New winboard/xboard engine "Ghost"

[Pete (jap)]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pete (jap) at 07 February 2001 20:37:28:
author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease
regards,
Pete

[Dann Corbit]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Dann Corbit at 07 February 2001 22:15:17:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Pete (jap) at 07 February 2001 20:37:28:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.


My FTP Site

[Pete Galati]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pete Galati at 07 February 2001 22:27:38:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Dann Corbit at 07 February 2001 22:15:17:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

Is it's readme file in ghost script?

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 04:48:23:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Pete Galati at 07 February 2001 22:27:38:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

Is it's readme file in ghost script?

Cool. At this rate we are going to reach 100 available [commercial and free] winboard engines by the middle of this year.
When this landmark number is reached,
*Frank Quisinsky will go crazy updating his website. 100 programs , if each authors update say once every 3 months,on average, you would have updates
every date for some program or other.
*Dann Corbit will spend all his time optimising zillions of engines that have source codes available
* With so many chess programs, so seen one person no matter how dedicated can keep up with testing all of them. So even guru level guys will find it more difficult to help newbies with problems involving new programs that they are not familar with.

[Pete Galati]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pete Galati at 08 February 2001 06:13:04:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 04:48:23:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

Is it's readme file in ghost script?

Cool. At this rate we are going to reach 100 available [commercial and free] winboard engines by the middle of this year.
When this landmark number is reached,
*Frank Quisinsky will go crazy updating his website. 100 programs , if each authors update say once every 3 months,on average, you would have updates
every date for some program or other.
*Dann Corbit will spend all his time optimising zillions of engines that have source codes available
* With so many chess programs, so seen one person no matter how dedicated can keep up with testing all of them. So even guru level guys will find it more difficult to help newbies with problems involving new programs that they are not familar with.

I can't keep up anymore.   If I stop paying attention for a week, Frank's offering 4 or 5 new Winboard engines I never heard of in the Download area.   It's way too much work, so I only have some old favorites now.   In another year, Frank and Dann will be like Stienitz talking to God on the telephone.   Dann'll be brushing illusions off his shoulder going "Get...    OFF!!"
Pete

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 06:32:44:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Pete Galati at 08 February 2001 06:13:04:

* With so many chess programs, so seen one person no matter how dedicated can keep up with testing all of them. So even guru level guys will find it more difficult to help newbies with problems involving new programs that they are not familar with.

I can't keep up anymore.   If I stop paying attention for a week, Frank's offering 4 or 5 new Winboard engines I never heard of in the Download area.   It's way too much work, so I only have some old favorites now.

I use TechnoChess has a cutoff myself. Programs that I perceive as stronger than or equal to technochess get downloaded. Unfortunately, even that group seems to be growing from what i can see
..
I keep Faile [0.6 i think] because occasionally I want someone to beat up..[hopefully]..

[Pete Galati]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Pete Galati at 08 February 2001 07:04:46:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 06:32:44:

* With so many chess programs, so seen one person no matter how dedicated can keep up with testing all of them. So even guru level guys will find it more difficult to help newbies with problems involving new programs that they are not familar with.

I can't keep up anymore.   If I stop paying attention for a week, Frank's offering 4 or 5 new Winboard engines I never heard of in the Download area.   It's way too much work, so I only have some old favorites now.

I use TechnoChess has a cutoff myself. Programs that I perceive as stronger than or equal to technochess get downloaded. Unfortunately, even that group seems to be growing from what i can see
..
I keep Faile [0.6 i think] because occasionally I want someone to beat up..[hopefully]..

Sounds like a good system.
Faile's a cool program, but I'm not good enough to win a game against it.    I like Cilian an awful lot, because I like it's style, and every game I convince myself that I can win the game, but I've actually only won one game against it.    I still haven't managed to get a copy of Cilian over on this computer yet though.
Pete

[M1ck1]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: M1ck1 at 08 February 2001 10:55:22:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Pete Galati at 07 February 2001 22:27:38:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

Is it's readme file in ghost script?

well, at the moment it looses much more games than it wins (especially in blitz!), but it's getting better
much more amazingly, in my opinion, is that it does quite well without a serious evaluating function and it has been writen from scratch in only a few months...
no, it is not, its just a simple text file...

