Kasparov is back for some blitz

It's got nothing to do with computer chess except for a never-to-forget match he'd played against Deep Blue in 1997. Anyway, this news is something to be aware of for all chess lovers.

He retired on top and choosed to speak with statements rather than killer chess moves, so that no one could forget about him. I'm one of those who think he was way more succesful on the board while thinking about a miracle move rather than speaking around.

After a campaign for FIDE presidentship which failed at the end, he recently appeared for a blitz match vs his old rival and his later mate Nigel Short. He played much more in style beyond expectations and won 8.5 to 1.5!

Now GK comes back for a more serious encounter against three strongest GMs of the US. Can he win this "human vs younger human" challenge?

To be honest, it's hard to guess because one can easily find out how unpredictable he could be during his career. I must hereby admit that this unpredictability mostly refers to unbelievable successes he achived many times during his career.

Read more about it at Chessbase and the official tournament site.

Android UCI/XB engine update: Danasah 6

A few days ago, i'd posted the random move version of Danasah, an engine written by Pedro Castro. He ended up releasing more variants of his engine, in order to compare the time usage under Arena on a PC as well as under Chess for Android on Android.

The comparisons showed that CfA needs a fix regarding Fischer clock with UCI protocol.

What's left on the engine side is 3 more engines which offer different usages for different purposes. 

Read what Pedro said about them:

"I have introduced UCI from version 6. Version 5.07 is not compatible with UCI. Yesterday I tried the JA version 5.07 and had some problems (with time?).

If you want to try I think I have a version 6 that plays well xboard and uci.

* danasah6.arm7 --> version with full strength

* danasah6_ls.arm7 --> version with limit strength (0 and 2300-2500)

* danasah6_rnd.arm7 --> version with random move (this version is part of the limited version , but for GUI's without complete options for uci. I recommend changing the old executable by this).

* danacfg.txt --> configuration file for full and limitstrength xboard version. It must be in the same folder as the engine.

Opening books are not included.

The Elo should be similar to version 5.07 ( + -20 ), I've changed only a little time management and search."

All 4 files can be downloaded: HERE

CEPA updated to 3.3

Another nice GUI that i've been warned about and i've posted HERE in Chesstroid was Chess Engines Play Analyse (CEPA).


After CfA, Hawk Chess and Acid Ape, CEPA is the fourth GUI which makes engine to engine games possible under Android. That's good news because more alternatives speed up the overall variety of possibilities and they are always welcome.

According to the developer, the update to v3.3 offers the following improvements:
* Now you can change some parameters of the engines!
* several official stockfish engines are installed. install newer versions
* added analysis engine
* fixed bug new game
* fixed bug to accept postion of edit board
* revised several bugs reported by users
* fixed bugs when keep calculations.

Now, download and try CEPA via GOOGLE PLAY.

..and as always, don't forget to share your comments with me.

Acid Ape Chess: Beta 8 brings better XB engine support

If you have read my previous POST about Acid Ape Chess, you must remember that Chess for Android by Aart Bik is not the unique GUI to support Xboard engines anymore.

Now, the Beta 8 version of Acid provides you with more options including better handling of the engine options and more compatibility with xboard engines.

The improvements and additions offered by the update are:
* Tactical puzzles have been implemented: a collection of quality puzzles are shipped with Acid Ape Chess, and additional puzzles can be imported from PGN files.
* Chess960 support has been added.
* Blindfold mode has been added.
* Engine-specific options can now be configured.
* CECP engine compatibility has been greatly improved. This allows to ship Scorpio again.

As a long time fan of CfA across many devices i've been using for engine tournaments, i may not be fair enough with another GUI because of the extreme familiarity thanks to around 70000 games played between engines. So, it looks like a hard habt to break for me.

But this is only my situation and yours may be different.

So why wouldn't you give a try on something competitive, attractive and promising after CfA, CEPA and Droidfish? Just try Acid Ape Chess via GOOGLE PLAY.

