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Subject: Crafty's »computer« command?

Author: Mike S.

Date: 03:16:53 02/04/04


In the Crafty doc, I found:

"9.  computer  This command usually  comes  from  xboard/win-
board,  but  can  be  used  at any time to tell Crafty it is
playing a computer.  This will prevent some things from hap-
pening, such as a draw score that varies, as well as adjust-
ing the book selection code to be more selective in what  it
plays."

First I seemingly misunderstood that, thinking WinBoard would send that command
automatically when an engine match is run. This seems not to be the case
automatically, also not in Arena. (The engine responds to the command when I
include it in the Crafty.rc file, or typed it in when running Crafty in a DOS
box.)

What exactly does this command change (I don't quite understand "draw score that
varies")?

Does the search and evaluation remain the same (so that results from test suites
should be the same), with or without computer option?

IOW., does it only affect book selection and gameplay behaviour so to speak?

When the differences in book usage are not in effect (i.e. because GUI
controlled books or predefined opening variants are used): How is Crafty's
comp-comp performance affected, when the computer option is not turned on? Is an
estimation possible of the "long run" performance difference caused by that (if
any)?

I guess, many Crafty (offline) comp-comp games are played without switching that
option on - just because people don't know about it. I nearly never saw it was
mentioned anywhere in postings.

Thanks,
Mike Scheidl



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