Tony Thomas wrote:I suspect that CPP1 (his previous engine) might be stronger. I played few games of cpp1 vs pos, and in mostly all the matches, CPP1 was ahead on material but let POS get a stalemate, three fold rep, or 50 move draw...
This was my impression too. NEG (my own abomination... ), which is also a non-Shannon zero-ply engine, beats Pos quite easily, but has difficulty with CPP1. I actually created NEG in an attempt to extend the ratingscale downwards.
A problem with engines in that strength range is that in tournaments with other buggy engines, they get way many points not through their own merit, but because their opponent forfeits (sometimes even before they even get the chance to make a move). This leads to over-estimation of their rating.
Tony Thomas wrote:I suspect that CPP1 (his previous engine) might be stronger. I played few games of cpp1 vs pos, and in mostly all the matches, CPP1 was ahead on material but let POS get a stalemate, three fold rep, or 50 move draw...
This was my impression too. NEG (my own abomination... ), which is also a non-Shannon zero-ply engine, beats Pos quite easily, but has difficulty with CPP1. I actually created NEG in an attempt to extend the ratingscale downwards.
A problem with engines in that strength range is that in tournaments with other buggy engines, they get way many points not through their own merit, but because their opponent forfeits (sometimes even before they even get the chance to make a move). This leads to over-estimation of their rating.
I know that you have seen my no play list. Those engines, if ran by a careless tournament director, can help the above mentioned engines and it will inflate the rating list like you said. I am just learning to use many of the tools that are available in making sure that only good engines participate/rated in my tournaments. I am not sure why, but most programmers seem to assume that there is no need for a step for step directions on how to use a program that only runs in console mode. I wish you could create a tool similar to Lgpgnver but is easier to use for us computer illiterates.
), which is also a non-Shannon zero-ply engine, beats Pos quite easily, but has difficulty with CPP1. I actually created NEG in an attempt to extend the ratingscale downwards. 
I wish you could create a tool similar to Lgpgnver but is easier to use for us computer illiterates.