CCRL update (29th February 2008)

[Graham Banks]

The February 29th update of the CCRL Rating Lists and Statistics is now available for viewing at:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

The list gets updated periodically during the week and these updates can be viewed here:
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040.live/
Please be aware that no game downloads are available from this live link.

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.


40/40 Notes

There are currently 106,564 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.


4CPU 64-bit Engines

Rybka 2.3.2a remains the strongest engine by over 50+ ELO.

The battle between Zappa Mexico II and Naum 3 for second spot is tight with Zappa currently holding the edge.

Deep Shredder 11 lies 35 ELO further back, ahead of Deep Fritz 10.1 and Toga II 1.4 beta5c.
Toga II 1.4 beta5c is the strongest free engine, heading off Hiarcs 11.2, Loop M1-T and Glaurung 2.0.1.

Other well tested engines in order of rating are Deep Junior 10, Bright 0.2c, Deep Sjeng 2.7 and Scorpio 2.0.


2CPU Engines

With the emphasis of our multi-cpu testing on 4CPU as opposed to 2CPU, there are gaps in this category and some of the engines also require further games.

Rybka of course reigns supreme here also.

However, whereas Zappa Mexico holds second spot ahead of Naum 3 in the 4CPU list, the reverse situation applies here with Naum the better of the two.
The current rating of Toga II 1.4 beta5c should be ignored as it requires more games. It's progress will be interesting to watch though.

Deep Shredder is next, comfortably ahead of Deep Fritz 10, Hiarcs 11.2 and Loop M1-T.
Deep Fritz 10 is one of the top engines requiring more games in this category.

Further back, Glaurung 2.0.1 has an edge over Deep Junior 10.


Single CPU Engines

Rybka 2.3.2a has an impressive 100 ELO lead over the evenly matched pair of Naum 3 and Shredder 11.

A little further back, Zappa Mexico II and Fritz 11 are comfortably ahead of Toga II 3.1.2SE which is currently the strongest of the many Togas in this category.

Loop 13.6, Fruit 2.3.1 and Hiarcs 11.2 have some ground to make up on the top engines at present.

Not too far behind, Deep Sjeng 2.7, Spike 1.2 Turin and Glaurung 2.0.1 are very even in strength.

Junior 10.1 is sandwiched on its own between the group just mentioned above it and the group of engines below that includes Ktulu 8.0, Chess Tiger 2007.1, SmarThink 1.00 and Bright 0.2c.

Chessmaster 11, Scorpio 2.0, Booot 4.14.0, Movei 00.8.438 (10 10 10) and Alaric 707 comprise the next group of engines ahead of Frenzee Dec07, SlowChess Blitz WV2.1, E.T Chess 13.01.08, Ruffian 2.1.0, Delfi 5.2, WildCat 7 and Gandalf 6.

We are still in the early stages of testing Frenzee Feb08 and Sloppy 0.2.0.


Free Single CPU Engines

Toga II 3.1.2SE has overtaken Rybka 1.0 as the top free engine.

Fruit 2.3.1 comes in third ahead of Spike 1.2 Turin and Glaurung 2.0.1.

Naum 2.0 and Bright 0.2c are 40+ ELO further back.

Scorpio 2.0, Movei 00.8.438 (10 10 10), Booot 4.14.0, Alaric 707 and Frenzee Dec07 come in next, ahead of SlowChess Blitz WV2.1, E.T Chess 13.01.08, Delfi 5.2, Zappa 1.1 and WildCat 7.
How much of an improvement Frenzee Feb08 is has yet to be established.

We test a very extensive range of amateur engines (currently ranging down to the 2000 ELO level) through a range of 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 200+ games.


Blitz Notes

Shaun has been on vacation. An updated blitz list will be available in the next day or so from the live link given below.

There are currently 251,002 games in our 40/4 database.

The latest ratings can be found at one of the following links:
http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/
http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404.live/

An enormous amount of work goes into the blitz list and it is well worth a visit.

Of special interest to some will be the best free 1CPU engines list which is being constructed through a systematic testing approach as mentioned here:
http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19206


FRC Notes

There are currently 26,200 games in the FRC 40/4 database.

Ray tests only those engines that can play FRC through the Shredder Classic GUI.
If engine authors have a new and stable version of their engine that will run under this GUI, they should contact Ray if they wish to see it tested.

No news to report in this category this week.

Shredder 11 is the top available FRC engine (remembering of course that Rybka 2.3.2 FRC has remained private).
Naum 3 has second spot ahead of Hiarcs 11.1 and Loop 10.32f (we've not tested Hiarcs 11.2 while this version of Loop was the latest that plays FRC).

For FRC the best list to look at is the pure list.
http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404FRC/


Stats/Presentation Notes

The LOS (likelihood of superiority) stats to the right hand side of each rating list 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.

All games are available for download by engine, by month or by ECO code.
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 lists of engines can be selected for comparison.

An openings report page 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.

[Tony Thomas]

CCRL currently has the most user friendly rating list. The list has so many good features that it ended up on my favorites. I am not trying to be a kiss butter here, but if your list was a female, it would give a hard on to an old geyser.