Android UCI engine update: Rhetoric 1.4.1

The whispering spy birds told me this morning that Rhetoric engine is updated from 1.4 to 1.4.1 version.

The package can be downloaded at http://www.chessrhetoric.com/index.php/downloads/viewdownload/1-rhetoric/22-rhetoric

An Android compile is included as well. Enjoy!

Due to my Rapidroid games ongoing non-stop, i will wait for tests for a while.

Rapidroid: First Release

"Give them more time, they'll play better" had whispered to my ear, an old n' wise guy who'd come to my dream.

Just after a couple of months elapsed, today i can finally issue the first outcome of RAPIDROID experiment. It's premature but shareable.

Rapidroid brings more demanding and time consuming improvements over Blitzoid project, suspended after about 16000 games by 93 programs, due to stabilized ranking.

Now it's time to search for more fun, more complexity, (more headache?). No doubt, similarities with famous SSDF rankings may be found. However my main concern is to add more colour with unseen combinations and pairings, more free programs and take good care of all programs, not only the toppers and recent releases. By default, Rapidroid is free from most of the critics SSDF had recieved in time.

So what's new in the menu?
> Six times longer time control, at 30 seconds/move or similar. Simply better chess!
> A true multiplatform, not limited to Android UCI/XB engines. Instead, all DOS, Windows Mobile, IOS programs, as well as tabletops are welcome.
> Travel in time: We can't forget the old goodies. They can still play chess, no matter how weak. By the way, we will see how weak they were.
> A device-based ranking to measure how much force can be gained by using modern hardware with older programs especially. Experiments like Commodore-64 @ 100X or Fritz 5.32 on Intel-i7 or old Mephisto's running at full PC speed via emulators should be interesting to try.
> Android UCI/XB engines which didn't work in automated tournament mode of Chess for Android can be included by playing manual games under Droidfish!
> And finally we can rate all standalone programs, not only Android versions of Shredder, Chess Genius etc but also Mobialia, CNVCS, Senior Chess and many others. They all claim to be the best in the market (?) but none was seriously tested and rated. So, i take this job.

The first ranking below is the result of just two rounds and 16 to 20 games per engine. For the moment, i started the same way as Blitzoid, with only Android UCI/XB engines. Once the error margins go below +/-100, other programs will join the ranking one by one, via gauntlets of 10 to 20 games.

We have Komodo 8, Firenzina 2.41 and Discocheck 4.3 as new engines introduced. Seeing the brand new Komodo 8 taking first place here should not be alarming. Only a few games have been played yet and it may be temporary, just related to a specific opening.

The list is calibrated in parallel to Blitzoid in such a way to ensure minimum overall difference between two lists. This gives an offset of 2306 for 56 engines included so far.

