=================================================================== KnightX 1.92 aka Techno Chess engine for Winboard Copyright 2005 Christophe Jolly The tablebases code is Copyright Eugene Nalimov Email: technochess@free.fr Web: http://technochess.free.fr =================================================================== - Win32 application tested under W2000 SP4, XP SP1 - Linux application tested under Suse 9.0 kernel 2.4.21 - Tested with Winboard and XBoard 4.2.6 and Arena 0.93 - Use Nalimov tablebases (.emd files) - Implements the Winboard protocol version 2 - Features: analyze, ponder, resign, edit position, move now, book learning, log file If you have a directory containing the Nalimov tablebases files, write the path in the config file. See Updates below. Winboard command-line (Windows) ------------------------------- If Knightx is installed in "kndir" directory, then the command-line is: Winboard -fcp "Knightx" -fd "kndir" to start winboard with Knightx. For example: Winboard -fcp "Knightx" -fd "C:\KNIGHTX" XBoard command-line (Linux) --------------------------- If Knightx is installed in "kndir" directory, then the command-line is: xboard -fcp Knightx -fd kndir to start XBoard with Knightx. For example: xboard -fcp Knightx -fd /home/user/knightx Arena setting (Windows) ----------------------- Run Arena.exe, select the menu "Engines" then "Install and Select". Select the property page "Details", click on "Installation Wizard". The wizard will ask you to select an engine's directory. Select the installation directory of Knightx, then the Knightx executable file. Validate all. Knightx config-file ------------------- The best is to set the parameters in this file and not use any command-line parameter. Edit the file "knightx.cfg" Set the lines "HASHTABLE=size" and "TABLEBASE=directory" See below for the hash size value and the tablebase directory. Note: the command-line parameters have precedence over the config-file parameters. Knightx command-line -------------------- Knightx [-hN] [-dDIRECTORY] N is the hash-tables size and is a number between 19 and 24 value program's memory size 19 10 MB 20 18 MB 21 35 MB (default) 22 69 MB 23 138 MB 24 274 MB without argument, the default hash-table size is N=21. DIRECTORY is the path to a directory containing the Nalimov tablebase files. For example: "-dC:\Chess_Tb\Nalimov" You can specify several directories by separating them with a ; the default tablebase directory is the directory of KnightX. Versions -------- v1.92,Mar.16.2005 Improved mobility. v1.92 vs 1.91a : 11W 3L 6D v1.91a,Mar.1.2005 Modified king safety. Implemented the 'setboard' winboard protocol 2 command. v1.91,Jan.2.2005 Removed a problematic section of evaluation code relative to the pieces distance to kings. Small change in search depth extensions. New and larger opening book, imported from the file Fritz4.fbk. v1.90a,Dec.11.2004 Modified king safety. v1.90,Dec.6.2004 Improved search, pawns evaluation, king safety. Modified some book lines. v1.86,Nov.3.2004 Fixed a bug in the synchronization of threads. The program could sometimes loop forever when the thread switching was slow. Optimized data structure: 10 to 20% faster. Ported to Linux. Compiled with gcc 3.3.1 for x86. v1.85,Oct.9.2004 King safety. Knights+pawns endings. Bigger opening book. 13000 positions. v1.84,July.15.2004 v1.81 King safety. Search and evaluation changed. Better in combinations. New opening book entirely based on computer games (the former book contained old human openings). v1.83,May.2.2004 Improved king safety. Rooks behind passed pawns in finals. Improved speed. v1.82,Feb.12.2004 New king safety. v1.81,Dec.20.2003 Evaluation and quiescence search have been simplified to improve the speed significantly. Eval coefs adjusted, bishops pair value and passed pawn values changed. v1.80a,Oct.28.2003 Fixed a buffer overflow problem that might caused a crash sometimes. Filled some holes in the opening book. v1.80,Oct.19.2003 Removed many bad lines in the opening book. Eval modified. King safety's weight a little reduced. Longer hash table signature to avoid some collisions that occured sometimes. v1.79,Sep.7.2003 Added chess knowledge. Constant null move depth reduction. Faster generation of replies to check. v1.78b,Jul.19.2003 fixed 2 bugs in the evaluation. (a bug was there since v1.75) v1.78a,Jun.22.2003 fixed 2 bugs in the evaluation. v1.78,Jun.15.2003 improved search, pawns eval and time management (game in n minutes) fixed a bug in the eval of lone kings+pawns added the hashtable option n=24 (203MB of total memory used) added/changed opening book lines v1.77,Dec.21.2002 Eval of good/bad bishops. Bug fixed in time management. Sometimes losed on time when increment time was >10s. Displays more info in analyze mode window. v1.76a,Oct.16.2002 Analyze mode. Changed eval of trading pieces. Book learning improvement. Larger opening book: previous book + some recent computer games. v1.75a,Feb.16.2002 Error fixed in the book learning. wasn't effective. v1.75,Feb.10.2002 Slight changes in eval and time management. New opening book format. (file is Knightx.bo2) New book learning. v1.74,Dec.18.2001 King safety improved. Pawns structure eval correction. Book learning, log file. Opening book additions. v1.73,Nov.25.2001 Bug fixed in the search (all Knightx versions had this bug) Bug fixed in the ksafety (Knightx 1.71-1.72 had this bug) opening book additions v1.72,Nov.18.2001 search changed eval adjusted, ksafety slightly improved opening book additions v1.71A,Sep.23.2001 v1.71 10 to 15% faster than the previous release. (compiler changed) opening book additions v1.71,Jul.14.2001 eval adjusted takes slightly more time to think in k.o. games stops the game when there is some insufficient material v1.70,Jun.30.2001 eval changed significantly opening book add compiler changed v1.62,Apr.12.2001 fixed v1.61 problem: sometimes the game result wasn't caught immediately by winboard. wider alpha/beta window at the root, scores storage in hash table changed. v1.61,Mar.24.2001 the synchronization problems with the Fritz interface seem to be solved. since v1.60, supports the reset (hashtable) command of Fritz, hashtable not cleared before each move. eval (king safety, finals) and search (extensions) changed opening book add v1.60,Jan.17.2001 eval changed, coefficients adjusted opening book add v1.58A,Jan.2.2001 fixes: color to move wasn't correct after editing a position could crash when thinking was interrupted very quickly v1.58,Dec.30.2000 supports the edit (position) command pondering restored (was never activated) eval changed v1.57, Dec.11.2000 more speed/depth some eval improvements and fixes time management improved opening book add v1.56, Oct.15.2000 eval improved tablebase transposition in tree search fixed random choice of opening book moves problem opening book add v1.55, Aug.28.2000 eval improved tablebase bug fix (when two queens of the same color) pondering bug fix opening book add v1.54, Jun.22.2000 mobility eval fix opening book changed v1.53, Mar.15.2000 new selectivity. v1.53-v1.52: 8-4 now reads a config file (Knightx.cfg) to get the program's parameters opening book changed v1.52, Feb.15.2000 better time managing in blitz games. v1.52-v1.51: 5.5-2.5 in game/5mn resigns when game is lost opening book changed v1.51, Jan.15.2000 made small corrections to evaluation move sort changed opening book changed v1.50, Dec.20.99 positional improvements pays more attention on king safety pondering fixed interface problem with winboard which occured sometimes when program was mated v1.4X, Dec.7.99 "-d" option added v0 Created in 1996. Search and evaluation in C language. The program was initially a windows application called TechnoChess.