WBEC and UCI

[Maurizio De Leo]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Maurizio De Leo at 12. July 2004 23:37:

Hello to all.
I saw that some new UCI engines were admitted in the WBEC : namely Fruit, Maestro and Alfil.
I think that this is a very good thing .
Yes, WBEC stands for Winboard engine contest and Winboard is still the protocol of the majority of the engines (as Roger Brown pointed out in another thread) and will be for a long time.
Nevertheless, more testing is always good and excludind some of the strongest free engines from WBEC, which is in my opinion the BEST engine tournament, just doesn't feel right.
Anyway, all this long introduction for posting my question :
Will other engines be allowed to use UCI, also if a winboard version exists ?
The answer to this question is up to Leo of course, but my take is the following.
I think UCI should be allowed, but only for engines for which the last UCI version is substantially stronger than the winboard version.
This would include SOS 4, Little Goliath and maybe (maybe Shredder 8.
What do you think about this ?
Ciao
Maurizio

[Norm Pollock]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Norm Pollock at 13 July 2004 13:53:25:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: WBEC and UCI geschrieben von:/posted by: Maurizio De Leo at 12. July 2004 23:37:

Hello to all.
I saw that some new UCI engines were admitted in the WBEC : namely Fruit, Maestro and Alfil.
I think that this is a very good thing .
Yes, WBEC stands for Winboard engine contest and Winboard is still the protocol of the majority of the engines (as Roger Brown pointed out in another thread) and will be for a long time.
Nevertheless, more testing is always good and excludind some of the strongest free engines from WBEC, which is in my opinion the BEST engine tournament, just doesn't feel right.
Anyway, all this long introduction for posting my question :
Will other engines be allowed to use UCI, also if a winboard version exists ?
The answer to this question is up to Leo of course, but my take is the following.
I think UCI should be allowed, but only for engines for which the last UCI version is substantially stronger than the winboard version.
This would include SOS 4, Little Goliath and maybe (maybe Shredder 8.
What do you think about this ?
Ciao
Maurizio

Interesting question.
WB is clearly the preferred protocol of new engines because (imho) of the many excellent WB tournaments that cater to new engines. As engines move up the elo scale, some have a tendency to branch out to other protocols.
Even if dual-protocol engines are permitted in a WB tournament, the UCI engines would still have to use an adapter (like Polyglot) to run in a wbtm (like Jori's).

[Leo Dijksman]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Leo Dijksman at 13 July 2004 18:28:40:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: WBEC and UCI geschrieben von:/posted by: Maurizio De Leo at 12. July 2004 23:37:

Hello Maurizio,

Hello to all.
I saw that some new UCI engines were admitted in the WBEC : namely Fruit, Maestro and Alfil.
I think that this is a very good thing .
Yes, WBEC stands for Winboard engine contest and Winboard is still the protocol of the majority of the engines (as Roger Brown pointed out in another thread) and will be for a long time.
Nevertheless, more testing is always good and excludind some of the strongest free engines from WBEC, which is in my opinion the BEST engine tournament, just doesn't feel right.
Anyway, all this long introduction for posting my question :
Will other engines be allowed to use UCI, also if a winboard version exists ?
The answer to this question is up to Leo of course, but my take is the following.
I think UCI should be allowed, but only for engines for which the last UCI version is substantially stronger than the winboard version.
This would include SOS 4, Little Goliath and maybe (maybe Shredder 8.
What do you think about this ?
Ciao
Maurizio

The last version (407) of Alfil is WB/UCI so the WB version will be used, and
Patzer 3.62 at the 1st division is UCI!
If an engine is both WB/UCI I will use the WB version by default but if the
author ask me to use it as UCI/PolyGlot its ok for me as long its stable!
All UCI engines are allowed to participate, SOS 4 should have played alread but
have some problems, probably I will use LittleGolath Revival which seems very
stable but I am not sure if he is better as v3.9 for the Premier division and
"maby" I will include Rebel 12.00.01 and Shredder (I tested 7.04) into coming
Premier division tourney since I have a workaround for their "hanging" problems
after the game is finished! (both played more as 200 games without problem)
Before I get complains, if they start it will have no influence at the
promotion/relegation rules because at edition 10 all 4RR tourneys will have 20
participants, probably the Prem, 2nd and 4th will have even 22 players.
I am working on that!
Best wishes,
Leo.



WBEC Ridderkerk homepage.

[Fabien Letouzey]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 13 July 2004 18:37:15:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: WBEC and UCI geschrieben von:/posted by: Leo Dijksman at 13 July 2004 18:28:40:

All UCI engines are allowed to participate, SOS 4 should have played alread but
have some problems, probably I will use LittleGolath Revival which seems very
stable but I am not sure if he is better as v3.9 for the Premier division and
"maby" I will include Rebel 12.00.01 and Shredder (I tested 7.04) into coming
Premier division tourney since I have a workaround for their "hanging" problems
after the game is finished! (both played more as 200 games without problem)

Hi Leo,
What did you do for Shredder?
Fabien.

[Leo Dijksman]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Leo Dijksman at 13 July 2004 18:54:47:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: WBEC and UCI geschrieben von:/posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 13 July 2004 18:37:15:

All UCI engines are allowed to participate, SOS 4 should have played alread but
have some problems, probably I will use LittleGolath Revival which seems very
stable but I am not sure if he is better as v3.9 for the Premier division and
"maby" I will include Rebel 12.00.01 and Shredder (I tested 7.04) into coming
Premier division tourney since I have a workaround for their "hanging" problems
after the game is finished! (both played more as 200 games without problem)

Hi Leo,
What did you do for Shredder?
Fabien.

Hi Fabien,
I add this line to the wbtm *.bat files:
start /wait D:\WinBoard\PrcView\pv.exe -kf Shredder704.exe
which kill the engine if he hangs (same I do for Rebel)
"PrcView" (pv.exe) quits the exe from the task manager, I do
this only for engines which "hang" after a game is finished ofcourse.
The only thing I need is to add such a line to more as one bat file at once or
a possibillity to do it automatically.
Best wishes,
Leo.


WBEC Ridderkerk homepage.