TalkChess.com

Rom77 wrote: ↑Sun May 10, 2020 12:26 pm phhnguyen, here are some more questions:

1. Crash again began to occur when minimizing/deploying the BSG window.

2. When using the "Multi timers" mode (in "New tournament"), the time control is not recorded in the "logresults.txt" file in the first line of the tournament. Whereas when the “Multi timers” mode is turned off, the time control of the tournament is recorded in the first line of the tournament.

3. When the "Multi timers" mode is turned off, the default time control is always used in the next tournament, even if another control is indicated near the "Multi timers".

4. Unfortunately, the two old questions that are indicated in my previous posts are still not resolved:

5. The "Score indicator" next to the board is not too sensitive to small changes in the score. It moves noticeably only when the situation on the board is almost hopeless. This is not very convenient.
...
I guess I did not quite express myself clearly. I assumed that it would be nice to limit the range of scores for the “Score indicator”, for example, from -4 to +4, as on chess24.com. Then small changes in the position evalution will be visible. Now, when the range of position evaluation is changing from -10 to +10, the change even by +0.5 is practically not noticeable.

6. If during the tournament you often call up the "Show all plaing games" window, it will appear lower and lower each time. As a result, you need to constantly raise it up. It would be nice to somehow stabilize this window.

If for any reason you think that they do not need to be changed, please let me know. For my part, I will add a few screenshots here, which may be better to clarify these issues:

- Score indicator" is almost insensitive to changes in position estimates, while the "Score graph" window shows the estimate normally - https://prnt.sc/se3k8a and https://prnt.sc/se3klx

- Before and after ten clicks of the "Show all plaing games" icon (calls to the "Plaing games" window) - https://prnt.sc/se3kza and https://prnt.sc/se3l8g

Thanks a lot for the long and so detailed report!

3) I am confused on that point, can you tell a bit more? For your reference: BSG is designed that whenever the multi timers mode off, it will use default timer for all engines.

6) Thanks for the images, I got some more info. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem after running some tournaments on both Win10 and macOS. I did suspect that long names of engines may cause the problem but your test used only short ones. I have no clue at the moment thus I will be back to the issue later.

All other problems/suggestions will be fixed/implemented. Thanks again.

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 9:50 am 3) I am confused on that point, can you tell a bit more? For your reference: BSG is designed that whenever the multi timers mode off, it will use default timer for all engines.

3) Suppose I have ended the tournament with “Multi timers” - on. I go into the “Now tournament” window and turn off “Multi timers”. I’m launching a new tournament. The tournament starts with the default time control settings, although in the "Time control:" section I see that completely different settings are set for time control - not the default.
https://prnt.sc/sel3bc

P.S. Ok, from your message, I realized that this is not a bug. If I do not want to change the displayed time control after switching to the “Multi timers” - off mode, then I just need to change any digit in the “Time control:” section, and then return it to its previous position. It's not hard. It is only necessary not to forget about it.

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 9:50 am 6) Thanks for the images, I got some more info. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem after running some tournaments on both Win10 and macOS. I did suspect that long names of engines may cause the problem but your test used only short ones. I have no clue at the moment thus I will be back to the issue later.

6) I have Win 7 SP1.

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 3:27 am Hi all,

I am glad to release my new program: Banksia GUI - a chess GUI. It is totally freeware and can run in almost all major operating systems, can do almost all typical tasks of a chess GUI.

Just list a few features:

• Support both UCI and WinBoard protocols

• Can play all types of games (human-human, human-computer, computer-computer, engine tournaments), support all popular tournament types

• Good and high customizable graphics

• Support databases, popular book formats (PGN, EDP, Polyglot)

• Supports some new chess techniques/trends. For examples, it supports:

• [+] Lc0: understand and show its stats in multi visual ways: tables (all columns are sortable), bubbles (customizable for sizes, colors and contents/which stats to show)

• [+] chessdb.com: query for both opening and endgame positions

• [+] syzygy: users can exam endgame positions

• Engines, databases, books could be auto-downloaded and configurated

• Easy to use. Many tasks could be done much easy and fast, such as auto-detecting engines, making/reusing tournaments

Home page: https://banksiagui.com

Download (temporary for alpha versions) pages: https://banksiagui.com/preview-versions

Current releases are alpha versions and just for computer chess enthusiasts. At the moment there are binaries for Windows 10-64 bit and macOS only. Other binaries (for Win 7, Linux) will be released later.

Banksia GUI is built based on our open-source Banksia - a chess tournament

Thank you a lot for downloading and using. Feedbacks, bug reports and ideas are warm welcomes



Some screenshots:

Easy for playing and for running tournaments:


Support deeply Lc0:


Simple:


Query chessdb.cn:


A friend sent me a screenshot when he was testing with 18 concurrent games:

Is this GUI much better than Arena ?

Chessqueen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 2:25 pm Is this GUI much better than Arena ?

Hi there, sorry I can't tell you since I am one of the main developers for Banksia GUI. Please try and tell us your feelings/feedbacks. BanksiaGUI has been applying some new tech, different designing philosophies, started after Arena almost 20 years thus they have many differences.

When using, if you have problems, questions, ask here we will support. If you see bugs, errors we will fix. If you have new requests we will discuss and implement. BanksiaGUI has been still in intensive development and each version is released roughly within 10 days. All will be very quick

Chessqueen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 2:25 pm

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 3:27 am Hi all,

I am glad to release my new program: Banksia GUI - a chess GUI. It is totally freeware and can run in almost all major operating systems, can do almost all typical tasks of a chess GUI.

