Following the release of the source the SE versions are now included in the 40/4 rating list
Single-CPU engines
About Toga II 3.1.2SE
Modifications to Toga by Chris Formula
Readme
LEGAL DETAILS
-------------------------
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA
See the file "copying.txt" for details.
GENERAL
----------------
The Special Edition or "SE" of Toga II based on Fruit 2.1 is being developed to
further increase the playing strength of the engine created by Thomas Gaksch.
Though Toga II is among the topnotch chess engines (and FREE) today, there
are still rooms for improvement on its search and evaluation. When Thomas
showed signs to quit computer chess, the "SE" project came to light to
continue what has been started by him. As of the moment, the "SE" project is
being done privately by Chris Formula.
EPD TESTING
----------------------
EET testsuite of Walter Eigenmann was used to evaluate improvement in the endgame
knowledge. Such testsuite was composed of 100 important test positions. Moreover, the
positional prowess of the engine was evaluated using the SSDF Positional testsuite of
Tony Hedlund. Such testsuite was composed of 16 important test positions. The total
points and the number of best move found (in parenthesis) were recorded. Below are
settings used and the results obtained during EPD testing. Amazing results!
Hash: 128M
Time Limit: 60 sec/move for EET; 600 sec/move for SSDF Positional
Software: Arena by Martin Blume
Bitbases: 3-4-man Scorpiobases by Daniel Shawul
Success Criteria:
(1) at least 50 points in EET testsuite
(2) at least 128 points in SSDF Positional testsuite
Version EET Testsuite SSDF Positional
1.3.1 48/100 116/160 (8/16)
1.3.4 45/100 105/160 (7/16)
2.1SE 51/100 117/160 (8/16)
2.2SE 53/100 88/160 (4/16)
3.1.2SE* 50/100* 128/160 (8/16)*
VERSION HISTORY
------------------------------
Toga II 3.1.2SE based on Fruit 2.1
- code was based on Toga II 1.3.1 based on Fruit 2.1
- improved search efficiency
- play style becomes more aggressive
Toga II 2.2SE based on Fruit 2.1
- code was based on Toga II 1.3.4 based on Fruit 2.1
- improved material evaluation
Toga II 2.1SE based on Fruit 2.1
- code was based on Toga II 1.3.1 based on Fruit 2.1
- improved material evaluation
Toga II 1.3.4 based on Fruit 2.1
Following changes and extensions made:
- improved history pruning
- improved futility pruning
- improved lazy evaluation
- new evaluation features (outpost knight etc.)
- MultiPV Mode
- This version performs similar level as version 1.3.1. However, its endgame is more accurate and uses EGBBs provided by Daniel Shawul, author of Scorpio.
- This version was previously known as 1.3x4b with some setting tweaks as follows.
a) Toga Extended History Pruning has been turned off
b) History Threshold has been adjusted to 70
- For Blitz play Toga Extended History Pruning should be turned on and the History Threshold adjusted to 80. These setting have shown to improve performance at blitz.
Toga II 1.3x4b based on Fruit 2.1
- bugfix of the endgame bitbases with help from Daniel Shawul
Toga II 1.3x4 based on Fruit 2.1
- improved evaluation
- improved search
- added support to endgame bitbases by Daniel Shawul
Toga II 1.3.1 based on Fruit 2.1
Following changes and extensions made:
- improved history pruning
- improved futility pruning
- improved lazy evaluation
- new evaluation features (outpost knight etc.)
- MultiPV Mode
- This is the best performing beta provided by Thomas and release with his permission.
- This version was previously known as 1.3beta1.
- For Blitz play Toga Extended History Pruning should be turned on and the History Threshold adjusted to 75. These settings have shown to improve performance at blitz.
Toga II 1.2.1a based on Fruit 2.1
- problems with internal opening book fixed
- playing strength is 100% identically to 1.2.1
Toga II 1.2.1 based on Fruit 2.1
- new settings
- some minor bugfixes
Toga II 1.2 based on Fruit 2.1
- more pruning
- more extensions
- new settings by Dieter Eberle
EGBBs Installation
----------------------------
Toga II uses the Scorpio endgame bitbases up to 5 pieces.
1. Download the 5-man bitbases from Leo Dijksman's WBEC site http://www.wbec-ridderkerk.nl . The egbbs are 340mb in size.
2. Store them anywhere in your computer. The default path is c:\egbb\ but you can change this in the uci options.
IMPORTANT: The egbbdll.dll must be in the same folder as the bitbase files.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
--------------------------------
Huge thanks to Fabien Letouzey (France) for the great source code of the program Fruit 2.1.
Huge thanks to Thomas Gaksch (Germany) for the great source code of the program Toga II based on Fruit 2.1.
Special thanks to:
Dieter Eberle, Karl-Heinz Söntges, Shaun Brewer for testing Beta Versions.
A big thanks to Dieter Eberle for his setting.
Orlando Mouchel for bugfixes and new ideas.
Wilhelm Hudetz for the Logo.
Daniel Shawul for sharing his great endgame bitbases and his dll.
Walter Eigenmann for the EET testsuite.
Tony Hedlund for the SSDF Positional testsuite.
Martin Blume for the Arena software.
Denis Mendoza for the compile support for different platforms.
Without their help, the improved playing strength of Toga II based on Fruit 2.1 would not be possible.
Thank you! Maraming salamat!
Regards,
Thomas Gaksch (Germany)
Chris Formula (Philippines)
