On-line engine blitz tourney March

[Joost Buijs]

For people wanting to test their brand new NNUE implementation and to settle the dispute bitboard vs. mailbox.

The monthly on-line engine blitz tourney for March will take place on:

Saturday March 13, 2:00 PM EST (Boston time), 20:00 CET (Amsterdam time)

To connect:

winboard -zp -ics -icshost nightmare-chess.nl -icshelper timeseal -fcp ENGINE.exe -fd ENGINEFOLDER -autoKibitz

(for UCI engines, add -fUCI)

People without account can submit a request for an account to admin@nightmare-chess.nl

As usual our tournament manager will be: Eendje (Lisebeth on ICC)

The format will be 9 rounds Swiss 5/1

[Joost Buijs]

Just a reminder:

Please logon 15 minutes prior to tournament start, Lisebeth is very strict and she wants to start at exactly 2:00 PM EST (20:00 CET). Late joins are not allowed.

I re-enabled the mail-daemon, there were a lot of mails in the spool-directory (probably games), they are all sent out now.

[Joost Buijs]

Tourney results:

Five engine ended at a divided first place, I don't know about rofChade but it is clear that NNUE engines have the edge nowadays.
For Rustic it was his first tournament, he managed to score 1.5 points which is not bad for a brand new engine.
Henk with Skipper is what we call 'Hekkensluiter', but what would we do without Henk? We would dearly miss al the B.B. King and Doors lyrics, so I hope Henk will be there next time as well.
This time HGM's mailbox engines were missing, hopefully they will be back next month.

Code: Select all

:Tourney Players: Round 9 of 9 
:
:     Name              Rating Score Perfrm Upset  Results 
:     ----------------- ------ ----- ------ ------ ------- 
:  1 +BelFish           [3004]  6.0  [2988] [   0] +15w +07b +04w =02b =03w =05w =10b =06w =08b 
:  2 +rofChade          [2970]  6.0  [2989] [  17] +16w =08w +10b =01w =07b =03b =05w +14w =06b 
:  3 +NightmareX        [2871]  6.0  [2985] [ 156] +13w =05b +09w =06b =01b =02w =04b +10w =07w 
:  4 +Nemorino          [2871]  6.0  [2908] [  11] +23w +11w -01b =05w =09b =13b =03w +15w +14b 
:  5 +Goldbar           [2800]  6.0  [2928] [ 358] +20b =03w =06w =04b +15w =01b =02b =09w +11w 
:  6 +SlowChessRB       [2910]  5.5  [2918] [  77] +12w =10w =05b =03w =11b =08w +15b =01b =02w 
:  7 +ArasanX           [2854]  5.5  [2862] [  70] +19b -01w +14w =15b =02w =11w +17b =08w =03b 
:  8 +rpiRofChade       [2844]  5.5  [2823] [ 188] +21w =02b -11w +12w =14b =06b +18w =07b =01w
:  9 +Schooner          [2893]  5.0  [2814] [   0] =17w =14b -03b +16w =04w +12b =11w =05b =10w 
: 10 +WaspX             [2836]  5.0  [2722] [ 149] +22w =06b -02w =13b +19w +18b =01w -03b =09b 
: 11 +CoronaVirusChess  [2773]  5.0  [2752] [ 281] +24w -04b +08b =14w =06w =07b =09b +16w -05b 
: 12 +WaDuuttie         [2623]  5.0  [2537] [   0] -06b +22w =13w -08b +17w -09w +24b =18b +23w 
: 13 +atomGoldbar       [2530]  5.0  [2664] [ 386] -03b +20w =12b =10w +23b =04w -14b +19w =17b 
: 14 +LeelaRB           [2858]  4.5  [2758] [  17] +18w =09w -07b =11b =08w +16b +13w -02b -04w 
: 15 +Marvin            [2743]  4.5  [2563] [  55] -01b +17b +19w =07w -05b +20w -06w -04b +24b 
: 16 +Amoeba            [2732]  4.5  [2475] [   0] -02b +21w =17w -09b +24b -14w +20b -11b +22w
: 17 +atomNightmare     [2564]  4.5  [2608] [ 248] =09b -15w =16b +21w -12b +19w -07w +23b =13w 
: 18 +Nemeton           [2355]  4.5  [2413] [ 134] -14b -19w +22b +24w +21b -10w -08b =12w +20b 
: 19 +Myrddin           [2336]  4.0  [2497] [ 183] -07w +18b -15b +22w -10b -17b +23w -13b +21w 
: 20 +feligres          [2120]  3.5  [2329] [ 445] -05w -13b +24b =23w +22b -15b -16w +21b -18w 
: 21 +Barbarossa        [2261]  3.0  [2232] [ 239] -08b -16b +23w -17b -18w +24w +22b -20w -19b 
: 22 +CTdccc            [2234]  2.0  [2152] [ 266] -10b -12b -18w -19b -20w +23b -21w +24w -16b 
: 23 +Rustic            [2500]  1.5  [2083] [   0] -04b +24w -21b =20b -13w -22w -19b -17w -12b 
: 24 -Skipper           [1610]  0.0  [2082] [   0] -11b -23b -20w -18b -16w -21b -12w -22b -15w
:
:Average Rating    2628.8 

