Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 20:54:42 08/07/03
Hello Crafty Friends, One small change - extending pawn pushes a little earlier when there are nothing but pawns left on the board. Helps with a position like this. 8/kp6/P5p1/2p1p3/2PpP3/3P3Q/4q3/6K1 b - - 0 1 ;bm Qe3+ Also, I need your help - I would like to keep track of all my crafty friends - please respond to this email with the words "my country xxxxx" with "xxxxx" the name of the country that you consider "home". I will summarize the data and share with everyone on the next mailing. Best, Michael Byrne =========================================================== Dear Fellow Crafty Chess Enthusiasts: Attached is the latest modified Crafty 19.04 Special Edition (SE #2) Package. The package includes the latest executable of modified Crafty 19.04 SP (Special) and all the Fritz 8 files and folders to use the different Crafty personalities. You may also replace Fritz 8 with any Chessbase engine that has the Fritz 7 or 8 GUI - Shredder 6/7, Junior 8 (not 7) and Hiarcs 8 and Tiger 15 (Chessbase) all work. These files should also work in Arena and Chesspartner - by right now I use mostly Fritz 8 GUI. The SE folder even lets you set your own settings. If you come up with a good settings let me know and I may incorporate it in the next release. There are now 3 methods to “dummy down” Crafty – sd=xx --- very easy to use – fairly big jumps between levels. Endgame play suffers as that requires depth. Usually almost instantaneous responses up until ply 7 or 8 depending on the position on a high end machine. Limited number of levels. Select a “fun” krafty personality – based on search depth above , plus non-standard krafty settings. Uses all the clock, simulating a more human like response in time usage. Select any personality – strong/gm/fun and set the “intensity” command (see below). Based on 10,000 units, an intensity command will of 5,000 will use only half the clock time for thinking – while using the balance of the clock time with no further searching before making it’s move. Two advantages over “search depth” – literally 10,000 different levels – incrementing in jumps of 50% will be like stepping up a half a class in strength. Automatically adapts to any time control you select. This is also better for endgames while reducing strength as the search will not artificially stop at a very low search depth, as it is based on time usage and not search depth New: Level : "fish" Fish plays a 1 ply search - which in some case is still too strong for beginners. So in this case, the piece values are all the value within 1 point (pawn) of each other, but they are still in the correct order - that is queen is still rate the highest . This setting is for children or “brand new” adult chess players. Level GM – “Philidor” In honor of the legendary French player. Command “intensity” Accepts value of 1 to 10,000 with 10,000 being full strength. I estimate in game/10 , the value of 50 is around 1500/1600 on my machine. Value of 1 is probably near 1200 –1300. Use the fish or pawngrabber levels for weaker than 1200. If you select “25” Crafty will just 25/10,0000 of it’s allocated time (or 1/400). It's incorporated with the previous developed "dm" or Delay move function so even though it's weaker power - it will still use ALL of it's allocated time - ( if you are like me and do not enjoy instantaneous responses from a "dumbed down program" and you have high-end machine - you will enjoy this option). It's compatible with all the other engine options as well. Command “beta” – to set the root alpha.beta window size – anywhere from –10000 to 10000. –10,000 seems to offer slight improvement. Crafty self adjusts the window size almost immediately anyway – I am not sure why this works – is it random ? Command “lazy” parameters 0-5– set like an extension “ext lazy 1” – it multplies the default lazy exit parameter by its value. I had good success using “2” as a setting. Under the Fritz GUI, all extensions the wb2uci.eng file are set using “uci <extension> <value> from 0-60 with 60 being full ply extension., 30 being half ply etc. Example: u check <values 0 to 60) >60 = 1 ply u recapture <values 0 to 60) etc. then for lazy: u lazy <values 0 to 300> 300 equals 5x default value for lazy exit. From previous releases: It has several commands not in regular Crafty: “krafty <level>” e.g. “krafty morphy” this is how set the personality from the command line. It is much easier to set everything from the Fritz 8 GUI. “dm” (delay move) - Ideally used with a search depth set to -- say to 3. Normally Crafty will move instantly with “sd=3”. With delay move on, Crafty will still search only 3 plies - but it will use all the time as it would normally. If you are like me and get annoyed by instantaneous response while trying to play Crafty at a weaker level, you will like this option. You can use it with ANY time control - it will adjust automatically. "value" command to set different values for the pieces. A new extension setting is "start_depth", it works like other ext commands "ext start .5" sets the start deoth extension @ 1/2 ply -- which is the default from the console of crfaty.rc file. In F8, you may add a spin option to change start_depth from 0 to 60 , with 30 being the equivalent of 1/2 ply or the default. In F8, the command line is: Start extension=u start|spin|30|0|60. ...Also included are all the Fritz 8 "eng" folders and files. You will need to modify to suit your directory setup. I included specific personality settings as engines as well the SE and ST folders. The SE engine lets you select a personality from the GUI, the ST engines lets you select the multitude of various Crafty parameters right from the GUI. In addition, I have modified the eng files to allow the user to select their own null move settings. No crafty.rc file is required - you can modify the eng file to suit your own taste. It will; however, accept a crafty.rc file if that is your preference. The common folder has the executable, the logo and the wb2uci.exe I use. Copy these to all the engine folders you wish to add and then import the wb2uci.exe file as you would normally. There are several web pages devoted to explaining this process better than I can. Email me if you wish to receive this package. I normally only send it out once and then you have to wait until the next version, if there is one. Type "include" in the subject heading. I may not have time to respond to all emails. I have over 120 crafty enthusiasts from over 20 different countries now receiving my modify crafty packages. Everybody on this e-mail is “bcc” to protect your privacy. You have requested to be included on my Crafty distribution list. Should you ever wish to be removed from this “crafty list”, please send me an e-mail with the word “remove” in the subject heading. This e-mail list will never be shared with anyone. Crafty is copyrighted. The copyright is owned and maintained by Bob Hyatt. This version is provided for free with his consent. I provide Bob with the source code for all my changes. He determines what, if any, of my changes are incorporated into the next Crafty release. Enjoy! Best Michael Byrne mfbyrne_pa@msn.com
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