Windows tool to run engine matches

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Which tool/shell is the best?
CB shell can't provide ultra-fast time controls.
Arena goes wrong after 2048 games.
May be you can suggest some simple command-line tool?..

[hgm]

I always use WinBoard. I don't know what you consider 'ultra-fast', but for less than 1 sec per move it will of course be important to switch off time-consuming GUI actions like move animation and engine-output update, and for less than 50 msec/move even updating the board for for the new piece location only becomes too time-consuming, and one should run in -noGUI mode. Then engine-engine communication lag was something like 2.5ms, for UCI engines via Polyglot (and less than 1 ms for WB engines), on a 1.3GHz Celeron.

Going faster than 16 ms/move can lead to unexpected behavior anyway, as most engines use a clock that ticks at this rate for their timing decisions.

[Sergei S. Markoff]

I always use WinBoard. I don't know what you consider 'ultra-fast', but for less than 1 sec per move it will of course be important to switch off time-consuming GUI actions like move animation and engine-output update, and for less than 50 msec/move even updating the board for for the new piece location only becomes too time-consuming, and one should run in -noGUI mode. Then engine-engine communication lag was something like 2.5ms, for UCI engines via Polyglot (and less than 1 ms for WB engines), on a 1.3GHz Celeron.

Going faster than 16 ms/move can lead to unexpected behavior anyway, as most engines use a clock that ticks at this rate for their timing decisions.

Well, it's probably worth to try. Is it possible to run match using command line? I.e. I have two engine executables and it should be great to be able to do something like "play.bat smarthink2074.exe smarthink2073.exe startpositions.epd -game_time:10s -games:10000" ?

[Modern Times]

Have you looked at cutechess cli ?

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Have you looked at cutechess cli ?

Well, looks to be exactly what I need. Thanks!

[hgm]

Well, it's probably worth to try. Is it possible to run match using command line? I.e. I have two engine executables and it should be great to be able to do something like "play.bat smarthink2074.exe smarthink2073.exe startpositions.epd -game_time:10s -games:10000" ?

Sure.

winboard -fcp smarthink2074.exe -scp smarthink2073.exe -lpf startpositions.epd -tc 0:10 -inc 0 -mg 1000 -noGUI

would do it (assuming smarthink is a WB engine; otherwise you would have to add -fUCI -sUCI).

[Sergei S. Markoff]

Well, it's probably worth to try. Is it possible to run match using command line? I.e. I have two engine executables and it should be great to be able to do something like "play.bat smarthink2074.exe smarthink2073.exe startpositions.epd -game_time:10s -games:10000" ?

Sure.

winboard -fcp smarthink2074.exe -scp smarthink2073.exe -lpf startpositions.epd -tc 0:10 -inc 0 -mg 1000 -noGUI

would do it (assuming smarthink is a WB engine; otherwise you would have to add -fUCI -sUCI).

I will try. Thanks!

[lucasart]

Well, it's probably worth to try. Is it possible to run match using command line? I.e. I have two engine executables and it should be great to be able to do something like "play.bat smarthink2074.exe smarthink2073.exe startpositions.epd -game_time:10s -games:10000" ?

Sure.

winboard -fcp smarthink2074.exe -scp smarthink2073.exe -lpf startpositions.epd -tc 0:10 -inc 0 -mg 1000 -noGUI

would do it (assuming smarthink is a WB engine; otherwise you would have to add -fUCI -sUCI).

Can you play concurrent games that way?

This is one of the main advantages of cutechess-cli, besides reliability and low latency. If you have an N CPU machine, the best use of your CPU time is to play N-1 games in parallel.

[hgm]

Can you play concurrent games that way?

That depends on what you mean by "that way":

* with winBoard/XBoard: of course
* with the same command: no, you would need another command

To use the concurrency you would need to create a tourney file containing the tourney parameters (which is easiest done interactively, from the Tournament dialog), and then use the command

winboard -mm -tf TOURNEYFILE -noGUI

as many times times as you want concurrent processes to run on that tourney. You can kill or add worker processes any time you like.

[phenri]

I must be the only idiot on this forum who have already tried your GUI a hundred times without success.

(which is easiest done interactively, from the Tournament dialog)

You only have this secret...