[mvanthoor]

For Rustic it was his first tournament, he managed to score 1.5 points which is not bad for a brand new engine.

Thanks. It's 1.5 points more than I actually expected, seeing a field of engines that is 2800+ Elo.

The one thing I was unable to find out if Rustic actually played using its transposition table. (Not using it would make the engine at least 100 elo weaker.)

As the ENGINE.exe parameter, I put "rustic.exe -h256", which would (on the commandline) initialize Rustic with a 256 MB transposition table. Strangely enough, I wasn't able to find the Rustic.exe process anywhere in the task manager, so I couldn't check if this worked. If the "-h256" parameter was ignored by Winboard, the engine would have played using a 32 MB TT. This version of Rustic does announce the availability of a TT through UCI, but doesn't process the "setoption" command yet. (That will be built in tomorrow.) So it could even be that the engine tries to set a TT, which then doesn't work.

After I add Lazy SMP (in the VERY FAR future), I would put "rustic.exe -h256 -t4" or something as the ENGINE.exe command, but if Winboard ignores this, that would be useless... then I'd possibly would be better to compile Rustic with specific defaults for this tournament and run it without parameters.

Another thing... I happened to see the start of the game against Nemorino, in Winboard. (After that, it seems no more games were displayed...?) It had a strange opening. Are these tournaments run without an opening book?

[Ras]

This version of Rustic does announce the availability of a TT through UCI, but doesn't process the "setoption" command yet. (That will be built in tomorrow.)

Once you do that, it will also work in Xboard. That's how I'm doing it, through a UCI adaptor of course. Also, Xboard does store the engine settings.

After I add Lazy SMP (in the VERY FAR future), I would put "rustic.exe -h256 -t4" or something as the ENGINE.exe command

Don't use CLI parameters, but either the UCI standard commands, or if that isn't included, use whatever UCI option Stockfish has for that parameter because people will be familiar with that already.

It had a strange opening. Are these tournaments run without an opening book?

The opening book is not on the server. It's whatever the participants have configured locally for their engines.

And yeah, it was an extremely strong tournament because quite some lower range engines were not there. Together with some bad luck, I guess it was the worst result the CT800 ever had. It's CTdccc there because digits are not possible in engine names so that I went for Roman numbering.

[Maarten Claessens]

The one thing I was unable to find out if Rustic actually played using its transposition table. (Not using it would make the engine at least 100 elo weaker.)

As I always run Winboard with the -debug parameter, I can show you the PV's of Rustic in its game against WaDuuttie:

