Question for Polyglot book experts

[Guenther Simon]

Hello,

Is there a way to let Polyglot show somehow the
content of a Polyglot book in whatever way?

Regards,
Guenther

[Marc Lacrosse]

Hello,

Is there a way to let Polyglot show somehow the
content of a Polyglot book in whatever way?

Regards,
Guenther

Yes, there is, but it is a little bit of a pain...

In the following explanation, commands are in bold and my comments in normal text.
I suppose you do it under Windows and you wish to test mybook.bin.

Before proceeding you have to choose an UCI engine of your like (the engine will be silently running all along the procedure).

You have to make a myengine.ini polyglot ini file for this engine with the following items in the [Polyglot] section :
Book = true
BookFile = mybook.bin

In the [Engine] section of the ini file do put :
OwnBook = false

Then launch the engine in a console box :
Polyglot myengine.ini

Then type the following commands (each one followed by "enter") :

xboard initialises xboard mode
protover 2 switches to winboard protocol "2"
nopost so you won't see continuous engine output
new so you go to startposition
analyze switch to "analyze" mode

Then you have to enter the position for which you would like to see book moves with their relative probabilities.

The easyest way is :
setboard FEN

Another way to do it is to go the desired position through entering moves from the startposition (one at a time, with enter after each move). either in SAN (=PGN) notation either in "coordinate" notation (e2e4). No takeback is possible. If you do a mistake you have to issue new and go at new from the startposition.

Once you have reached the questioned position (through setboard or through entering moves) do type bk and you will get all moves stored in your book file.

If you wish to test another position : new and you enter the new position.

At any time if you issue post you will see the analysis output of the silently running engine. Then nopost would switch it back off.

To leave "analyze mode" : exit
To end completely : quit

So you are done.

All these are standard winboard 2 commands but the manual is a bit difficult...

Marc

[Guenther Simon]

Hello,

Is there a way to let Polyglot show somehow the
content of a Polyglot book in whatever way?

Regards,
Guenther

Yes, there is, but it is a little bit of a pain...

[snipped the valuable description...]

Thanks a lot for description Marc!

Best regards,
Guenther

[juan dela cruz]

Marc,

It seems that you are the only expert I know of with this polyglot books and which I consider the best. Will there be another version of your performance.bin?

Please excuse for asking this other question. Aside from what you mentioned to Gunther Simon, will it be possible for us to copy the entire book moves in a txt file so that we can view it externally?

Juan

[Marc Lacrosse]

Marc,
It seems that you are the only expert I know of with this polyglot books and which I consider the best.

Thanks for the appreciation but there are many other "experts" of these books : Salvo Spitalieri, Dann Corbit, Leo Dijksman, ...

I also feel that Fabien Letouzey put very original and powerful functions for the building of such books in his wonderful Polyglot utility.

Unfortunately we miss editing tools for handtuning these books ...

Will there be another version of your performance.bin?

Probably not in the forecoming months.

I tried but could not success in making a definitely better "general" book.

Probably if I once publish a new book it will be more of a dedicated one for a precise engine, with a less broad repertoire.

At the moment I am very busy with my correspondence games (I engaged for a bit too many simultaneously) and with a little testing for beta versions of some program.

Please excuse for asking this other question. Aside from what you mentioned to Gunther Simon, will it be possible for us to copy the entire book moves in a txt file so that we can view it externally?
Juan

Unfortunately not.
There is no other way to see the real content of a PG book than the one that I described here ..

Regards.

Marc