Engine in MAME resigns, what then?

[hwspij...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

Just played a nice game against the Fidelity Voice Chess Challenger in MAME. Now it keeps yelling 'I lose' at me, but nothing happens, it doesn't move and its clock keeps ticking. How do I claim my well-deserved victory without winning on time eventually?

Henri

[Scally]

Hi Henri,

Did you try setting the pieces back to the start position?

MAME engines take a while to close and restart and it’s still a work in progress on Picochess.


Al.

[Dirk]

Hi Henri,

unfortunately Picochess can't hear what the engine is telling you and 'I loose' is not a valid UCI command - that's why Picochess can't react to the resign of good old Voice Chess Challenger ;-)

But you can end the game like you would in a normal game where you end before time lost or mate etc..

Have fun with the mame engines!

Dirk

Resign a game or declare draw

Placing the two kings on opposite centre squares will signal a resignation:

White wins: Black wins: Draw:

If both kings on white (e4,d5), the result is white wins and the game recorded 1-0
If both kings on black (d4,e5), the result is black wins and the game recorded 0-1
Placing the kings on adjacent centre squares (d4&e4;d5&e5) on the same rank signals a draw and the game recorded 1/2-1/2. The fourth and fith rank must be clear of other pieces - only kings.

[Henri Spijkerman]

Hi Dirk, Al,

Yes, I put the kings in the center as usual, but that did not work. After that I put back all the pieces in the startposition, no reaction. And finally I rebooted and the Pi started as nothing has happened and the game was not played.

I had a MAME engine resigning before I recall (it was the Mephisto Polgar), but in that case it played a move and THEN resigned. But this one resigns without playing a move first, which causes this problem I guess.

Henri

Op zondag 7 juni 2020 00:09:24 UTC+2 schreef Dirk:

[Dirk]

Yes exactly - that is the problem: reassignment without playing out a move. Then picochess is still waiting for the answer move and obviously the mame engine is not able to accept a new game event when you reset the pieces.

There is nothing we can do about it at the moment - so just don’t play so good that the engine will resign ;-)

Dirk

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[hwspij...@gmail.com]

Hi Dirk,

I'll do my best.... huh, not to win! :)

But anyhow, this MAME stuff on the DGT-Pi is really amazing and I enjoy it a lot!

Henri

Op zondag 7 juni 2020 om 00:27:28 UTC+2 schreef dirk.m...@googlemail.com:

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[Scally]

Hi Guys,

I got the opposite, after a nice back row mate Voice Challenger kept saying “your move” rather than “I lose”

It didn’t crash the system though, Picochess continued OK after resetting the pieces & I got my email of the moves.


Al.

[RandyR]

I've had similar issues playing against MAME chess engines from the desktop (not using picochess). I suspect some emulations are not 100% reliable. And like you, Al, it always seemed to happen when I was about to triumph. :^)

Randy

[Scally]

They’re good fun though, and no longer a walkover on a RPi 4 😃

Al.

[Dirk]

Yes Al, that is unfortunately? standard behavior of Picochess.

The last move which ends a game won't be published to the engine (and it does not need to because Picochess knows that the game has ended - what should come back from a nthe engine? There is no UCI command for confirming the mate etc.)

But for the old mame chess engines it would make sense - at least for the talking ones.

I tried this but unfortunately than the game gets stuck and the new game event is not accepted by the chess engine. I would have to analyze the plugins to see what is happening exactly but have no time for that at the moment...

Dirk

[Scally]

Hi Dirk,

Yes it’s not a problem, I was just pointing out what also happens.

It didn’t break Picochess.


Thanks,

Al.

[Dirk]

I found in a solution for both issues in my V3, see

https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c/HM2Dtzt6gic