WinBoard /autoKibitz option

[hgm]

To make live easier for engines that want to participate in ICC events like CCT or WCRCC, I added an option to WinBoard (which will be available in the future version 4.3.14) that automatically kibitzes the last PV info to the ICS. The kibitzed line now looks something like:

aics% JokerX(C) kibitzes: 28/+79.98 (0.02 sec, 3789 nodes, 180 knps) PV = d5c6

i.e. I kibitz "depth/score (time, nodes, nps) PV". (Attentive readers will notice that I was actually running Fairy-Max under Joker's account, hence the short PV.)

Question to the organizers of events that require kibitzing: is this sufficient info, or should I add anything? Should I have the engine Kibitz its name as well (as known by WinBoard, i.e. from the 'myname' feature, or the name of the executable) in order to make cheating more difficult?

[TonyJH]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

[Tony Thomas]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

If you are playing against a human, kibitzes are auto disabled by ICC. I am not so sure about the other sites though.

[TonyJH]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

If you are playing against a human, kibitzes are auto disabled by ICC. I am not so sure about the other sites though.

Ok, I didn't know that. In that case, would the kibitz not be seen by anyone, or just not seen by the human opponent but still seen by the observers? I would guess it's probably the first case.

[Tony Thomas]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

If you are playing against a human, kibitzes are auto disabled by ICC. I am not so sure about the other sites though.

Ok, I didn't know that. In that case, would the kibitz not be seen by anyone, or just not seen by the human opponent but still seen by the observers? I would guess it's probably the first case.

If your opponent is human, he cannot see the kibitz, but the other observers can see it, and of course they can copy and send it to the guy. However, that whole process seems too tedious for me. If they really wanted to cheat, they can set up another engine on a computer nearby and eventually get caught. So I guess this falls under the second case..You shouldnt be able to see the kibitz either(I think the kibitz becomes a whisper)..I observed this behaviour while testing Romichess online. I asked the Helpers and they told me that it has been implemented for a while.

I am not sure if the stuff I wrote above makes any sense, but I think that's the best I can do for now..

[TonyJH]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

If you are playing against a human, kibitzes are auto disabled by ICC. I am not so sure about the other sites though.

Ok, I didn't know that. In that case, would the kibitz not be seen by anyone, or just not seen by the human opponent but still seen by the observers? I would guess it's probably the first case.

If your opponent is human, he cannot see the kibitz, but the other observers can see it, and of course they can copy and send it to the guy. However, that whole process seems too tedious for me. If they really wanted to cheat, they can set up another engine on a computer nearby and eventually get caught. So I guess this falls under the second case..You shouldnt be able to see the kibitz either(I think the kibitz becomes a whisper)..I observed this behaviour while testing Romichess online. I asked the Helpers and they told me that it has been implemented for a while.

I am not sure if the stuff I wrote above makes any sense, but I think that's the best I can do for now..

Thanks, I think that makes sense.

[hgm]

I think this feature is a good idea. How about also having the option to whisper, instead of only to kibitz? Only observers and not the opponent see whispers. If you have a human opponent, you probably don't want to be kibitzing the PV.

I am not really expert on ICS play, but from what I have been reading on ICC it seems that you can alias one command there to another. So if you whisper rather than Kibitz, you could give the command

+alias kibitz whisper

before starting the game.

Of course I could make /autoKibitz a string option, /autoKibitz="kibitz", so that you could set it to any other command, but in view of the aliasing possibility that seems like overdoing it.

[Dr.Ex]

Hello, I tried to use latest Winboard_F and Fairy-Max to practice some blindful play. Unfortunately I got occasionally messages like :

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Illegal move "c6" (rejected by first chess program)

and in this "game" it actually played an illegal move:

[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2008.07.25"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Michael"]
[Black "Fairy-Max 4.8x"]
[Result "*"]
[Annotator "1... +0.24"]
[PlyCount "7"]
[EventDate "2008.??.??"]
[TimeControl "40/300:0"]

1. d4 c6 2. Bf4 a6 3. c3 f5 4. e3 {Nb8xc6} *

Yes, that's right. There is already a pawn at c6. It took it's own pawn and then played on as if nothing happened.

It's probably some GUI Bug.

Michael

[hgm]

Hmm, this sounds more like a Fairy-Max bug then a GUI bug. It s hard to say without having the debug file. Does this only happen in blindfold mode?

[Dr.Ex]

No, this was only the first test game after downloading the latest Winboard_F
Windows executable, I think 4.3.14. I actually saw Nb8xc6 live on the board.

Before I had used the previous version.
The problems with illegal moves only occured very early in the games.
I just started new games when it happened.