[Aaron]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 11:35:02:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: M1ck1 at 08 February 2001 10:55:22:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

well, at the moment it looses much more games than it wins (especially in blitz!), but it's getting better
much more amazingly, in my opinion, is that it does quite well without a >serious evaluating function and it has been writen from scratch in only a few >months...

Hello Philip
Looks like you have got the 85th winboard program..Congrats..
I'm sure Frank Quisinisky who lists all the winboard engines would appreciate it a lot if you could help supply him information about Ghost, acording to the layout given at http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach ... /faile.htm
It would be very helpful to most of us as well..
More examples can be found here
http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach/uebersicht.htm

[Philipp Classen]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Philipp Classen at 08 February 2001 15:13:33:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Aaron at 08 February 2001 11:35:02:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

well, at the moment it looses much more games than it wins (especially in blitz!), but it's getting better
much more amazingly, in my opinion, is that it does quite well without a >serious evaluating function and it has been writen from scratch in only a few >months...

Hello Philip
Looks like you have got the 85th winboard program..Congrats..
I'm sure Frank Quisinisky who lists all the winboard engines would appreciate it a lot if you could help supply him information about Ghost, acording to the layout given at http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach ... /faile.htm
It would be very helpful to most of us as well..
More examples can be found here
http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach/uebersicht.htm

Indeed Ghost has only a minimal evaluation function (yet).
Here are some things I want to implement in the very next future:
- better kingsafety evaluation, it often gets mated because it ignores the enemy's attack plans
- proper use of pawns, well, I've bought the book "Pawn Power In Chess" of Hans Kmoch so that should be no problem. - Just a joke.
- control of the center
- endgame knowledge(!)
Okay, first of all I have to say that haven't finished my program.
This was supposed to be only a test version. That's why it doesn't have any documentations or something like that except a minimal help command.
Here are some information about Ghost:
It works with xboard/winboard, but sometimes it causes problems and it may work with Chessbase Fritz (with the winboard port), but I won't guarantee it.
I don't know much about the linux version which is out of date.
Download:
Windows version: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ ... /ghost.exe
Linux version: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ ... host_linux
Additions to WinBoard.ini:
\"Ghost xboard\" /fd=c:\\WinBoard\\Ghost
\"Ghost xboard\" /sd=c:\\WinBoard\\Ghost
You don't have to add the "xboard" parameter, but it's better you do it.
In this test version it isn't possible to set the size of the hashtables.
The default size for hashtables is 16Mb and 8Mb for pawnhashtables.
Estimate of playing strength:
Hard to say, Ghost has surely more than 2000 ELO, but its performance depends very much of the position, because it isn't very well balanced (due to its unfinished evaluation function). My personal impression is that it loves crazy positions. What do you think? Are there any obvious weaknesses?
In the last blitz game against GNUChess Ghost won after playing the following opening:
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e4? A typical move from Ghost. This sacrifices a pawn without real compensation, but it plays on very active and waits for the mistake.
Philipp

[G.Simon]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: G.Simon at 08 February 2001 15:25:38:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Philipp Classen at 08 February 2001 15:13:33:

author: Philipp Classen
url: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ghost
for details see Philipp's announcement in r.g.c.c.
first impression: pretty strong newcomer, kills my own creature with ease

A fairly strong program. It beat Amyan in a high speed blitz match. Got beaten badly by Yace at high speed blitz (but then again, so does everybody else).
Amazingly, the program does quite well without any opening book.

well, at the moment it looses much more games than it wins (especially in blitz!), but it's getting better
much more amazingly, in my opinion, is that it does quite well without a >serious evaluating function and it has been writen from scratch in only a few >months...