New Android UCI/XB engine: Danasah 6 Random

Pedro Castro, the author of Danasah, has kindly compiled a specific random mover version of his engine Danasah 6.

As the name suggests, the main purpose of this version is to play "any" legal move without thinking. By definition, such logic of play should be the weakest possible one, unless there's an algorithm which tries to get checkmated.

Although all measurements usually get inaccurate at lowest levels due to lack of stable weak opponents around, we can roughly predict that Danasah-random will float around 200 ELO when ranked in Rapidroid.

To add some speculative fun, we can also state that with faster time controls, its ELO will probably rise. And for some more, expect the peak level at something like 1"+0.01".

The engine works well with uci and xb protocols and it plays instantly, which is normal.

Let DanaSah roll the dice: HERE   

Chess for Android 5.2.2: Better time controls for XB engines

Compatibility with XB engines is known to be one of the significant features of Chess for Android, the application that we may simply call "the most engine-tester friendly GUI available for Android". After all, as a user focused on nothing but the outcome, CfA has always been the most useful, if not the most beautiful one to me since the day i've been involved in chess on smartphones.

Now, with the new 5.2.2 version, XB engine manangement takes a step further with improved time control abilities. Frankly said, we'll not be limited to "fixed time per move" setting anymore and Fischer (blitz) clocks will start to run between xb engines too.

XB engines (probably most of them) which could not handle so far this most common time control setting are now expected to become compatible thanks to a simple trick, just by sending the clock values to the engines with all commands that require engine thinking.

If you wanna read the discussions and comments about the issue, read the relevant forum thread: HERE.

* Chess for Android 5.2.2 is available at GOOGLE PLAY with the standard version.

* An apk copy can also be downloaded via my repository: HERE

* Wait, it's not over: In case you wanna use the remote controlled PC engines, you may prefer to download the network version: HERE

Cheers!

P.S.: Then what happens with thousands of games already played for Rapidroid? Um, well, this is some kind of complicated situation in which it becomes quite difficult to evaluate all available solutions due to the fact that the frequency of future engines updates may be conflicting... bla bla bla... = I don't know yet what to do but i'll figure out something.

Carlsen finally makes it clear

DW: "Would you participate in a public game against a computer in the near future - or is that not an option for you? The last one I remember was Vladimir Kramnik against Deep Fritz in 2006."

MC: "I personally never wanted that. I find it much more interesting to play humans. And also, of course, now that they have become so strong in a game like that, I wouldn't stand a chance."

The reigning world champ Magnus Carlsen finally gives a clear answer to tons of past speculations about his chances against Stockfish or Komodo in a human vs machine match.

We knew such match would never happen.

So, would you still think that his statement "never wanted that" is just past tense and therefore doesn't apply to the future? Or would you still predict that a huge prize for losing such a match would push him to change his mind?

Read the interview made by Deutche Welle: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Rhetoric 1.4.3

The new version of  Rhetoric is the latest fish found in the "not recently very fruitful" ocean of the chess engines for Android. If that sounded too optimistic and if you wanna read "ocean" in a more realistic description, you may call it "a water of glass".

I must thank Alex for notifying me about the new Rhetoric.

For sure, i need a Sherlock Holmes'ish method to detect new and updated engines. It looks like that as long as Jim Ablett will remain silent, i'll have to bookmark all the engine homepages maintained by authors who compile for Android too and check regularly for anything new.

BikJump, Cheese, Cheng, Cinnamon, Deuterium, Gaviota, Gnu, Gödel, Rodent, Rhetoric, Sayuri, Senpai, Texel are identified so far as main potentials in the quest of updates.

Regarding Rhetoric by Alberto Sanjuan, the jump from 1.4.1 to 1.4.3 may push its latest 2608 ELO in Rapidroid to somewhere like 2640. Now all that is left to be done is to play gauntlets and refresh the ranking.

Rhetoric appears to play fine with fixed time per move and Fisher clock time controls, with almost no issues since hundreds of games on my Exynos arm7 devices. The only thing to mention is that it doesn't like the Rockchip processors at all. Just try for yourself on your processors.

