Obsidian engine

[Jouni]

"A top tier UCI chess engine written in c++, that I started developing in april 2023." And now 3500 Elo. How is this possible?

[Graham Banks]

"A top tier UCI chess engine written in c++, that I started developing in april 2023." And now 3500 Elo. How is this possible?

I haven't seen any of the other engine authors in the discord channels accusing the Obsidian author of doing anything wrong, so that must say something to you, considering that it's open source.

[Chessqueen]

"A top tier UCI chess engine written in c++, that I started developing in april 2023." And now 3500 Elo. How is this possible?

I haven't seen any of the other engine authors in the discord channels accusing the Obsidian author of doing anything wrong, so that must say something to you, considering that it's open source.

Obsidian is one of the top engine that has advanced the fastest, I do NOT have doubts but usually it takes at least 2 years to get any engine up to the level of 3400 from scratch.

NOTE: Torch is an exception since all programmers involved have years developing their own engines which are already above 3475 and are joining a team with experience to make Torch even stronger than their own individual engines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJFt5fQZY8

[Modern Times]

"A top tier UCI chess engine written in c++, that I started developing in april 2023." And now 3500 Elo. How is this possible?

5 years or so ago, it probably wouldn't have been. It is a new world now though, with a wealth of strong open-source engines to study and learn from. That after all is one of the dominant reasons for the existence of open source, sharing of knowledge and techniques. And the author has in turn published his engine as open source, where it can in turn be a learning resource for others. If there was something untoward about it, well I'm sure we would have heard by now. NNUE instead of HCE is also a factor today.

[Jouni]

Last patch 1 hour ago: dev-9.08 .

[Modern Times]

To the original question, of course OpenBench plays a big part too, enabling volumes of testing that individual engine developers could only dream about a few years ago.

[Chessqueen]

Last patch 1 hour ago: dev-9.08 .

Where is the link of newer Patch dev 9.09 ?

[Chessqueen]

Last patch 1 hour ago: dev-9.08 .

Where is the link of newer Patch dev 9.09 ?

These two engines had made advancement too quick
[pgn][Event "Computer chess game"] [Date "2023.12.24"] [Round "?"] [White "Alexandria-5.1.0-avx2"] [Black "Obsidian90-avx2-bmi2"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [BlackElo "3477"] [ECO "C01"] [Opening "French"] [Time "21:06:42"] [Variation "Exchange, 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4"] [WhiteElo "3480"] [TimeControl "900+10"] [Termination "normal"] [PlyCount "265"] [WhiteType "program"] [BlackType "program"] 1. c4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 O-O 8. Ne2 Nbd7 9. Bg5 Nb6 10. Bd3 c6 11. O-O Re8 12. Re1 h6 13. Bh4 Be6 14. h3 Be7 15. Bc2 Nfd5 16. Bg3 Qd7 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. Nc3 Nb4 19. Bb3 Bf8 20. a3 Nd5 21. Ne4 Nb6 22. Bc2 Bf5 23. Qf3 Bg6 24. Rad1 Nd5 25. Be5 Rad8 26. Re2 b6 27. b4 Bh7 28. Rc1 Kh8 29. Bb3 Bg8 30. Rce1 f6 31. Bg3 Ra8 32. Bc2 Red8 33. Nc3 a5 34. bxa5 Rxa5 35. Nxd5 Bxd5 36. Qg4 Qxg4 37. hxg4 Rxa3 38. Re8 Raa8 39. Rxd8 Rxd8 40. Bc7 Ra8 41. Bxb6 Kg8 42. Bg6 Bd6 43. Rb1 Be6 44. f3 Bf7 45. Bf5 Bg3 46. Bc5 g5 47. Be4 Bd5 48. Bd3 Ra2 49. Bf5 Kh8 50. Rb7 Rd2 51. Rb1 Kg7 52. Rb7+ Bf7 53. Kf1 Kg8 54. Rb1 Bc4+ 55. Kg1 Bd3 56. Be6+ Kg7 57. Ra1 f5 58. gxf5 Kf6 59. Bd7 h5 60. Bxc6 Bxf5 61. d5 h4 62. Be3 Rd3 63. Bc5 Bf4 64. Re1 Kg6 65. Be7 Bg3 66. Ra1 Kh5 67. d6 Rd2 68. Be8+ Kh6 69. Bf8+ Kh7 70. Bc6 Bf4 71. Be7 Be6 72. Re1 Bc8 73. Rb1 h3 74. gxh3 Bxh3 75. d7 Bxd7 76. Be4+ Kg7 77. Bb4 Ra2 78. Bc3+ Kf8 79. Rb7 Ke8 80. Bg6+ Kd8 81. Rb2 Rxb2 82. Bf6+ Kc7 83. Bxb2 Bc8 84. Bf6 Kc6 85. Bh5 Be3+ 86. Kg2 Bf5 87. Bd8 Kd7 88. Ba5 Bb1 89. Kf1 Ke7 90. Bb4+ Kf6 91. Bc3+ Ke6 92. Kg2 Kd6 93. Bf6 Bf5 94. Bb2 Kc5 95. Ba3+ Kd4 96. Be7 Kc3 97. Bf6+ Kd2 98. Bd8 Be6 99. Ba5+ Kd3 100. Bc7 Bf4 101. Bd8 Kc3 102. Kf2 Kc4 103. Be7 Kd5 104. Kg2 Bf5 105. Bf6 Ke6 106. Bc3 Bd3 107. Bg4+ Ke7 108. Kh1 Bg6 109. Bh3 Kd6 110. Be1 Kc5 111. Bg4 Kc4 112. Bf2 Bf7 113. Bg1 Bd5 114. Bh5 Bb7 115. Bf2 Kb5 116. Bd4 Kb4 117. Bg1 Bc6 118. Bh2 Kc5 119. Bg1+ Kc4 120. Bf2 Kd3 121. Kg2 Ke2 122. Bg1 Bb7 123. Bb6 Ba8 124. Bg4 Bc6 125. Bd8 Bd5 126. Bh5 Ke1 127. Bb6 Ke2 128. Bg1 Bb7 129. Bb6 Bd5 130. Bg4 Bc6 131. Bd8 Bd5 132. Bh5 Ke1 133. Bb6 {50 moves rule} 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

[sarona]

Last patch 1 hour ago: dev-9.08 .

Where is the link of newer Patch dev 9.09 ?

The author has not released an official 9.09 development version at the time of this writing.

But you can download the source from his Github and compile your own binary.

[Steve Maughan]

...considering that it's open source...

If it's open source then I don't think any accusations can be legitimately made without pointing to features of the source code.

— Steve