Chess System Tal II & Engine Style

[George Tsavdaris]

Thanks for the explanation.....

i am still searching for people who would like to continue the project.
IMO it would be worth trying.

I hope you will manage to find people to do it!
CSTal from the games i've seen has a very interesting style but not only this. It creates games where other engines have no clue. It plays speculative attacking Chess and that's very interesting.
It's getting outsearched today but things can change....

M.Tal did the same most of the times. Played speculative Chess. He gambled that his opponents will be lost into all the complications and he most often was right.....
CSTal really played in Tal's style! Of course the bad for CSTal is that it played against computers where psychology is not a factor, since Chess engine opponents do not feel pressure or have any problem with complications....

[wbseries]

Also do you know where i can buy CSTal II +2.03 and with book?

I do not know French so I really do not know what this site is saying or even if the listings are current but here's one option:


http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/ ... king=62001




Since in the last screenshot I posted the toolbar was hidden, I'll post this one showing the toolbar and layout I mostly use. I have several chess programs and while I can't say that Chess Champion ('clone' of Chess System Tal II) is my favorite chess engine/GUI combination, it isn't my least favorite either. I'm thankful to have at least gotten this version of the program; especially since I find myself in a country that all of the countries with CSTal don't want to ship to.







May I make one request? I have all of the 5-man tablebases, but since learning in this thread that CSTal only recognizes uncompressed tablebases I'd like to try and generate some of the uncompressed 5-man tablebases.

I'd need to use the idea posted here:

http://web.archive.org/web/200307141523 ... /11324.htm


But I am unable to locate the TBGEN.ZIP mentioned in the post. If anyone should have that zip file from the web site mentioned, could you send a copy to - buttercupdrops AT yahoo DOT com ?


If anyone should wonder about the name buttercupdrops in the e-mail address. My sister has a cat named Buttercup and in its old age the cat has forgotten where the litterbox is. Enough said about that.

[wbseries]

if somebody wants patches for CSTAL DOS or CSTAL WIN he can send me an email.

About three years ago when I first got interested in learning about the different chess playing programs available I saved some of the Oxford Softworks web pages having to do with CSTal. I attempted to e-mail you a link to where you could get the pages in a zip file. Yea, I know, zip files from strangers, but I didn't send them as an attachment.

Thought you might already have the pages but if you didn't I thought you might enjoy them for nostalgic/chess history purposes and the little information they hold.


Anyway, I tried two different e-mail addresses from your web site and on each attempt, four hours after sending, I received a notification that delivery had failed and attempts would be made to deliver the message(s) for the next five days. The e-mails are now stuck in the MAILER-DAEMON loop.

I only have about ten of the web pages, nothing major.

[mclane]

hi - i did not receive anything. there is also nothing in the spam-filter.

strange.

if you want to sent something, please do it. attachment in ZIP would be good.

in the meantime i will take a closer look on the BITBOARD engine of CSTAL.
as i told here in this thread, chris whittington and his programmers tried to step by step tranfer the big engine CSTAL2.03 into bitboard.
this happened in stages.

i think i will take a closer look on the last effort and let it play against rybka.

The project of the new BITBOARD CSTAL3 - the new beginning




here the project was discussed:

and here the dinner after the meeting:


Back to the Future !

NEW BEGINNING

The whole world's broke and it ain't worth fixing
It's time to start all over, make a new beginning
There's too much pain, too much suffering
Let's resolve to start all over make a new beginning

The world is broken into fragments and pieces
That once were joined together in a unified whole
But now too many stand alone There's too much separation
We can resolve to come together in the new beginning

We can break the cycle - We can break the chain
We can start all over - In the new beginning
We can learn, we can teach
We can share the myths the dream the prayer
The notion that we can do better
Change our lives and paths
Create a new world

We need to make new symbols
Make new signs
Make a new language
With these we'll define the world

[cornetmike]

And so after all these years I still find CSTal being discussed. Excellent.

I like to play chess. And when not playing a human, I play CSTal II or my Fidelity Excellence, while Fritz, Crafty, Hiarcs, ChessGenius, and Sjeng gather dust.

thank you Chris Whittington and the Spracklens!

warm regards
Mikey

p.s. I can usually beat the Excellence. CSTal lets me imagine I can beat it.

[mclane]

here with me it is the same. a few days ago i bought a SPARC module.
and and and.

it seems we share the same emotions concerning these programs.
I wonder if one could tranfer the SPARC software into a faster SPARC computer.

[wbseries]

attachment in ZIP would be good.

Resent the zip as an attachment about ten minutes ago. Sent to the schachcomputerwelt address.

[wbseries]

This is a knowledge hunting question really, and I think this shall be my last question regarding CSTal. I do not have any other questions to ask.

This web site says they are selling Chess System Tal II and the description says "No Levels".

http://www.angelfire.com/film/mr_mp3/education.htm

So patch-wise, if a person were to purchase Chess System Tal II, not necessarily from the above web site, and that program came with no levels, just max strength. To bring that no level version up to version 2.03, would a person need to install patch 2.02 and patch 2.03 or does patch 2.03 also include the things that patch 2.02 does?

[mclane]

i don't understand your question. what would be the sense of selling a chess program that has no playing levels ?! when i want to buy something, i don't want to see it broken !

i want to see it fully functional.

i tried your link but my browser cannot open it.

the only source i know where to buy CSTAL is
http://www.aifactory.co.uk/AIF_Games_Chess_Tal.htm

and often it is sold in this or that version on ebay and other markets in the internet. there are plenty of different versions.

the download versions rarely have the big book coming with it.

[wbseries]

On the old Oxford Softworks website page it reads:

Improvements from upgrade version 2.02

1. Auto232 master mode now functions fully.
2. External program auto232 to ICC now functions correctly.
3. There is now a 'dumbing-down' level setting to weaken CSTal2 for the benefit of weaker players. Level 50 is the strongest (full play strength), 1 the weakest.
4. The verbosity of CSTal2 may be reduced. In this case it won't greet an opponent at the start of a match and thank him at the end. If the computer is playing or the book information or best-line information is available, then, in keeping with our honest-play policy, the opponent will still be alerted.
5. Several chess engine stabilisations and improvements have been made.

I took the above #3 to mean that the program was originally released with no way to dumb it down, and that 2.02 mentioned above, which I supposed to be a patch version, enabled the program to be weakened.

You of course would know better than me as to the state the program was released in. Thanks.