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Subject: Re: which are the 5 strongest Winboard engines, besides Crafty?

Author: pete

Date: 06:41:21 11/05/99

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Who knows ? I think nobody ; same is true if it is about commercial programs
IMHO. What does "strongest" even mean in this context ??

People do the most different things to find out .

a.) play blitz games on one computer
b.) play blitz games on two computers ( with or without Autoplayer software )
c.) Play slow games on one computer
d.) play slow games on two computers ( with or without Autoplayer software .

Sometimes the programs use their own opening book ; sometimes a default book .
Some winboard matches are played under winboard , some under Chessbase ; some
under Chess-Partner or maybe even the Millenium Interface ( though few people
seem to use that one ) .

Some users use default settings , some optimal settings , some special own
settings they think are especially favourable .

Some compete in official tournaments with overclocked computers and specially
prepared opening books ; some let their programs play on chess servers.

Some play matches against human players .

Isn't it most likely that the results will differ ? I think it is , others don't
.

It seems when it is about winboard engines , two additional factors are
important ; they usually have a lot of parameters to set up in ini-Files ; this
is probably great for the programmer himself but have to be put correctly by the
testers too ( i.e. in comp-comp-matches how often will "computer" be put in the
Crafty.rc - File ? )

And : versions change very often and sometimes differ very much in playing
strength .

Also as there is no professional team around debugging for months certain time
settings or PB on/off might never have been tested by the programmer or
currently of no major importance to him ( an example maybe Fortress with PB on
at long time controls , not to talk about Crafty hehe ).

It seems a year or two ago this question could have been answered more easily ;
it has become crowdy at the top .

Ok :=) ; I would choose

Ammon5.01 , SOS (?) , CometB09 , Phalanx

This is based on impressions of some slow comp-comp games on 2 comps and no
rocket science for sure ; very difficult to choose a 5th entry ; it seems
Anmon5.01 might have become stronger than crafty already btw.

Sure this is about availlable programs only , else there might be completely
different names ( Insomniac ? , Nimzo2000x ? ) , who knows ?

pete ( having a nice day without work and playing with Inmichess , or better
getting spanked by it :=) )





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