Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 16:59:56 01/03/06
Go up one level in this thread
On January 02, 2006 at 07:50:02, Ted Summers wrote: >I have been viewing this forum for some time now. Even though I am no longer >into writing code, I am interested in beta testing and creating opening books. I >have two major hobbies in life and they are chess and computers. However >computers and networking pay my bills so it is easy to guess which one gets most >of my time. Having said that I no longer play any real active chess, but I hover >somewhere between class A and a low Expert player (USCF) rating wise. So what do >the experts here think it takes to do any real beta testing? These are the >points I would like you to tell me about: > >* Opening suites >* Endgame suites >* Middle suites (?) EPD test suites follow the EPD subset of the PGN standard. See (for instance): http://www.very-best.de/pgn-spec.htm Test suites show an engine's tactical ability, but tell little about strength of play. >* Opening Book Creation There are two sorts of opening books. There are professional books written by chess experts and (generally automated) amateur books composed by hobbyists. The professional books are generally much stronger and have fewer defects. >* Engine Testing Engine testing is performed by a number of individuals and organizations. Among the best testing efforts currently active are the SSDF, CEGT and WBEC. A web search will turn up the relevant pages. >* Operating Systems The vast majority of PC chess programs are run on Windows systems. After that, Linux and Mac platforms. >* PC Hardware AMD 64 bit systems are very good for most chess programs. >* Testing Time People test at all different times. The slowest time control is 40 moves in 2 hours (used by SSDF). A more common time control is 40 moves in 40 minutes (for example, used by CEGT). >* Autoplayer Autoplayer is an add-on that allows you to play two different machines against each other over a serial port. It seems that just playing over the net would be much more natural in this day and age, but RS232 support is very popular for some reason. >* Ponder Issues If you only have one machine with one CPU, then ponder testing is right out. You need at least 2 CPUs if you are going to let the programs think all the time. >* Online Testing Basically, only results are found online. You can watch some test sessions live once in a while. >* Offline Testing This is how it is done, basically. >* Engine GUI http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/interface.html >* Anything Related but not listed General chess engine information: http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/ http://www.uciengines.de/ Testing stuff: http://web.telia.com/~u85924109/ssdf/list.htm http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/ http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/ http://www.geocities.com/lyapko/winboard.htm Read about professional products: http://www.chessreviews.com/ I buy stuff here: http://www.chessusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=YMCG&Category_Code=CHSOFT http://www.lokasoft.nl/ http://www.convekta.com/ Nifty free stuff: http://scid.sourceforge.net/ http://jose-chess.sourceforge.net/ The engines links in the WBEC page and the UCI pages up above will point you to free chess engines. >Thanks to everyone in advance! More specific questions will garner more specific answers.
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