Winboard Forum

by **Volker Pittlik** » 30 Mar 2004, 13:10

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 14:10:50:

I downloaded the new version of Polyglot. So far none of the reported problems
(losing on time etc.) occured here.
So I tried to use it together with Bookthinker. When starting it in the
"natural" way with "Bookthinker polyglot fruit.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot in
the winboard.ini it works fine. (Please note Bookthinker and thinker.dat have to
be in same directory as Polyglot.)
But then I tried "Bookthinker polyglot shredder.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot" and
I observed that instead of Shredder Fruit was loaded a second time. When I
deleted the fruit.ini nothing happend at all. It seems Polyglot is always
looking for a fruit.ini and -if it is there- it is reading it. Replacing
"polyglot shredder.ini" with "shredder-start.bat" (the batchfile only contains
"polyglot shredder.ini") didn't solve the problem.
After some testing I created own directories for each engine. In each directory
is the thinker.dat, a copy of Bookthinker and Polyglot and a fruit.ini. Abusing
the fruit.ini and write the paths to Shredder, List and so on in it I reached my
goal.

[Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "VPITTLIK"]
[Date "2004.03.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Bookthinker-Shredder"]
[Black "Bookthinker-List"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "40/120"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. exd6 Nxd6 7. Nc3 Nc6
8. Qf4 Nf5 9. Bb5 Bd6 10. Qe4+ Qe7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rd1 Ne5 13. Bf4 Nxf3+
14. Qxf3 Nh4 15. Qg3 Bxf4 16. Qxf4 Be6 17. Bd3 Ng6 18. Bxg6 hxg6 19. Ne4 f6
20. h4 Rad8 21. Re1 Bf7 22. Re3 Rfe8 23. Rae1 Qe5 24. Qxe5 Rxe5 25. f4 Re6
26. b3 Kf8 27. Kf2 f5 28. Ng5 Rxe3 29. Rxe3 Rd2+ 30. Re2 Rxe2+ 31. Kxe2 Bd5
32. g3 Ke7 33. c4 Bg2 34. Kf2 Bh1 35. b4 b6 36. Ke3 Bg2 37. Kd4 Kf6 38. a3
a5 39. Nh7+ Ke7 40. bxa5 bxa5 41. Kc5 Bf3 42. Kb5 Be2 43. Ng5 a4 44. Kxa4
Bxc4 45. Nf3 Kd6 46. Kb4 Kd5 47. Ne5 Bf1 48. Kc3 Ke4 49. a4 c5 50. a5 Ba6
51. Nxg6 Kf3 52. Ne7 Ke4 53. Kc2 Bd3+ 54. Kc3 Ba6 55. Kd2 Bf1 56. Nc8 Kf3
57. Nd6 Kg4 58. h5 Ba6 59. Kd1 Bf1 60. Kc2 Be2 61. Kc3 Ba6 62. Kd2 Kxh5 63.
Nxf5 g6 64. Ne3 Bb5 65. Kc3 Ba6 66. Kc2 Be2 67. Kc3 Ba6 68. Kd2 Bb5 69. g4+
Kh4 70. g5 Ba6 71. Nd5 Kg4 72. Ke3 c4 73. Ne7 Kh5 74. Kd4 Bb5 75. Nd5 Kg4
76. Ke5 Bc6 77. Ne3+ Kh5 78. Nxc4 Bb5 79. Nd6 Ba4 80. Kf6 Bb3 81. f5 gxf5
82. Nxf5 Kg4 83. a6 Kf4 84. g6 Bd5 85. g7 Kf3 86. a7 Kf2 87. g8=Q Bxg8 88.
a8=Q Bb3 89. Qe4 Bd1 90. Qd4+ Ke2 91. Qe3+ Kf1 92. Ng3+ Kg2 93. Ne4 Bc2 94.
Qf2+ Kh1 95. Ng3#
{White mates} 1-0

Thanks Fabien!
Volker

by **Fabien Letouzey** » 30 Mar 2004, 13:56

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 14:56:34:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 14:10:50:

I downloaded the new version of Polyglot. So far none of the reported problems
(losing on time etc.) occured here.
So I tried to use it together with Bookthinker. When starting it in the
"natural" way with "Bookthinker polyglot fruit.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot in
the winboard.ini it works fine. (Please note Bookthinker and thinker.dat have to
be in same directory as Polyglot.)
But then I tried "Bookthinker polyglot shredder.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot" and
I observed that instead of Shredder Fruit was loaded a second time. When I
deleted the fruit.ini nothing happend at all. It seems Polyglot is always
looking for a fruit.ini and -if it is there- it is reading it. Replacing
"polyglot shredder.ini" with "shredder-start.bat" (the batchfile only contains
"polyglot shredder.ini") didn't solve the problem.
After some testing I created own directories for each engine. In each directory
is the thinker.dat, a copy of Bookthinker and Polyglot and a fruit.ini. Abusing
the fruit.ini and write the paths to Shredder, List and so on in it I reached my
goal.