Rhetoric 1.4.3 for arm5 is available for download: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Texel 1.06a34 and 1.06a40

There are only a dozen of Android chess engines to surpass the 3000 ELO barrier on Exynos 4412 cpu and maybe a few more if you have a good octa core. Among these toppers, some are quite old and not maintained anymore, like Critter, Black Mamba, Deep Saros.

There is no serious threat against Stockfish and Komodo. Only Texel by Peter Österlund is showing a potential headache for the big brothers, at least in long term, considering that Peter is still working to improve his engine.

It's good news that long after the release of 1.05, there are two alpha updates of 1.06 cooked in the development kitchen. They both come with Android builds as well.

Here, i must thank Alex for notifying me here about Texel. In full accordance to the "force majeur" status caused by broken connection to Jim Ablett's compiles, i continue to play the fisherman in search of new builds for Android and any help about new versions are highly appreciated.

Regarding Rapidroid ranking, i won't rush for a Texel gauntlet in short term. TCEC-9 is so close to that other alphas or more probably a beta may come soon.

For the moment, let me share all that's available in addition to 1.05 which is currently playing in Rapidroid:

Texel 1.06a34 32-bit arm7: HERE
Texel 1.06a34 64-bit arm8: HERE
Texel 1.06a40 32-bit arm7: HERE
Texel 1.06a40 64-bit arm8: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Sayuri 2016.04.09

When it comes to rock music "Made in Japan" reminds me of Deep Purple. If we talk chess, Sayuri is Made in Japan to me.

As long as Hironori Ishibashi continues to include an Android build each time he releases an update, we'll have to stay tuned closely. He's working hard to improve Sayuri since a long time and it's one of the most frequently updated ones.

Is it a problem for Androiders? I don't think so. Moreover, if he needs thousand updates to reach 3000 ELO, they will be all welcome.

The last version i've just found on github repository is dated 9th of April. Once again, it's the biggest Android build ever in terms of file size: 5.25MB !!!

Download Sayuri 2016.04.09 32-bit arm5: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Cinnamon 2.0

The new version of Cinnamon appears to be compiled on April 1st for Android. Hopefully it's not an April's fool joke. The build is running very well, even on my old Galaxy Note I.

It's funny that after Jim Ablett's website is down since a few weeks, i had to become a fisherman to sail away here and there in various websites and look for new versions on my own.

Sometimes i'm coming home (!) with nothing at all. And sometimes i'm lucky.

Indeed we need more engine authors who care about Android versions. So, thanks must go to Guiseppe Cannella. He's one of them.

I'd previously posted about 1.2b version of Cinnamon which worked on some arm devices according to other users but that never happened on my Exynos or Rockchip cpu's. I only had the x86 build working on Atom 3745D, a processor that i could not use for Rapidroid due to different Nps performance distribution across engines. X86 is simply not linear with arm architecture.

Now Cinnamon 2.0 looks promising for a series of gauntlets since it can use both fixed time and Fischer clock as per first tests. I guess it can take part in the next Rapidroid release.

Meanwhile, you may enjoy the following builds on your arm devices:

Cinnamon 2.0 32-bit for arm7: HERE

Cinnamon 2.0 64-bit for arm8: HERE

Komodo 9.42 for Android: Still not stronger than Stockfish 7

I've just heard some whispers from chess birds flying around my devices. Unfortunately, what they are telling is not very brilliant for the newest Komodo. It was supposed to recover the unexpected ELO gap between 9.3 and Stockfish 7. It's done but not fully... Is all hope gone?

It looks like the ranking will  be the same. 15 rounds out of 19 total should be already speaking enough for the trend.

Now, take a look at the Rapidroid Top-10 and compare only Komodo to Stockfish.

