New amateur chess engine Petrel

[Gabor Szots]

Version 2.0. Much stronger. Estimated 2500 CCRL.

We can't test it without Windows exes. I know Jim Ablett has created Windows compiles, could you not naturalize them and offer them at your site if you can't provide Windows exes on your own?

I can add links. But I am not sure that "stealing" someones (JA builds) work is accepted in computer chess community.

What if you ask him? I know he did allow programmers to use his compiles if credit is given.

[Jim Ablett]

Version 2.0. Much stronger. Estimated 2500 CCRL.

We can't test it without Windows exes. I know Jim Ablett has created Windows compiles, could you not naturalize them and offer them at your site if you can't provide Windows exes on your own?

I can add links. But I am not sure that "stealing" someones (JA builds) work is accepted in computer chess community.

What if you ask him? I know he did allow programmers to use his compiles if credit is given.

No problem using my builds if you want.

Jim.

[Aleks Peshkov]

I added links in my releases at github.

I hope my Petrel 2.0 will have a few moments of attention by testers. This is a big motivation factor to develop further towards less explored ways of progress.

[glav]

I added links in my releases at github.

I hope my Petrel 2.0 will have a few moments of attention by testers. This is a big motivation factor to develop further towards less explored ways of progress.

Keep up the good work! Yesterday your engine smashed by a large margin "my" GeminiChess in a 30 games match. 13)... Nf3 was absolutely brilliant. BTW, you can cross compile windows executable on linux. There should be enough material on how to do, but let me know if you need more info.
[pgn][Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.10.11"]
[Round "1"]
[White "GeminiChess_v3_33_19"]
[Black "petrel2.0"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C48"]
[Opening "Four knights"]
[Variation "Spanish variation"]
[TimeControl "120/60+1"]
[Termination "adjudication"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[GameDuration "00:00:45"]
[GameEndTime "2025-10-11T03:04:20.269 CEST"]
[GameStartTime "2025-10-11T03:03:34.908 CEST"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bd6 5.d3 Nd4 6.Bc4 c6 7.a4 Bc7 8.Bg5 O-O 9.Nd2 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.O-O d6 12.Nb3 Rd8 13.Qd2 Nf3+ 14.Kh1 Nxd2 15.Nxd2 Qf4 16.Nb3 d5 17.Bxd5 cxd5 18.Nxd5 Rxd5 19.exd5 0-1
[/pgn]

[Aleks Peshkov]

BTW, you can cross compile windows executable on linux. There should be enough material on how to do, but let me know if you need more info.

To tell you the truth I have dual-boot Windows on my old PC, but did not opened it for many years. I have to deploy minimal build and testing platform on Windows. Otherwise I cannot trust my builds work at all.

[Aleks Peshkov]

Very funny PeSTO d6 overvalue influenced opening novelty how to handle bad bishop: e5, Bd6, c6, Bc7, d6.

[glav]

BTW, you can cross compile windows executable on linux. There should be enough material on how to do, but let me know if you need more info.

To tell you the truth I have dual-boot Windows on my old PC, but did not opened it for many years. I have to deploy minimal build and testing platform on Windows. Otherwise I cannot trust my builds work at all.

Not sure I follow you. You are saying that you don't trust windows executables generated on linux?

[Aleks Peshkov]

[Not sure I follow you. You are saying that you don't trust windows executables generated on linux?

I do not trust even linux executables. I rebuild them and sparring partners for 3 of my machines.

[Gabor Szots]

The engine crashes under Arena. I tried the BMI2 and the SSE4 builds. Here is the Arena debug:

2025-10-12 07:47:17,045 Arena 3.5.1
2025-10-12 07:47:17,051Font Arena Chess Figurine MISSING

