Strelka 5.5 x32 is released....

[ATOMICC]

Is there any way to disable the "known positions"? It's not as simple as de-selecting a check-box that says "Use own book"? If not, that is a most egregious offense.

Edit: I just downloaded the engine and loaded it into Fritz. There is no way to de-select its built-in opening "book". When I try to modify the engine in Fritz, I get a message: "Strelka 5.5 doesn't have parameters." Now I wonder if the popular test suites are in it. I would bet $$ on it.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Is there any way to disable the "known positions"? It's not as simple as de-selecting a check-box that says "Use own book"? If not, that is a most egregious offense.

Edit: I just downloaded the engine and loaded it into Fritz. There is no way to de-select its built-in opening "book". When I try to modify the engine in Fritz, I get a message: "Strelka 5.5 doesn't have parameters." Now I wonder if the popular test suites are in it. I would bet $$ on it.

The only way to disable it is to modify the source code but of course you got to be a programmer to do so....Even more,you better be the programmer of Strelka....
Common sense regards,
Dr.D

[Sylwy]

Thank you in advance !

Regards,
SilvianR

[Graham Banks]

Thanks for the info Richard.
I was so impressed when I saw Strelka solve some of my favourite WM test positions 10 plies sooner then any other engine

Shredder does something similar (internal opening book) when openning advisor is on, so if that's not wrong then what Strelka is doing is also fine.

Actually, when Shredder has its opening advisor turned on, it thinks more about its moves straight out of the opening. Strength-wise it makes little if any difference.

[Richard Allbert]

At least he finally posted Houdini and Ivanhoe together. It's taken a while..

[Laskos]

At move/0.05s the result of 2,000 games match is:

Code: Select all

    Program                            Score     %       Elo    +   -    Draws

  1 Strelka 5.5                    : 1145.5/2000  57.3   3225   12  12   38.6 %
  2 Houdini 1.5a w32               :  854.5/2000  42.7   3175   12  12   38.6 %

+51 Elo points for Strelka. Also, for Arasan14 test suite (5s+1ply / position) the results are so much in favour of Strelka 5.5 that I am suspecting some oddity. Maybe I have to restart my comp and check for GUI bugs and such, but as of now Strelka seems clearly stronger.

Kai

Can you run a test at a real TC like 5"+0.05"?
At 0.05"/move you're using a fringe case of the TM of the engines, I wouldn't recommend this for testing engines with different TM strategies (as is the case).

Robert

Got this at 5s + 0.05s

Code: Select all

    Program                            Score     %     Elo    +   -    Draws

  1 Houdini 1.5a w32               : 259.5/480  54.1   3219   24  24   39.8 %
  2 Strelka 5.5                    : 239.5/480  49.9   3200   23  23   44.0 %
  3 Strelka 5                      : 221.0/480  46.0   3182   23  23   45.4 %

Strelka 5.5 seems almost for sure not 50 Elo points stronger than Houdini 1.5 x32 as I got previously, it's actually probably a bit weaker than Houdini. Is this due entirely to the form of time control (fixed time per move as opposed to a mixed TC) or its length (~7s/game as opposed to ~17s/game)? If it's purely due to time management (not the length), I am not sure I always want the management included in the strength (in analysis the time management doesn't matter).

Kai

[LudiBuda]

If I remember correctly, Shredder plays different moves when advisor is on, so it isn't just the time management thing.

[Graham Banks]

If I remember correctly, Shredder plays different moves when advisor is on, so it isn't just the time management thing.

Yes, but it makes little (if any) practical difference to the engine's strength.

[rvida]

Is there any way to disable the "known positions"? It's not as simple as de-selecting a check-box that says "Use own book"? If not, that is a most egregious offense.

Edit: I just downloaded the engine and loaded it into Fritz. There is no way to de-select its built-in opening "book". When I try to modify the engine in Fritz, I get a message: "Strelka 5.5 doesn't have parameters." Now I wonder if the popular test suites are in it. I would bet $$ on it.

The only way to disable it is to modify the source code but of course you got to be a programmer to do so....Even more,you better be the programmer of Strelka....
Common sense regards,
Dr.D

Here is a patched version with its internal database disabled:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?f1jb8hd989hv8ja

Playing strength shouldn't be affected (I patched only 2 bytes in DB probing code).

[Houdini]

Got this at 5s + 0.05s

Code: Select all

    Program                            Score     %     Elo    +   -    Draws

  1 Houdini 1.5a w32               : 259.5/480  54.1   3219   24  24   39.8 %
  2 Strelka 5.5                    : 239.5/480  49.9   3200   23  23   44.0 %
  3 Strelka 5                      : 221.0/480  46.0   3182   23  23   45.4 %

Strelka 5.5 seems almost for sure not 50 Elo points stronger than Houdini 1.5 x32 as I got previously, it's actually probably a bit weaker than Houdini. Is this due entirely to the form of time control (fixed time per move as opposed to a mixed TC) or its length (~7s/game as opposed to ~17s/game)? If it's purely due to time management (not the length), I am not sure I always want the management included in the strength (in analysis the time management doesn't matter).

Kai

Thank you for doing the test. The results confirm what I above: it's not a good idea to use a ultra-fast pure increment TC like 0.05"/move to compare engines with different Time Management strategies.

Generally speaking I don't recommend using pure increment matches for Houdini, its TM is not well adapted to this situation. The shortest TC I use for testing Houdini is 1"+0.05", but even for this TC it doesn't make sense to play engine matches between different engines. The timings are too fast, and random choices like the timing safety buffer begin to influence the result.

Looking at all this, it appears that Strelka 5.5 is just a late April Fools joke... well done, Yuri!

Robert