It doesn't make sense to correlate this list and last Rapidroid because this one is based on Android engines only and remaining rounds will surely effect the overall ELO distribution:


Ra Name                    Elo +  -  gam sco oppo dra
1  Stockfish 7            3356 43 40 278 85% 3082 27%
2  Komodo 9.42            3327 41 39 278 81% 3085 26%
3  Critter 1.6a           3148 34 34 278 57% 3105 44%
4  Sting SF 4.8.4 JA      3109 35 35 278 56% 3065 37%
5  Firenzina 2.4.1 xTreme 3106 34 34 278 52% 3096 46%
6  BlackMamba 2.0         3079 33 33 278 48% 3100 49%
7  Fritz 14               3067 33 33 278 48% 3086 49%
8  Gull 3 x64 (syzygy)    3056 35 34 276 54% 3031 42%
9  Texel 1.05             3035 35 35 276 47% 3060 34%
10 DeepSaros ver.2.3f     3011 35 35 276 49% 3022 35%

So what? 4 rounds and 70 games remain to play but i'm sure Stockfish 7 will still be on top.

Komodo 9.42 for Android doesn't have the dynamism option like in Windows and contempt is set to 10 by default. Looking at the games played so far, i see that Komodo has serious issues vs Stockfish, way beyond Windows platform.

Even Stockfish 6 overcame Komodo 9.42 in a head-to-head match not yet posted here, in 4.5 times reduced "cpu + tc" conditions (!).

Should this weakness be blamed to the contempt and relatively lower search depths?

Or would tablebase usage & tournament time controls change the status on a 64-bit octacore CPU?

I can't answer these questions with available hardware and time.

By the way, i think it will be interesting to attach some performance comparisons of both toppers against other engines in detail when next Rapidroid release will come.

Cya!

Android UCI engine update: Sayuri 2016.02.11

While Jim Ablett remains curiously silent on the web since a while, porting chess engines to Android as well as Windows has become an occasional task of the programmers. Only a few of them care about Android and others simply ignore the mobiles.

Cheese was the first to come by the programmer, oh wait, the second actually. It seems i've missed the update of Sayuri for even longer than Cheese. Thanks to a notification sent to the blog by "York" i woke up and downloaded the new version of Sayuri, compiled for Android by Hironori Ishibashi, the author.

The native binary is made for arm5 and it's the biggest build ever, exceeding 5 MB in size!

As my two Exynos 4412 devices are both taken by Komodo 9.42 gauntlets, i had to test it on my Galaxy Note I (not II) on the old dual core Exynos. Well, it worked okay, running at a very modest 90 kNps.

It's unknown yet the impact of the different compiling tools over the improvements integrated into the code. So, i plan to conduct a head-to-head test against the previous JA compile before introducing the new one into Rapidroid.

Those interested in testing the new version can download the binary mercilessly zipped to 650KB: HERE

RAPIDROID RELOADED: April-2016 v2 (Goodbye Komodo 9.3)

If you were to ask "Why a second list so soon without Komodo 9.42?", you would be absolutely right.

..and if i was to answer "Komodo 9.3 played its last round, so it's time to record the last moment", i wouldn't be absolutely wrong.

So, we'd better consider this one, the definitive April-2016 ranking.

The highlights of this release:

* Nothing but 898 games added

* Last release to include Komodo 9.3

Targets for next release:

* Update Komodo 9.3 to 9.42

* Update Cheese 1.7 to 1.8

* Introduce Excalibur LCD Express

* Introduce Senior Chess 1.81


BAYES RATINGS AFTER 17359 GAMES PLAYED BY 122 PROGRAMS
Rnk Name                     O/S T TC  Elo   +   - Gam Sco Oppo Dra
001 Stockfish 7              A32 4 bf 3339  37  35 348 85% 3071 30%
002 Komodo 9.3               A32 4 bf 3271  34  33 348 76% 3079 34%
003 Critter 1.6a             A32 4 bf 3135  30  29 356 57% 3091 46%
004 Sting SF 4.8.4 JA        A32 4 bf 3102  31  31 350 57% 3053 39%
005 Firenzina 2.4.1 xTreme   A32 4 bf 3099  30  30 352 52% 3087 48%
006 BlackMamba 2.0           A32 4 bf 3069  29  29 352 47% 3091 49%
007 Rybka 2.3.2a mp          W64 4 bf 3061 109 108  26 54% 3034 38%
008 Gull 3 x64 (syzygy)      A32 4 bf 3059  31  30 346 53% 3039 43%
009 Fritz 14                 A32 4 bf 3053  30  30 348 48% 3074 48%
010 Texel 1.05               A32 4 bf 3032  31  31 356 49% 3041 34%
011 Senpai 1.0               A32 4 bf 2996  31  31 350 48% 3013 36%
012 DeepSaros ver.2.3f       A32 4 bf 2994  31  31 348 51% 2993 37%
013 RobboLito 0.085e4l       A32 1 bf 2972  30  30 352 52% 2958 43%
014 Hiarcs 13.71             IOS 2 bf 2970 121 114  26 65% 2860 23%
015 IvanHoe 9.47c beta       A32 1 bf 2961  31  31 342 54% 2934 39%
016 Cheng 4.39               A32 4 bf 2925  31  31 348 43% 2978 39%
017 Arasan 18.3              A32 4 bf 2911  31  31 344 52% 2889 35%
018 Shredder 1.7.0           IOS 2  b 2907 114 113  24 54% 2890 42%
019 ExChess_7.88b.JA_xb.arm7 A32 4  b 2896  31  31 334 47% 2924 39%
020 Hakkapeliitta 3.0        A32 1 bf 2896  31  31 346 49% 2906 34%
021 Scorpio_2.7.7.JA_xb.arm7 A32 4  f 2882  35  34 296 55% 2845 31%
022 Gaviota v1.0-d           A32 4 bf 2870  31  31 354 42% 2932 31%
023 Grapefruit 1.0           A32 4 bf 2839  30  30 356 47% 2856 40%
024 DiscoCheck 5.2.1         A32 1 bf 2820  31  31 356 43% 2873 32%
025 Toga II 3.0              A32 1 bf 2818  31  30 338 53% 2801 39%
026 Deep Saros 0.9           A32 4 bf 2805  30  30 348 45% 2836 38%
027 Doch32 1.3.4 JA          A32 1  b 2778  31  31 334 52% 2764 37%
028 Fruit Reloaded 2.1       A32 1  b 2765  31  31 324 51% 2753 44%
029 Deuterium v14.3.34.130   A32 1 bf 2758  30  30 358 48% 2771 39%
030 Crafty_25.0.JA_xb.arm7   A32 1 bf 2756  31  31 332 52% 2738 35%
031 Bobcat 6.4b              A32 1 bf 2752  31  31 350 48% 2766 32%
032 Murka 3                  A32 1 bf 2751  29  29 364 48% 2763 38%
033 Chess Pro 2016.02        IOS 2 bf 2743 111 113  22 45% 2772 55%
034 GNU Chess 5.60           A32 1 bf 2729  31  31 338 48% 2741 34%
035 The King 3.50 x64        W64 1  b 2718  51  52 120 43% 2764 34%
036 Strelka 5                A32 1 bf 2710  32  32 332 52% 2694 29%
037 Rodent II 0.8.7          A32 1  b 2677  35  35 276 51% 2670 32%
038 Tucano_6.00.JA_xb.arm5   A32 1  f 2669  34  34 274 52% 2652 38%
039 RedQueen 1.1.98          A32 4 bf 2661  33  33 320 52% 2645 26%
