Using PSWBTM

[Gábor Szots]

Dear friends,

Can anybody answer me the following questions?

1. Is it possible to specify minute fragments in the time control window? I tried 2:35 but PSWBTM rounded it down to 2.

2. Is it possible to use a PGN file for opening positions AND select the openings randomly?

[H.G.Muller]

I really don't know PSWBTM that well, but I believe you when you say it does not work. Fixing up PSWBTM a bit is on my to-do list (e.g. with better controls in the engine manager to install UCI engines). I will check this point to.

The only work-around I see with the current version is to use time odds: before starting the tourney, add the options /firstTimeOdds=60 and /secondTimeOdds=60 in the winboard.ini, and enter the time in PSWBTM in seconds (so 155 in this case).

Choosing randomly from a PGN file is neither implemented in PSWBTM nor in WinBoard. It could be added, of course. But the GUI book is really the feature meant for generating random opening lines. If you have the PGN file, making a Polyglot book from it, and using that as GUI book, should do exactly what you want.

[Gábor Szots]

Thank you, HG.

[Gábor Szots]

I really don't know PSWBTM that well, but I believe you when you say it does not work. Fixing up PSWBTM a bit is on my to-do list (e.g. with better controls in the engine manager to install UCI engines). I will check this point to.

The only work-around I see with the current version is to use time odds: before starting the tourney, add the options /firstTimeOdds=60 and /secondTimeOdds=60 in the winboard.ini, and enter the time in PSWBTM in seconds (so 155 in this case).

I tried this time-odds method and it worked, however as soon as I exit WB the odds settings are forgotten (what is more, their lines are even deleted from winboard.ini), so next time I start with 2h 35m time control.

[H.G.Muller]

Too bad my elaborate answer was rejected... Anyway, the solution is not to save settings. PSWBTM would not let WB save settings during a tourney.

[Gábor Szots]

Too bad my elaborate answer was rejected... Anyway, the solution is not to save settings. PSWBTM would not let WB save settings during a tourney.

I'm feeling stupid. I am desperately trying to use PSWBTM for a tournament but it does not want me to do it...

I want to use a bin book, so I told WB to do so. I told it the engines have no own book. After a game in which both engines used the predefined book I exited WB and started a tournament using PSWBTM. There were no book moves. I have found no command regarding own book usage in winboard.ini. It seems they want to use their own book, they don't have one, but angrily they refuse to use the common book.

Please tell me what I do wrong. Do I have to edit winboard.ini manually?

[H.G.Muller]

The 'own book' options are volatile, i.e. not saved in the winboard.ini. (The argument for this is that, like /fd or /fUCI, you usually want them to go with a specific engine, and the engine name is not persistent either.) This means they disappear from the ini file every time you save option, which usually is every time you close WinBoard.

So setting the options through the menu only affects the current run. You would really have to edit them into the winboard.ini when you want to apply them globally. And then be careful never to save options, as that would make them disppear again. (PSWBTM is careful to let WB never save options during a tourney.) I perceive this as one of the shortcomings of PSWBTM: there should have been a field in the tournament setup dialog here you could list a number of options that you want to be put on the WinBoard command line for every game in that tournament.

I usually want to use the GUI book only for engines that have no own book. In that case I do not edit them in the winboard.ini, but add them to the engine(s) in the PSWBTM engine manager. To this end I add to the 'parameters':

WBopt /%sXBook

This will make PSWBTM pass the option with the engine name, which effectively is like it was on the command line for invoking WinBoard (so it does not have to be in the ini file).

[Gábor Szots]

So setting the options through the menu only affects the current run. You would really have to edit them into the winboard.ini when you want to apply them globally.

Now what is the command to tell WB the engines do not use an own book? I tried /firstOwnBook=false but WB did not recognize it. I went through the help file but no hint there either.

EDIT: I think I have found the command (firstHasOwnBook=false).

Thanks for your kind help.

[H.G.Muller]

There are many forms of this option. Originally (in Winboard_x) it was /firstHasOwnBookUCI=false|true, with a short form /fNoOwnBookUCI (without argument). Actually this option was never send to the engine; it was just telling Polyglot if it should use the book, and if Polyglot was doing this, the engine would not even get the moves until Polyglot was out of book. So it really would not matter if the engine had a book or not.

Actually the long form, that would allow you to switch the option on or off, was kind of useless for a volatile option with a default true. You only want to switch that off; if you want it on you ust do not give any option at all, and count on the default. The UCI in the name became a bit confusing when I moved the book-probing code from Polyglot to WinBoard, so that also WinBoard engines were using it. So I introduced a synonym for /fHasNoOwnBookUCI: /firstXBook. I preferred this over /fXBook, because options with 'first' and 'second' spelled out in full are easier to use in PSWBTM. (Where /%sXBook translates to either /firstXBook or /secondXBook, but there is no way to specify a single f or s in an option. For the same reason the WB development version now also knows /firstUCI and /seconUCI as synonyms for /fUCI and /sUCI, so you can specify /%sUCI in PSWBTM, rather than the cumbersome /%sIsUCI true. Of course it would be still better if PSWBTM did have a simple checkbox for this...)

