Introducing Igel chess engine

[Modern Times]

Igel 3.4.0 is yet another milestone in Igel's development as I removed all HCE code and the eval is purely NNUE.

Really impressive! Have any other engines done that? I think most retain some HCE code but I could be wrong.

[Uri Blass]

Hi Uri,

For some reason Igel does not work for me with arena3.5.1
I have not the same problem with other gui's.

I wonder if the problem is the fact that igel quit after getting some command that it does not understand unlike other engines like stockfish that respond with an error message but the engine does not stop.

Make sure you set the communication protocol type explicitely to UCI instead of Autodetect.

I did and it still does not work under Arena 3.5.1

For me it works under arena3.5.1
Not sure if you did it correctly

Instructions:
1)I see File PGN EPD Game Position Levels Engines and I Click on Engines
2)I click on manage that is the top option.
3)I choose details
4)I go down on my list of engines and Choose Igel-x64
5)I clikc on General(I think that it is the default option if I do not change it)
6)I choose UCI in the type(I have 4 options that I can choose(AutoDetect UCI Winboard,Winboard (old))

[voffka]

Hi Modern Times,

Igel 3.4.0 is yet another milestone in Igel's development as I removed all HCE code and the eval is purely NNUE.

Really impressive! Have any other engines done that? I think most retain some HCE code but I could be wrong.

I don't think Igel is the first engine in doing so.

I think that this approach really depends on the situation in an engine. If an engine has weak HCE - having lazy HCE eval hurts because NNUE provides an improvement in quality of eval and switching to HCE may be a regression. If an engine has strong HCE eval (SF, Komodo, Ethereal) having lazy HCE eval is helpful as it improves speed compared to pure NNUE.

[Archimedes]

Any chance, Igel will run again on Android?

[voffka]

Hi Archimedes,

Any chance, Igel will run again on Android?

There is. Please refer to the explanation in https://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic. ... 47#p942447

[Uri Blass]

Hi Modern Times,

Igel 3.4.0 is yet another milestone in Igel's development as I removed all HCE code and the eval is purely NNUE.

Really impressive! Have any other engines done that? I think most retain some HCE code but I could be wrong.

I don't think Igel is the first engine in doing so.

I think that this approach really depends on the situation in an engine. If an engine has weak HCE - having lazy HCE eval hurts because NNUE provides an improvement in quality of eval and switching to HCE may be a regression. If an engine has strong HCE eval (SF, Komodo, Ethereal) having lazy HCE eval is helpful as it improves speed compared to pure NNUE.

I believe that having lazy HCE eval cannot hurt if you use it only in the right positions(so HCE save time but usually does not give wrong results).
Of course strong HCE evaluation mean that you can use HCE eval in more positions

[connor_mcmonigle]

Seer has never had an HCE and is not alone in this regard. Using HCE for the purpose of lazy evaluation is worth pretty negligible Elo in effectively all engines in any case.

[Chessqueen]

Hi Uri,

For some reason Igel does not work for me with arena3.5.1
I have not the same problem with other gui's.

I wonder if the problem is the fact that igel quit after getting some command that it does not understand unlike other engines like stockfish that respond with an error message but the engine does not stop.

Make sure you set the communication protocol type explicitely to UCI instead of Autodetect.

I did and it still does not work under Arena 3.5.1

For me it works under arena3.5.1
Not sure if you did it correctly

Instructions:
1)I see File PGN EPD Game Position Levels Engines and I Click on Engines
2)I click on manage that is the top option.
3)I choose details
4)I go down on my list of engines and Choose Igel-x64
5)I clikc on General(I think that it is the default option if I do not change it)
6)I choose UCI in the type(I have 4 options that I can choose(AutoDetect UCI Winboard,Winboard (old))

I simply reinstalled Arena and it worked
Next Match is being played with my other computer agains Koivisto 9, which I believe they should be equal

Rank Engine Score St Ig S-B
1 Stockfish_13_win_x64_avx2 29.0/50 · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · =======1===1=1=============1============1=1=1===1= 609.00
2 Igel-x64_bmi2_avx2_3_4_0 21.0/50 =======0===0=0=============0============0=0=0===0= · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · 609.00


50 games played / Tournament is finished

Tournament start: 2023.01.31, 05:56:59
Latest update: 2023.02.02, 05:47:13
Site/ Country: DESKTOP-OFQ3C0P, United States
Level: Blitz 1/2
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz with 16.0 GB Memory
Operating system: Windows 10 Home Home Edition (Build 9200) 64 bit
PGN-File: 8/8/8/6k1/8/5BPb/5K1P/8 b - - 2 1
Table created with: Arena 3.5.1

[Chessqueen]

I simply reinstalled Arena and it worked
Next Match is being played with my other computer agains Koivisto 9, which I believe they should be equal

Rank Engine Score St Ig S-B
1 Stockfish_13_win_x64_avx2 29.0/50 · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · =======1===1=1=============1============1=1=1===1= 609.00
2 Igel-x64_bmi2_avx2_3_4_0 21.0/50 =======0===0=0=============0============0=0=0===0= · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · 609.00


50 games played / Tournament is finished

Tournament start: 2023.01.31, 05:56:59
Latest update: 2023.02.02, 05:47:13
Site/ Country: DESKTOP-OFQ3C0P, United States
Level: Blitz 1/2
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz with 16.0 GB Memory
Operating system: Windows 10 Home Home Edition (Build 9200) 64 bit
PGN-File: 8/8/8/6k1/8/5BPb/5K1P/8 b - - 2 1
Table created with: Arena 3.5.1
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
==============================================================================================================================
Here is the other match which being played on my other computer against Koivisto 9

Rank Engine Score Ig Ko S-B
1 Igel-x64_bmi2_avx2_3_4_0 21.0/42 · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · ========================01================ 441.00
1 Koivisto_9.0-windows-avx2-pgo 21.0/42 ========================10================ · ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· ·· · 441.00


42 of 50 games played

Tournament start: 2023.01.31, 05:56:59
Latest update: 2023.02.02, 06:00:42
Site/ Country: DESKTOP-OFQ3C0P, United States
Level: Blitz 1/2
Hardware: AMD E2-7110 APU with AMD Radeon R2 Graphics with 6.9 GB Memory
Operating system: Windows 10 Home Home Edition (Build 9200) 64 bit
PGN-File: 8/8/8/6k1/8/5BPb/5K1P/8 b - - 2 1
Table created with: Arena 3.5.1

[voffka]

Igel 3.5.0 at https://github.com/vshcherbyna/igel/releases/tag/3.5.0 (official executable binaries for Windows and network).

This release brings marginal improvements in strength as a result of a switch to new network architecture and re-training network from scratch.

This version only supports AVX2 builds but I am considering to look at adding AVX512 support in the future releases.

What's new:

- new network architecture
- new network c049c117

Regression run against Igel 3.4.0 at Long Time Control (60+0.6)

http://chess.grantnet.us/test/32491/

Code: Select all

ELO   | 43.10 +- 3.70 (95%)
CONF  | 60.0+0.60s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
GAMES | N: 17568 W: 5631 L: 3463 D: 8474

Regression run against Igel 3.4.0 at Short Time Control (10+0.1)

http://chess.grantnet.us/test/32490/

Code: Select all

ELO   | 38.72 +- 3.35 (95%)
CONF  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=8MB
GAMES | N: 22976 W: 7639 L: 5089 D: 10248