Strong Blitz Books For Arena

[David Schumaker]

Where can I find Rybka II.abk. I am currently running another book tournament using very fast 1+1 blitz time controls. I like the blitz games and am searching for a strong blitz book or will try to create a strong blitz book using the results of the tournament. I had to stop the previous tournament because Arena 1.1 is seriously flawed while selecting book moves. I am now trying Arena 2.0 to see if it obeys the move selection criteria correctly. We shall see if the problem is fixed. By the way is there a page on the net where I can find other strong arena books. So far my tournament has 14 books. I would like to have more. Thanks for any help.

[Le Fou numerique]

Hi,

The book handling is the same in Arena 1.1 than in 2.01. But the default options for the same book are different in 1.1 than in 2.01. So you must be very care when you use the same book in the different Arena versions.

Regards,
Patrick
Le Fou numérique

[David Schumaker]

Have you taken a look at this thread:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30942

Arena 1.1 and probably all older Arena versions make mistakes. I've proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt. I've checked many games now and keep finding errors. So far under version 2.x the book handling seems to be much better. Has the way that the books are read under Arena 2.x been improved or am I just being lucky so far. It does seem to be different and improved.

[Le Fou numerique]

Have you taken a look at this thread:

http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30942

Arena 1.1 and probably all older Arena versions make mistakes. I've proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt. I've checked many games now and keep finding errors. So far under version 2.x the book handling seems to be much better. Has the way that the books are read under Arena 2.x been improved or am I just being lucky so far. It does seem to be different and improved.

Hi David,

I saw the thread.

I think you are just lucky. In Arena 2.01, the probability for move that don't must play is by 1%. I have many games with Arena 2.01 on my webpage. All games with HS-20moves.abk are played with Arena 2.01.

With Arena 1.1, the probability is smaller. Alle games with HS-Book.abk are played with Arena 1.1.

About RybkaII book are you sure that version *.abk exists ? I know only the RybkaII.ctg for Fritz GUI.

Regards,
Patrick

[David Schumaker]

Thanks Patrick for the information. I might be getting lucky then again maybe not. I still have to check the games played with Arena 2.0 for errors. But take a look at what the Arena help file says here:

===============================================
Under Minimal conditions to play the move you set which conditions must be met to play a move.

· Minimal number of games: In the book there must be so many games with the move at least
· Minimal won games: In the book there must be so many won games with the move at least
· Win percentage white/black: With the move the given percentage of won games must have been reached

If one of these three conditions failes, the move will not be played.
===============================================


In many instances Arena simply does not follow the book settings criteria and plays moves it should not be playing. I found many games using Arena 1.1 where one of the three conditions above had failed and the move was still played.

As for RybkaII.abk I am fairly certain that I read, probably here and on the Rybka forum, that Rybka II.ctg had been converted to .abk format and is now available for free. If somebody knows where it can be found or even if it exists then please say so. Thanks again.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

My opening book q8.abk does exactly what I tell it to do under the Arena 1.1....I have my special settings though and more important a strictly hand tuned opening lines....works perfectly....
Dr.D

[David Schumaker]

Hi Wael. I would be willing to bet that you make use of the priority setting for almost every move. This would explain how your book works perfectly. This would also explain why you've spent so much time tuning your book. An alternative to making drastic use of the priority setting would be to use the "Minimal number of games" setting, the "Minimal won games", and the "Win percentage" setting. Unfortunately this does not work correctly in Arena 1.x and I don't know if it works in Arena 2.x yet. By the way do you know anything about RybkaII.abk. Does it even exist.

[MirceaH]

Hi there,

Maybe you heard about using such books under other guis through the BookAdapter provided by Convekta. That way you can make use of any CTG book in, say, Arena.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... ?tid=11192

[David Schumaker]

Hi there,

Maybe you heard about using such books under other guis through the BookAdapter provided by Convekta. That way you can make use of any CTG book in, say, Arena.

http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... ?tid=11192

Thanks Mircea. I downloaded the adapter but there are no instructions on how to install and use it. Do you know where I can find some instructions. Also, have you used it before and if so does it work flawlessly. Finally, do you know if it consumes a lot of resources and memory if the .ctg book is large. I would not desire this if it is running while the other engine is trying to think. This would be very undesirable.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Hi Wael. I would be willing to bet that you make use of the priority setting for almost every move. This would explain how your book works perfectly. This would also explain why you've spent so much time tuning your book. An alternative to making drastic use of the priority setting would be to use the "Minimal number of games" setting, the "Minimal won games", and the "Win percentage" setting. Unfortunately this does not work correctly in Arena 1.x and I don't know if it works in Arena 2.x yet. By the way do you know anything about RybkaII.abk. Does it even exist.

Hi,
You guessed right,I use only "Priority" and "Number of games"....pure and clear and of course tons of manual tunning....
RybkaII.abk does exist,I made that opening book a long time ago....it's an old prototype of what I have today,the q8.abk....you can find it on the Rybka web site somewhere in the download section....
Dr.D