PolyGlot *must* be called with an INI file name.
If given none, it will look for "fruit.ini" (I should call it "polyglot.ini" BTW).
My suspicion is that BookThinker does not send the argument to PolyGlot.
I think there must be some mechanism in BookThinker to do that, I can't help you about it. My guess is that your command line is interpreted by WinBoard as "engine=BookThinker", and "arguments=polyglot shredder.ini". That's two arguments. I don't know what BookThinker does with them, and I don't think it passes the unused ones (second one onward) over to the engine (PolyGlot in this case).
I might be wrong, but I think it's a BookThinker issue. Maybe I can try to read its documentation. If there is no way PolyGlot can be given a INI file name as argument, we could try to design a different way ...
Fabien.

by **Fabien Letouzey** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:00

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 15:00:12:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 14:10:50:

I downloaded the new version of Polyglot. So far none of the reported problems
(losing on time etc.) occured here.
So I tried to use it together with Bookthinker. When starting it in the
"natural" way with "Bookthinker polyglot fruit.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot in
the winboard.ini it works fine.
(Please note Bookthinker and thinker.dat have to
be in same directory as Polyglot.)

There should also be a way to tell BookThinker to "CD" to the engine directory.
Are you sure there is no option for that?
Is there a BookThinker.INI or some such file?
Maybe you could post its contents.
Fabien.

by **Volker Pittlik** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:12

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 15:12:02:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 15:00:12:

...

There should also be a way to tell BookThinker to "CD" to the engine directory.
Are you sure there is no option for that?
Is there a BookThinker.INI or some such file?

Bookthinker polyglot fruit.ini works. I just want to have a short line in the winboard.ini.
AFAIK no.
Volker

by **Volker Pittlik** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:15

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 15:15:27:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 14:56:34:

...

PolyGlot *must* be called with an INI file name.
If given none, it will look for "fruit.ini" (I should call it "polyglot.ini" BTW).
I might be wrong, but I think it's a BookThinker issue. Maybe I can try to read its documentation. If there is no way PolyGlot can be given a INI file name as argument, we could try to design a different way ...

Possibly a good idea as long as it looks for anything to tell it what to look for.
...
"arguments=polyglot shredder.ini". That's two arguments. I don't know what BookThinker does with them, and I don't think it passes the unused ones (second one onward) over to the engine (PolyGlot in this case).
I guess so too.
It already works :-)

Volker

by **Fabien Letouzey** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:20

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 15:20:37:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 15:15:27:

I might be wrong, but I think it's a BookThinker issue. Maybe I can try to read its documentation. If there is no way PolyGlot can be given a INI file name as argument, we could try to design a different way ...
It already works

What do you mean by "it works"?
Does "BookThinker PolyGlot " work, for any INI file?
If so, what have you changed to make it work?
Fabien.

by **Volker Pittlik** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:27

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 15:27:09:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 15:20:37:

...

>Does "BookThinker PolyGlot <INI file>" work, for any INI file?

No, but with the trick described in the initial posting in this thread the engines are playing fine.

by **Fabien Letouzey** » 30 Mar 2004, 14:36

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Fabien Letouzey at 30 March 2004 15:36:12:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 15:27:09:

...

No, but with the trick described in the initial posting in this thread the engines are playing fine.

>>Does "BookThinker PolyGlot <INI file>" work, for any INI file?
>
It seems like this is a known problem with BookThinker.
This is an extract from Aaron Tay's WinBoard FAQ (about using CM with WB):
---
However there is a book engine called bookThinker , whose job is to simulate a opening book by playing the first few moves based on a database of opening moves before passing control over to the bookless engine once it has run out of moves. In theory it should work with The King, but for technical reasons it doesn't work well when coupled with the need to send command line parimeters in the winboard.ini file. The King of course needs to send the OPK number as a command line parimeter.
---
I am not an expert, but the solutions proposed at http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/win ... kthinkercm don't look very satisfactory.
Fabien.

by **Lance Perkins** » 30 Mar 2004, 22:39

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Lance Perkins at 30 March 2004 23:39:13:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Volker Pittlik at 30 March 2004 14:10:50:

How about giving something like this to Winboard:
"Bookthinker d:\schach\polyglot\polyglot.exe shredder.ini"

