Aart's Blog

After burning cycles on my Nexus One for many days, Group E has just finished a complete thirty seconds-per-move tournament,  played from both sides of all positions in the Nunn opening suite under the conditions described earlier. Congratulations to Ben-Hur Carlos Vieira Langoni Jr for RedQueen's promotion to Group D. All games can be downloaded from the tournament page .                     1         2         3         4         5                     1 RedQueen 0.9.8 JA     *     10.0-10.0 14.5-5.5  17.0-3.0  19.5-0.5  61.0/80 2 greko8.2          10.0-10.0     *     14.5-5.5  16.0-4.0  18.5-1.5  59.0/80 3 Sungorus 1.4 JA    5.5-14.5  5.5-14.5     *     13.0-7.0  16.0-4.0  40.0/80 4 Jazz v5.01 JA      3.0-17.0  4.0-16.0  7.0-13.0      *    14.5-5.5  28.5/80 5 DoubleCheck 1.3    0.5-19.5  1.5-18.5  4.0-16.0  5.5-14.5     *     11.5/80

Group F has just finished a complete thirty seconds-per-move tournament, played from both sides of all positions in the Nunn opening suite under the conditions described earlier. Congratulations to Evert Glebbeek for Jazz 's promotion to Group E! All games can be downloaded from the tournament page .                 1        2         3         4         5  1 Jazz v5.01 JA    *     15.5-4.5  18.0-2.0  18.5-1.5  19.5-0.5 71.5/80 2 ZCT-0.3.2500  4.5-15.5     *     13.5-6.5  17.0-3.0  16.0-4.0 51.0/80 3 BikJump v2.1  2.0-18.0  6.5-13.5     *     12.5-7.5  12.0-8.0 33.0/80 4 tscp181       1.5-18.5  3.0-17.0  7.5-12.5     *     12.5-7.5 24.5/80 5 umax48w       0.5-19.5  4.0-16.0  8.0-12.0  7.5-12.5     *    20.0/80

I just released version 3.0.2 of Chess for Android, available at the Android market and as direct download . This release enhances XBoard/WinBoard support (infinite analysis, resign feature, older idioms used by various engines).

I completed a qualification tournament from both sides of the first Nunn position at one-second per move on a Nexus One (1GHz Snapdragon). Where applicable, UCI engines were given an 8MB hash table and 1MB endgame tablebases cache (the complete 3- and 4-piece Nalimov, Gaviota, Scorpio, and Robbobases endgame tablebases reside on SD card). XBoard engines play at their default settings. Since the Nexus One is a single-core device, "pondering" was disabled The qualification results are used to split the engines into separate groups. Engines in each group will play each other at longer time controls, starting with the lowest group. The number one in each group will promote to the next group. The cross-table and all games can be downloaded from the tournament page .

I made various improvements in the WinBoard/XBoard implemention in Chess for Android and are now able to successfully import and play with the following XBoard engines (I also tested the corrected UCI sungorus engine). Crafty 23.4                  Robert Hyatt scorpio 2.7                  Daniel Shawul sloppy 0.22                  Ilari Pihlajisto tscp1.81                     Tom Kerrigan sungoros-14-ja               Pablo Vazquez Below, I posted the cross-table of a quick test tournament from both sides of just the  first  position of the Nunn opening suite .                      1  2  3  4  5  6   1 scorpio            ** 01 11 11 11 11   9.0/10 2 crafty             10 ** ½1 1½ 11 11   8.0/10 3 sloppy             00 ½0 ** ½1 11 11   6.0/10 4 Sungorus 1.4 JA    00 0½ ½0 ** 11 11   5.0/10 5 tscp181            00 00 00 00 ** 11   2.0/10 6 Chess for Android  00 00 00 00 00 **   0.0/10

I ran tournaments between different versions of the same engine to determine which one would be their representative. Below I show the results of a fast round-robin tournaments using Chess for Android on a Nexus One, Nexus S, and Galaxy Tab with, where applicable, 8MB hash table and 1MB tablebases cache (Nalimov, Gaviota, Scorpio, and Robbobases reside on SD card). Each version played each other version from both sides of the Nunn opening suite . The number one engine will play in the longer time control tournament ( which is not always the latest  version; engine authors let me know if you prefer otherwise since some results were pretty close ). Also, Pablo Vazquez and Jim Ablett kindly worked together to fix the issue in the sungorus . It now runs correctly and will participate in the tournament. 1   BikJump v2.1P       10.5/20 2   BikJump v1.8         9.5/20 1   Diablo 0.5.1b JA    17.5/20 2   Diablo 0.5.1         2.5/20                   1   DoubleCheck 1.3     13.5/20 2

