zurichess

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Hi, PicoChess!

This is Alexandru, author of Zurichess. First of all, thank you for testing Zurichess, your tests are very useful to me.

Soon I'm going to release a new stable version of Zurichess (glarus). I don't have any definite date, but it'll be sometime over the next couple of weeks. If you find any bugs please report them at https://bitbucket.org/zurichess/zurichess/issues.

Going forward, I would like to know which are the most important features that you'd like to see in the next version of Zurichess. I could think of multi pv, skill level, end game databases, parameter tuning (aka personalities), smp etc but I don't know which are most useful for picochess.

Regards,

[Jürgen Precour]

Hi Alexandru,

first of all... Im NOT using yr engine. So forgive me, when i say something stupid.

The far most important stuff, is stable run on a rasp including the correct implementation of the uci protocol (for example, start/stop engine should work without problems).
Next, i would guess most people want "level support", or personalities. Most engines are too strong for the adv. user, so, people would like to reduce strength to have some fun.

Stuff like endgame db, multi pv , smp ...are more for adv. users who wants to get most out of the engine, and i would judge this "nice to have"
Just my 1cent.

Jürgen

[Raimar]

Hey Alexandru,

nice piece of software! I totally agree with Jürgen in terms of strength level (for me highest priority) and different playing style. Other things are less entertaining for me.

All the best for you and your engine and I'm excited to play with your next release. :-)

Cheers,
Raimar

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[PeterO]

Hey,

Most important thing is elo strengh between 1700-2000 Elo!

Just my opinion

Peter

[DJ Dekker]

Hi Alexandru,

Thanks for joining in!

I think that PicoChess users will be helped most with an engine that is fun to play against, i.e., an engine with an attractive personality (or personalities) and different levels that are not too strong. There are so many GM strength engines out there already. ;) These are also probably the engines of choice to analyse games with. Little room for improvement here. So I suggest that levels and/or personalities are more important to the amateur (Pico)chess player than endgame table bases, smp functionality etc.

And a Raspberry Pi (armv6/7/8) binary would be nice, of course. ;) But I don't find it very hard to build Zurichess myself, because you are already providing very clear instructions.

Greetings and thank you for your efforts developing Zurichess! I find it a nice engine to play against.
DJ

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Hi, all!

Thanks for your input. I began looking into adding skill levels. I have the first patch out at https://bitbucket.org/brtzsnr/zurichess/commits/branch/skill The patch changes different aspects of the search (lmr, quiescence search, check extension).  You can now select 1 of the 8 available skill levels. The levels are not yet tuned, but I tried to make them from strongest to weakest. Can you give them a try and let me know what you think?

If you need help compiling let me know. You need to grab the skill branch available on my devel repository..

ps. In a tournament z3 seems like the best (see results in the commit message), but in direct self-play z3 is actually 80 Elo weaker than z0.

[PeterO]

Hello,

I would love to test your engine - thank you for your hard work!
Unfortinately I am just a chessplayer an windows user. I am NOT able to install new engines on a RP :-(
Perhaps you can make an image to download? So the everage user could use/test it?

My dream is an image with some strong engines ( with level support - like stockfish and zurichess) and weaker engines (Cinnamon, Sayuri, Floid) and a WEAK opening book (based on players 1700-2000). The games could be easy downloaded from the FICS SERVER. Because I want to play a "human like" engine - playing openings like a real person (not like a grandmaster).

Perhaps someone can make such an image???

Peter

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Image would be a bit too hard for me to do. I can provide some compilations so you only need to copy the binary somewhere on local disk. What OS (linux, windows, android)? What ARCH (arm5, arm6, arm7)?

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Hi, PicoChess!

As promised I'm adding Skill Levels to the engine. I have published several binaries for different OS / architectures at [1]. Please test this feature if you are interested to see it in the next release. Some questions:

1) Does it work with your favorite GUI? 

2) Is it ok to print more than 1 PV when skilllevel is > 0 and multipv == 1. 

3) Is skill level 10 's Elo low enough for a casual player (I don't count). 

4) Do I need more randomization in choosing the pv? Right now it's based on position's zobrist key. 

[1] https://drive.google.com/a/mosoi.ro/folderview?id=0B2uKLKBIJw4zdU9ta2JyNFpwQ1k&usp=sharing#

Thank you for including Zurichess in your software.

[Jürgen Precour]

Hi Alexandru,

i think, the first info line is not correct (and resulting in an error @picochess) => empty PV
see:

zurichess skills https://bitbucket.org/zurichess/zurichess
build with devel +f3d5478 Fri Jun 17 19:15:29 2016 +0000 at 2016-07-12 22:56:49, running on amd64

position fen rnbqkbnr/pppppp1p/6p1/8/4P3/2P5/PP1P1PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 2
go movetime 10
info depth 0 seldepth 0 multipv 1 score cp -94 nodes 2 time 0 nps 5996 pv
info depth 1 seldepth 1 multipv 1 score cp -3 nodes 47 time 3 nps 13758 pv e7e6
info depth 2 seldepth 2 multipv 1 score cp -15 nodes 632 time 7 nps 82410 pv d7d5 e4e5
bestmove d7d5 ponder e4e5


Could y please make 20 levels =0-20 like stockfish (not 16)? Lateron, it doesnt matter, but right now engines need 0 or 20. This (level) update is in pipeline (but right now not released nor fully tested).
Jürgen

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Hi, Jürgen!

Thank you for your input. The UCI Protocol is a bit unspecified, but both reported issues look like picochess bugs.

For the empty PV I could stop printing it. This is debatable, but I see no harm in not printing it.  I use depth 0 for static evaluation so that will stay there.

For skill levels, having levels from 0 to 10 is a good testcase for PicoChess' upcoming skill levels support. PicoChess cannot reasonable expect all engines to have skill levels from 0 to 20.

[Alexandru Moșoi]

Hi, Picochess!

Did anyone played with skill levels in zurichess yet? Not necessarily using Picochess, but using a desktop client such as XBoard or Arena.

I'm planning to release a new version of Zurichess within the next few weeks. It will provide support for skill-levels which was requested here on this forum a few months ago. Since I don't use this option on a regular basis I would love some feedback from casual chess players who are looking for a weaker engine.

Regards,