Author: Roy Eassa
Date: 12:40:43 03/17/02
Go up one level in this thread
On March 17, 2002 at 15:39:35, Roy Eassa wrote: > >Folks, this is free advice from arguably the best chess programmer on Earth! > > > >On March 17, 2002 at 09:17:07, Christophe Theron wrote: > >>On March 17, 2002 at 02:13:22, Uri Blass wrote: >> >>>On March 16, 2002 at 22:29:26, Christophe Theron wrote: >>> >>>>On March 16, 2002 at 15:01:04, Uri Blass wrote: >>>> >>>>>On March 16, 2002 at 14:34:13, Jorge Pichard wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>On March 16, 2002 at 14:26:20, Jorge Pichard wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>>In the first game Chess Tiger 14.9 was playing without using its Turbo Mode, in >>>>>>>which it enables it to think on its opponent time to move. Now I activated Turbo >>>>>>>Mode, but I am still playing Using my handspring at 32 Mhz without using >>>>>>>Afterburner or Fastcpu. This time the Tiger was hungry and decided to grab a >>>>>>>Gaviota for lunch. >>>>>> >>>>>>PS: Gaviota is playing the ending terrible, but nextgame I will continue vs Gnu >>>>>>Chess v5.02 Est rating of 2225. >>>>> >>>>>Some details: >>>>> >>>>>Gaviota is estimated to have rating of 2170 when GNU chess5.03 is estimated to >>>>>have rating of 2150 >>>>>see http://f11.parsimony.net/forum16635/messages/23352.htm >>>>> >>>>>I do not know GNUchess5.02 but I doubt if it is better than Gaviota. >>>>> >>>>>Gnu chess played in the 3th division based on the history pages of Leo when >>>>>gaviota scored clearly better than GNUchess. >>>>> >>>>>I admit that it was not GNUchess5.02 but I do not know if there is a big >>>>>difference between 5.00 and 5.02 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>I think that it may be more interesting to see programs of CCC memebers and not >>>>>GNUchess. >>>>> >>>>>possible candidate is Averno >>>>> >>>>>The author of faile also posted in the past(faile is clearly weaker than >>>>>gaviota) >>>>> >>>>>My program may be also a candidate >>>>> >>>>>Today I believe that it is only in similar level to faile but I plan to do it >>>>>stronger and it is going to be available in april. >>>>> >>>>>Uri >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>It is interesting to see the progress of somebody who has been suggesting >>>>improvements to programmers for a long time, and has eventually decided to try >>>>them himself. >>>> >>>>I'm glad to see that you are writing your own chess program. I'm sure it will >>>>have some unique features, and that's good. I would recommend you to reinvent >>>>the wheel and not create yet another Crafty clone. It will not be a waste of >>>>time. It is how things were in the eighties, and it was a great time for >>>>computer chess. >>>> >>>>My best wishes to... Huh... Have you chosen a name for your chess program? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Christophe >>> >>> >>>Movei is the name of it. >>> >>>The latest tested version has only a piece square table evaluation with no book >>>and no hash table. >>> >>>The piece square table is only changed in the endgame. >> >> >>That's good enough as a first step. You can build a reasonably strong chess >>program with PSTs. It gives you a reasonably good evaluation (assumig your PSTs >>are OK) and you can focus earlier on most important things. >> >> >> >> >>>It can be improved by better order of moves and it can be also improved by >>>better extension and pruning rules(it is using only some futility pruning today >>>and it does not use partial extensions) >> >> >>Chess Tiger does not use fractional extensions either. I just use more detailed >>rules for extensions and I decide to extend or not. That's 1 or 0. >> >> >> >> >>> but inspite of all the problems the >>>latest version could beat Faile with no book 6-4 in a match(time control was 1 >>>minute/40 moves,2 minutes/40 moves...5 minutes/40 moves) >>> >>>It also lost 8.5-1.5 in a match against GNUchess5.03 in the same conditions. >>>hardware was one pIII800. >>> >>>I believe that Faile and Gnuchess used hash tables in the matches(I told them no >>>instruction about it but usually programs with hash tables use some hash tables >>>by the default option) >> >> >>Some advices for you: >> >>1) play fast games, manually, preferably on slow hardware. So the mistakes of >>your program do not get hidden in very long PVs and you can more easily >>understand what went wrong. >> >>2) Select an opponent only slightly stronger than your program. If your opponent >>is too strong you learn almost nothing because both your evaluation and search >>get badly beaten. You are just disgusted by the result and do not know what to >>do. When you have improved, change to a stronger opponent. >> >>3) You'll soon discover that whatever you add in your evaluation, if your >>opponent oursearches you there is nothing you can do: you lose. You will >>probably have to spend months or even years improving your search algorithms in >>order to avoid this. That's why I think that a PST program is OK to start with. >>Don't make the mistake to try to add special cases in your evaluation in order >>to cover your search's deficiencies. If you want you can add terms to evaluate >>the tactical pressure on each side (couting the number of attacks for example), >>but these terms must be kept general. Don't add code like "if black rook in a8 >>and black king in e8 and white knight on c7 then add penalty to black score". >>That does not work. >> >>4) Don't try to fix a weakness as soon as you discover it. Just say "that's >>life". Fix it only if it happens over and over again. Generally, start by fixing >>the most obvious and big mistakes. Don't try to stuff in high level knowledge >>too early in your developpement. You can't run if you do not even know how to >>walk. This point is the reason why I believe that being a very strong chess >>player is a handicap for a chess programmer (at least in the begining). >> >>5) Make a backup of your sources at least every day. Use an automatic utility or >>a batch file to compress all your *.c and *.h to another directory on your hard >>disk every time you boot your computer. The name of the compressed file must be >>different every day, so you can on demand retrieve last month's source if >>necessary. I currently have on my hard disk the last 502 versions of Chess >>Tiger, the oldest being 2 years old. It takes 144Mb of disk space. I have >>written an utility that does that. It runs in a DOS box and calls PKZIP to do >>the compression job. I can send it to you if you have some use for it. >> >>6) Don't follow my advices. Do it your way for a while, then read these advices >>again. Their meaning should become obvious then, and some of them might not even >>apply to you. :) >> >>7) Good luck! >> >> >> >> Christophe
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.