Chesstroid: 2017

December 25, 2017

Manana por la manana!

More posts to come asap...

Android UCI engine update: Fruit Reloaded 3.2.1

Although it took quiet a long time, more than 3 years to get an update to Fruit Reloaded of Fabien Letouzey, i wouldn't be surprised to see relatively modest imrovements. Indeed, Fruit had been the gateway to a new era in computer chess a decade ago. But neither the later versions of it, nor the forks (many to count) have progressed as much as "others" in the last decade.

No matter what, it's good to hear again from the "son" of the legendary engine.

GET Fruit Reloaded 3.2.1 for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.12.11.ACH

Not the latest available, for collectors only...

GET Cfish 2017.12.11.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Brainfish 2017.12.06.ACH

The engine:
GET Brainfish 2017.12.06.ACH for arm7 and arm8

Cerebellum book at Chesstroid repository:

GET Cerebellum Light 2017.11.01 (45 MB compressed)

How to setup Cerebellum book:

"To use the book Cerebellum_Light_Poly.bin (download the latest version of this book from the official site in polyglot format), create a book folder in the phone's memory and put a book in it. The path should look like this: /sdcard/book/Cerebellum_Light_Poly.bin, when the engine starts the book connects automatically."

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Sayuri 2017.12.07

Nothing new for me in eastern front: I still can't get to work the arm5 builds prepared by the author Hironori Ishibashi. I would be excited to hear someone can run these.

GET Sayuri 2017.12.07 for arm5

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 1.8.20171205.ACH

This one goes to collectors only since there's already a more recent release.

GET Cichess 1.8.20171205.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

New Android UCI engine: Gogobello 1.4

Please welcome a new engine to your mobile devices. Gogobello is written by the Italian programmer Salvatore Giannotti who recently took great care about compiling an an Android build too and succeeded. Arm8 is missing for this time but we have the arm7 version.

I guess Gogo will reach around 2650 ELO in Rapidroid, according to 3 bullets x 100 games it played against engines of this range.

Therefore, as mentioned in his homepage:

Starting from version 1.4 gogobello runs also on Android!

gogobello-android is successfully tested under DroidFish without gogobello.ini config file

Latest Version:

gogobello 1.4: (Android)

Status: released in December 2017

* - Android version available

* - Bug Fixing

* - Search improvements

* - Better Time Management

* - Better passed pawn evaluation

* - More UCI commands available (gogobello.ini is now optional)

GET Gogobello 1.4.SG for arm7

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.12.04.ACH

These are not the latest versions of Cfish. As newer versions were already released before i share these ones here, you'ds better take them as retro gifts for collectors!

GET Cfish 2017.12.04.ACH for arm7 and arm8
GET Cfish 2017.12.04.AG.ACH for arm7 and arm8, playing with higher contempt.

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Brainfish 2017.12.03.ACH

The engine:
GET Brainfish 2017.12.03.ACH for arm7 and arm8

Cerebellum book at Chesstroid repository:

GET Cerebellum Light 2017.11.01 (45 MB compressed)

How to setup Cerebellum book:

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Chess Free AI 2.553

WHAT'S NEW (01-Dec-2017):

v2.553: Fixes issue with some languages settings causing layout problems

Download latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

Chess Tournament 0.7.7 by Javiolo

Javiolo's Chess Tournament app is the best Engine Tournament manager available for Android, thanks to several settings not yet made available in the older Chess for Android app. The latest version of Javiolo's "chef d'oeuvre" is available for download at GOOGLE PLAY.

WHAT'S NEW (04-Dec-2017):
v0.7.7
this app can not be improved
Our Cfish 64 bits work fine with all devices
- contempt
- fixed clear ratings general

December 24, 2017

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2017.12.03.ACH

Yet another Stockfish build by Alexei Chernakoff, be it shared late than never.

GET Stockfish 8.0.2017.12.03.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 1.8.20171201.ACH

Cichess is a Stockfish derivative i'm not interested to test but i respect the dedicated fans of it, so i keep sharing wherever i can, no matter how quickly (...how lately).

Below build is for collectors only, there's already a more recent release version that i'll soon share here.

GET Cichess 1.8.20171201.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: armFish 2017.11.23

armFish builds are made by Lyudmil Antonov for arm8 64-bit devices only, using direct cpu instructions via assembly language. This method is the most native but a little bit unhuman too. One would only bear this to obtain the fastest build.

I could not verify whether below build is made by Lyudmil too like previous ones, given that it was posted in another forum, not from Lyudmil's repository. By the way, it's hard to guess someone else would take the same difficult challenge to deal with the assembly language.

I still assume it's an LA build.

