Alouette 0.0.1

[Roland Chastain]

Hello!
I started a new engine called Alouette.
In its current state, the engine plays the first legal move that it finds.
It can play chess 960.
Before working on move evaluation, I would like to make the current program as clean as possible.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. It's written in Pascal Object and uses bitboards.
You can download Windows binaries and source code here. I created a Git repository.
Regards.
Roland

[supersharp77]

Hello!
I started a new engine called Alouette.
In its current state, the engine plays the first legal move that it finds.
It can play chess 960.
Before working on move evaluation, I would like to make the current program as clean as possible.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. It's written in Pascal Object and uses bitboards.
You can download Windows binaries and source code here. I created a Git repository.
Regards.
Roland

Thanks for your engine efforts..Bon Chance....AR

[Modern Times]

Hello!
I started a new engine called Alouette.
It can play chess 960.

Very cool

[Sergio Martinez]

Thank you very much Roland

[CMCanavessi]

Hello!
I started a new engine called Alouette.
In its current state, the engine plays the first legal move that it finds.
It can play chess 960.
Before working on move evaluation, I would like to make the current program as clean as possible.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. It's written in Pascal Object and uses bitboards.
You can download Windows binaries and source code here. I created a Git repository.
Regards.
Roland

So right now it's similar to a random mover or is there some sort of "logic" in the move chosen?

[Roland Chastain]

So right now it's similar to a random mover or is there some sort of "logic" in the move chosen?

Yes, it's similar to a random mover. The moves are in generation order. The first legal move is played.

Code: Select all

Rank Name                          Elo     +/-   Games   Score   Draws
   1 Ram 2.0 [wb2uci]              130     136      14   67.9%   50.0%
   2 Belofte 0.2.7                  76     202      14   60.7%    7.1%
   3 NEG 0.3 [wb2uci]               25     135      14   53.6%   50.0%
   4 Belofte 0.2.8                   0      70      14   50.0%   85.7%
   5 Alouette 0.0.1 [32]             0     100      14   50.0%   71.4%
   6 Iota 2015                     -25      85      14   46.4%   78.6%
   7 Alouette 0.0.1 [debug]       -102      92      14   35.7%   71.4%
   8 Alouette 0.0.1 [64]          -102      92      14   35.7%   71.4%
Finished match

[Modern Times]

I look forward to further development of this engine !

I did run some chess960 games. Most were OK but the GUI did report an illegal move in one of them.

[Roland Chastain]

I look forward to further development of this engine !

I did run some chess960 games. Most were OK but the GUI did report an illegal move in one of them.

Thank you very much. Yes, there were some illegal moves. There was also a problem with castling notation. I believe it is fixed now. Please find Alouette 0.0.2 here:
https://sites.google.com/view/eschecs/alouette

Now the program has a beginning of logic, very simplistic. I hope there is no more bugs.

I would like to explore very simple ideas, and why not make a kind of toy engine for children, with personnalities.

Regards.

Roland

[Roland Chastain]

Sorry, there are still illegal moves. Not made enough tests in FRC mode.

Regards.

[Roland Chastain]

Hello! I fixed a bug in the castling procedure. It was the origin of some illegal moves in FRC mode. I hope it is good now. Please find Alouette 0.0.3 still at the same place.
Now I will try to make a little better move evaluation. If you have some very simple ideas to suggest, you are welcome.
Here is the current evaluation formula:

Code: Select all

function Evalue(const APos: TPosition; ACoup: integer): integer;
...
begin
  ...
  result :=
    0
    + bonusRoque                          { bonus for castling }
    + bonusNombreCoups div 3              { bonus for the number of possible "second moves" }
    - malusPiecesMenacees                 { malus for threatened pieces }
    - Ord(NomCoup(ACoup) = AvantDernier); { malus for move repetition }
end;

There is no depth in evaluation. The function just evaluates the position after the move.