Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 02:28:44 07/23/03
Hi folks, Tries have been made by various people to run the pre-release of Rebel 12 under other interfaces such as ChessBase, Chess Assistant, Arena. While I of course have nothing against that I think it is important for you to realize a couple things, also I want to clear up some misunderstandings I have seen in various forums. 1) First of all realize Rebel 12 is developed to run under the Chesspartner interface, for that it uses the winboard communication protocol with its own specific extensions exclusively for the Chesspartner interface only. Therefore it is a small wonder Rebel seems to run smoothly under other interfaces, however this could be misleading. 2) Secondly keep in mind the pre-release is a beta-version. Software Beta versions have one thing in common, they contain bugs, otherwise the label beta-version is misplaced, see the release remarks as listed at: http://lokasoft.nl/uk/rebel12-pre-release.htm In some detail: a) Time-control - Rebel so now and then will lose a game on time when using the "game in hh:mm" level. b) Time-control - the "xx moves in hh:mm" level is bugged, after the first time control Rebel starts to play instantly (1 second) for the next 2-8 moves, this is suicide of course. c) Stalemate - this version is a real gentleman, it will beat you and then if the position allows it the thing will stalemate you. Here are some examples I collected: 5k2/5P2/4K3/8/6P1/1P4P1/8/8 w - - id f6?? is stalemate; 4K3/8/3r1k2/2b5/8/8/8/8 b - - id Rd4 is stalemate; 5k2/8/3K4/6Q1/8/8/8/8 w - - id Qg6 is stalemate; Needless to say that all these glitches will be fixed in the final version. 3) When running Fritz and co keep in mind that the only solid way to change the hash table size or choose a different personality is to change the command-line parameter in the WB2UCI.ENG file, see: [OPTIONS] Program = Rebel12.exe w8 beta1.eng w8 = hash table size of 200 Mb w7 = hash table size of 100 Mb .... see further the README file. beta1.eng = the personality of your choice. Then after having made the changes restart Fritz, or make sure the Rebel engine is reloaded again using F3. Some comments on this: a) Don't rely on what Fritz is telling you regarding the hash table size, the only real hash table size is defined in the command line, see above. Same for the personality issue. b) HINT - make a shortcut of WB2UCI.ENG on your desktop for easy changes or easy viewing the contents. 4) DOS vs WINDOWS (regarding the new released DOS version) a) DOS remains my development platform, newer stronger versions will be released in DOS first, free for everybody, simply ignore them if you dislike DOS. b) You can not, I repeat with emphasis, you CAN NOT use the contents of the new DOS version (as defined in "rebel.eng") for the current Windows version, the effects for sure will damage the playing strength of the Windows Rebel. You will need to wait for the release of the new Windows Rebel, the newer windows executable that is in synch with the DOS executable. 5) It is my intention to make Rebel a working winboard engine so that it can run under other chess interfaces as well, this because as I estimate the work involved is not too much and I know it will please many of you. In the meantime keep the Chesspartner interface as your reference regarding playing strength, other interfaces I can't authorize at this moment. 6) A word of thanks to all of you who made it possible to get Rebel to work under other interfaces, first to "Odd Gunnar Malin" the author of WB2UCI, secondly to the CCC and CSS folks who with unbridled energy made this possible! Thanks! Ed Schroder
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