CCRL update (7th July 2007)

[Graham Banks]

The July 7th update of the CCRL Rating Lists and Statistics is now available for viewing at:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

The links to the various rating lists can be found just beneath the default Best Versions list.
For example there is a 32-bit Single CPU list.

Our standard testing is at 40 moves in 40 minutes repeating while our current blitz testing is at both 40 moves in 4 minutes repeating and 40 moves in 12 minutes repeating, all adjusted to the AMD64 X2 4600+ (2.4GHz).

Currently active testers in our team are:
Graham Banks, Ray Banks, Shaun Brewer, Kirill Kryukov, Dom Leste, Tom Logan, Andreas Schwartmann, Charles Smith, George Speight, Chris Taylor, Chuck Wilson, Gabor Szots and Martin Thoresen.

A big thanks to all testers as usual for their efforts this week.


40/40 Notes

There currently 64,205 games in our 40/40 database.
Many engines on our list have few games and in many cases their ratings are likely to fluctuate (markedly for some) until a lot more games are played. Therefore no conclusions should be drawn about their strength yet.
To illustrate this point, when an engine has 200 games played, the error margin is still approximately +/-40 ELO, after 500 games +-25 ELO, after 1000 games +-17 ELO and even after 2000 games there is a +-13 ELO error margin!
This of course highlights the importance of looking at other rating lists that are also available in order to draw comparisons and get a more accurate overall picture.


Multi CPU Engines
Rybka 2.3.2 64-bit 4CPU predictably heads our rating list, although the margin over Rybka 2.2 64-bit 4CPU is a narrow one at present.
Zap!Chess Zanzibar 64-bit 4CPU is clearly number 2 ahead of Hiarcs 11.1 4CPU, Naum 2.1 64-bit 4CPU and Loop M1-T 64-bit 4CPU.
The big names of the past, Deep Shredder 10 64-bit 4CPU, Deep Fritz 10 4CPU and Deep Junior 10 4CPU, are clearly off the pace at present.


Single CPU Engines
Our Rybka 2.3.2 testing is still in its infancy, but early signs confirm that it will be the strongest version to date.
A large distance back, Zap!Chess Zanzibar, Hiarcs 11.1 and Loop 13.6 are fairly closely grouped ahead of Fritz 10, Strelka 1.0b and Shredder 10.
Toga II 1.2.1a bridges the gap back to the next group of engines - Spike 1.2 Turin, Junior 10, Naum 2.1, Deep Sjeng 2.5 and Fruit 2.2.1.


Amateur News:
Strelka 1.0b continues to impress and is currently the second best free engine behind Rybka 1.0 and ahead of Toga II 1.2.1a and Spike 1.2 Turin.
A new stronger bugfixed version of Toga II 1.3 will likely be released soon.
Glaurung 2 epsilon/5 is stronger than Glaurung 1.2.1, but needs further games to stabilise its rating.
Scorpio 1.91, Alaric 704, Delfi 5.1 and SlowChess Blitz WV2.1 are the next group of strong amateurs.
Further down the list, early indications are that the latest versions of Booot, DanaSah, Natwarlal, Buzz and Feuerstein seem to have made good gains over previous versions.
We test a very extensive range of amateur engines through our Amateur Championship divisions (32-bit 1CPU) plus other tournaments, all of which can be followed in our public forum.
Our aim is of course to ensure that all engines lower on our lists get at least 200 games.


Blitz Notes

There are currently 148,843 games in our 40/4 database.
The 40/4 update is usually done a few days after our 40/40 update. The most recent update can always be viewed here:
http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404.live/


FRC Notes

Ray tests only those engines that can play FRC through the Shredder Classic GUI.
For FRC the best list to look at is the pure list.
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/


Stats/Presentation Notes

The LOS stats to the right hand side of each rating list are "likelihood of superiority" stats. They tell you the likelihood in percentage terms of each engine being superior to the engine directly below them.

A list of games played this week per engine can be found in the update thread in the CCRL public forum, accessible through the link given at the top of this post.

All games are available for download through the link given at the top of this post. They can be downloaded by engine or by month.
ELO ratings are now saved in all game databases for those engines that have 200 games or more.

Clicking on an engine name will give details as to opponents played plus homepage links where applicable.

Custom list selections now have the option of including or excluding betas, private engines, settings and others.

We have now added an openings report page (link at bottom of index page). This lists the number of games played by ECO codes with draw percentage and White win percentage.
Clicking on a column heading will sort the list by that column.
The aim is to soon have games downloadable by ECO code.

[Eelco de Groot]

Strelka 1.0b continues to impress and is currently the second best free engine behind Rybka 1.0 and ahead of Toga II 1.2.1a and Spike 1.2 Turin.
A new stronger bugfixed version of Toga II 1.3 will likely be released soon.

Hi Graham, thanks for all the news. Now there is a new Strelka 1.8! UCI and with twice the nodecount it seems of what was already a small miracle in speed. I am really anxious to try that out. Will it be the strongest free engine?

And a new Toga Very good news and not really expected! Did Thomas Gaksch say something about this Graham? Where will you guys ever find the time to test it all!

Glaurung 2 epsilon/5 is stronger than Glaurung 1.2.1, but needs further games to stabilise its rating.

Wow! But wait till Glaurung has its King Safety implemented again! Go Tord!

Scorpio 1.91, Alaric 704, Delfi 5.1 and SlowChess Blitz WV2.1 are the next group of strong amateurs.

And at least one of these has really improved a lot I think...

Further down the list, early indications are that the latest versions of Booot, DanaSah, Natwarlal, Buzz and Feuerstein seem to have made good gains over previous versions.
We test a very extensive range of amateur engines through our Amateur Championship divisions (32-bit 1CPU) plus other tournaments, all of which can be followed in our public forum.
Our aim is of course to ensure that all engines lower on our lists get at least 200 games.

A big thanks to all the testers out there!

Eelco

[Graham Banks]

And a new Toga Very good news and not really expected! Did Thomas Gaksch say something about this Graham? Where will you guys ever find the time to test it all!

Eelco

Thanks for all your positive comments Eelco. I'll pass them on to the others.

Regarding Toga II 1.3, Shaun has almost finished his extensive testing of the various permutations and will release the strongest when done.
Should be a nice improvement at longer time controls by all accounts.

Regards, Graham.

[ozziejoe]

that is great news. Now if only someone would be so kind as to create a mp version of toga:)