GET armFish 2017.11.23.LA for arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Stockfish dev't 2017.11.18 by Javiolo

Please note that the builds run with the GUI's developed by Javiolo. You have to install one of them (CEPA for example) first, as mentioned by the author in what's new notice.

WHAT'S NEW (29-Nov-2017):
new release Stockfish 8 20171118 NOT Open Exchange protocol NOT OEX engine. Only works with our GUIs.
old release Stockfish 8 20171004 NOT Open Exchange protocol NOT OEX engine. Only works with our GUIs.

Other Stockfish derivatives

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.packs.chessenginesotherfishpack

for more engines see Chess Engines app

You can download the engine pack from GOOGLE PLAY.

Full description of the app says:

"The Stockfish engine was developed by Tord Romstad, Marco Costalba, and Joona Kiiski. It is now being developed and maintained by the Stockfish community.

https://stockfishchess.org/about/

We do Not develop/create this Engine. We just compiled/adapted it for android

at this moment Stockfish Chess Engine only works in OURs GUIs.

Install engine app and run one of our GUIs (Graphical User Interface), chess board.

UnInstall app to remove engine. Updating the app updates the engine.

Being a library this app does not need has a view/layout, need a Chess Board App.

The engine will appear in the engine list of the GUI

We have three GUIs:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.packs.ajedrezmotores

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.packs.adminpgn

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.packs.chessenginestournament

It is also a good idea to be able to play matches between SF vs Komodo

architectures: (pie) ;

armv5, armv7, arm64v8, x86, x86_64

Stockfish 8 day: 20161101

old release:

Stockfish 8 20171004 NOT oex engine

Current release:

Stockfish 8 20171118 NOT oex engine

Api min 16 (4.1 Jelly Bean)

for old devices install the other Stockfish nopie app

this engine is on github"

Cfish 2017.11.29 by Javiolo

Thanks to Javiolo for this Cfish update for Android.

WHAT'S NEW (29-Nov-2017):
new Cfish 8 20171129 NOT open exchange (Not oex)
old Cfish 8 20170819 NOT Open Exchange protocol

You can download the latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

November 28, 2017

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.11.27.ACH

This time, it's shared on time! The build is still hot and don't get your fingers burned. Thanks to Alexei..

GET Cfish 2017.11.27.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2017.11.26.ACH

An experimental Stockfish build with dynamic contempt (contempt default = 40!). It's hardcoded, so you don't need to set anything to obtain the fish who hates draws.

GET Stockfish 8.0.2017.11.26.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: SugaR Xpro 2017.11.25.ACH

Some new SugaR?

GET SugaR XPro.201711245.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Lichess 5.2.1

GET latest Lichess for Android at GOOGLE PLAY.

WHAT'S NEW (25-Nov-2017):
v5.2.1:
- Fix game freeze bug when in check (bug in v5.2.0)
- Fix puzzle retry (bug in v5.2.0)
v5.2.0:
- new home page with featured tournaments
- OTB game clock
- new piece set 'riohacha'
- keep puzzle state when going backfrom analysis
- remove premove alerts
- fix stockfish skill much too strong for low levels
- fix loading language based on device settings
- put back notes access in analysis

Chess Free AI 2.552

Another minor update for the fans of this average engine. It's in Chesstroid because it has true time controls instead of childish "Easy, Medium, Hard".

WHAT'S NEW (22-Nov-17):
v2.551: Updates/fixes to intro screen

Download latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

Android UCI engine update: Vajolet2 2.4.ACH

Vajolet2 is a 3000+ ELO engine according to last release of Rapidroid and it works perfect technically with CfA. The new 2.4 version compiled by Alexei and shared below, replaces now Aprijal's 2.3.1 build.

Although i had expectations about this new Vajolet, its performance during 8 first Rapidroid rounds out of 20 is below 3000. This issue remains to follow...

GET Vajolet2 2.4.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST

November 27, 2017

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.11.15.ACH

The Cfishes of November started with some headaches, related to weak first "out of book" moves, played instantly by the builds. The bug appeared not only with all GUIs, mainly Chess Tournament was impacted.

Ronald de Man has later corrected the code and things have become normal. Enjoy and thank Alexei Chernakoff for compiling!

GET Cfish 2017.11.15.ACH for arm7 and arm8

Previous buggy versions of November:
GET Cfish 2017.11.05.ACH for arm7 and arm8
GET Cfish 2017.11.03.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Fritz 15 for Android ft Ginkgo engine

Once there was Chessbase Online for Android which featured Fritz 14 build based on Pandix engine. The app was useful for analysis but it didn't include the option to play a real game. If i bought it, that was just to strip the engine out and plug it to Chess for Android, which worked flawlessly so far.

ChessBase apps are always costly than other commercial programs but they are still marketed, presented and sold in a level that no other company can compete. There's no other company dedicated to sell chess progs by the way. ChessBase is unique.

