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Subject: Chess programming history made in 2004. (also new more stable release!)

Author: Mike Byrne

Date: 18:58:47 11/22/04


Our own -> Alain Zanchetta <-  has made chess programming history, becoming the
first programmer ever to use endgame tablebases (EGTB's) in a PDA chess program.
 (At least to my knowledge)

http://www.zanchetta.net/ceboard/default.htm

Note: This program is priceless! (meaning -> It is totally FREE except for the
time you take to download it and install it on your PDA).


Alain has taken Crafty Classic 2004 (Bob Hyatt's Crafty that was slightly
modified me to primarily enhance playing enjoyment by human players for 99% of
the players,i.e., those weaker than master strength) and has hooked up the
engine to his chess tool CEBoard.

o  CEBoard can read and write files conforming to the PGN standard
o  CEBoard handles subvariations (any nested level) and comments
o  CEBoard allows the setup of custom positions
o  CEBoard provides a multi-criteria and multi-file search feature !
o  CEBoard currenlty hosts chess playing engines !
o  CEBoard in engine mode supports EGTB's (first PDA program to utilize EGTB -
chess programming first - entire 4 MAN EGTB set (70 files) take only 30MB
(compressed .emd files)

o  First window is the standard Pocket PC document list
o  Multi-file search feature :
       player's name
       game result
       ECO code (if present in PGN)
       position
       material
o  New bitmaps for pieces (thanks to Bryan Whitby!)
o  Optional arrow for move display
o  Edit all PGN additional headers (was readonly in 1.3)
o  "Recently used" files, players, etc... in order to speed game editing and
saving.

Note: The most recent version is MUCH MORE STABLE than previous versions , it no
longer hangs!

Download CEBoard 2.0 beta (build 325.1) ==>
http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/builds/CEBoard.2.0.325.1.zip

Note: CEBoard with Crafty engine is targeted Windows Mobile 2003 ONLY!

Download CeBoard for PC 2002 (No Engine) -->
http://alain.zanchetta.free.fr/builds/CEBoard2002.arm.CAB

In order to support End Game Tablebases, you have to specify their path in the
Pocket PC's registry. Use a tool such as PHM Registry Editor for that.
The key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\alainza\CraftySE, create a string value
named CRAFTY_TB_PATH and specify the folder containing the .emd files



Example of log with endgame position from Pocket PC Crafty Classic 2004 and
CEBoard:
=====================================================================
result learning disabled
position learning disabled
White(1): ?
White(1): learn=0
book learning disabled
result learning disabled
position learning disabled
White(1): new

Crafty Classic 2004 [Standard]
SE code disabled

White(1): setboard [d]8/8/8/8/8/2k5/8/K3N2B w - - 0 1

       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    8  |   | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    7  | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |   |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    6  |   | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    5  | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |   |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    4  |   | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    3  | . |   |(K)|   | . |   | . |   |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    2  |   | . |   | . |   | . |   | . |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    1  | K |   | . |   | N |   | . | B |
       +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
         a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

White(1): move
end-game phase
              clearing hash tables
              time limit 5.62 (52.50)
              depth   time  score   variation (1)
                2     0.02  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
                2->   0.04  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
                3     0.08  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
                3->   0.11  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
                4     0.14  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
                4->   0.17  Mat30   1. Nf3 <EGTB>
              time=0.20  cpu=5%  mat=6  n=9  fh=100%  nps=0K
              ext-> chk=0 cap=0 pp=0 1rep=0 mate=0
              predicted=0  nodes=9  evals=1  50move=0
              endgame tablebase-> probes=1  hits=1

mate in 30 moves.


              time used:   0.20


====================================================

More info about Pocket Crafty Classic PC 2004

Pocket Crafty Classic 2004

Based on Bob Hyatt’s Crafty, and the PC version of Crafty Classic 2004 2004,
Pocket Crafty Classic 2004 is release.

This Pocket PC chess engine runs within Alain Zanchetta’s CEBoard –one the most
versaitil;e chess program ever writtem for the Pocket PC.

Pocket Crafty Classic 2004 comes with 52 premade personalities

Pocket Crafty Classic 2004

1      Krazi-Kamakazi          23     Alekhine
2      Wendy                   24     Botvinnik
3      Pawngrabber             25     Byrne
4      Beginner                26     Capablanc
5      Novice                  27     Euwe
6      Warren                  28     Fine
7      Michael                 29     Fischer
8      1500                    30     Karpov
9      Knight                  31     Lasker
10     Bishop                  32     Morphy
11     1650                    33     Nimzovich
12     1800                    34     Petrosian
13     Player                  35     Philidor
14     Club                    36     Smyslov
15     Adroit                  37     Spasski
16     2000                    38     Stein
17     Expert                  39     Steintz
18     Low Master              40     Tal
19     Master                  41     Kasparov
20     High Master             42     Najdorf
21     IM                      43     Staunton
22     GM                      44     Korchnoi
                               45     Gligoric
51     Jekyll & Hyatt          46     Polgar
52     Standard                47     Anand
                               48     Chigorin
                               49     Kramnik
                               50     Leko

You can select to play any one of the personalities or have Pocket Crafty
Classic 2004 select a personality at random or you to play.  Each of the GM
personalities has its own book based on games the GM actually played in real
games.

