CB experts please

[Graham Banks]

Hi Gabor,

I guess there must be a way because there are such books as the HS-8moves.ctg.
However, apart from limiting the number of moves played from a book, I'm not sure what to do. Hopefully somebody can help.

Cheers,
Graham.

[Rubinus]

F4 - Book Options, right down "Up to move".

[Albert Silver]

F4 - Book Options, right down "Up to move".

Thanks for the replies.

Pavel, my problem is as follows. When setting up an engine tournament, I have to use the 'Up to move' parameter for each and every engine, which is a tedious and error prone task. I could use the 'Unify book' option, unfortunately it does not 'import' the 'Up to move' parameter and full book line length will be used. That's why I prefer books with limited length.

As a player, I find the idea of a single move limit very dubious. How would you compare a King's Gambit, where 8 moves is fairly deep into the theory of one of the variations, to a Ruy Lopez where you are barely in the mainline?

[mhalstern]

I would like an answer to the same question, but for the Fritz12 Gui. I share the posters pain:

When running an engine tournament, whether a round robin or gauntlet, the "unify book" option, forces the Fritz recommended "optimize" setting for the book for all engines. This setting is, minimum 3 games, up to move 35. I don't like this setting for engine tournaments, as this can start the "out of book" portion of the game in the early endgame. I want to see and test how engines handle all parts of the game. It is very time consuming to have to go to the "book options." feature for all engines to shorten the book.

If anybody from Chessbase reads this forum, consider this a feature request. The option to set the minimum number of games and maximum book moves for an engine tournament, should be a sub-feature of the "unify book" feature.

I'll try and hack this out. The settings for the tournaments are in the c:\users\user\my documents\chessbase\compbase\tournamentname.cbtourn.

This is for Windows 7 - For xp - c:\documents and settings\user\my documents\chessbase\compbase\tournamentname.cbtourn.

I'll look as some with a hex editor and see if I can find an easy way to quickly set the book moves for each engine. If the setting is easy to find, I can write a macro or batch file to change the settings for each engine. This will be faster than having to take the time to hand edit the setting for each engine. If somebody hacks this out before me, please post. I'll post my findings if I figure something out.

[Mark Mason]

Gabor,

Apologies if you already know this but I thought it worth pointing out that you can do this at the point of creating the book initially so you could create a test book specifically for engine matches/tournaments to your chosen depth. This is a minimal amount of work and then means that you do not have to mess with book settings when you use the book - it will only have that number of moves deep and no more. To do this create new ctg book (File - New - Openings Book) then do (Edit – Openings book – Import games). Point to the database that you wish to use as the basis for the book, press OK then you get an "import games" panel. In here you have a choice of ECO Relative or Absolute length. Tick Absolute length and you can then put in any number you like which sets the depth of the book. However it is important to note that this number is ply or half moves, so if you want the book to be say 30 moves deep then set this number to 60. Then press OK and the book will be created that will only be 30 moves deep. By the way I can assure you that for book creation this number is half moves even though Fritz manuals do not explain it. People get confused because the numbers in the book options for "minimum games" and "up to move" are actually whole moves.

Mark

[Henrik Dinesen]

Gabor,

Apologies if you already know this but I thought it worth pointing out that you can do this at the point of creating the book initially so you could create a test book specifically for engine matches/tournaments to your chosen depth. This is a minimal amount of work and then means that you do not have to mess with book settings when you use the book - it will only have that number of moves deep and no more. To do this create new ctg book (File - New - Openings Book) then do (Edit – Openings book – Import games). Point to the database that you wish to use as the basis for the book, press OK then you get an "import games" panel. In here you have a choice of ECO Relative or Absolute length. Tick Absolute length and you can then put in any number you like which sets the depth of the book. However it is important to note that this number is ply or half moves, so if you want the book to be say 30 moves deep then set this number to 60. Then press OK and the book will be created that will only be 30 moves deep. By the way I can assure you that for book creation this number is half moves even though Fritz manuals do not explain it. People get confused because the numbers in the book options for "minimum games" and "up to move" are actually whole moves.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the hint. I assume I will need a PGN database to do what you suggest. My intention was to use some big CTG book and truncate it but it seems I may end up creating a new book if I find my original idea cannot be realized.

Regards,

As indicated there's no easy way to change the book-settings for all engines in one go.
However, to create a new book you don't need the database to be PGN, it can be CTG as well. The games cames can be of any length - during the creation process you're asked for the book limits.

[Mark Mason]

Gabor,

Just to make sure it is clear. In the dialogue box that comes up when you select "import games" to the new book, there are several fields. "Games" is the number of games you want to import from the target database. Default is all games are selected so leave this if you want to import the whole database or CTG. As previously explained "Length" is how deep the lines will be in the book. Choosing "ECO-relative" means that the length of line in the book will be relative to how common the ECO is ie it will make the main line variations longer and the less common side variations shorter. If you pick "Absolute length" and a number, it will make all the variations exactly the length you chose, regardless of whether the variation is a main line or side line. This I think is the option you need for your purposes. "Include variations" is important if some of the games from your database contain commentary in the form of sub-variations, but can be left un-ticked.

Hope this helps,

Mark

[mariaclara]

Hi Mark,

Your advice proved helpful.

Thanks

Gabor,

Just to make sure it is clear. In the dialogue box that comes up when you select "import games" to the new book, there are several fields. "Games" is the number of games you want to import from the target database. Default is all games are selected so leave this if you want to import the whole database or CTG. As previously explained "Length" is how deep the lines will be in the book. Choosing "ECO-relative" means that the length of line in the book will be relative to how common the ECO is ie it will make the main line variations longer and the less common side variations shorter. If you pick "Absolute length" and a number, it will make all the variations exactly the length you chose, regardless of whether the variation is a main line or side line. This I think is the option you need for your purposes. "Include variations" is important if some of the games from your database contain commentary in the form of sub-variations, but can be left un-ticked.

Hope this helps,

Mark

[Mark Mason]

Gabor,

I have only done this by importing databases. I haven't done it importing CTG books - I noted that the previous poster had said:

However, to create a new book you don't need the database to be PGN, it can be CTG as well.

So I assumed it worked with CTG but I was dubious as s CTG is not a set of games. If you import any Chessbase compatible databse of games then the Absolute length definitely does work and truncates the book to that length.

Mark

[Henrik Dinesen]

Gabor,

I have only done this by importing databases. I haven't done it importing CTG books - I noted that the previous poster had said:

However, to create a new book you don't need the database to be PGN, it can be CTG as well.

So I assumed it worked with CTG but I was dubious as s CTG is not a set of games. If you import any Chessbase compatible databse of games then the Absolute length definitely does work and truncates the book to that length.

Mark

My error, it should have been CBH ... However, it's possible to import a full CTG book into another as well.