2025-10-12 07:47:17,418**----------New game---2025-10-12 07:47:17,418 V -------------
2025-10-12 07:47:17,529**screen: 1536x864
2025-10-12 07:47:17,529**Monitors: 1
2025-10-12 07:47:17,529**Monitor0: 1536x864
2025-10-12 07:47:17,529**FormMonitor: 0
2025-10-12 07:47:17,529**DesktopRect: 0/0 .. 1536/864
2025-10-12 07:47:22,873*1*--------------------Starting engine 1 Petrel 2.0 64-bit---------------------
2025-10-12 07:47:22,873*1*Configured Engine 1 Type: UCI
2025-10-12 07:47:22,873*1*Engine 1 dir: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel
2025-10-12 07:47:22,873*1*Engine 1 commandline: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel\Petrel_2.0-x64.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:22,984*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 9544 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:22,984*1*Engine 1 ProcessID: 960
2025-10-12 07:47:22,984*1*Engine 1 Prio:32 ThreadPrio:0
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017-->1:uci
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:id name petrel 2.0 2025-10-10
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:id author Aleks Peshkov
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:option name Debug Log File type string default <empty>
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:option name Hash type spin min 2 max 16384 default 16
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:option name Move Overhead type spin min 0 max 10000 default 0
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:option name Ponder type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017<--1:uciok
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017-->1:setoption name Hash value 256
2025-10-12 07:47:23,017-->1:setoption name Move Overhead value 10
2025-10-12 07:47:23,021*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 9544 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:23,021-->1:isready
2025-10-12 07:47:27,876-->1:setoption name UCI_Chess960 value false
2025-10-12 07:47:27,876-->1:setoption name Ponder value false
2025-10-12 07:47:27,876-->1:setoption name Move Overhead value 10
2025-10-12 07:47:27,876-->1:setoption name Debug Log File value <empty>
2025-10-12 07:47:35,275**----------New game---2025-10-12 07:47:35,275 V -------------
2025-10-12 07:47:35,281**Loading book: E:\Sakk\Arena4\Books\SALC_V5_hc_10m.abk
2025-10-12 07:47:38,958*1*
2025-10-12 07:47:38,958*1*Engine crashed, restarting...
2025-10-12 07:47:38,958-->1:quit
2025-10-12 07:47:39,339*1*--------------------Starting engine 1 Petrel 2.0 64-bit---------------------
2025-10-12 07:47:39,339*1*Configured Engine 1 Type: UCI
2025-10-12 07:47:39,339*1*Engine 1 dir: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel
2025-10-12 07:47:39,339*1*Engine 1 commandline: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel\Petrel_2.0-x64.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:39,452*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 7232 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:39,468*1*Engine 1 ProcessID: 22524
2025-10-12 07:47:39,468*1*Engine 1 Prio:32 ThreadPrio:0
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496-->1:uci
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:id name petrel 2.0 2025-10-10
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:id author Aleks Peshkov
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:option name Debug Log File type string default <empty>
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:option name Hash type spin min 2 max 16384 default 16
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:option name Move Overhead type spin min 0 max 10000 default 0
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:option name Ponder type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496<--1:uciok
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496-->1:setoption name Hash value 256
2025-10-12 07:47:39,496-->1:setoption name Move Overhead value 10
2025-10-12 07:47:39,501*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 7232 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:39,501-->1:isready
2025-10-12 07:47:40,965*1*Start calc, move no: 1
2025-10-12 07:47:40,965*1*Main Book Move SALC_V5_hc_10m.abk: g8f6
2025-10-12 07:47:41,950*1*
2025-10-12 07:47:41,950*1*Engine crashed, restarting...
2025-10-12 07:47:41,950-->1:quit
2025-10-12 07:47:42,330*1*--------------------Starting engine 1 Petrel 2.0 64-bit---------------------
2025-10-12 07:47:42,330*1*Configured Engine 1 Type: UCI
2025-10-12 07:47:42,330*1*Engine 1 dir: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel
2025-10-12 07:47:42,330*1*Engine 1 commandline: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel\Petrel_2.0-x64.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:42,442*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 21404 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:42,444*1*Engine 1 ProcessID: 16192
2025-10-12 07:47:42,444*1*Engine 1 Prio:32 ThreadPrio:0
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472-->1:uci
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:id name petrel 2.0 2025-10-10
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:id author Aleks Peshkov
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:option name Debug Log File type string default <empty>
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:option name Hash type spin min 2 max 16384 default 16
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:option name Move Overhead type spin min 0 max 10000 default 0
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:option name Ponder type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472<--1:uciok
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472-->1:setoption name Hash value 256
2025-10-12 07:47:42,472-->1:setoption name Move Overhead value 10
2025-10-12 07:47:42,474*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 21404 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:42,474-->1:isready
2025-10-12 07:47:43,982*1*Start calc, move no: 3
2025-10-12 07:47:43,986*1*Main Book Move SALC_V5_hc_10m.abk: f6e4
2025-10-12 07:47:45,291*1*
2025-10-12 07:47:45,291*1*Engine crashed, restarting...
2025-10-12 07:47:45,291-->1:quit
2025-10-12 07:47:45,671*1*--------------------Starting engine 1 Petrel 2.0 64-bit---------------------
2025-10-12 07:47:45,671*1*Configured Engine 1 Type: UCI
2025-10-12 07:47:45,671*1*Engine 1 dir: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel
2025-10-12 07:47:45,671*1*Engine 1 commandline: E:\Sakk\UCI-engines\Petrel\Petrel_2.0-x64.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:45,784*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 17940 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:45,786*1*Engine 1 ProcessID: 27896
2025-10-12 07:47:45,786*1*Engine 1 Prio:32 ThreadPrio:0
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814-->1:uci
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:id name petrel 2.0 2025-10-10
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:id author Aleks Peshkov
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:option name Debug Log File type string default <empty>
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:option name Hash type spin min 2 max 16384 default 16
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:option name Move Overhead type spin min 0 max 10000 default 0
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:option name Ponder type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:option name UCI_Chess960 type check default false
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814<--1:uciok
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814-->1:setoption name Hash value 256
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814-->1:setoption name Move Overhead value 10
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814*1*Child Process Prio Adj: PID 17940 conhost.exe
2025-10-12 07:47:45,814-->1:isready
2025-10-12 07:47:47,318*1*Start calc, move no: 5
2025-10-12 07:47:47,322-->1:ucinewgame
2025-10-12 07:47:47,322-->1:isready
2025-10-12 07:47:51,426-->1:position startpos moves e2e4 g8f6 e4e5 f6e4 e5e6
2025-10-12 07:47:51,426-->1:go wtime 91640 btime 92000 winc 1000 binc 1000
2025-10-12 07:47:58,067-->1:stop

BTW, displayed hash size is 0.

When trying under Cute Chess I get a could not initialize engine error message.

Could be something with the hash size. It is OK with the default 16 but when I choose another value (e.g. 32 or 256, does not matter) it crashes.

[Aleks Peshkov]

Does petrel 1.3 allocate hash memory correctly?