New engine releases & news 2021

[eduherminio]

Lynx v0.8.1 is out.

With null-move pruning as the main released feature, some search and move generation optimizations and a few time management/draw detection bug fixes, I'm expecting/hoping it to reach 1450-1500 CCRL (blitz).

[amanjpro]

Zahak 9.0 is out, details and discussions are here:

forum3/viewtopic.php?p=912943#p912943

[Brunetti]

Protej 0.6.0 is now available.

http://protej.info

Massive line by line code cleaning and optimization; no more crashes or stalls.
Time control highly improved, no more time losses.
Move generator improved with magic bitboards for sliders; perft is now very fast.
Search improved, better history management, thinking output highly improved.
Better evaluation.
Console mode: adjusted codepage to work in more systems; better graphics, big board and figurines always enabled; new commands (bench, eval, kiwi, unmake) and integration with UCI commands; perft suite and test suite now run in an automated way.
UCI mode: added go nodes, removed ponder management, go infinite may be invoked with just go.
WinBoard mode: added memory, undo and ? (move now) commands.
1'+1" Elo improved about 140 points since 0.5.9.

Alex

[Frank Quisinsky]

Koivisto 7.9 compiles!
http://ipmanchess.yolasite.com/compiles.php

[Gabor Szots]

Protej 0.6.0 is now available.
1'+1" Elo improved about 140 points since 0.5.9.

Alex

Splendid news, Alex. I was itching many times to tell you that you should be improving your engine instead of just posting test results of other engines. I was almost annoyed. Now I forgive you.

[Guenther]

not yet mentioned:

Walleye 1.5.2
https://github.com/MitchelPaulin/Walleye/releases

ClassicAra 0.9.7.post0
https://github.com/QueensGambit/CrazyAra/releases

Odonata 0.5.0
https://github.com/akanalytics/odonata

Code: Select all

Elo improved by 200+ in self-play vs release 0.4.0 (expected 2500+)
Late move reductions, razoring, check extensions, time control tuning
Greatly simplified UCI options

...and other changes

[Brunetti]

Splendid news, Alex. I was itching many times to tell you that you should be improving your engine instead of just posting test results of other engines. I was almost annoyed. Now I forgive you.

I try to do both things

Alex

[akanalytics]

And Guenther somehow beats me to posting about my new Odonata release

Hopefully reduced UCI options makes deployment/setup a little clearer.
Im still struggling getting aspiration windows and "known winning positions" recognition to work, so hopefully another release earlyish next year with these improvements.

Andy

not yet mentioned:

Odonata 0.5.0
https://github.com/akanalytics/odonata

[algerbrex]

Seems like things have been pretty busy while I've been away from TalkChess with school work.

Congrats to Amanj for the latest release of Zahak and Alex on his release of Protej 0.6.0 It'll especially be nice to have another engine around 2500 for gauntlet testing with Blunder. As well as Andy with the latest release of Odonata. I've been following it more closely these past couple of months and I really like it. A 200+ Elo improvement is very impressive. Not to mention Lynx. It's always nice to keep seeing new and up-and-coming engines, keeping things fresh.

I look forward to testing out all of these engines in the coming weeks.

Splendid news, Alex. I was itching many times to tell you that you should be improving your engine instead of just posting test results of other engines. I was almost annoyed. Now I forgive you.

I for one am very glad that Alex also helps in testing out new versions of Blunder. It's nice to have my improvements on Blunder double-checked so I know I'm not just mindlessly banging away at the keyboard

[Gabor Szots]

And Guenther somehow beats me to posting about my new Odonata release

Hopefully reduced UCI options makes deployment/setup a little clearer.
Im still struggling getting aspiration windows and "known winning positions" recognition to work, so hopefully another release earlyish next year with these improvements.

Andy

not yet mentioned:

Odonata 0.5.0
https://github.com/akanalytics/odonata

Odonata 0.5.1 is out, a bug-fix for crashes occurring when changing the hash size.