The list of UCI and XBoard engines for Android is getting longer, and I am pondering about a more serious tournament at longer time controls in Chess for Android . As a first step, I tested all available Android binaries. The list is shown below. An "X" indicates that the engine has trouble running in Chess for Android (if you are the engine author and are interested in fixing this, please contact me for details). Next, I probably do a few quick tournaments to divide the engine in groups by strength, followed by tournaments at longer time control. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in participating, if you don't know how to compile your engine for Android (ARM), or if you have good ideas about the format of this tournament. I am not really an experienced tournament manager, but merely do this for fun to get an idea of the relative strength of these engines. apilchess-106-ja           X    U. Lorenz, C. Donninger  bikjump1.8                      Aar

Version 3.0.1 of Chess for Android is available at the Android market and as direct download . It introduces the first, albeit simple support for the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (XBoard/WinBoard). Many features that are already supported for UCI (e.g. options setup, infinite analysis) as well as some XBoard specific features (e.g. resign) are still missing for this first version. I hope to add these features soon. Nevertheless, it is already possible to run tournaments between engines.

Chess for Android now contains sufficient functionality to perform the first inter-protocol tournament between the built-in Java engine, the UCI engine BikJump, and the WinBoard / XBoard engine Fairy-Max. Ten random opening book games between these engines at one second per move on a Nexus S ran without problems to completion with the following results.                     1          2          3           1 BikJump v2.1P     ********** 111½111111 1111111101 18.5/20 2 Fairymax 4.8Q     000½000000 ********** 1½10½11½01  7.0/20 3 Chess for Android 0000000010 0½01½00½10 **********  4.5/20

Miguel A. Ballicora released Gaviota v0.84 . I tested the Android version against an earlier release with a quick one-second-per-move tournament on a Nexus S, setting the hash size to 32MB and using the Silver Opening Suite and some Gaviota tablebases on SD (the latest release fixes an issue with tablebase setup on Android). Below are the results. The new version seems much stronger! 1   gaviota v0.84  +66/-17/=17 74.50%   74.5/100 2   gaviota v0.83  +17/-66/=17 25.50%   25.5/100

Michel van den Bergh posted a new release of GNU Chess (5 branch) . To test the Android binary, I ran a one-second-per-move, 32MB hash tournament on a Nexus S, using the Silver Opening Suite , with Gaviota tablebases on SD. Below are the results. Although the latest release was mainly for FRC support, it also seems slightly stronger. GNU Chess               1         2         3  1 5.07.173b-libgtb-32       *     52.5-47.5 57.0-43.0  109.5/200 2 5.07.170.7b-libgtb-32 47.5-52.5     *     55.5-44.5  103.0/200 3 5.07.153.3b-32        43.0-57.0 44.5-55.5     *       87.5/200

Chess for Android v3.0 is available from the Android market or as direct download . New features include: The possibility to play engine tournaments from both sides of any external book in PGN format, as explained in this blog posting . Layout and formatting improvements in the UCI analysis output window. Light grey board color. Relaxed FEN parsing to accept non-standard, but frequently occurring omissions in the FEN string. Ability to view simple cross-table while tournament is in progress (>> button).

To eliminate the effect of opening books, it is a common practice to test the strength of chess engines by letting them play from both sides of a pre-selected set of opening positions. Earlier versions of Chess for Android already supported the option to play engine tournaments from both sides of 50 positions of the built-in book (yielding 100 games total between each engine pair). The upcoming 3.0 release will add the option to play both sides of any external book in PGN format, such as the famous " Nunn Positions " (published by GM John Nunn) or the " Silver Opening Suite " (published by Albert Silver). To use this feature, long press the notation window, and select "UCI Engine Support", followed by "Engine Tournament". Then select the "all games from both sides of external book". This will open a file navigation window, starting at the root of the SD card. Navigate into the directory and file of the desired opening suite. This

Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman's Komodo version 3 is now available for Android (ARMv5TE) at UCI engines for Android . A quick one second per move tournament ended in favor of the previous version 2.03 (possibly because Don fixed the movetime command to honor the given time exactly; previous versions would sometimes use more time, which may have skewed estimates of their strength a bit). 1   Komodo32 2.03 AB  +50/-18/=32 66.00%   66.0/100 2   Komodo32 3 AB     +18/-50/=32 34.00%   34.0/100