Just list a few features:

• Support both UCI and WinBoard protocols

• Can play all types of games (human-human, human-computer, computer-computer, engine tournaments), support all popular tournament types

• Good and high customizable graphics

• Support databases, popular book formats (PGN, EDP, Polyglot)

• Supports some new chess techniques/trends. For examples, it supports:

• [+] Lc0: understand and show its stats in multi visual ways: tables (all columns are sortable), bubbles (customizable for sizes, colors and contents/which stats to show)

• [+] chessdb.com: query for both opening and endgame positions

• [+] syzygy: users can exam endgame positions

• Engines, databases, books could be auto-downloaded and configurated

• Easy to use. Many tasks could be done much easy and fast, such as auto-detecting engines, making/reusing tournaments

Home page: https://banksiagui.com

Download (temporary for alpha versions) pages: https://banksiagui.com/preview-versions

Current releases are alpha versions and just for computer chess enthusiasts. At the moment there are binaries for Windows 10-64 bit and macOS only. Other binaries (for Win 7, Linux) will be released later.

Banksia GUI is built based on our open-source Banksia - a chess tournament

Thank you a lot for downloading and using. Feedbacks, bug reports and ideas are warm welcomes



Some screenshots:

Easy for playing and for running tournaments:


Support deeply Lc0:


Simple:


Query chessdb.cn:


A friend sent me a screenshot when he was testing with 18 concurrent games:

Is this GUI much better than Arena ?

Hands down

Rom77 wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 11:30 am

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 9:50 am 3) I am confused on that point, can you tell a bit more? For your reference: BSG is designed that whenever the multi timers mode off, it will use default timer for all engines.

3) Suppose I have ended the tournament with “Multi timers” - on. I go into the “Now tournament” window and turn off “Multi timers”. I’m launching a new tournament. The tournament starts with the default time control settings, although in the "Time control:" section I see that completely different settings are set for time control - not the default.
https://prnt.sc/sel3bc

P.S. Ok, from your message, I realized that this is not a bug. If I do not want to change the displayed time control after switching to the “Multi timers” - off mode, then I just need to change any digit in the “Time control:” section, and then return it to its previous position. It's not hard. It is only necessary not to forget about it.

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Mon May 11, 2020 9:50 am 6) Thanks for the images, I got some more info. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem after running some tournaments on both Win10 and macOS. I did suspect that long names of engines may cause the problem but your test used only short ones. I have no clue at the moment thus I will be back to the issue later.

6) I have Win 7 SP1.

I have managed to test BSG on a Win 7 prof 64 bit SP1 but can't reproduce both 1. (Crash when minimizing) and 6. (the window "Show all playing games" changes position/moves down when games are playing). I will come back to those issues later. Thanks

Version 0.25 beta released

* Fixed bugs: almost all known bugs, such as database converter missing scores, French language not working
* Some small improvements/adjustments: such as being changeable toolbar background color, changeable threshold for score indicator
* New features:

• Lichess bot back to work

• Embedded chess SVG pieces

• Opening book converter

• Support developers: 1) understanding UCI position command (position starts/fen moves) when pasting; 2) easily run benchmarks or frequently commands (Fig)

Fig. Run benchmark or any commands in an easy way

phhnguyen wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 9:19 am Version 0.25 beta released

* Fixed bugs: almost all known bugs, such as database converter missing scores, French language not working
* Some small improvements/adjustments: such as being changeable toolbar background color, changeable threshold for score indicator
* New features:

• Lichess bot back to work

• Embedded chess SVG pieces

• Opening book converter

• Support developers: 1) understanding UCI position command (position starts/fen moves) when pasting; 2) easily run benchmarks or frequently commands (Fig)

Fig. Run benchmark or any commands in an easy way

Excellent news! Thank you very much for this update. Testing it on Lichess now with my NeuralAbyss bot account.

LiChess Bug Report:

Last move not being relayed to LiChess. I had two games that ended in Draws on LiChess because the Mating move was not relayed to LiChess yet it was displayed in the Banksia Gui.

I didn't follow up whether that's already implemented, but here's an idea to work around a common problem with CECP engines: that neither the sign of the evaluation nor the mate scores are defined on protocol layer so that each CECP engine can do something different.

When loading a new CECP engine for the first time, the GUI could transfer a mate-in-2 position. The position should have enough pieces to avoid EGTBs kicking in, and the mate should be super straight-forward so that no pruning will miss it. The solution move should be the only reasonable move so that no confusion can arise.

Let the engine determine the best move plus score. Make the move that the engine suggests, make the opponent's answer move so that it's mate-in-1, and let the engine give the best move (also only one reasonable option) plus score.

Then repeat the whole position with reversed colours.

That would allow to determine both the sign and the mate scores automatically. Then this should be stored (per engine of course) because there are engines that need to be restarted for a new game.

Here's an example position:

[d]6k1/ppqn1rpp/1np4b/3Q4/2BP4/1P1N4/P3rPPP/6K1 w - -

And with reversed colours:

[d]6k1/p3Rppp/1p1n4/2bp4/3q4/1NP4B/PPQN1RPP/6K1 b - -