040 CNVCS 1.2.0              IOS 2  f 2624 111 114  24 44% 2657 46%
041 Rhetoric 1.4.1           A32 1 bf 2616  32  32 322 52% 2602 30%
042 Bison 15.1               A32 1 bf 2591  33  33 326 49% 2604 29%
043 Alfil 12.10              A32 1 bf 2590  33  33 324 50% 2591 30%
044 Chess Genius 4.0.00      IOS 2 bf 2556 196 255   8 13% 2811 25%
045 Daydreamer 1.75 JA       A32 1 bf 2543  32  32 328 52% 2533 36%
046 Cheese 1.7               A32 1 bf 2528  33  33 326 41% 2591 29%
047 Chess Genius 2.6.4       A32 1 bf 2518 224 239   4 38% 2567 75%
048 Rotor 0.8                A32 1 bf 2516  32  32 328 43% 2566 32%
049 Fridolin 2.00            A32 4 bf 2502  32  31 334 52% 2487 30%
050 Glaurung Mainz           A32 1  b 2501  40  40 220 45% 2539 24%
051 GarboChess 3             A32 1 bf 2493  32  32 334 49% 2504 28%
052 Sloppy_0.23.JA_xb        A32 1  f 2489  32  32 322 53% 2465 32%
053 BBChess 1.3b JA          A32 4 bf 2471  32  32 340 51% 2462 28%
054 Dirty_030411.JA_xb       A32 1  f 2467  34  34 306 53% 2444 26%
055 Danasah_5.07.JA_xb       A32 1  f 2466  33  33 314 49% 2466 26%
056 Phalanx_XXIV.JA_xb.arm7  A32 1  f 2457  34  34 312 50% 2458 20%
057 Maverick 1.5 arm         A32 1 bf 2446  32  32 338 50% 2443 30%
058 Pawny_1.0.JA_uci2xb      A32 1  f 2428  32  32 320 52% 2411 33%
059 GreKo_12.5.JA_xb         A32 1  f 2418  33  33 320 53% 2398 25%
060 Pepito v1.59             A32 1 bf 2416  31  31 336 51% 2410 34%
061 BetsabeII_1.47.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2391  35  35 312 50% 2393 20%
062 Ifrit_m1.8.JA_uci2xb     A32 1  f 2376  33  33 312 53% 2353 26%
063 Diablo 0.5.1b JA         A32 1 bf 2358  32  32 340 53% 2330 24%
064 Typhoon_1.0.r358.JA_xb   A32 1  f 2355  33  33 326 55% 2312 22%
065 zurichess geneva         A32 1  b 2343  50  51 140 48% 2360 26%
066 Olithink_5.3.2.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2339  33  33 326 52% 2318 23%
067 Amy_0.8.JA_xb            A32 1 bf 2308  33  33 342 52% 2294 20%
068 Bitfoot 150922.JA        A32 1 bf 2294  34  34 342 58% 2227 15%
069 TJchess 1.1U             A32 1 bf 2282  32  32 348 48% 2295 23%
070 Natwarlal_0.14.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2269  33  33 330 50% 2270 23%
071 Myrddin_0.86.JA_xb       A32 1  f 2268  35  35 320 47% 2280 20%
072 MangoPaola_1.1.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2263  34  34 330 48% 2272 20%
073 Sungorus 1.4 JA          A32 1  f 2250  33  33 330 50% 2253 22%
074 KmtChess_1.21.JA_xb      A32 1  f 2208  34  34 328 49% 2215 23%
075 Rattate_Nosferatu.JA_xb  A32 1  f 2200  34  34 334 49% 2207 17%
076 NGplay_9.86.JA_xb        A32 1  f 2186  33  33 328 50% 2182 23%
077 Scidlet_2.61b2.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2182  34  35 330 49% 2187 15%
078 Resp_0.19.JA_xb          A32 1 bf 2168  33  33 344 49% 2172 19%
079 Floyd 0.7 JA             A32 1 bf 2120  36  35 340 59% 2043 12%
