Author: Steven Edwards
Date: 11:42:23 07/30/04
Symbolic: Status report 2004.07.30
I spent some time reading the documents for the UCI (Universal Chess Interface,
an alternative to the xboard protocol). While it seems a bit cleaner than
xboard, I don't know of a free GUI implementation of UCI that will work both
with Mac OS X and Linux. Also, it uses coordinate move notation instead of SAN,
and this seems like a ten year step backward. I suppose I could implement a
CTUCI class like the existing CTXboard class, but I'll wait at least until a
free and portable GUI is available.
On the ICS front, I think that I'll use the toolkit's CTXboard class along with
xboard running in zippy mode for automated Internet battles. The alternative
would be to write a CTICS class (and this would be cleaner), but this is not a
high priority item at this time. I really would like to get Symbolic up on the
ICC before the end of the season, even if it might be playing at a patzer level.
One option is to get a copy of FICS running on a local machine and use that for
testing, but getting the initial setup running might be too time consuming if
FICS isn't easily installable on a plain Linux machine than has only LAN access.
I admit that I'm still a little unclear on some of the specifics of connecting
to the ICC (chessclub.com). My plan is to, at first, use xboard configured with
zippy enabled and let it handle the details. But I'm not sure what is needed in
the file passed to xboard with the icslogon option. I assume that the first
line is Symbolic's ICC ID and the second is its password. But, what else should
appear in the logon file for totally automated play? Also, for initial testing,
I'd like to have the program accept only blitz games. Another issue is the use
of an icshelper routine like timestamp or timeseal; are these absolutely
required? Are Mac OS X (OpenBSD PPC) versions available? I'd appreciate any
help from knowledgeable folk who have time to email me.
The log file output routines in CTXboard have been adjusted slightly to include
game round numbers and an explicit, color independent result value line for
Symbolic for each game. The idea here is to make automated post processing via
scripts a bit easier.
Here's a couple of recent test games, straight from the xboard PGN output:
[Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "jenn.local"]
[Date "2004.07.28"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Symbolic v2004.07.28"]
[Black "Crafty-19.13"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "120"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 dxc4 6. e4 b5 7. e5 h6 8. Bh4
g5 9. Nxg5 hxg5 10. Bxg5 Nbd7 11. exf6 Bb7 12. g3 c5 13. d5 Qb6 14. Bg2 b4
15. O-O O-O-O 16. Na4 Qa6 17. a3 Bxd5 18. Bxd5 Ne5 19. Qe2 Rxd5 20. axb4
cxb4 21. Nc3 Ra5 22. Rxa5 Qxa5 23. Ne4 Nd3 24. b3 Qe5 25. f3 Qb2 26. Qxb2
Nxb2 27. bxc4 Kb7 28. c5 a5 29. h4 Kc6 30. Be3 Nc4 31. Bd4 Bh6 32. Rb1 Rd8
33. Bf2 Rd3 34. f4 b3 35. Kf1 Kd5 36. Ng5 Bxg5 37. fxg5 Nd2+ 38. Ke2 Nxb1
39. Kxd3 Na3 40. Kc3 a4 41. g6 Nb5+ 42. Kd2 a3 43. gxf7 a2 44. f8=Q a1=Q
45. Qd8+ Kc4 46. Qd3+ Kb4 47. Qe4+ Ka3 48. f7 Qb2+ 49. Ke3 Qc3+ 50. Ke2 Qh8
51. Qd3 Nc7 52. Qf3 Qf8 53. Qc3 e5 54. Qa5+ Kb2 55. Qxc7 Ka3 56. Qa7+ Kb2
57. Qd7 Qa8 58. Qf5 Qa6+ 59. Kf3 Qc6+ 60. Kg4 Ka2 61. f8=Q Qa4+ 62. Kg5 e4
63. Qd5 e3 64. Bxe3 Ka3 65. c6+ Qb4 66. Bc1+ Ka2 67. Qf2+ Qd2+ 68. Qdxd2+
Ka1 69. Qb2#
{Black is checkmated} 1-0
[Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "jenn.local"]
[Date "2004.07.28"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Crafty-19.13"]
[Black "Symbolic v2004.07.28"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "120"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8.
O-O Nbd7 9. Qe2 Bg6 10. e4 O-O 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3
h6 15. Ne1 Bg6 16. Bxg6 fxg6 17. Nd3 Be7 18. Qh3 Rf5 19. Bd2 Qb6 20. Be3
Qb3 21. Rfd1 a5 22. g4 Rf7 23. g5 hxg5 24. Qxe6 Nf8 25. Qg4 Rf5 26. Ne1
Qxb2 27. Rab1 Qa2 28. Rxb7 Kf7 29. Rc1 Ne6 30. Qd1 Nf4 31. Rcc7 Re8 32.
Bxf4 gxf4 33. Nf3 g5 34. Qd3 g6 35. e6+ Kf8 36. Ne5 Rxe5 37. dxe5 Qxa4 38.
Rb5 Kg7 39. Rxd5 Qa1+ 40. Qf1 Qa2 41. Qb5 f3 42. Ra7 Qa1+ 43. Qf1 Qa4 44.
h3 Qc6 45. Rd6 Qc5 46. Rdd7 Qa3 47. Qd3 Qa1+ 48. Qd1 Qxd1+ 49. Rxd1 Kg8 50.
Rdd7 Kf8 51. Rxa5 Rd8 52. Kh2 Rxd7 53. exd7 Bd8 54. Ra6 Ke7 55. e6 Bc7+ 56.
Kg1 Bd8 57. Ra8 Bc7 58. Re8+ Kd6 59. Kh1 Bb6 60. Kh2 Bc7 61. Kg3 Bb6 62.
Kxf3 Ba5 63. Kg4 Bd8 64. Rxd8 Kxe6 65. f4 gxf4 66. Rg8
{Black resigns} 1-0
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