "edit" is still there, but the "force" command is far better, as xboard will send you "force" (which says "read moves but don't do any searching between them") followed by the moves already played in the game, followed by "go" to get you going. Works easily, saves the repetition list, and avoids draws that shouldn't happen caused by edit not setting up any move list history for repetition detection. There are other bells and whistles Tim has added for me over the past couple of years, including telling me the rating of my program and my opponent so I can twiddle with my contempt factor if I want. It tells me the name of my opponent so I can set up specific program parameters for him if I want. There is an engine-intfc.txt (or something like that) included with xboard. It tells all of the commands xboard can send to you, and what you should do when you get them, and also tells you the commands you can send to xboard (to offer a draw, accept a draw, claim a draw, resign, kibitz analysis, etc.) A bare-bones installation is easy. And you don't need a fast alpha. I've been running on a PC since I started there (short time on a sun supersparc but it was about like a P5/133). I now run on an ALR pentium pro with 4 cpus, but it is not horrifically fast, as I run about as fast on it as I did on the 500mhz single processor machine we used in Paris. Any good pentium-II class machine will put you on equal hardware with most of us. >Some of this sounds kind of annoying, but thousands of people have done this in >order to play chess (themselves) on the servers. > >If you can figure out enough to connect to ICC with winboard or xboard, and make >a new account, I think the rest can be handled by asking questions there in the >computer chess channel (64). > >If any of this is too daunting, or if you are stiing there thinking, "I don't >have time for this arcane crap", hit me with your phone number and I'll call you >and try to make it less annoying. > >Once you get ICC-enabled you can play on any chess server in the world, whenver >you want. You can make new accounts when you get drastically different >machines, and once you are used to doing this it only takes a few minutes. > >ICC is at www.chessclub.com. If you follow their registration instructions, it >won't get you hooked with with winboard/xboard, but it will get your account >going. > >bruce And once you get your program established, and it produces a rating that shows it to be a tough opponent, you will be able to play more GM games in one day that I'd bet you've played in the past 5 years... And if you play your cards right, a couple might even give you hints about what you are doing wrong, from time to time... *free*. And the main thing is, you'll find out just how many "holes" you have in your program, and begin to fix them. As well as learn how to cope with some of the more arcane strategies from some well-known IM computer busters, such as lock things up, shuffle a single piece back and forth, to run you out of time. We have players there that can make 250-300 moves in a 3 minute game (no increment) so you learn about time allocation as well. :) Bob
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