I just released version 2.9.4 for Chess for Android, available from the Android market or as direct download . This version introduces the much requested "infinite analysis" mode for an imported UCI engine, in which the engine reports its analysis of positions without actually making moves. To enable this mode, change the level to free play, as shown in the following screenshots. If an UCI engine is imported, its analysis of the current position will appear below the board. The user can freely play through previous games or make new moves. When at the end of a game still in progress, pressing the ">" button will play the best move found by the UCI engine. Changing the level, or unloading the UCI engine will exit the "infinite analysis" mode. Although the feature may seem simple, it was actually far from straightforward to implement, also because not all UCI engines behave the same for the "go infinite" command. Please let me know if yo

I compiled Lucas Braesch's DoubleCheck 1.1 for Android (ARM) and put it on the UCI Engines for Android website . The engine works reasonably well in Chess for Android. However, because the UCI command movetime is not implemented yet, it plays almost instantaneously, making matches to determine its strength less useful at the moment.

Jim Ablett kindly ported Gary Linscott's engine GarboChess 3 to various platforms, including Android. I also made a dynamically linked binary available at the UCI engines for Android website . As can be seen in the screenshot below, the UCI engines does not provide many options, but it plays strong. Below the results of several quick matches on a Nexus S using random book opening play, one second-per-move, 32MB hash, and 8MB tablebases cache with the 3- and 4-piece Nalimov, Gaviota, Scorpio, Robbobases endgames on SD card. GarboChess3  - Stockfish 2.1         +0/-10/=0    0.00%  - Komodo32 2.03 AB      +0/-10/=0    0.00%  - IvanHoe-Beta v999947c +0/-10/=0    0.00%  - Pepito v1.59          +3/-4/=3    45.00%  - GarboChess3 JA        +2/-3/=5    45.00%  - GNU Chess 5.07.170.7b +7/-3/=0    70.00%  - Gaviota v0.83.0.3     +7/-3/=0    70.00%  - Rotor 0.6a            +6/-2/=2    70.00%  - RedQueen 0.9.8        +9/-1/=0    90.00%  - BikJump v2.1P         +9/-0/=1    95.00%

To test recently released versions of Android engines, I conducted a new tournament between the top UCI engines on a Nexus One using a random book opening play, one second-per-move, 32MB hash, and 8MB tablebases cache with the 3- and 4-piece Robbobases endgames on SD card. Congrats again to the Stockfish team!                        1         2         3         4         5 1 Stockfish 2.1            *     54.0-46.0 60.5-39.5 64.5-35.5 65.5-34.5 244.5/400 2 Komodo32 2.03 AB     46.0-54.0     *     46.5-53.5 52.5-47.5 66.0-34.0 211.0/400 3 Critter 1.2 32-bit   39.5-60.5 53.5-46.5     *     51.5-48.5 58.0-42.0 202.5/400 4 RobboLito 0.085e4l   35.5-64.5 47.5-52.5 48.5-51.5     *     62.0-38.0 193.5/400 5 IvanHoe-Beta 999947c 34.5-65.5 34.0-66.0 42.0-58.0 38.0-62.0     *     148.5/400

Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman released version 2 of their chess engine Komodo. You can find an ARM-based Android binary on UCI engines for Android . The new release seems stronger than the already impressive previous version. A quick one second-per-move, 32MB hash tournament on a Nexus S against Komodo1.3 resulted in 73 vs. 27 in favor of Komodo2. 1   Komodo32 2AB     +58/-12/=30 73.00%   73.0/100 2   Komodo32 1.3 JA  +12/-58/=30 27.00%   27.0/100 The new Komodo scored 48.5% against Stockfish 2.1 under the same settings. 1   Stockfish 2.1  +38/-35/=27 51.50%   51.5/100 2   Komodo32 2AB   +35/-38/=27 48.50%   48.5/100

After this previous tournament , I conducted a tournament between various versions of the top engines under the same settings with more games. The results are shown below. Congrats to the stockfish team for winning this tournament!                            1 Stockfish 2.0           323.5/500 2 Stockfish 2.1           316.5/500 3 RobboLito 0.085e4l      250.5/500 4 RobboLito 0.085g3l      240.0/500 5 IvanHoe-Beta v999947c   196.5/500 6 Komodo32 1.3 JA         173.0/500