Code: Select all

<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.15/8 (4.72 sec, 37293900 nodes, 7900 knps) PV=d5 e3 e6 Be2 Bd7 Bd2 Bd6 Nf3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.05/7 (6.19 sec, 49807360 nodes, 8045 knps) PV=Bg4 Bf4 Nc6 e3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! +0.00/7 (6.11 sec, 49807360 nodes, 8150 knps) PV=e6 e3 Bb4 Bd2 Bxf3 Qxf3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! +0.00/7 (6.13 sec, 48758784 nodes, 7953 knps) PV=Bf5 e3 Bd6 Bd3 Qg5 g4 Bxd3 Nxd3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! +0.05/8 (6.34 sec, 46661632 nodes, 7359 knps) PV=Be4 f3 Qh4+ Kd2 f6 fxe4 fxe5 dxe5 dxe4 Nxe4 Qxg4 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.35/8 (6.26 sec, 45613056 nodes, 7285 knps) PV=dxe4 Bg2 c5 Bxe4 Qxd4 Qxd4 cxd4 Bxb7 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.35/7 (6.13 sec, 49807360 nodes, 8124 knps) PV=f5 e3 Nc6 gxf5 Nxe5 dxe5 Qxd1+ Kxd1 exf5 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.25/8 (6.25 sec, 46137344 nodes, 7381 knps) PV=Qd5 gxf5 exf5 Bf4 g6 e3 Bh6 O-O Bxf4 exf4 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -0.10/8 (8.40 sec, 61865984 nodes, 7364 knps) PV=Nc6 gxf5 exf5 e3 Nf6 Nxc6 bxc6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.10/9 (8.89 sec, 63438848 nodes, 7135 knps) PV=fxe4 Nxc6 bxc6 Qc2 O-O-O Bxe4 Qb5 e3 Nf6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.28/8 (8.69 sec, 62390272 nodes, 7179 knps) PV=bxc6 Qc2 O-O-O 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.30/7 (8.34 sec, 70254592 nodes, 8423 knps) PV=Qc4 Bxe4 O-O-O Bg5 Nf6 b3 Qb5 Bxf6 gxf6 Bxh7 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.90/7 (9.53 sec, 71303168 nodes, 7481 knps) PV=O-O-O Bxh7 Qb5 Bd3 Qa5 e3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.75/9 (6.58 sec, 49658034 nodes, 7546 knps) PV=Qd5 e4 Qa5 Bc4 Re8 Qb3 Kd7  O-O Bd6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.90/8 (10.42 sec, 78643200 nodes, 7547 knps) PV=Qd6 O-O c5 Bf4 Qc6 Be5 c4 Be2 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.95/7 (10.80 sec, 74973184 nodes, 6941 knps) PV=Kd7 O-O e5 Be3 Nf6 Rad1 exd4 Bxd4 Nxg4 Bxg7 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.80/8 (7.60 sec, 57756702 nodes, 7599 knps) PV=c5 Qa4+ c6 O-O cxd4 Qxd4 Qxd4+ cxd4 Bb4 Be3 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.95/8 (10.91 sec, 72351744 nodes, 6631 knps) PV=Ke7 Be3 cxd4 cxd4 h6 g6 e5 O-O-O Nf6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -2.10/9 (10.22 sec, 66617102 nodes, 6518 knps) PV=cxd4 cxd4 Rb8 O-O-O Qb6 b3 Kd8 Qc4 Ba3+ Kc2 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -1.75/7 (10.65 sec, 71303168 nodes, 6695 knps) PV=c5 Be3 Rd7 Bb5 Rb7 O-O Qe5 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -2.10/7 (10.64 sec, 71303168 nodes, 6701 knps) PV=Rd7 O-O Rc7 Rad1 Qc6 Bb5 Qb6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -3.90/8 (11.25 sec, 78539595 nodes, 6981 knps) PV=Rc7 Rad1 Qc6 Qc4 g6 Qd3 Rc8 Bxc8 Qxc8 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -5.75/8 (12.86 sec, 88604672 nodes, 6889 knps) PV=Qc6 Bb5 Qb7 Rd7+ Rxd7 Bxc5+ Rd6 e5 Nf6 Bxd6+ Kf7 Bxf8 Rxf8 exf6 gxf6 gxf6 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -13.55/8 (13.11 sec, 94371840 nodes, 7198 knps) PV=Nf6 Bxc6 Kf7 Bf4 e5 Bxe5 Re7 Qc4+ Kg6 Qxc5 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -14.55/8 (12.40 sec, 104333312 nodes, 8413 knps) PV=Kf7 Bf4 Rc8 Qxa7+ Kg6 gxf6 c4 fxg7 Bxg7 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -15.23/7 (2.12 sec, 17301504 nodes, 8157 knps) PV=Kg8 gxf6 gxf6 Rd7 Rc8 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -15.35/7 (2.24 sec, 20447232 nodes, 9124 knps) PV=Nxe8 Qa6 Rc6 Qxc6 Nd6 Bxc5 Nxe4 Bxf8 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -99.92/8 (1.72 sec, 16172464 nodes, 9397 knps) PV=Nxc7 Qd7 Be7 Qc8+ Bd8 Qxd8+ Ne8 Qxe8# 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -99.94/7 (2.14 sec, 17825792 nodes, 8326 knps) PV=Be7 Qc8+ Bd8 Qxd8+ Ne8 Qxe8# 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -99.96/7 (2.22 sec, 19922944 nodes, 8970 knps) PV=Bd8 Qxd8+ Ne8 Qxe8# 
<ICS:Rustic(2500)(C) kibitzes: !!! -99.98/7 (2.23 sec, 20447232 nodes, 9165 knps) PV=Ne8 Qxe8# 