Ra Name                    Elo    +   - Ga Sco Oppo Dra
 1 Komodo 8               3199  125 114 20 73% 3069 45%
 2 Stockfish 5            3186  125 116 20 70% 3071 40%
 3 Critter 1.6a           3118  114 112 20 55% 3085 50%
 4 Firenzina 2.4.1 xTreme 3071  110 112 20 45% 3094 60%
 5 BlackMamba 2.0         3061  129 124 18 58% 3003 39%
 6 Komodo32 3 AB          3022  130 130 18 53% 2986 39%
 7 Senpai 1.0             2952  133 128 16 63% 2884 50%
 8 Gaviota v1.0-d         2930  135 145 18 39% 3006 11%
 9 RobboLito 0.085e4l     2924  125 135 18 31% 3033 39%
10 Texel 1.04             2845  147 139 16 59% 2788 19%
11 Arasan 15.2 JA         2828  132 135 16 47% 2851 31%
12 DiscoCheck 4.3         2825  134 135 16 47% 2851 31%
13 Toga II 3.0            2748  125 125 16 50% 2748 50%
14 Crafty_23.4.JA_xb      2747  127 124 16 56% 2720 50%
15 GNU Chess 5.50         2722  124 125 16 50% 2726 50%
16 RedQueen 1.1.3 TCEC JA 2710  132 128 16 59% 2671 44%
17 Rhetoric 1.4           2665  127 129 16 47% 2682 44%
18 Daydreamer 1.75 JA     2651  134 130 16 56% 2604 38%
19 Rodent 1.00            2642  132 133 16 47% 2660 31%
20 IvanHoe 9.46b          2640  141 164 16 19% 2839 25%
21 Rotor 0.7a             2623  133 128 16 59% 2565 44%
22 Sloppy_0.23.JA_xb      2618  130 130 16 50% 2613 38%
23 GarboChess 3           2553  124 121 16 56% 2530 63%
24 Alfil 12.10            2541  126 130 16 41% 2586 44%
25 cheng3 1.07 JA         2506  134 129 16 59% 2457 44%
26 GNU Chess 6.0.2        2452  132 131 16 53% 2419 44%
27 Scorpio_2.7.JA_xb      2428  128 133 16 41% 2476 44%
28 Pepito v1.59           2420  130 132 16 47% 2427 44%
29 DanasahZ_0.4.JA_xb     2364  137 138 16 50% 2356 25%
30 GreKo_9.0.JA_uci       2316  135 134 16 53% 2295 31%
31 Olithink_5.3.2.JA_xb   2295  132 132 16 50% 2300 38%
32 Tucano_1.04.AB_xb      2271  148 144 16 53% 2243  6%
33 BetsabeII_1.30.JA_xb   2177  146 141 16 56% 2128 13%
34 Diablo 0.5.1b JA       2171  144 147 16 47% 2195  6%
35 DoubleCheck 2.7        2161  150 163 16 34% 2270  6%
36 Typhoon_1.0.r358.JA_xb 2124  135 137 16 47% 2141 31%
37 Sungorus 1.4 JA        2110  141 141 16 50% 2110 13%
38 TJchess 1.1U           2104  131 131 16 50% 2112 38%
39 Natwarlal_0.14.JA_xb   2060  143 143 16 50% 2058 13%
40 Phalanx_XXIII.JA_xb    2059  153 142 16 66% 1942 19%
41 KmtChess_1.21.JA_xb    1971  148 146 16 53% 1938 19%
42 Jazz 6.40 JA           1962  145 146 16 53% 1940 19%
43 Myrddin_0.86.JA_xb     1953  147 151 16 47% 1968  6%
44 Scidlet_2.61b2.JA_xb   1940  158 149 16 63% 1830 13%
45 AdroitChess0.4 JA      1743  151 151 16 50% 1756 13%
46 Leonidas_r83.JA_xb     1691  148 135 16 69% 1564 25%
47 ZCT-0.3.2500           1669  149 160 16 38% 1774 13%
48 BikJump v1.8           1642  142 147 16 41% 1700 31%
49 Sjeng_1.12.JA_xb       1638  149 154 16 44% 1701 25%
50 Sjaak_4.68.JA_xb       1584  163 158 16 66% 1409 19%
51 Tscp_1.8.1.AB_xb       1478  157 166 16 50% 1435 13%
52 Zzzzzz_3.5.1.JA_xb     1428  164 162 16 56% 1355 13%
53 VIRUTOR CHESS 1.1.1    1330  157 165 16 44% 1380 13%
54 Rocinante 2.0 JA       1226  166 166 16 50% 1224  0%
55 Chess for Android      1085  158 143 16 28% 1259  6%
56 Simplex 0.9.8           900  214 -20 16  6% 1305  0%

