Question about "CuteChess"

[lkaufman]

I decided to check out the "CuteChess" GUI for testing engines (I mostly use Little Blitzer for Windows testing now). I downloaded version 1.2, ...

In case you are interested in a later more advanced version:
forum3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=75249&hilit= ... da#p863514

Thanks, I really like cutechess! But I can't seem to get the menu for UCI options to work when creating an engine. For example, let's say I want to set Threads to 4 on any modern engine, exactly what do I type for "init string" to make it happen? I've tried everything I can think of and it seems to just ignore whatever I do.

Add the engine and press advanced.

Thanks! I didn't even notice the advanced tab, because I wrongly assumed that UCI options were set in the "init strings" area. This advanced tab seems to work fine.

[Jouni]

After my first tests with Cutechess I found it too complicated and gave up! But with 1.2 everything is changed and works nice. The only thing I miss from LittleBlitzer is display of average speed and depth. The displayed nps is calculated different from others and it's typically 500 knps with 4 Ghz core when Fritz GUI shows 1-2 Mnps.

[Modern Times]

I think CuteChess GUI is fantastic for engine matches, I don't use anything else unless I have to.

[lkaufman]

I think CuteChess GUI is fantastic for engine matches, I don't use anything else unless I have to.

Yes, now I agree with you. Only issue I have is that there doesn't seem to be a way to run unequal time (or unequal depth) matches, as you can in the Fritz Gui, but otherwise it seems ideal.

[Guenther]

I think CuteChess GUI is fantastic for engine matches, I don't use anything else unless I have to.

Yes, now I agree with you. Only issue I have is that there doesn't seem to be a way to run unequal time (or unequal depth) matches, as you can in the Fritz Gui, but otherwise it seems ideal.

That's not true at least for the version I compiled (and changed a bit):

Code: Select all

=> Settings => Games => TimeControl => uncheck 'Both Sides'

Then you get a dialogue for completely free settings for White and Black time controls for the games.

[ChickenLogic]

Using GUIs for testing engines is the greatest waste of time. Just make a short script for cutechess-cli or c-chess-cli and be done with it.

[ChickenLogic]

After my first tests with Cutechess I found it too complicated and gave up! But with 1.2 everything is changed and works nice. The only thing I miss from LittleBlitzer is display of average speed and depth. The displayed nps is calculated different from others and it's typically 500 knps with 4 Ghz core when Fritz GUI shows 1-2 Mnps.

The GUI has no business calculating any nps for engines. It is merely reported by the engine to the GUI. Any other behaviour is wrong. So 2 possibilities:

1) LittleBlitzer slows your PC down by an immense amount
2) It does shit it has no business doing

In both cases it means it's shit.

[Raphexon]

I think CuteChess GUI is fantastic for engine matches, I don't use anything else unless I have to.

Yes, now I agree with you. Only issue I have is that there doesn't seem to be a way to run unequal time (or unequal depth) matches, as you can in the Fritz Gui, but otherwise it seems ideal.

Multiple options.

1. you use cutechess-cli to run unequal time

2. you merge this change https://github.com/cutechess/cutechess/pull/599
Then compile it yourself.

3. you download an updated Cutechess from https://rwbc-chess.de/download.htm

If you choose 2 or 3 you can right click an engine during tournament setup to setup the desired TC.
You can mix and match any TC you want.

[Guenther]

I think CuteChess GUI is fantastic for engine matches, I don't use anything else unless I have to.

Yes, now I agree with you. Only issue I have is that there doesn't seem to be a way to run unequal time (or unequal depth) matches, as you can in the Fritz Gui, but otherwise it seems ideal.

Multiple options.

...

3. you download an updated Cutechess from https://rwbc-chess.de/download.htm

If you choose 2 or 3 you can right click an engine during tournament setup to setup the desired TC.
You can mix and match any TC you want.

Thanks for adding this, despite it is my own compilation from my site above (with a few changes of mine) I forgot how to change
the individual tc for players in a tournament ;)
(My suggestion in a previous post only describes a way to change it for games outside of a tournament.)

[Jouni]

The reason for slow speed was, that I ran CuteChess some days with ponder on . I didn't notice anything because CuteChess has no problem running 10 Stockfish simultaneously with 6 cores/threads CPU. Really amazing . Is this software hyperthreading? The speed is 49-50% of 5 cores checked with LittleBlitzer.