080 DanChess_1.04.JA_xb      A32 1  f 2111  35  35 318 53% 2087 16%
081 Kurt 0.9.2.2 JA          A32 1 bf 2070  34  34 334 46% 2101 17%
082 Robocide 28.12.14.JA     A32 1 bf 2054  32  32 360 52% 2042 18%
083 Witz_Alpha21.JA_xb       A32 1  f 2035  34  34 322 47% 2062 20%
084 Woodpecker_2.11.JA_xb    A32 1  f 2018  35  35 322 52% 2006 15%
085 Knightcap_3.7F.JA_xb     A32 1  f 2008  35  35 306 53% 1986 18%
086 AdroitChess0.4 JA        A32 1 bf 2001  34  34 342 50% 2002 17%
087 Sjeng_1.12.JA_xb         A32 1  f 1984  35  35 314 54% 1958 17%
088 BikJump v1.8             A32 1 bf 1978  32  32 360 46% 2010 22%
089 Faile_1.44.JA_xb         A32 1  f 1956  34  33 304 53% 1935 32%
090 Gunborg_1.39.JA_uci2xb   A32 1  f 1951  36  36 296 55% 1914 21%
091 Leonidas_r83.JA_xb       A32 1  f 1951  35  35 314 48% 1968 20%
092 ZCT-0.3.2500             A32 1 bf 1941  34  35 332 44% 1991 14%
093 Samchess_JA_xb           A32 1  f 1933  35  35 312 47% 1955 17%
094 Cilian_4.14.JA_xb        A32 1 bf 1923  33  33 336 54% 1892 27%
095 Mephisto Roma Turbo      W64 1  b 1914  79  83  56 37% 2016 16%
096 Ecce rev. 508            A32 1 bf 1889  34  34 338 46% 1926 18%
097 Sayuri 2015.10.01        A32 4 bf 1871  35  34 336 55% 1819 16%
098 Claudia v. 0.5           A32 1  b 1844  53  52 154 52% 1826 14%
099 Smash 1.03 JA            A32 1 bf 1838  34  34 346 49% 1851 16%
100 Surprise_4.3.b13.JA_xb   A32 1  b 1836  48  48 170 49% 1838 16%
101 Colchess_8.0.JA_xb       A32 1  f 1830  36  36 286 49% 1827 23%
102 Hoichess_0.12.1.JA_xb    A32 1 bf 1745  35  35 328 48% 1744 20%
103 Zzzzzz_3.5.1.JA_xb       A32 1  f 1743  37  37 268 50% 1715 30%
104 Chenard_2015.08.15.JA_xb A32 1  f 1738  40  41 270 49% 1717 11%
105 Kitteneitor_060513.JA_xb A32 1  f 1718  36  36 266 47% 1714 36%
106 Tscp_1.8.1.AB_xb         A32 1  f 1715  38  39 272 47% 1716 17%
107 Jester_0.84.JA_xb        A32 1  f 1714  40  41 256 50% 1673 14%
108 Colossus 4.0 100X        C64 1 bf 1712 236 207  10 80% 1333 20%
109 Rocinante 2.0 JA         A32 1 bf 1694  36  36 324 49% 1665 19%
110 Pulse 1.5-cpp            A32 1 bf 1653  35  35 340 54% 1560 30%
111 Mephisto Roma 68020 UCI  W64 1  b 1644 124 134  20 35% 1746 30%
112 VIRUTOR CHESS 1.1.1      A32 1 bf 1533  40  40 336 57% 1423 11%
113 Superpawn b108 JA        A32 1  b 1503  45  44 228 59% 1421 20%
114 K2 v.075                 A32 1  b 1473  50  49 220 57% 1402  6%
115 Chess for Android        A32 1 bf 1468  40  40 331 52% 1399 14%
116 Chess Titans             W64 1  f 1376 212 204   7 57% 1346 29%
117 Trappy_Beowulf_2.0.JA_xb A32 1 bf 1236  43  44 326 37% 1349  9%
118 Colossus 4.0             C64 1 bf 1209 170 191  14 36% 1290 14%
119 Byak 8.10.14.JA          A32 1  b 1163  46  48 240 25% 1406 18%
120 Xadreco_5.7.JA_xb        A32 1  b 1058  52  57 234 14% 1426 10%
121 Novag Secondo            TTC 1 bf  981 272  47   6 42%  999 17%
122 OliveChess 0.2.7         A32 1  f  598 370-329 188  0% 1533  0%