Rapidroid test platform:
* Samsung N7100 @ 1.6Ghz * 4 cores, 256MB hash for SP & MP Android programs,
* Polypad 1010IPS @ 1.6Ghz * 2 cores + 128MB hash for SP Android programs,
* HTC Diamond @ 528Mhz + 16MB hash for Windows Mobile programs,
* i7 M620 @ 2.67 Ghz + Arena 3.5 + 2GB hash for Windows programs
* iPod Touch 64G @ 600 Mhz for IOS programs,
* DosBox 1.74 used to run DOS programs,
* WinVICE used to run Commodore-64 programs,
* Messtiny UCI adapters or CB-Emu2014 used to emulate Mephisto programs,
* Openings selected from Adam Hair's 10 move book for continous variety, without queens exchange & verified between -0.10 and +0.40 cp evaluation.
* Opening positions played twice with different colors, whenever possible.
* Repeating openings and twin games are not allowed between two programs.
* Tablebases and pondering are disabled.
* Time control: 1/30 or 15'+10" or 1800" or closest rapid chess timings.

Komodo 8: First gauntlet under Android

I've just finished a quick bullet gauntlet with Komodo 8 Android vs 4 top engines of my BLITZOID ranking. Looks like Komodo 8 is number 2 after Stockfish but not a serious chaser.

I'm a little bit surprised to face a gap bigger than expected. Even the "dusty" Critter 1.6a easily stood still against the new Komodo.

Below results are not calibrated in order to give just an idea of the gaps and a rough impression about Komodo's level of improvement against Stockfish especially. Thus i can't yet defend Komodo 8 is around 3130 ELO vs 3264 ELO of Stockfish.

These are just bullet games at 1 sec/move yet. I think at 30 sec/move things may slightly be different. Maybe in favor of Komodo...

To my side, i'll be waiting for the first release of RAPIDROID ranking to tell more.

# Program                   Elo   +  - Gam Score

1 Stockfish 5            :  139  57 56 100 69.0%
2 Komodo 8 32-bit        :    0  28 28 400 54.8%
3 Critter 1.6a 32-bit    :  -24  55 56 100 46.5%
4 BlackMamba 2.0 32bit   : -119  57 58 100 33.5%
5 Firenzina 2.4.1 xTreme : -131  60 61 100 32.0%

Komodo 8 32-bit          : 400 (+153,=132,-115), 54.8%
------------------------ -----------------------------
Stockfish 5              : 100 (+ 13,= 36,- 51), 31.0%
Critter 1.6a 32-bit      : 100 (+ 36,= 35,- 29), 53.5%
Firenzina 2.4.1 xTreme   : 100 (+ 54,= 28,  18), 68.0%
BlackMamba 2.0 32bit     : 100 (+ 50,= 33,- 17), 66.5%


New Android engine: KOMODO 8 released

Gets to your King slowly and patiently...

Feeling great to see the latest version of Komodo released for Android as well. It's not free but at that attractive price i see no reason to decline the offer.

Search for Komodo Chess in Google Play or use this link to buy it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.komodochess.komodo&hl=en

Now i can't wait to introduce Komodo 8 in my RAPIDROID project and see how much headache will it cause to top Android engines like Stockfish, Critter and Firenzina.

Meanwhile, it must be notified that due to the method implemented to copy-protect it, it's not possible to take Komodo, put it somewhere on your internal memory or sd card and use it under another GUI (ex: Droidfish). Only the 3 GUIs specified by the developer, Chessbase, Chess for Android (hopefully, for tournament mode!) and PGN Master can import Komodo.

You don't even install it in these GUIs, Komodo engine, during its setup, adds everything necessary into the registry lines of the GUIs. At least, that's what i've observed clearly with Chess for Android.

Blitzoid chess engine ratings for Android: Update Round 20 of 50

Althout it makes two months since the last release, the poor Galaxy Note II did not stop playing tournaments since, towards an insane endurance level where its OLED screen finally got hit by a permanent chess board shadow. Something i didn't expected happens, though it's highly preferable to a cpu failure.

Below list is the result of ~16000 games played and seems accurate enough to me now. I don't see any big interest in going any further, up to all 50 Silversuite positions. It's better to stop here and switch to another experiment.