and the game:
[pgn]
[Event "ICS rated blitz match"]
[Site "nightmare-chess.nl"]
[Date "2021.03.13"]
[Round "9"]
[White "WaDuuttie"]
[Black "Rustic"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2619"]
[BlackElo "2057"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "2021.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Bg4 3. Nc3 e6 4. Ne5 Bf5 5. g4 Be4 6. Nxe4 dxe4 7. Bg2 f5 8. c3
Qd5 9. f3 Nc6 10. fxe4 fxe4 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Qc2 Qc4 13. Bxe4 O-O-O 14. Bd3
Qd5 15. e4 Qd6 16. Ba6+ Kd7 17. g5 c5 18. Qa4+ Ke7 19. Be3 cxd4 20. Bxd4 c5 21.
Be3 Rd7 22. O-O Rc7 23. Rad1 Qc6 24. Bb5 Nf6 25. Bxc6 Kf7 26. Be8+ Kg8 27. Rd7
Nxe8 28. Rxc7 Nxc7 29. Qd7 Be7 30. Qc8+ Bd8 31. Qxd8+ Ne8 32. Qxe8# 1-0
[/pgn]
Hope this helps.

[mvanthoor]

As I always run Winboard with the -debug parameter, I can show you the PV's of Rustic in its game against WaDuuttie:
...
Hope this helps.

Thanks. As the engine needs to be set up through Winboard, it seems it played without an opening book, an possibly, without a hash table (depending if Winboard understands a an option such as "rustic.exe -h256" or not, because it has an option within a winboard option.)

[mvanthoor]

Once you do that, it will also work in Xboard. That's how I'm doing it, through a UCI adaptor of course. Also, Xboard does store the engine settings.

Doesn't Winboard support UCI natively, or doesn't it have an adapter built in? I used the -fUCI option to connect the engine; I haven't (consciously) installed an adapter. (I haven't installed or configured anything, except through Rustic's own command line parameters. My experience with Winboard is extremely limited.)

Don't use CLI parameters, but either the UCI standard commands, or if that isn't included, use whatever UCI option Stockfish has for that parameter because people will be familiar with that already.

I do. The engine now has a Hash and Clear Hash option and later, will have other options obviously, with the same names as Stockfish uses. Some options however, to also have a command-line equivalent. Sometimes I want to quickly have the engine analyze a position for one test or another, and then it's much easier to type "./rustic.exe -h256" than having to type the entire "setoption name hash value 256". (Same with threads, for later, and it also has a -q option to suppress intermediate search stats updates; then it reports stats only when reporting depths.)

[Ras]

Doesn't Winboard support UCI natively, or doesn't it have an adapter built in?

No to both, but under Windows, Polyglot should be installed as part of the downloaded installation package. I'm on Linux where Polyglot needs to be installed separately through the package manager.

Sometimes I want to quickly have the engine analyze a position for one test or another, and then it's much easier to type "./rustic.exe -h256" than having to type the entire "setoption name hash value 256".

I have a testdata.txt file with all relevant UCI commands, and I just paste that into the terminal when I test the engine without GUI. Under Linux, that's easy with the "paste selected text with the middle mouse button", and under Windows, the cmd window allows pasting via the window menu.