I downloaded the new version of Polyglot. So far none of the reported problems
(losing on time etc.) occured here.
So I tried to use it together with Bookthinker. When starting it in the
"natural" way with "Bookthinker polyglot fruit.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot in
the winboard.ini it works fine. (Please note Bookthinker and thinker.dat have to
be in same directory as Polyglot.)
But then I tried "Bookthinker polyglot shredder.ini" /sd=d:\schach\polyglot" and
I observed that instead of Shredder Fruit was loaded a second time. When I
deleted the fruit.ini nothing happend at all. It seems Polyglot is always
looking for a fruit.ini and -if it is there- it is reading it. Replacing
"polyglot shredder.ini" with "shredder-start.bat" (the batchfile only contains
"polyglot shredder.ini") didn't solve the problem.
After some testing I created own directories for each engine. In each directory
is the thinker.dat, a copy of Bookthinker and Polyglot and a fruit.ini. Abusing
the fruit.ini and write the paths to Shredder, List and so on in it I reached my
goal.

[Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "VPITTLIK"]
[Date "2004.03.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Bookthinker-Shredder"]
[Black "Bookthinker-List"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "40/120"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. exd6 Nxd6 7. Nc3 Nc6
8. Qf4 Nf5 9. Bb5 Bd6 10. Qe4+ Qe7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rd1 Ne5 13. Bf4 Nxf3+
14. Qxf3 Nh4 15. Qg3 Bxf4 16. Qxf4 Be6 17. Bd3 Ng6 18. Bxg6 hxg6 19. Ne4 f6
20. h4 Rad8 21. Re1 Bf7 22. Re3 Rfe8 23. Rae1 Qe5 24. Qxe5 Rxe5 25. f4 Re6
26. b3 Kf8 27. Kf2 f5 28. Ng5 Rxe3 29. Rxe3 Rd2+ 30. Re2 Rxe2+ 31. Kxe2 Bd5
32. g3 Ke7 33. c4 Bg2 34. Kf2 Bh1 35. b4 b6 36. Ke3 Bg2 37. Kd4 Kf6 38. a3
a5 39. Nh7+ Ke7 40. bxa5 bxa5 41. Kc5 Bf3 42. Kb5 Be2 43. Ng5 a4 44. Kxa4
Bxc4 45. Nf3 Kd6 46. Kb4 Kd5 47. Ne5 Bf1 48. Kc3 Ke4 49. a4 c5 50. a5 Ba6
51. Nxg6 Kf3 52. Ne7 Ke4 53. Kc2 Bd3+ 54. Kc3 Ba6 55. Kd2 Bf1 56. Nc8 Kf3
57. Nd6 Kg4 58. h5 Ba6 59. Kd1 Bf1 60. Kc2 Be2 61. Kc3 Ba6 62. Kd2 Kxh5 63.
Nxf5 g6 64. Ne3 Bb5 65. Kc3 Ba6 66. Kc2 Be2 67. Kc3 Ba6 68. Kd2 Bb5 69. g4+
Kh4 70. g5 Ba6 71. Nd5 Kg4 72. Ke3 c4 73. Ne7 Kh5 74. Kd4 Bb5 75. Nd5 Kg4
76. Ke5 Bc6 77. Ne3+ Kh5 78. Nxc4 Bb5 79. Nd6 Ba4 80. Kf6 Bb3 81. f5 gxf5
82. Nxf5 Kg4 83. a6 Kf4 84. g6 Bd5 85. g7 Kf3 86. a7 Kf2 87. g8=Q Bxg8 88.
a8=Q Bb3 89. Qe4 Bd1 90. Qd4+ Ke2 91. Qe3+ Kf1 92. Ng3+ Kg2 93. Ne4 Bc2 94.
Qf2+ Kh1 95. Ng3#
{White mates} 1-0

Thanks Fabien!
Volker

by **Volker Pittlik** » 31 Mar 2004, 08:04

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Volker Pittlik at 31 March 2004 09:04:38:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Polyglot and Bookthinker geschrieben von:/posted by: Lance Perkins at 30 March 2004 23:39:13:

How about giving something like this to Winboard:
"Bookthinker d:\schach\polyglot\polyglot.exe shredder.ini"
After some testing I created own directories for each engine. In each directory
is the thinker.dat, a copy of Bookthinker and Polyglot and a fruit.ini. Abusing
the fruit.ini and write the paths to Shredder, List and so on in it I reached my
goal.

That makes no difference because Bookthinker is in the same directory as Polyglot. The ini parameter does not reach Polyglot. I also tried
"'"Bookthinker" polyglot "shredder.ini"' /fd=d:\schach\polyglot
and
""'Bookthinker" polyglot "shredder.ini'" /fd=d:\schach\polyglot
Both didn't work.
...

Meanwhile I think the solution with different directories is not so bad at all. I rename each copy of bookthinker to (for example) Bookthinker-Shredder. This way I avoid to have a Bookthinker-Bookthinker games if I match two UCI engines.
Regards
Volker

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