Reasons are:
> Starting from round-17, the list is not inflating or shrinking. It's arithmeticallly proven by the mean elo average of 92 programs fixed at 475 elo! The ranking is accurate and the whole bunch must have reached to a balance.
> Elo changes of each round dropped to as low as +/- 1 to 5. A very few engines take two digit updates.
> ...and a psychological reason: I wanna start something multi-platform with longer time controls, to cover a larger timeframe of the computer chess history, something partly retroactive.

I have also tried to align the whole list according to CCRL 40/4. A comparison between CPU power of the reference devices between Blitzoid and CCRL, revealed that Exynos-4412 running on 1.6Ghz x 4 cores is not a toy at all. In terms of nodes per second, Exynos is able to deliver about 1/4 to 1/3 search power compared to the Athlon that CCRL is using as reference CPU.

I knew i was too harsh about Android ratings since the beginning. Because being safe is better than exaggerating numbers.

But at this point i conclude the project earlier than expected, a calibration remains a must. I needed to add 250 elo to all the engines in order to obtain a comparable level.

Even after this, Blitzoid is around 200 ELO below CCRL, which should be quite reasonable. If Stockfish versions have slighly less gaps than other engines, this must be related to elo distortion of ~20 elo at the top. If we had only one Stockfish version playing, let's say v5, it would collect less ELO. This is because Stockfish versions obviously reach better elo against their predecessors compared to other engines. This is a known and common behaviour in computer chess.

Therefore, this is probably the final Blitzoid list to be published, before i go for the RAPIDROID project, mentioned before in other posts. My guess is that Rapidroid thing will bring much more fun.

