Roger Brown wrote:
Hello Tony Mokonen,
Thanks for releasing your engine. I like to hear about weaker engines as the 2500 plus club is rather too strong and generally uninteresting (what heresy!!) to me.
I do hope though that your ability to estimate your engine's strength is good. There are authors such as Tord (yes, that one) who also decries his engine's strength. Needless to say, G. can wipe the floor with several very strong engines.
Sigh.
All the best in Olivier's brutal tournament and thanks again for another engine and some more fun. I plan to play against it soon.
Later.
Ps. Please do not strengthen it too fast!!
Thanks for the kind words, Roger. I would say, based on the testing I've done here, that the Chesswar provisional rating of 1499 is fairly close. My favorite sparring partners for Tony's Chess are programs like Nero, LarsenVB, Cefap, Yawce, in that range. It certainly is no Glaurung, but it's enough to beat me more often than I can beat it.
It's not really a new program. I've actually been working on it, on and off, for almost four years now, when I find time. C is not a language that I'm particularly comfortable with, so progress is slow. Bruce Moreland's web pages were the main influence on my engine, though my program uses a 10x12 move generation scheme rather than 0x88. I'll probably release two or three more versions, then move on to a new engine.
Even if I do manage to strengthen it, I'll always keep the older versions around for download. I appreciate it when engine authors keep old versions around, so I figure I'll do the same.
Tony