Hello Philip
Looks like you have got the 85th winboard program..Congrats..
I'm sure Frank Quisinisky who lists all the winboard engines would appreciate it a lot if you could help supply him information about Ghost, acording to the layout given at http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach ... /faile.htm
It would be very helpful to most of us as well..
More examples can be found here
http://amateurschach.in-trier.de/schach/uebersicht.htm

Indeed Ghost has only a minimal evaluation function (yet).
Here are some things I want to implement in the very next future:
- better kingsafety evaluation, it often gets mated because it ignores the enemy's attack plans
- proper use of pawns, well, I've bought the book "Pawn Power In Chess" of Hans Kmoch so that should be no problem. - Just a joke.
- control of the center
- endgame knowledge(!)
Okay, first of all I have to say that haven't finished my program.
This was supposed to be only a test version. That's why it doesn't have any documentations or something like that except a minimal help command.
Here are some information about Ghost:
It works with xboard/winboard, but sometimes it causes problems and it may work with Chessbase Fritz (with the winboard port), but I won't guarantee it.
I don't know much about the linux version which is out of date.
Download:
Windows version: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ ... /ghost.exe
Linux version: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~classenm/ ... host_linux
Additions to WinBoard.ini:
\"Ghost xboard\" /fd=c:\\WinBoard\\Ghost
\"Ghost xboard\" /sd=c:\\WinBoard\\Ghost
You don't have to add the "xboard" parameter, but it's better you do it.
In this test version it isn't possible to set the size of the hashtables.
The default size for hashtables is 16Mb and 8Mb for pawnhashtables.
Estimate of playing strength:
Hard to say, Ghost has surely more than 2000 ELO, but its performance depends very much of the position, because it isn't very well balanced (due to its unfinished evaluation function). My personal impression is that it loves crazy positions. What do you think? Are there any obvious weaknesses?
In the last blitz game against GNUChess Ghost won after playing the following opening:
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e4? A typical move from Ghost. This sacrifices a pawn without real compensation, but it plays on very active and waits for the mistake.
Philipp

Hello Philipp
Congrats for making a new hopefully engine!
As far as I know this should be the 2nd one out of Bavaria
(after "grizzly" which I remember as from UNI Bayreuth) )
Seems to run without serious problems under CB Guis exceptionally
the kind of resuming its time(playing too slow here in the opening).
Did you ever started at the Open in PASSAU??
Much regards from Regensburg,Günther

[Philipp Classen]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Philipp Classen at 08 February 2001 18:04:56:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: G.Simon at 08 February 2001 15:25:38:
Hallo Günther

Hello Philipp
Congrats for making a new hopefully engine!
As far as I know this should be the 2nd one out of Bavaria
(after "grizzly" which I remember as from UNI Bayreuth) )
Seems to run without serious problems under CB Guis exceptionally
the kind of resuming its time(playing too slow here in the opening).
Did you ever started at the Open in PASSAU??
Much regards from Regensburg,Günther

Yes, that's right, but I wonder why. ???
Ahh, no. Is that a computer chess tournament?
Greetings from Pilsting, about one hour away from Regensburg

[Josef Zwinger]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Josef Zwinger at 08 February 2001 19:48:41:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Philipp Classen at 08 February 2001 18:04:56:

Much regards from Regensburg,Günther

Greetings from Pilsting, about one hour away from Regensburg

Hello Philipp,
do you live in Pilsting (near Landau/Is.)?
Josef
(Landau/Is.)

[Philipp Classen]

Geschrieben von: / Posted by: Philipp Classen at 09 February 2001 18:19:34:
Als Antwort auf: / As an answer to: Re: New winboard/xboard engine geschrieben von: / posted by: Josef Zwinger at 08 February 2001 19:48:41:

Much regards from Regensburg,Günther

Greetings from Pilsting, about one hour away from Regensburg

Hello Philipp,
do you live in Pilsting (near Landau/Is.)?
Josef
(Landau/Is.)

Yes.