Crafty's books are NOT included. You have to download them and then copy them in
<CEBoard's Folder>\CraftyBooks\ folder.

All of the books for Pocket Crafty Classic 2004 opening books are available from
Pete Skinner’s website:

Main page:            http://www.crafty-chess.com/
Crafty Windows Page:  http://www.crafty-chess.com/win32.html

Direct Links for book downloads:

http://www.crafty-chess.com/pbbooks.zip  -> original Crafty GM books
http://www.crafty-chess.com/4gm.zip      -> Anand, Chigorin, Kramnik and Leko GM
books

http://www.crafty-chess.com/ppccrafty_booksbin.zip  book.bin and books.bin
guarantee to work in Crafty Classic 2004(PC) and Pocket Crafty Classic 2004.


These are the features available in Pocket Crafty Classic 2004 engine, all are
available by the user selecting an item from one of the 4 tabs when you start
the engine:


Time:

All Moves in xx minutes

First time control – yy moves in xx minutes

Second time control – yy moves in xx minutes
(also Available Remaining moves in xx minutes)

Increment (from 1 second to 3 minutes)

Absolute search time – answer in 1 second to 10 minutes

Misc:

Hashtable – up to 6MB

Pawnhash  - up to  768 K

Save Log / Delete log files

Learning enabled – will prevent repeat games when playing by Pocket Crafty
Classic 2004  at full strength

Enable SE code – modifies search code

Detect Draw – may help identify draws in blocked positions

Delay move – used in conjunction with limiting search depth or weaker
personalities , will prevent instantaneous response by Pocket Crafty Classic
2004 and take the allotted time by the Time Control selected.

Search Depth:

Default search depth – will search until allotted time is used.

Varied search depth – will search between xx and yy plies chosen at random for
more varied play when playing at the weaker levels

Varied endgame search depth - will search between xx and yy plies chosen at
random for more varied play when playing at the weaker levels Pocket Crafty
Classic 2004 is in the endgame.  Allows the user to select a deeper depth with
endgame for a more consistent level of play.

Dynamic adjustment according to your play – will increase and decrease search
depth depending on whether Pocket Crafty Classic 2004 perceives it is ahead or
behind in the game.

Personality:

Select one of 52 personalities

Select one of xx to yy  (52 in total)  personalities at random.
(use 23 to 50 to play one of the 28 GM personalities at random)

Select Krafty Jekyll & Hyatt (xx to yy)– will play with random evaluation and
search settings  (xx to yy) increases the randomness factor from 1 to 50 %.

Best ,

Michael Byrne

CEBoard is Copyrighted by Alain Zanchetta

==============================================================
Crafty Copyright Notice
==============================================================


Crafty ,Crafty SE and Crafty Classic are copyrighted 1996-2004 by Robert M.
Hyatt, Ph.D., Associate Professor  of Computer and Information Sciences,
University of Alabama at Birmingham.

All rights reserved.  No part of this program may be reproduced in any
form or by any means, for other than your personal use, without the
express written permission of the author.  This program may not be used in
whole, nor in part, to enter any computer chess competition without
written permission from the author.  Such permission will include the
requirement that the program be entered under the name "Crafty" so that
the program's ancestry will be known.

Copies of the source must contain the original copyright notice intact.

Any changes made to this software must also be made public to comply with
the original intent of this software distribution project.  These
restrictions apply whether the distribution is being done for free or as
part or all of a commercial product.  The author retains sole ownership
and copyright on this program except for 'personal use' explained below.

Personal use includes any use you make of the program yourself, either by
playing games with it yourself, or allowing others to play it on your
machine,  and requires that if others use the program, it must be clearly
identified as "Crafty" to anyone playing it (on a chess server as one
example).  Personal use does not allow anyone to enter this into a chess
tournament where other program authors are invited to participate.  IE you
can do your own local tournament, with Crafty + other programs, since this
is for your personal enjoyment.  But you may not enter Crafty into an
event where it will be in competition with other programs/programmers
without permission as stated previously.

Usual Disclaimer for free software:

There are no implied warranties and use CEBoard at your own risk.  As with any
installation  new software for a PDA ,  backup all your files before installing.
 Although we do not expect anyone to have any problems, the software is not
tested on all PDAs and one never knows where a problem may occur on untested
software.



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