Author: Steve Maughan
Date: 06:36:50 12/23/02
With the arrival, only in the last week, of both Fritz 8 and Shredder 7 I was keen to test the engines. This was particularly true for Shredder 7 as it was rumoured to be quite a bit stronger than Shredder Paderborn and notably improved with respect to tactics. So I’ve put together a collection of 20 positions from “The Big Book of Combinations” to test the new monsters. If you're interested you can download all 190 positions from my website at: www.stevemaughan.com The criterion for choosing the positions was that they needed to be tough but solvable within 10 minutes. I tested Shredder 7, Shredder 6.02 (ChessBase Paderborn version), Fritz 7, Fritz 8 and Ruffian 1. The hardware used was a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 with 96 Mb hash – the GUI environment used was Fritz 8. To compare the results for all the positions I awarded 10 points for each position solved, decaying this exponentially based upon the solution time. This can be calculated as: Position_Score = 10 * EXP( SOLUTION_TIME * LN(0.5) / HALFLIFE) The HALFLIFE was set to 60 seconds (arbitrary). If the position was not solved in ten minutes the position score is set to zero. Using this scoring system the five engines received the following rankings: Ruffian 143.98 Fritz 8 128.33 Fritz 7 119.94 Shredder 7 119.00 Shredder 6.02 108.04 So Ruffian won with an impressive score of 143 out of a possible 200 – it really shows it’s strength in these positions. Fritz 8 solved some positions much quicker than version 7 (e.g. #16, #20) but failed to solve position #3 where version 7 found the solution in under six minutes. Shredder 7 is clearly improved in terms of tactics with an overall score almost identical to that of Fritz 7. Compared to Shredder 6.02 the new version solved twelve positions quicker – some were solved considerably quicker e.g. #3, #9, #14, #17, #18, #19 and #20. Have fun with the positions and all the best for Christmas, Regards, Steve Maughan =============================================================================== Position #1 [d]4r2k/p2qr1pp/1pp2p2/2p1nP1N/4R3/1P1P2RP/1PP2QP1/7K w - - bm Rxg7; id "BBC55" Fritz 8: 47s Fritz 7: 69s Ruffian: 8.42s Shredder 7: 141s Shredder 6.02: 2.88s Position #2 [d]r1b1kb1r/1p4pp/p2ppn2/8/2qNP3/2N1B3/PPP3PP/R2Q1RK1 w kq - bm Rxf6; id "BBC116" Fritz 8: 2.68s Fritz 7: 6.65s Ruffian: 94.45s Shredder 7: 19.21s Shredder 6.02: 75.79s Position #3 [d]r2r2k1/1bqpbpp1/ppn1p2p/2p1P1N1/P1B2B2/2P5/1PPRQPPP/3R2K1 w - - bm Nxf7; id "BBC142" Fritz 8: -NA- Fritz 7: 332.63s Ruffian: 68.31s Shredder 7: 9.77s Shredder 6.02: 19.82s Position #4 [d]r1b2r2/3pNpkp/3pn1p1/2pN3P/2PnP3/q3QP2/4BKP1/1R5R w - - bm Qh6+; id "BBC158" Fritz 8: 299.08s Fritz 7: 324.69s Ruffian: 19.71s Shredder 7: 29.14s Shredder 6.02: 11.35s Position #5 [d]r1bq1rk1/1p2bppp/p3p3/n3P3/4N3/1P1P1N2/PB4PP/R3QR1K