[Gábor Szots]

/firstXBook

I am happy to report that a gauntlet is in progress using the above command and all is well, the engines are using the Polyglot book.

A minor flaw is that all games are played with the same opening line, probably I made a mistake when setting up the tournament.

And, which surprised me, it seems that the gauntlet engine is going to play all its games against the first opponent before playing a game against the second one. I'd prefer to see all engines in the same round, maybe it is possible but I missed a setting option?

[H.G.Muller]

Unfortunately, PSWBTM does not support this (also not in round robins), although I frequently tied to press Pradu to add another loop around the current scheduling, so you could both run a number of games per pairing in a row (in the innermost loop), and do a number of complete cycles after one another. If I get to work on PSWBTM, it will be one of the first things I will add.

[Gábor Szots]

I am running a gauntlet in which one of the opponents (of Myrddin) is CyberPagno 2.1, an old WB engine. To my surprise, I got an error message telling me the game ended without starting. I also offered me I could take a pause. Now this was a 32-game match so I had to press 'No' 32 times before I could go on to the next opponent...

Previously I successfully ran CyberPagno under Arena and also under CB (via the WB2UCI adapter).

Shall I set protocol 1 manually or is there some other trick?

[Guenther Simon]

I am running a gauntlet in which one of the opponents (of Myrddin) is CyberPagno 2.1, an old WB engine. To my surprise, I got an error message telling me the game ended without starting. I also offered me I could take a pause. Now this was a 32-game match so I had to press 'No' 32 times before I could go on to the next opponent...

Previously I successfully ran CyberPagno under Arena and also under CB (via the WB2UCI adapter).

Shall I set protocol 1 manually or is there some other trick?

Are you sure you have set it up with the needed '-xboard' parameter?

Guenther

[Gábor Szots]

I am running a gauntlet in which one of the opponents (of Myrddin) is CyberPagno 2.1, an old WB engine. To my surprise, I got an error message telling me the game ended without starting. I also offered me I could take a pause. Now this was a 32-game match so I had to press 'No' 32 times before I could go on to the next opponent...

Previously I successfully ran CyberPagno under Arena and also under CB (via the WB2UCI adapter).

Shall I set protocol 1 manually or is there some other trick?

Are you sure you have set it up with the needed '-xboard' parameter?

Guenther

Well, I was sure but I did it the wrong way. I entered -xboard when setting up Cyber with PSWBTM. I did not think it was needed in the winboard.ini file, I thought WB would send that command anyway.

It works now, thanks.

[H.G.Muller]

WinBoard sends it all right. But some engines prefer to ignore that (or treat it as a quit command...), and rather look on their command line.

[M Mountain]

I usually want to use the GUI book only for engines that have no own book. In that case I do not edit them in the winboard.ini, but add them to the engine(s) in the PSWBTM engine manager. To this end I add to the 'parameters':

WBopt /%sXBook

This will make PSWBTM pass the option with the engine name, which effectively is like it was on the command line for invoking WinBoard (so it does not have to be in the ini file).

My PSWBTM engine manager entry looks like this:



My corresponding entry in the winboard.ini file looks like this:

"cassandre-026-64-ja.exe" /fd="." /firstXBook <- or /secondXBook in the corrseponding section.

When I launch Cassandre from the Winboard startup dialog, it makes the first several moves from the Polyglot book and then begins evaluating at the appropriate place.

When I launch Cassandre from the engine manager in PSWBTM and tell it to play as white, I receive a "Polyglot book not valid" message and Cassandre begins evaluating for its first move.

Any idea why? The same thing happens with AliBaba 1.35 and Sjaak r149, so I don't think it is a problem with the engine.

[H.G.Muller]

In the WinBoard that is launched from the PSWBTM engine manager, what do you see in the Options -> Common-Engine dialog for the polyglot-book filename?

To me, it sounds a bit like a directory problem, that somehow a WinBoard launched from PSWBTM searches the book file in the wrong folder. Perhaps it could be cured by specifying the full pathname of the book file.

[M Mountain]

Ah, that did the trick!

I suppose since before , the book path was only specified as ".\default_book.bin", PSWBTM was assuming it would be located there relative to PSWBTM.exe, instead of relative to Winboard.exe.

So the two solutions are to set the full book path instead of relative path, or put PSWBTM.exe in the same folder as Winboard.exe.

[H.G.Muller]

It is still a bit weird. I was under the impression that WinBoard would be looking for all files it accessesd releative to its installation directory, and not from the directory from which it was started. (This is certainly true for the engines and the (master) ini file.) Apparently not for the book.

A solution that would avoid the use of absolute path names (to keep the install portable) would be to specify the book as "..\WinBoard\default_book.bin". This would work both from the WinBoard folder itself, as well as from any sister folder such as PSWBTM.

[M Mountain]

That is a much better solution.