Winboard Forum

ZZZZZZ 3.4 by G. Wiesenekker
http://home.planet.nl/~gijsbert.wiesenekker/zzzzzz.html

ZZZZZZ 3.4wb JA with winboard support.
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How to use:
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Install as a standard winboard engine. No command line options needed.
ZZZZZZ 3.4wb doesn't use it's own opening book, but 'force & go'
commands are implemented so you can use 'Bookthinker' or your chess
gui's own opening books.
The file 'brd.txt' (which contains the starting position) needs to be
in the same folder as the exe for the engine to work. When ZZZZZZ is
run it will create additional files 'game.txt', 'dbase.bin' &
'dbase.key' in it's current folder.


Changes:
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1. Added winboard protocol 2 support.
2. Removed all redundant command line features.
3. Added resign function.
4. New logo.

This is another chess engine I've been meaning to convert to winboard
for a very long time, but the complexity of the source code always put
me off the idea. My programming skills have improved enough over the
past few years to attempt it again - with success this time.

ZZZZZZ (named after a fatal error routine in FORTRAN77) was entered into
the Dutch Computer Chess Championships in 1993, where it achieved a very
respectable 5 out of 10 points. Engine strength I would estimate to be
around TSCP level. There are a couple of later versions of ZZZZZZ, v3.6 for
the Mac chess gui ExaChess http://www.exachess.com/downloads.html
(this is essentially the same as 3.4 with a few small bugfixes) and v5.0
written in Delphi, which is still available on the web which has it's own
very nice gui, but unfortunately, is not winboard or UCI compatible either.

I'll update the program from time to time if bugs appear.

Available from my homepage.

Have fun!

Jim Ablett.

ZZZZZZ is definitely far stronger than TSCP. See for instance the Chess War tournaments. ZZZZZZ has no trouble maintaining itself in the E-division ther, while TSCP is too weak for the F-division, and usually is relegated to the Promo-division, where it often fails to qualify.

On Olivier's much compressed rating-scale, ZZZZZZ rates around 2000, while TSCP is only about 1700. Even micro-Max 4.8 is significantly above TSCP, at 1865, but it is no match for ZZZZZZ.

Who told you that ZZZZZZ is called after this FORTRAN routine? I always understood that the name is pronounces 'Zetten', which is the Dutch plural for the letter Z ('zet'), but also happens to mean 'moves' in Dutch.

H.G.Muller wrote:ZZZZZZ is definitely far stronger than TSCP. See for instance the Chess War tournaments. ZZZZZZ has no trouble maintaining itself in the E-division ther, while TSCP is too weak for the F-division, and usually is relegated to the Promo-division, where it often fails to qualify.

On Olivier's much compressed rating-scale, ZZZZZZ rates around 2000, while TSCP is only about 1700. Even micro-Max 4.8 is significantly above TSCP, at 1865, but it is no match for ZZZZZZ.

Who told you that ZZZZZZ is called after this FORTRAN routine? I always understood that the name is pronounces 'Zetten', which is the Dutch plural for the letter Z ('zet'), but also happens to mean 'moves' in Dutch.

Hi Harm,

It's the latest (6x) private version which plays in Chesswar. This version (3.4) dates back to 1993.

Here the quote from the readme which came with v3.4 concerning the origin of the name 'ZZZZZZ' >

Q: Why is it called ZZZZZZ? A: During my studies in Theoretical Chemistry, I had to program a lot in FORTRAN77. ZZZZZZ was the name of my fatal error routine (6 Z's, so that it appeared last in the program listing).

regards,
Jim.

Ah, OK, this is an old version. Sorry I didn't notice that.

Found and fixed some bugs in ZZZZZZ.

ZZZZZZ 3.4.1 TT with winboard support.
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What's new:
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1. Better rep-detection.
2. Fixed bug in mate search.
3. Removed more redundant code.

Available from my homepage.

Jim.