Rapidroid test platform:
* GT-N7100 1.6 * 4 + 256MB hash: All Android progs
* GT-N5105 1.6 * 4 + 256MB hash: All Android progs
* Codegen Novatab 1.4 * 4 + 256MB: Single thread Android progs,
* Polypad 1010IPS tablet 1.61 * 2 + 128MB: Single thread Android progs
* HTC Diam 528Mhz, 16MB hash: Windows Mobile
* i7 M620 2.67 Ghz dual + Arena 3.5 + 2GB hash: Windows 64
* iPhone5S A7 1.3 Ghz * 2: iOS progs
* DosBox 1.74: DOS progs
* WinVICE 2.24: Commodore-64 progs
* Messtiny UCI adapters or CB-Emu2014: Mephisto progs
* Openings: 20 ply from Adam Hair or 16 ply from TCEC, no Q exchange, +0.15 to +0.40
eval by Stockfish and Komodo, depth 20 minimum, played twice both sides
* Repeating openings and twin games not allowed between two programs
* Tablebases and pondering off
* Time control: 10 to 30 sec/move or 600+0 to 1800+5 or closest known by both programs.

Calibration:
* Based on 42 engines rated in CCRL 40/4
* 32 bit engines: Exynos 4412 = (Athlon X2 4600+) - 65 ELO
* 64 bit engines: Exynos 4412 = (Athlon X2 4600+) - 110 ELO
* Bayeselo offset = 2316 (Mean of ELO error vs target: 36.64)

Termination stats:
* W:40.5% D:26.9% B:32.5% (54.0% vs 46.0%)

Legend:
* T: Threads
* TC: f (playes fixed time only), b (plays Fischer clock only), fb (plays both)
* O/S: A32=Android 32bit, W64=Windows 64bit, C64=Commodore 64, TTC=Tabletop, IOS=iPhone

Hawk Chess updated to 1.4.5

Though still not the suitable GUI for the tester, Hawk is a must have app if the priority is to play online games or automatically analyze games move by move with a favorite UCI engine and with graphically displayed output.

This update features:
* Improved board layout.
* Additional piece sets.

The app is paid and available HERE but there's a free trial option too with limited number of feature.

The biggest lacks of Hawk are the missing UCI options and the engine tournament feature which needs some more work for stability.

How to: Extract Fritz 14 for Android from Chessbase Online 3.5.2

In order to clarify how one can locate and extract the engines embedded in Chessbase Online for Android, here are some screenshots. All bundled engines are available elsewhere. So, only Fritz 14 needs special procedure as described below.

1. Copy the apk to your PC

2. Open the apk as an archive using 7zip

3. Go to lib folder, then choose armeabi or armeabi7 depending on what version you need

4. Select the engine file and extract it to a folder that you can access within Chess for Android later on.

5. Install it as a new UCI engine (You can rename before installing it if you want)

6. After above steps done, in case you have installed Chessbase, you can uninstall it and enjoy a clean engines list in Chess for Android.

Android UCI engine update: Cheese 1.8

I must have forgotten that Patrice Duhamel, the author of Cheese, is releasing Android versions of his engine since v1.7. That's why i didn't wake up quick to go check his website when i've seen the update in chess forums. I should do this on 19th of March...

The new version promises important improvements such as:

* fixed problem in game phase update

* fixed crash with 1 Mb hash table

* fixed nodes count output

* fixed problem in multipv output

* add FRC support

* use LMR in PV nodes

* add "reverse futility pruning"

* add checking moves in 1st ply of quiescence search

* skip minor promotions in quiescence search

* remove mate condition in null moves pruning

* rewrite FEN parsing

* reorganize code for eval,movegen,endgame,protocols

* optimize move sorting

Latest and not yet released Rapidroid ranking places Cheese 1.7 at 2528 ELO. To find out whether the new version can jump to 2600, we must stay tuned for May-2016 list.

Tranaslation: Once again, 19 gauntlets of 300+ total games to replay. Uhm, puff, huh...

Download Cheese 1.8 for Android (32-bit arm7): HERE