Performance Tip: Rybka Randomizer (Aquarium GUI)

[Eastendboy]

I've been testing the Rybka Randomizer in Aquarium and have some tips that might help boost the performance (i.e. speed of the games) for some users.

1. Create 2 new engines within Aquarium and give them each a unique name that you'll remember. Example: 'Rybka 3 Randomizer 1' and 'Rybka 3 Randomizer 2'. If you get an error when trying to add the new engines try copying the Rybka .exe files into another directory and point to the copied files when creating the new engines. Having these dedicated engines also allows you to have different contempt settings for both players. I'd like to create a match specifically for the purpose of testing the Contempt settings in Rybka 3. Randomizer should be perfect for this, assuming the settings actually work in Random games.

2. If you're like me you may have changed the default Hash setting in Aquarium to an appropriately large value that fits well with your system. If so, make sure you change the Hash setting for the two new engines to a low value - 32mb or 64mb, something along those lines. If the Hash setting is too large the disk I/O activity will cause your Randomizer games to slow way down. I'm not sure if it matters but I've also disabled TB access for the same reason.

3. Create the Randomizer match using the engines you created in step one. Important: The default ply of 7 works well in most situations but I've run into a couple of instances where 7 ply is too low to catch a critical point in the position. If you spot this kind of problem you can save yourself from running a lot of useless iterations by boosting the ply to a value that guarantees the important move isn't overlooked.

In certain types of situations, especially Rook & Pawn endgames, I'm convinced that the Randomizer is far and away the best tool available for navigating murky positional waters. All experienced engine users know exactly what kind of position I'm talking about -- the kind of position that causes your engine to start lying to you. The kind of position that Rybka is often horrible at evaluating (although Rybka 3 is much better in this regard than her older siblings). I used to perform chess engine voodoo every time I found myself in one of those positions. I'd feed the position to Shredder (w/ Knowledge value at 500), Rybka, Winfinder, Zappa w/Mate Extensions, Toga II 1.4SE (for any EGBB insight) and sometimes if I was really desperate, Naum. In short, the Randomizer looks deep into the soul of a position to find the Truth that lies within.

One last thing, my overall impression of Aquarium is very good. It was a little overwhelming at first but I quickly got used to the interface. It's approach to Tree's is nothing short of revolutionary, especially if you have experience working with transactional databases. The ability to store eval's from different engines and display that information in a single tree is enough to justify the purchase. When you factor in the ability to save infinite analysis and the excellent IDeA, I'm in love.

[Ovyron]

Can I repost this at Rybka Forum? That's where users are making requests that will be implemented.

[Eastendboy]

Can I repost this at Rybka Forum? That's where users are making requests that will be implemented.

Be my guest. I'd appreciate it you could provide a link to the post afterwards.

[Ovyron]

Posted at:

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... l?tid=6663

(You may need a forum account to see that.)