BLITZOID RANKING / 03-SEP-2014
15968 GAMES PLAYED BY 92 PROGRAMS
COMPUTED WITH BAYESELO, OFFSET: 2367! (WAS 2117)
#  Name                    elo  +  - gam sco oppo drw  CCRL(gap)
01 Stockfish 5            3264 33 32 358 77% 3064 34%  3369(+105)
02 Stockfish DD           3227 31 31 358 73% 3066 41%  3310(+83)
03 Stockfish 4            3154 28 28 386 59% 3088 48%  3266(+112)
04 Stockfish 3            3147 29 29 386 58% 3088 38%  3231(+84)
05 Stockfish 2.3.1        3118 28 28 384 54% 3082 47%  3216(+98)
06 Critter 1.6a           3115 28 28 384 55% 3081 45%  3230(+115)
07 Critter 1.4            3112 29 29 384 55% 3070 43%
08 Critter 1.2            3051 31 31 380 58% 2973 36%  3204(+153)
09 Stockfish 2.0          3037 31 31 382 51% 3018 31%  3162(+125)
10 BlackMamba 2.0         3037 32 32 370 63% 2917 35%
11 RobboLito 0.085e4l     2972 31 31 372 48% 2977 35%
12 Komodo32 2.03 JA       2959 31 31 378 46% 2983 30%  3066(+107)
13 RobboLito 0.085g3l     2940 31 31 370 51% 2922 32%
14 Komodo32 3 AB          2920 32 32 370 48% 2925 27%  3104(+184)
15 Senpai 1.0             2893 31 31 372 44% 2936 31%  3102(+209)
16 Texel 1.04             2851 34 34 354 51% 2839 23%  2988(+137)
17 Komodo32 1.3 JA        2831 32 32 366 47% 2852 27%  2987(+156)
18 Gaviota v1.0           2830 32 32 366 56% 2785 29%  2961(+131)
19 Texel 1.03             2801 33 33 354 46% 2829 26%  2936(+135)
20 IvanHoe 9.46b          2748 33 33 358 54% 2717 23%  3082(+334)
21 Toga II 3.0            2744 33 33 366 50% 2754 23%  2878(+134)
22 Gaviota v0.86          2677 33 33 352 48% 2696 24%
23 Arasan 15.2 JA         2655 33 33 356 47% 2682 22%
24 Toga II 2.0 JA         2635 32 32 356 48% 2664 26%
25 Toga II 1.4.1SE        2635 32 32 358 44% 2692 28%  2822(+187)
26 DiscoCheck 3.7.1       2591 32 32 352 47% 2618 26%  2737(+146)
27 Texel 1.01             2590 32 32 360 45% 2636 24%  2795(+205)
28 Arasan 13.4            2572 32 32 350 48% 2593 26%
29 Arasan 14.0.1          2542 31 31 356 47% 2564 28%
30 GNU Chess 5.50         2539 31 32 352 47% 2562 28%  2770(+231)
31 DiscoCheck 4.0.1       2539 31 31 354 47% 2560 27%
32 Crafty_23.4.JA_xb      2533 32 32 352 51% 2535 23%  2779(+246)
33 gaviota v0.84          2520 32 32 348 51% 2522 22%
34 Crafty_23.5.JA_xb      2505 33 33 352 45% 2550 19%  2793(+288)
35 Rhetoric 1.4           2504 33 33 320 0.5 2503 26%  2720(+216)
36 RedQueen 1.1.2         2502 32 33 354 45% 2549 19%
37 Alfil 12.10 w32        2498 32 32 346 51% 2491 24%  2639(+141)
38 RedQueen 1.1.3 TCEC    2494 33 34 350 46% 2536 19%
39 Rodent 1.00            2486 31 31 344 53% 2465 32%  2690(+204)
40 Rotor 0.7a             2448 31 31 350 49% 2455 27%  2621(+173)
41 Rodent 0.18.0          2442 31 31 344 55% 2406 31%
42 Daydreamer 1.75 JA     2428 32 32 348 48% 2439 26%  2675(+247)
43 cheng3 1.07 JA         2426 32 32 344 49% 2437 22%  2659(+233)
44 GarboChess 3           2424 32 32 346 53% 2402 24%
45 Scorpio_2.7.JA_xb      2419 32 32 344 0.5 2422 23%  2774(+355)
46 Rotor 0.8              2417 32 32 342 49% 2425 27%  2613(+196)
47 gaviota v0.83          2400 33 33 342 48% 2415 21%
48 Sloppy_0.23.JA_xb      2376 31 31 344 48% 2386 28%  2621(+245)
49 Pepito v1.59           2349 33 33 340 49% 2356 22%  2516(+167)
50 Tucano_1.04.AB_xb      2336 33 33 340 51% 2326 21%  2547(+211)
51 Danasah_4.88.JA_xb     2330 32 32 342 48% 2339 26%  2541(+211)
52 DanasahZ_0.4.JA_xb     2319 32 32 338 49% 2328 28%
53 GNU Chess 6.0.2        2312 32 32 340 48% 2323 25%
54 DoubleCheck 2.6 JA     2311 33 33 340 51% 2301 19%
55 Danasah_5.06.JA_xb     2295 32 32 336 54% 2262 29%
56 DoubleCheck 2.7        2293 34 34 340 49% 2295 15%
57 BetsabeII_1.30.JA_xb   2269 33 33 340 52% 2247 17%  2367(+98)
58 Danasah_4.66.JA_xb     2265 33 33 338 53% 2240 24%  2532(+267)
59 Diablo 0.5.1b JA       2257 32 32 340 53% 2235 25%  2385(+128)
60 Typhoon_1.0.r358.JA_xb 2245 33 33 340 51% 2231 19%  2416(+171)
61 GreKo 9.0 JA           2227 33 33 340 53% 2203 19%
62 Greko 8.2              2216 32 32 336 55% 2181 26%  2525(+309)
63 Olithink_5.3.2.JA_xb   2216 34 34 340 52% 2201 17%  2407(+191)
64 GreKo 9.8 AB           2211 33 33 340 48% 2221 23%  2477(+266)
65 Phalanx_XXIII.JA_xb    2200 34 34 340 48% 2217 13%  2373(+173)
66 GreKo_10.0.JA_xb       2190 32 32 340 51% 2182 23%  2491(+301)
67 Sungorus 1.4 JA        2166 34 34 340 48% 2174 16%  2311(+145)
68 TJchess 1.1U           2100 33 34 340 51% 2082 23%  2334(+234)
69 BetsabeII_1.22.JA_xb   2094 35 35 336 56% 2041 16%
70 Natwarlal_0.14.JA_xb   2089 34 34 340 51% 2068 14%  2266(+177)
71 Myrddin_0.86.JA_xb     2080 35 34 340 55% 2030 15%  2366(+286)
72 DoubleCheck 2.3        2075 35 35 340 50% 2065 16%
73 KmtChess_1.21.JA_xb    2047 34 34 340 49% 2050 18%  2286(+239)
74 Jazz 6.40 JA           2047 34 34 340 47% 2064 20%
75 Scidlet_2.61b2.JA_xb   2003 35 35 340 50% 1997 17%
76 Jazz v444 JA           1984 35 35 340 49% 1989 17%  2213(+229)
77 Jazz v5.01 JA          1971 35 35 340 54% 1940 21%  2226(+255)
78 Sjeng_1.12.JA_xb       1830 37 37 338 51% 1808 10%
79 BikJump v1.8           1828 36 36 338 51% 1811 14%
80 AdroitChess0.4 JA      1802 38 38 334 49% 1803 11%  1978(+176)
81 AdroitChess 0.3        1749 38 38 330 50% 1728 14%  2001(+252)
82 Leonidas_r83.JA_xb     1744 37 38 334 53% 1702 16%  1956(+212)
83 ZCT-0.3.2500           1729 39 39 328 51% 1702 11%  2026(+297)
84 BikJump v2.1P          1698 38 38 330 49% 1689 14%  2102(+404)
85 Sjaak_4.68.JA_xb       1698 40 39 324 57% 1608 11%
86 Tscp_1.8.1.AB_xb       1612 40 40 324 50% 1598 10%  1704(+92)
87 Zzzzzz_3.5.1.JA_xb     1572 38 39 322 48% 1578 19%
88 Rocinante 2.0 JA       1512 40 40 318 49% 1519 12%  1602(+90)
89 VIRUTOR CHESS 1.1.4    1368 40 41 314 38% 1479 11%
90 VIRUTOR CHESS 1.1.1    1359 40 41 314 36% 1480 12%
91 Chess for Android      1220 45 47 314 22% 1498  8%
92 Simplex 0.9.8           995 65 14 314  7% 1527  3%  2413(+1418)

