New engine releases & news 2021

[Brunetti]

New engine: Hopper, by Canadian Jonathan McDermid. https://github.com/jonathanmcdermid/Hopper-Chess-Engine

I compiled a Win64 binary, here: https://e4e6.com/download/

1'+1" rating ~1820.

Alex

[mvanthoor]

New engine: Hopper, by Canadian Jonathan McDermid. https://github.com/jonathanmcdermid/Hopper-Chess-Engine

I compiled a Win64 binary, here: https://e4e6.com/download/

1'+1" rating ~1820.

Alex

If 1820 Elo is correct, then this engine is very underperforming for the feature set it has:

alpha-beta pruning
quiescent search
iterative deepening
principal variation search
transposition tables
killer moves

material evaluation

dynamic aspiration windows *
mobility evaluation *
pawn hash table *
null moves *
zugswang detection *
pinned piece detection *
double check detection *
threatened squares *
static exchange evaluation *

The current Rustic development version has none of the (*) features, and it's already at 2150 - 2200. If 1820 is correct, this engine would be similar in strength to Rustic Alpha 2, which doesn't even have killer moves. The author says 2150 Elo, but that is measured against one engine only, with not a lot of games. Maybe I'll test it myself.

[amanjpro]

New engine: Hopper, by Canadian Jonathan McDermid. https://github.com/jonathanmcdermid/Hopper-Chess-Engine

I compiled a Win64 binary, here: https://e4e6.com/download/

1'+1" rating ~1820.

Alex

If 1820 Elo is correct, then this engine is very underperforming for the feature set it has:

alpha-beta pruning
quiescent search
iterative deepening
principal variation search
transposition tables
killer moves

material evaluation

dynamic aspiration windows *
mobility evaluation *
pawn hash table *
null moves *
zugswang detection *
pinned piece detection *
double check detection *
threatened squares *
static exchange evaluation *

The current Rustic development version has none of the (*) features, and it's already at 2150 - 2200. If 1820 is correct, this engine would be similar in strength to Rustic Alpha 2, which doesn't even have killer moves. The author says 2150 Elo, but that is measured against one engine only, with not a lot of games. Maybe I'll test it myself.

The engine is still under development, the guy is still learning, instead of comparing it with a year old engine, we probably should congratulate him instead

[mvanthoor]

The engine is still under development, the guy is still learning, instead of comparing it with a year old engine, we probably should congratulate him instead

Of course it is an achievement to write a fully functional chess engine from scratch... but people should not add bunches of features in the very beginning before it has been determined that all features that came before are bug free and as strong as possible. Debugging features after the fact often comes down to removing them and writing them again.

[amanjpro]

The engine is still under development, the guy is still learning, instead of comparing it with a year old engine, we probably should congratulate him instead

Of course it is an achievement to write a fully functional chess engine from scratch... but people should not add bunches of features in the very beginning before it has been determined that all features that came before are bug free and as strong as possible. Debugging features after the fact often comes down to removing them and writing them again.

To each their own, after all experimenting is just that experimenting

[mvanthoor]

To each their own...

Indeed. It's not my time I need to spend debugging *shrug*

[Gabor Szots]

The current Rustic development version has none of the (*) features, and it's already at 2150 - 2200. If 1820 is correct, this engine would be similar in strength to Rustic Alpha 2, which doesn't even have killer moves. The author says 2150 Elo, but that is measured against one engine only, with not a lot of games. Maybe I'll test it myself.

Mind you, it has not been released yet. At least there is nothing under releases.

[amanjpro]

The current Rustic development version has none of the (*) features, and it's already at 2150 - 2200. If 1820 is correct, this engine would be similar in strength to Rustic Alpha 2, which doesn't even have killer moves. The author says 2150 Elo, but that is measured against one engine only, with not a lot of games. Maybe I'll test it myself.

Mind you, it has not been released yet. At least there is nothing under releases.

I believe it uses MinimalChess PSQT tables still, and Marcel is working on producing his own PSQT (IIRC he is working on writing a tuner ATM)

[Brunetti]

New engine: Hopper, by Canadian Jonathan McDermid. https://github.com/jonathanmcdermid/Hopper-Chess-Engine

I compiled a Win64 binary, here: https://e4e6.com/download/

1'+1" rating ~1820.

A few minutes after I downloaded this version, a new one was published. I called it 20211004 and produced another compile.

1+1" rating ~1870.

Alex

[yeni_sekme]

New Mailbox Engine with NNUE: Devre https://github.com/OmerFarukTutkun/Devre
ELO ~2900