Help request.

[xcomponent]

Hello!
Recently, I received a message from Leo Dijksman with the following content:

Hi Mincho,

I have a problem running Pawny with PolyGlot/WinBoard:
[Event "WBEC18 NET"]
[Site "OPTERON-A"]
[Date "2010.03.27"]
[Round "1.1"]
[Number "45"]
[White "AviChess 0.9"]
[Black "Pawny 0.1.8-x64"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "40/1200"]
[Annotator "3... +0.03"]

1. c4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. a4 e5 {+0.03/12 14} 4. Qb3
{White wins on time} 1-0

[Event "WBEC18 NET"]
[Site "OPTERON-A"]
[Date "2010.03.27"]
[Round "1.2"]
[Number "46"]
[White "Pawny 0.1.8-x64"]
[Black "AviChess 0.9"]
[Result "0-1"]
[TimeControl "40/1200"]
[Annotator "3. +0.29"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 h5 3. Nc3 {+0.29/12 14} Qb6
{Black wins on time} 0-1

It looks as Pawny dont start after his opponents move or so?
I have the logfile attached for you and hope you can find the problem.

Best wishes,
Leo.

This is the mentioned log file:
http://download708.mediafire.com/ywa4mm ... 18_log.zip

Apparently, Leo uses PolyGlot version 1.4W24. I am using 1.4W25 and Pawny runs in fics through winboard+pg_1.4W25 almost 24/7 with no problems.
It was unable for me to reproduce the buggy events. So I am asking for little help, since I am not an expert on winboard+polyglot subject.
Many thanks in advance to anyone with couple of minutes free to see that!

Best!
Mincho.

p.s. this is the exact version, used by Leo:
http://pawny.netii.net/pawny_0.1.8_x64.zip

[Olivier Deville]

Hi Mincho

The same thing just happened here in my first tests for OpenWar (Fonzy's Polyglot w27).

This kind of issues is usually related to pondering. I'll try some tricks and let you know.

Olivier

[xcomponent]

Thanks, Olivier!
I forgot to mention that I do ponder in my settings, again with no problems. I doubt that is a bug, I think that is more likely to be config. related,
I hope to find out what it is.
And another thing that might be an issue is that Leo, as far as I know, is using Opteron, could be AMD related issue as well, since all of my executables are intel PGO.

[Olivier Deville]

Thanks, Olivier!
I forgot to mention that I do ponder in my settings, again with no problems. I doubt that is a bug, I think that is more likely to be config. related,
I hope to find out what it is.
And another thing that might be an issue is that Leo, as far as I know, is using Opteron, could be AMD related issue as well, since all of my executables are intel PGO.

Solved !

Your engine needs SyncStop = true in polyglot.ini

From polyglot's readme :

When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and
IMMEDIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no problem
with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their search board.
"SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now useless) ponder search
to finish before launching the new search.

This won't help at Leo's though, since I guess he refuses to use this workaround. But it should be quite easy to fix from your side.

Olivier

[xcomponent]

Thanks!

[Waldemar]

My dear friends, there is a way to insert an option in winboard.ini to engine waits like 5 seconds to make the 1st move after game starts ? Thx !