w - - bm Nf6+; id "BBC161" Fritz 8: 49.29s Fritz 7: 50.17s Ruffian: 4.88s Shredder 7: 1.71s Shredder 6.02: 2.06s Position #6 [d]r5r1/8/bRP1pk1p/3pNp2/5P2/7P/PR4P1/6K1 w - - bm Rxa6; id "BBC167" Fritz 8: 0.8s Fritz 7: 4.19s Ruffian: 11.08s Shredder 7: 21.09s Shredder 6.02: 28.42s Position #7 [d]2kr3r/pRp3q1/2Pppn2/4p2p/B2bP1p1/7P/2P2PP1/2BQ1RK1 w - - bm Bh6; id "BBC175" Fritz 8: 7.39s Fritz 7: 5.17s Ruffian: 91.3s Shredder 7: -NA- Shredder 6.02: -NA- Position #8 [d]1R3b2/3r3k/2p1bp1p/r1q1pNpQ/2PpP2P/6B1/P4PP1/1R4K1 w - - bm Nxh6; id "BBC189" Fritz 8: 8.99s Fritz 7: 4.67s Ruffian: 7.87s Shredder 7: -NA- Shredder 6.02: 162.26 Position #9 [d]r2r2k1/ppqbbppp/4pn2/6N1/n1P4P/3B1N2/PP2QPP1/1KBR3R w - - bm Nxh7; id"BBC192" Fritz 8: 214.31s Fritz 7: 154.18 Ruffian: 16.7s!! Shredder 7: 54.78s Shredder 6.02: 108.07s Position #10 [d]1r2k2r/3q2pp/p3pp2/P7/2P1Q3/8/1nB3PP/1R3R1K w k - bm Ba4; id "BBC346" Fritz 8: 24.92s Fritz 7: 18.75s Ruffian: 10.37s Shredder 7: 16.01s Shredder 6.02: 8.61s Position #11 [d]rq1r1bk1/1b3pp1/3pn2p/1n2BN1P/1P2P3/3R1NP1/3Q1PB1/2R3K1 w - - bm Bxg7; id "BBC354" Fritz 8: 30.34s Fritz 7: 28.61s Ruffian: 1.31s Shredder 7: 12.31s Shredder 6.02: 1.8s Position #12 [d]r1bn1rk1/pp3p1p/6p1/2bR2N1/2B2B2/q1P1P3/2Q2PPP/4K2R w K - bm Nxh7; id "BBC403" Fritz 8: 106.73s Fritz 7: 89.11s Ruffian: 50.37 Shredder 7: 121.48 Shredder 6.02: 55.52s Position #13 [d]r3r1k1/4pp1p/b5pB/q1pP4/3b4/2N4P/PP4P1/R2RQ2K w - - bm Rxd4; id "BBC405" Fritz 8: 33.72s Fritz 7: 22.65s Ruffian: 38.54s Shredder 7: 0.3s!! Shredder 6.02: 0.93s Position #14 [d]r2qrbk1/5p1p/2b1pPp1/2np2P1/ppPpPB1N/3P1R2/PP4B1/1R2Q1K1 w - - bm Nxg6; id "BBC442" Fritz 8: 20.66s Fritz 7: 15.91s Ruffian: 60.55s Shredder 7: 32.25s Shredder 6.02: 137.52s Position #15 [d]r1b4r/pp2ppk1/2np1np1/3N3p/2B1P3/q3BP2/P1PQ2PP/1R3RK1 w - - bm Nxe7; id "BBC459" Fritz 8: 98.73s Fritz 7: 123.17s Ruffian: 84.76s Shredder 7: 222.27s Shredder 6.02: 329.7s Position #16 [d]6k1/rnqb3p/5ppQ/2pPp3/p1N1P3/2PB3P/5PP1/1R4K1 w - - bm f4; id "BBC539" Fritz 8: 21.62s Fritz 7: 191.52s Ruffian: 81.56s Shredder 7: -NA- Shredder 6.02: -NA- Position #17 [d]r4rk1/5p2/p1b1pQpq/8/1B2P3/2NR4/PPP3PP/1K6 w - - bm Nd5; id "BBC547" Fritz 8: 37.6s Fritz 7: 15.58s Ruffian: 21.03s Shredder 7: 85.24s Shredder 6.02: -NA- Position #18 [d]6r1/1p3k2/pPp4R/K1P1p1p1/1P2Pp1p/5P1P/6P1/8 w - - bm Rxd6; id "BBC630" Fritz 8: 6.92s Fritz 7: 5.76s Ruffian: 1.26s Shredder 7: 5.90s Shredder 6.02: 21.36s Position #19 [d]r5r1/n1q1p2k/3pPpp1/P1pP4/2P4N/R1B5/2Q3PP/7K w - - bm Bd2; id "BBC958" Fritz 8: 0.06s Fritz 7: 0.46s Ruffian: 7.93s Shredder 7: 0.23s Shredder 6.02: 117.03s Position #20 [d]r1b1k1nr/3n1p1p/1qpBp1p1/pp2b3/4PN2/PBN2Q2/1PP2PPP/2KR3R w kq - bm Nxe6; id "BBC770" Fritz 8: 8.0s Fritz 7: 78.0s Ruffian: 2.0s Shredder 7: 1.0s Shredder 6.02: 5.0s
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