scct 3m1s conditions
• As graphical chess interfaces used: Fritz 12, Fritz 13, Fritz 14 GUIs
That means, a few separate Fritz GUIs are played (in same time...)
I don't prefer newer ChessBase ones such as Fritz 15, Fritz 16 GUIs,
Due to 'Book Learning' does not work in Gauntlet, Round-robin mode
Buggy Engines
• Mostly of MP engines seems to be very stable under these conditions
• For example, Booot 6.4 crashes in every game, also previous versions
• Fire 7.1 suffers too, in short: Fire engine does not play at full strength
• Lc0 0.25.0 (plus v 0.24.1) forfeits on time, v0.22.0 seems to be stable
• And here the ones, which rarely crashes or loosing on time so far:
Arasan 22, Andscacs 0.95, Rubichess 1.6.1.1
• However, some engines suffer...perhaps..FritzGUI or Pondering or MP
General Rules
• Each chess program must be based mainly on own original work and ideas
• Engines with +50% similarity are not allowed, exception will be in case of:
- Which are +100 Elo stronger than based original chess engine, for Details
• Private ones or which are not capable to ponder / to use Sim tool are out
• In case of:often:bugs (loose on time, crashes, etc.) are not allowed too
For Better Performance
• Engines are played as MP with Ponder ON (thinking in the opponent's turn)
• Book Learning is enabled: Engines try to prefer theirs winning opening lines
In this way: the engines are not forcing to play theirs weak/loosing openings
• Various strong short openings (mainly up to 20 moves) are used, for Details
• The participated engines are 64 bit (BMI2, POPCNT used where available)
• LIVE broadcasting tools (publish tournament results on web) are not used
Due to LIVE tools (on same PCs) damage the engine's performance Details
• Unnecessary programs and services are disabled to run in the background
• It is not installed any program or utility to tray in the Taskbar (Start-up)
• 2x E5-2686 machine used only for chess, in every 1-2 days is Shut down
• Internet connection is disabled (as protecting from any kind of threads)
• And no clicking with mouse, no typing (when the tournament is active)
Tournament Details
Time Control / Statistic Details
• The used time control: 3 Minutes/Game + 1 Seconds/Move (per side)
• Average Move Length: 70 Moves (per side) / Game Length: 8 Min
• The current overall draw percentage (based on 10800 games) is 50%
More Details
• A new project, where this time the Top engines are played with theirs
Previous won openings (based on Balsa and Perfect books since 2016)
In this way, I expect better in quality games, due to less blunder moves
• Engines used 3 kind of new opening books: 3100+, 3300+ and 3500+
• E.g Perfect 3500+ contains high-rated engine games, min. 3500 + Elo
• Only Lc0, Houdini, Komodo and Stockfish are played via 3500+ book
• 3300+ based on 3300 -3450 Elo, played: Ethereal, Xiphos, Shredder etc.
• 3100+ book: 3100 - 3250 Elo, played by Arasan, Chiron, Rubichess etc.
• Btw, 3100+ book includes wins vs 3300+ and 3500+ Elo engines too
But not based on wins against weaker engines e.g 2800 or 2900 Elo etc.
Similar method is used (during book creation) for 3300+ book as well
Where 3500 + book includes no any win against 3300+ or 3100+ etc.
• Note also, each book contains opening lines with approx. 20,000 wins
• All books optimized up to 8 moves, but prefer the wins (up to 20 moves)
• However, usually up to 13-15 moves: the engines are out of using book
• Due to Book Learning ON: each engine used a separate copy of book
• Lc0 is v0.22.0, played (at default settings) on GTX1050 Ti Details
• For more info regarding the current competition: Outskirts forum