But when it comes to Android, their apps are not necessarily on par with the expectations: Sometimes buggy, mostly voluminous and more expensive than, let's say Komodo or Chiron (Don't mention Stockfish which comes free!).

When i first heard about Fritz, the new option to play chess vs the engine didn't attract me at all. I just bought the app in pursuit of the engine, thinking that whatever it comes out, will be strong enough.

To my biggest surprise, they've embedded Ginkgo 2.0 by Frank Schneider instead of Vasik Rajlich's Rybka. Well, okay, as long as it works with CfA for my tournaments, i'll be good.

Ginkgo 2.0 is strong enough to surpass Chiron, slightly behind Andscacs which will soon become the new #3 of Android. I guess ir plays around 3150 ELO. So, if you wanna get this engine you can buy Fritz. Otherwise, it fully depends on your wallet.

Please note that on arm7 i wasn't able to trigger more than 4 threads and on arm8 it seems 6 threads is the maximum. I don't know why...

BUY Fritz 15 from Google Play

Android UCI engine update: Texel 1.08a4 by Peter Österlund

Shortly after 1.07, here comes Texel 1.08 alpha versions.

WHAT'S NEW (13-Nov-2017):
- Updated Texel to version 1.08a4.
- New option MaxNPS as an alternative way to reduce playing strength by limiting the search speed.

Let me notify that the Android versions, starting with 1.07 looked more competitive than ever to me. I expect Texel to be in TOP-10 of next Rapidroid list.

GET Texel installer app in Google Play)

GET Texel 1.08a4.PO for arm7, arm8 and x86 (Standalone builds)

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Ethereal 8.37

Andy Grant keeps releasing Android builds with each update of his engine. Ethereal is on the way to 3000 ELO in CCRL and it already broke trough 2800 in blitz list. You may expect 2650-2700 in Android devices.

WHAT'S NEW (v8.37):
-Major cleanup of code; Working torwards a uniform style. No functional change.
Main change if that eval is broken into many functions, with the aid of an EvalInfo struct. Working with the one massive eval function was a pain. Also, this new way nets a 2.0% to 3.0% speedup in my test positions.
Managed to remove ~725 LOC Tuned values for all evaluation features except Castling / Safety

GET Ethereal 8.37.AG for arm7 32-bit pie

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 1.8.20171107.ACH

Cichess is a Stockfish derivative i'm not interested to test but i respect the dedicated fans of it, so i keep sharing wherever i can, no matter how quickly (...how lately).

GET Cichess 1.8.20171107.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Brainfish 2017.11.10.ACH with Cerebellum book

It had been a while since Alexei compiled Brainfish for Android. After nearly three months, the brain is ON again, with a new Cerebellum book.

Here's what Alexei recommends for book setup:
"To use the book Cerebellum_Light_Poly.bin (download the latest version of this book from the official site in polyglot format), create a book folder in the phone's memory and put a book in it. The path should look like this: /sdcard/book/Cerebellum_Light_Poly.bin, when the engine starts the book connects automatically."

Hopefully, i'm not afraid of eating 45MB of storage to host a big book. So, you can download Cerebellum from Chesstroid repository:
GET Cerebellum Light 2017.11.01

And before i forget, the engine, of course:

GET Brainfish 2017.11.10.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: armFish 2017.11.08

GET armFish 2017.11.08.LA for arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: armFish 2017.11.06

Below build is not the most recent. It's placed here just for collectors, the way i often proceed when i'm late sharing what's in hand.

GET armFish 2017.11.06.LA for arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

November 6, 2017

New Android UCI engine: Andscacs 0.921 TCEC

Andscacs is today one of the Top-10 engines, among the strongest "followers" placed just behind Stockfish, Komodo & Houdini.

Andscacs is developed and programmed by Daniel José Queraltó from Andorra. It currently plays in TCEC-10 Round-1 undefeated and will qualify for Round-2.

Daniel Jose describes Andscacs in his HOMEPAGE like: "It's born in September 2013. It has approximately 3240 elo. The new versions will be published in this website. Andscacs means "And" for Andorra, the country where I live, and scacs for "escacs", chess in catalan."

CCRL 40/4 rates Andscacs 0.92 about 3270 ELO for Windows, which makes it #7 of the list. Therefore, to honor the TCEC event (i guess), the author has decided last week to provide the source code of the version playing there. It was an unexpected but a nice gift indeed because the engine used to be closed source until today.

I didn't wait too long to notify Alexei Chernakoff who kindly sweated a lot to port the code to Android. The result seems very satisfying after a little rework for arm8 version.

I'll be highly glad to rate Andscacs in Rapidroid, which i hope to update before December comes.

