Critte 0.90 released

[Maharadja]

Thanx for the engine, saw a couple of games and it's indeed willing to go for the exchange sacrifice. Almost every win of critter is a masterpiece.
Thanx

[brinan]

Will add to my ladder.

Challenges Igorrit 0086v9 once current matches completed.

Thanks for update.

[rvida]

Hi Richard,
I have 2 Questions:
a) why is tablebase usage set to root per default and not to everywhere ?

b) after installation in Chessbase the engine looks like this:

[ENGINE]
Name=Critter 0.90 64-bit1C
Author=Richard Vida
Filename=C:\Users\Werner\Programme\Arena\Engines\Critter\0.90\Critter_0.90_64bit.exe
[OPTIONS]
UCI_Chess960=true
OwnBook=false
Book File=
Threads=1
GaviotaTbPath=c:\gtb
GaviotaTbCache=32

What does the engine now play in Chessbase?? Chess 960 per default??

And inside engine options there is no entry to set chess960 to false.
Perhaps I have to edit the eng file manually ??

a) because in this mode there is virtually no performace hit
b) I really don't know why Chessbase sets chess960 option to true. At startup the engine says that the default is false:

uci
id name Critter 0.90 64-bit SSE4
id author Richard Vida
option name Hash type spin default 64 min 16 max 8192
option name Ponder type check default false
option name OwnBook type check default true
option name Book File type string default book.cbk
option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
option name MultiPV type spin default 1 min 1 max 100
option name Threads type spin default 6 min 1 max 8
option name Minimum Split Depth type spin default 6 min 4 max 10
option name GaviotaTbPath type string default \gtb
option name GaviotaTbCache type spin default 32 min 4 max 256
option name GaviotaTbCompression type combo default cp4 var uncompressed var cp1 var cp2 var cp3 var cp4
option name Tablebase Usage type combo default Only At Root var Disable var Only At Root var Everywhere
option name Clear Hash type button
uciok

[Jamal Bubker]

A big thanks for this new release !

[swami]

Thanks, Richard.

Good to know that it's now ahead of Naum and Stockfish from what I've read so far.

It's the only engine that has made gradual improvement over time in STS.
Very well tuned evaluation indeed. (+ faster at solving it! -- optimised speed!)

Regards,
Swami

- decreased some bonuses related to pawn structure

- revised "bad trade" evaluation - now it is more willing to go into exchange sacrifices

[IGarcia]

Thanks, Richard.

Good to know that it's now ahead of Naum and Stockfish from what I've read so far.

It's the only engine that has made gradual improvement over time in STS. Very well tuned evaluation indeed.

Regards,
Swami

Hi Swami !

Do you have STS test results from last critter? TY

[swami]

Test in progress. Only half way through STS 1 -- It certainly looks very well fine tuned + faster optimised at solving it!

Will post results sometimes later.

Hi Swami !

Do you have STS test results from last critter? TY

[IGarcia]

Great!

I have been reading in forums that critter 0.9 is probably the best tactical engine now. I think if this is true it will get a nice STS score.

Tnx Swami for fast reply and waiting for scores.

Ignacio.

[JuLieN]

@Ignacio
If you say to Swami that an engine will perform well at his STS because of its tactical abilities, you might upset him, you know?

[Matthias Gemuh]

I have been reading in forums that critter 0.9 is probably the best tactical engine now. I think if this is true it will get a nice STS score.

...

Ignacio.

What a paradox ! An engine scoring well in a strategic testsuite because of tactics.

Matthias.