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Subject: Re: Computer Chess Freaks

Author: David Shanholtzer

Date: 10:59:32 01/10/06

Go up one level in this thread


On January 10, 2006 at 11:30:16, ludicrous wrote:

>>Interesting point, Wolfgang.  Just how much of a 'freak' is the average CCC
>member?  How 'freakish' am I?  I suggest we put a list of "HOW TO TELL IF YOU
>ARE A COMPUTER CHESS FREAK"

Hmmmmmm........

>Let me start:
>
>1) The CC Freak knows Toga.

Shouldn't this be either "knows about..." or "has (engine 'x')?
Anyway...

>2) The CC Freak knows Rybka.
>3) The CC Freak knows Fruit.
>4) The CC Freak knows Ktulu.
>5) The CC Freak knows Smarthink.
>6) The CC Freak adores Fernando Villegas.
>7) The CC Freak knows how to extract the KING engine from Chessmaster.
>8) The CC Freak knows how to use WB engines with old Chessbase GUIs.
>9) The CC Freak knows at least a little bit about the UCI protocol.
>10) The CC Freak knows the various CC rating lists.
>
>Any more?

(Snipped)

>>Hi Uri,
>>in my opinion no "normal" chessplayer knows something about TOGA, Fruit etc.
>>They all know Fritz, Chessmaster, maybe Shredder and thats it. You cannot
>>compare this with us (the freaks).
>>Wolfgang

I begin to wonder about myself in this case. I have 4 rating lists for
comparative purposes: SSDF, Surak's list, Sedat's Blitz Rating list, and Odd
Gunnar Malin's list. I also have my own rating list. The comparison concerns
where each engine stands, e.g. Shredder 9 being number 1, 2, or whatever,
removing those engines that are not indicated. (Malin's list not having Shredder
9 on it). My own rating list has Toga II v 1.1a (based on Fruit) at 2822,
Shredder 9 at 2731, Shredder 8 at 2686, Shredder 7.04 at 2685, and Fritz 8.1.2.0
at 2619. The numbers themselves are not important; the point is that Shredder 9
is some stronger than either of the others listed for "tournament" play here,
which is not the same as match play as performed by most other people, such as
SSDF.

I seldom have the engines play matches against each other, except for occasional
brief 12 game matches, usuall at a time limit of 15 minutes each per game.

The tournaments usually consist of 8 engines playing a double RR, and are
currently being run to establish a "provisional" rating for each engine. & of
the engines have ratings, one unrated, and the provisional rating obviously
depending on it's performance agianst the other seven. The ratings of the seven
rated engines tend to have approximately a 200 hundred point difference from the
highest rated to the lowest rated, and it is only a subjective estimate that the
unrated engine will fall into the rating sequence.

And all of these engines I have won't be finished being rated for probably at
least another 6 months or longer, due to the number of engines involved that are
in line to play in a tournament. For example, Fruit 2.2.1 won't be playing in
one of my tournaments for sometime, although I have it on two computers.
Likewise with Ktulu 7.5, 7.1, and 5.1, Fritz 9, and Hiarcs 10, and roughly 50
other engines, not including the hundred or so settings for Chessmaster 9 and
10. (Although the basic CM9k and CMX both have been rated, along with 3 or 4
settings.)

But that is only the rating lists. Number of engines?

Commercial: Fritz 5.32 through Fritz 9 (including the ones that have been
vaporized by WinXP). Shredder 5.32 through Shredder 9. Junior 5 through Junior
9. Nimzo '99 through Nimzo 8. Chess Tiger 14, 15, and 2004. Gandalf 4.32h, 5.1,
and 6.0 in Chessbase (Fritz type), with a couple of other Gandalf 4's in
Lokasoft GUI. Ktulu 7.1, 7.5, and the free version, 4.2. Smarthink v 1.0. Hiarcs
7.32, 8, 9, 10. Ruffian 2.0.1 and 2.1.0. Fruit 2.2.1, and Rybka.

Then there are the freeware engines, uci, winboard, and "native", to make things
interesting, such as the previously mentioned Toga II v.1.1a (based on Fruit)and
the earlier versions, such as v 0.93, 4 or 5 GambitFruit (based on Fruit)
engines, Ruffian 1.0.1, 1.0.5, Smarthink 0.17 (courtesy of Graham Banks), and a
couple of hundred lesser known engines, such as EveAnn, Latista, Mint, Gibbon
1.05, Taktix, Sage, AICE 0.97, Piranha, Terra, Queen, Sjeng 12.13, and so on. Of
course there is also the stable of the numerous Comet engines, from A96 through
Comet B68, and also of course numerous Crafty engines, from somewhere in the
14.xx's to 20.1.

And then there is the collection of games by these engines...

Does all of this make me a CC freak? Well......it's better than living in bars,
I guess.

My 2.2 cents worth

David










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