PlayChess Engine Room Questions

[Stephen Ham]

Dear readers,

I had my first experience with CB's PlayChess server for engines last night. Although I have an old computer, I performed much better than expected on my single unit versus duals/quads/octs. I think this was due largely to the opening book I created for testing my correspondence chess lines and ideas.

Anyway, as a "newbie", I have some fairly basic questions.

1) I'd like to save my games so I can study them later and modify the opening book, if needed. ChessBase says the games will be saved to my Autosave.cbh database. But they're not. So, I have to locate the game after it ands and manually save it. Is there a way to get it to save automatically like CB claims?

2) The act of playing engine matches causes my opening book to get modified with plus/minus numbers and asterisks. Is there a way to play without any external modification of my book?

3) I've only played about 20 games in total over 2- days now. Is there a point when I'll be able to chat with others? Is it based upon days visited or games played?

Thanks in advance.

All the best,
Steve

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Dear readers,

I had my first experience with CB's PlayChess server for engines last night. Although I have an old computer, I performed much better than expected on my single unit versus duals/quads/octs. I think this was due largely to the opening book I created for testing my correspondence chess lines and ideas.

Anyway, as a "newbie", I have some fairly basic questions.

1) I'd like to save my games so I can study them later and modify the opening book, if needed. ChessBase says the games will be saved to my Autosave.cbh database. But they're not. So, I have to locate the game after it ands and manually save it. Is there a way to get it to save automatically like CB claims?

2) The act of playing engine matches causes my opening book to get modified with plus/minus numbers and asterisks. Is there a way to play without any external modification of my book?

3) I've only played about 20 games in total over 2- days now. Is there a point when I'll be able to chat with others? Is it based upon days visited or games played?

Thanks in advance.

All the best,
Steve

2.Right click on your .ctg opening file and make it "Read only",it will be write protected....

[Mike S.]

To 1) The games from the engine room are automatically saved in the database "MyInternetMachineGames.CBH". Default path is something like ..\Username\Documents\ChessBase\..

To 2) This is the book learning. If you don't want it, my suggestion is to write-protect the book files (except the .ini). I usually do the same. I think there is an option "somewhere" to switch off book learning, but I don't know if that is available for online play.

To 3) I do not recall the limitations and requirements, but this could depend on your so called rank (pawn,knight,etc.), indicated with a symbol attached to your account name. The requirements for knight are not big, and then you should have all basic functions including chat. There is a table somewhere in the Playchess FAQ which lists the exact requirements for the ranks.

But in the engine room, some or even many players are unattended computers, only.

[Stephen Ham]

Dear readers,

I had my first experience with CB's PlayChess server for engines last night. Although I have an old computer, I performed much better than expected on my single unit versus duals/quads/octs. I think this was due largely to the opening book I created for testing my correspondence chess lines and ideas.

Anyway, as a "newbie", I have some fairly basic questions.

1) I'd like to save my games so I can study them later and modify the opening book, if needed. ChessBase says the games will be saved to my Autosave.cbh database. But they're not. So, I have to locate the game after it ands and manually save it. Is there a way to get it to save automatically like CB claims?

2) The act of playing engine matches causes my opening book to get modified with plus/minus numbers and asterisks. Is there a way to play without any external modification of my book?

3) I've only played about 20 games in total over 2- days now. Is there a point when I'll be able to chat with others? Is it based upon days visited or games played?

Thanks in advance.

All the best,
Steve

2.Right click on your .ctg opening file and make it "Read only",it will be write protected....

Thanks for your suggestion. But, how is this done? When I right click the .ctg file, the options are only: Select, Open, Delete, Copy, Properties and stuff like that.

Sorry for being so ignorant, but I'm a computer dummy.

All the best,
Steve

[Stephen Ham]

To 1) The games from the engine room are automatically saved in the database "MyInternetMachineGames.CBH". Default path is something like ..\Username\Documents\ChessBase\..

To 2) This is the book learning. If you don't want it, my suggestion is to write-protect the book files (except the .ini). I usually do the same. I think there is an option "somewhere" to switch off book learning, but I don't know if that is available for online play.

To 3) I do not recall the limitations and requirements, but this could depend on your so called rank (pawn,knight,etc.), indicated with a symbol attached to your account name. The requirements for knight are not big, and then you should have all basic functions including chat. There is a table somewhere in the Playchess FAQ which lists the exact requirements for the ranks.

But in the engine room, some or even many players are unattended computers, only.

Thanks, Mike!

I located the file in 1). Now I have access to my games.

In 2), I do indeed wish to turn Book Learning off. Dr. Deeb had a suggestion that I didn't understand. See my reply to him. I'll consult the Help button on the engine. Maybe there's something there.

In 3), yes I'm only a pawn now. I'll keep playing and work my way up...if I have the time.

All the best,
Steve

[George Tsavdaris]

Thanks for your suggestion. But, how is this done? When I right click the .ctg file, the options are only: Select, Open, Delete, Copy, Properties and stuff like that.

PROPERTIES-->Read only....

[Stephen Ham]

Thanks for your suggestion. But, how is this done? When I right click the .ctg file, the options are only: Select, Open, Delete, Copy, Properties and stuff like that.

PROPERTIES-->Read only....

BINGO!!!

Thanks, George. Even computer dummies can learn.

All the best,
Steve

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Thanks for your suggestion. But, how is this done? When I right click the .ctg file, the options are only: Select, Open, Delete, Copy, Properties and stuff like that.

PROPERTIES-->Read only....

BINGO!!!

Thanks, George. Even computer dummies can learn.

All the best,
Steve

I always disable the learning function after installing the engine and it's opening book,I prefer the factory settings

[Mark Mason]

The other way to switch book learning off is to use the book options in the Chessbase GUI. When you load your engine to play on the Playchess server by going EDIT/PLAYING MODE/COMPUTER/DEFINE ENGINE/BOOK OPTIONS - you see 3 sliders which you can set. Extract from the Fritz manual describes these sliders:

Variety of play determines which moves will be chosen: only the ones with the highest statistical values, or the seldom moves as well (slider right = varied).

Influence of learn value determines how the learning weights in the tree influence the probability of a move being played (right = maximum).

Learning strength determines how strong the weights are adjusted on the basis of individual games (right = maximum).

By using the "optimised" default setting the Learning Strength slider is set fully to the right (maximum) and the weights assigned to moves will be influenced by the game outcome . If you slide it all the way to the left then book learning will be turned off and move weightings will not be adjusted.

Mark

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

The other way to switch book learning off is to use the book options in the Chessbase GUI. When you load your engine to play on the Playchess server by going EDIT/PLAYING MODE/COMPUTER/DEFINE ENGINE/BOOK OPTIONS - you see 3 sliders which you can set. Extract from the Fritz manual describes these sliders:

Variety of play determines which moves will be chosen: only the ones with the highest statistical values, or the seldom moves as well (slider right = varied).

Influence of learn value determines how the learning weights in the tree influence the probability of a move being played (right = maximum).

Learning strength determines how strong the weights are adjusted on the basis of individual games (right = maximum).

By using the "optimised" default setting the Learning Strength slider is set fully to the right (maximum) and the weights assigned to moves will be influenced by the game outcome . If you slide it all the way to the left then book learning will be turned off and move weightings will not be adjusted.

Mark

I had all these options in mind when I intended to answer,but to write protect the .ctg file is the safest way as I don't trust these parameters you mentioned,many times I adjusted these parameters and still the opening book's weightings were changed....