Blitzoid test platform:
* Samsung Galaxy Note II @ 1.6 Ghz without downscaling
* 64MB hash tables where selectable
* 4 cpu threads where selectable
* Own books disabled and replaced by Silver Opening Suite positions (20 of 50 played)
* Opening positions played twice with different colors
* Tablebases and pondering off
* GUI: Aart Bik's Chess for Android
* Time control: 5 sec/move


Looking for more kNps with Snapdragon 600: Mission fails!

LG's G2 tablet incorporates a Snapdragon 600 CPU clocked @ 1.7 Ghz. It's not a recent tablet for sure and was commercialized since almost one year.

I feel sorry for my late news because i, just had the opportunity to test this one with Droidfish and Stockfish 5 in the same electronics store.

Snapdragon 600 has 4 cores x 1.7Ghz but very surprisingly it performs much worse compared to Samsung Galaxy Note II with Exynos 4412.

Aritmetics fail here because 1.7 Ghz x 4 cores clearly below 1.6 x 4 cores.

I ran the same test of chess analysis under Droidfish for one minute from intitial position. The result is awful only 439 kNps with LG vs 700 kNps of my Galaxy Note II.

Goodbye LG... Goodbye Snapdragon 1.7 quad core... Goodbye x 4...

Therefore, my latest results with Stockfish 5 are:
Asus Memo Pad with Intel 3745 @ 4x1.33: 747 kNps
Galaxy N7100 with Exynos 4412 @ 4x1.6: 700 kNps
LG G pad with SD600 @ 4x1.7: 439 kNps

Waiting for Intel 3785 now...