MOVE NOW comand

[matematiko]

Hi all,

As silly as the question might sound, can somebody explain what is the purpose, limitations, and requesites of the "Move Now" button?

The thing is that this button is not working for me (latest 4.4.1 release) when using Rybka 3 and in ICS mode. Perhaps the engine froze and does not response to commands, or was not intended for ICS mode. In reality, this is happening to a friend of mine, therfore I dont have log files to post here, but if necessary and based in the answer I will try to reproduce the error and produce the logs (both: WinBoard and Polyglot).

Regards and thanks in advance,

[H.G.Muller]

XBoard sends the move-now commnd to Polyglot, when you run a UCI engine. I don't know how Polyglot handles it. According to W protocol specs, it is allowed to ignore the move-now command.

[Michel]

It should normally just work. PG just sends "stop" to the engine which should reply with a bestmove command.

[matematiko]

Well....then it looks like the engine is freezing for whatever other reason. Mr Muller, can you please verify that this command is supported in ICS mode.

Thanks,

[dene]

Hi,

Sometimes when using the CTG Adapter with Rybka 3 and ICS mode the engine can stop for some reason, (or more likely it doesnt start after you come out of book). This doesnt happen all the time, but it happens quite often. Its as though its lost communication somewhere.

The only way to force the engine to move when this happens is to use the command ctrl+n (new game), but this doesnt work all of the time. Nothing happens when you enter the command ctrl+m (move now) to try and force the engine to move.

I was wondering if it would be possible to create a command in winboard to force the engine to restart and make an instand move when this happens.

Cheers

Dene

[H.G.Muller]

Run WinBoard with the -xreuse parameter, and ask for a new game. That kills the engine process, and starts a new one.

[dene]

Thanks for the advice Mr Muller.

[Olivier Deville]

Hi,

Sometimes when using the CTG Adapter with Rybka 3 and ICS mode the engine can stop for some reason, (or more likely it doesnt start after you come out of book). This doesnt happen all the time, but it happens quite often. Its as though its lost communication somewhere.

The only way to force the engine to move when this happens is to use the command ctrl+n (new game), but this doesnt work all of the time. Nothing happens when you enter the command ctrl+m (move now) to try and force the engine to move.

I was wondering if it would be possible to create a command in winboard to force the engine to restart and make an instand move when this happens.

Cheers

Dene

There is also a bug in the Aquarium book adapter. Adding SyncStop = true to polyglot.ini seems to help.

Olivier

[Michel]

There is also a bug in the Aquarium book adapter. Adding SyncStop = true to polyglot.ini seems to help.

If SychStop=true helps then the the bug should not appear with ponder off. Is that correct?

SyncStop=true makes PG wait with launching a new search until the bestmove command arrives.

[Olivier Deville]

There is also a bug in the Aquarium book adapter. Adding SyncStop = true to polyglot.ini seems to help.

If SychStop=true helps then the the bug should not appear with ponder off. Is that correct?

SyncStop=true makes PG wait with launching a new search until the bestmove command arrives.

Correct. I always test with ponder on here.

Olivier