GET Andscacs 0.921.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: armFish 2017.11.05

armFish builds are made by Lyudmil Antonov for arm8 64-bit devices only, using direct cpu instructions via assembly language. It's native and should deliver the fastest builds by definition.

GET armFish 2017.11.05.LA for arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2017.10.31.ACH

Stockfish by the end October! The ninth version is not too far.

GET Stockfish 8.0.2017.10.31.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 1.8.20171031.ACH

Cichess is a Stockfish derivative i'm not interested to test but i respect the dedicated fans of it, so i keep sharing wherever i can, no matter how quickly.

GET Cichess 1.8.20171031.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android XB engine update: Scorpio 2.7.8.ACH

After two updates on the source code, a third modification comes with a version update to 2.7.8. Do not forget to can modify scorpio.ini before installation to alter the settings to your taste. Thanks to Alexei for porting Scorpio to Android.

GET Scorpio 2.7.8.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Chess Online 11.2.3 by Miroslav Kisly

WHAT'S NEW (30-Oct-2017)

v11.2.3:
* Added Nigeria and Ghana
* Online chat black list
* Other fixes

Download Chess Online from GOOGLE PLAY.

Aurora Chess Clock v1.4

A free chess clock very comparable to the official DGT.

WHAT'S NEW (28-Oct-2017):
- Larger digital screen
- Settings page optimized for low resolution screens
- An easter egg for time cheating in paid version.

Download the latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

October 29, 2017

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.10.28.ACH

The latest... by Alexei, based on the patch about "Extra thinking before accepting draw PVs".

GET Cfish 2017.10.28.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2017.10.28.ACH

Fresh, fresh, fresh! Thanks to Alexei Chernakoff. This version is based on the patch about "Extra thinking before accepting draw PVs".

GET Stockfish 8.0.2017.10.28.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble dowloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Ethereal 8.31

This is the latest version curently playing in Rapidroid for next release of November. I expect Ethereal to be rated around 2600 ELO.

WHAT'S NEW (v8.31):
- Tuned values for all evaluation features except Castling / Safety

GET Ethereal 8.31.AG for arm7 32-bit pie

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: SugaR Xpro 2017.10.24.ACH

The previous SugaR was from Oct,7th. This one, ported to Android by Alexei is dated 24th.

GET SugaR XPro.20171024.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from PC, use your mobile or refer to THIS POST.

Lichess 5.1.2

GET latest Lichess for Android at GOOGLE PLAY.

WHAT'S NEW (26-Oct-2017):
v5.1.2:
New feature:
- zen mode: hide players name and rating during play
Improvements & bug fixes:
- fix incoherent moves in analysis move list from 5.1.1
- fix puzzle bug when anonymous from release 5.1.0
- add game expiration timers before the start of a tournament or lobby game
- fix extra time (adding 15 seconds) not seen after adding
- fix share PGN in analysis
- fix puzzle graph for tablets
- allow now to surrender a puzzle when started

October 22, 2017

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2017.10.22.ACH

The latest Stockfish available for Android as of today, made by Alexei Chernakoff.

GET Stockfish 8.0.2017.10.22.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2017.10.22.ACH

Only one arm8 build this time. It comes with static libraries embedded, making it universal.

GET Cfish 2017.10.22.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: McBrain_2017.3.0.TCEC.X.ACH

McBrain is a tweaked Stockfish, maintained by Micheal Byrne. You can read more about it HERE. As Alexei's arm8 builds started to include the static libraries recently, don't be surprised to see only one arm8 build. It should work on all devices.

GET McBrain_2017.3.0.TCEC.X.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android XB engine update: Scorpio 2.7.7.171020.ACH

Thanks to Alexei for compiling the latest source code dated 20th of October. As usual, you can modify scorpio.ini before installation to alter the settings to your taste. Arm8 users should bear in mind that they'd better try the standard build and in case of problem they try the build entitled "sl" which includes static libraries for more compatibility in exchange of bigger file size.

GET Scorpio 2.7.7.171020.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Sting 8.9.ACH

Sting is a Stockfish derivative forked from v2.3.1 a long time ago and maintained by Marek Kwiatkowski.

Sting is not made for getting the max ELO but for tactical analysis. However, i still think 8.9 will play stronger than the latest 8.1 made for Android.

8.1 and 8.9 versions were both ported by Alexei Chernakoff. Good news for 64 bit users is that we have an arm8 build this time.

GET Sting 8.9.ACH for arm7 and arm8

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 1.8.20171020.ACH

In case of trouble downloading from your PC, use your mobile device or refer to THIS POST.

HAL9000

December 25, 2017

December 24, 2017

November 28, 2017

November 27, 2017

November 6, 2017

October 29, 2017

October 22, 2017