Houdini and Chessbase GUI engine matches

[Tom Barrister]

You are replying to my post, but it looks like you didn't even read it. Again, the engine is broken, not the GUI.

Miguel

Was I supposed to make a post that says "Pass" and then reply to it so that I would be replying to myself? Your post was the last one there before I posted, the "Reply" button was handy, and I don't see a generic "Reply" button.

Whether or not the UCI command is broken doesn't change what I believe about Chessbase.

[Michel]

UCI engines are not entirely stateless.
Hash table usage is one important example, time management over the course of a game is another one.

The protocol is (mostly) stateless. Then engines can keep whatever state they want.

[michiguel]

You are replying to my post, but it looks like you didn't even read it. Again, the engine is broken, not the GUI.

Miguel

Was I supposed to make a post that says "Pass" and then reply to it so that I would be replying to myself? Your post was the last one there before I posted, the "Reply" button was handy, and I don't see a generic "Reply" button.

You can go to the original post (if that is the one you mean to reply) and click reply (or quote) there.

Whether or not the UCI command is broken doesn't change what I believe about Chessbase.

which is off topic.

Miguel

[hgm]

The protocol is (mostly) stateless. Then engines can keep whatever state they want.

That is an interesting one: "mostly stateless".

[Michel]

That is an interesting one: "mostly stateless"

Well there is a little bit of short lived state in the protocol.

There is the position/go split which is cosmetic (position and go could have been sent on one line).

Then there is the distinction between the engine searching (i.e. after go and before bestmove) and not searching. While searching the engine should ignore all commands except stop and isready.

[kasinp]

Let me assemble comments and replies in one post.

1) @Kurt Utzinger and Tom Barrister
I'm not interested in ideological fights or in a debate pro or contra Chessbase.
I will release a corrected version of Houdini, for the simple reason that it is the easiest and most efficient way of improving the Houdini user experience.

2) @H.G.Muller
I agree with your comment, the UCI specification is needlessly confusing. It is obvious though that the proposal was only intended as a temporary measure, the expectation being that "all new GUIs should support" the ucinewgame command.
As this was written in 2004 and we're now 2011, surely one can reasonably expect any modern UCI interface to adhere to the protocol.

3) @F. Bluemers and Miguel Ballicora
UCI engines are not entirely stateless.
Hash table usage is one important example, time management over the course of a game is another one.

Robert,

How is the fix coming along?

FWIW, I certainly see the problem with 40/4 games, however, I could not detect it in a sizeable database of games in 1 minute + 2 sec. increment. I realize this problem may be more difficult to observe in shorter games, but I did look and could not confirm it.

My rating estimates would confirm the absence of the issue in faster games. While my 40/4 (clearly contaminated) does not correlate well with IPON games, the 1+2 database is a pretty good match. I should add another point (just to be thorough in my summary) - these faster games were played by 32-bit version.

Regards,
PK

[Jouni]

This problem is happening in all games with X moves / Y minutes but not with increment. BTW there is same problem with ALL Robbo, Ippo, Ivanhoe and Fire versions - strange coincidence .

Jouni