Android UCI engine update: armFish 2018.02.11 to 2018.02.19

ArmFish is a project based on the assembly code to achieve the highest speed with Stockfish engine. A lot of updates have rained during February, so frequently that i thought it would be easier to share them all together, in a single post.

ArmFish and MateFish are provided side by side, bearing in mind that MateFish is a specific version of ArmFish, dedicated to find mating attacks quicker rather than breaking ELO records.

GET armFish 2018.02.11.LA for arm8
GET armFish 2018.02.11.CP for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.11.LA for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.11.CP for arm8

GET armFish 2018.02.13 for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.13 for arm8

GET armFish 2018.02.14 for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.14 for arm8
GET armFish 2018.02.15 for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.15 for arm8

GET armFish 2018.02.19 for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.02.19 for arm8

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

Android UCI engine update: CT800 1.20

CT800 is an average level engine released by Ratmus Althoff who recently concentrated on compiling for Android and finally managed to obtain working binaries.

CT800, in fact, was born as a dedicated chess computer idea and it was designed by Rasmus Althoff.  The original CT800 featured an ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller of an Olimex H405 board that operates up to 168 Mhz, with 1 MB of flash memory, 192+4 kB of SRAM, and multiple I/O and USB connectors, with a 4x20 character text display, two leds, and a 4x4 + 1 keypad as peripherals aka user interface. Voltage source is due to four NiMH rechargeable AA batteries or external 5 V DC power supply.

The "chess computer" CT800

CT800's firmware is developed by Rasmus Althoff, released under the GPL Version 3. The chess playing software is an ARM port of George Georgopoulos' open source engine NG-play including a KPK bitbase by Marcel van Kervinck.

GET CT800 1.20 for arm7 and arm8

Previous stable version was:
GET CT800 1.12 for arm7

Development versions from 1.12 to 1.20 were:
GET CT800 1.20p11 for arm7 and arm8
GET CT800 1.20p13 for arm7 and arm8
GET CT800 1.20p14 for arm7 and arm8
GET CT800 1.20p15 for arm7 and arm8

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

Android UCI engine update: Cheese 1.9.2

Another bugfix update by the author, Patrice Duhamel. No ELO change expected.

WHAT'S NEW (17-Feb-2018):
Version 1.9.2
- fix engine not responding in pondering mode since version 1.9
- fix illegal moves in pondering when the search ends before receiving message from the interface
- fix an error with Arena/UCI when pondering is enable, always return a move to ponder (if possible)
- fix a problem when starting next tournament game in Fritz GUI

GET Cheese 1.9.2 for arm7 and arm8

You can also visit CHEESE HOMEPAGE for more info.

Android UCI engine update: Cichess 2.0.2018021.ACH

For the followers of the Stockfish derivatives.

GET Cichess 2.0.20180216.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2018.02.15

I fear that the day when SF and Cfish will get hourly updates that we will try to share in time. We would probably be dying of hunger because no time would be left to eat.

GET Cfish 9.0.2018.02.15.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 Matefinder 9.0.ACH

Matefinder is a Stockfish fork maintained by Joseph Ellis and dedicated to solve puzzles rather than hitting the highest possible ELO. Like many other derivatives, Matefinder is now updated to a new version based on Stockfish 9 code too. Enjoy!

Joseph Ellis

GET Stockfish Matefinder 9.0 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 2018.02.13

Cfish keeps going... thanks to Alexei for regularly compiling it for Android.

GET Cfish 9.0.2018.02.13.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Chess Tactics & Strategy aka PbChess

This is nothing but PBchess ported to Android by the developers. As per a comment sent to Chesstroid, i came back to analyze what engines they embedded. There's nothing new. Two engines out of three are previously shared builds of Fruit and Toga. Regarding Stockfish, although it looks like different, smaller in size, doesn't bring too much attraction after SF9. Therefore, the app is only recommended for its basic features, not the provided engines.

The app description from Google Play says:

"Chess training program. Includes chess puzzles, chess tactics, chess openings, endings training, playing with computer, computer analysis ...

IMPORTANT:

1. PLEASE, WATCH DEMO VIDEO FIRST

2. TO REGISTER THIS PROGRAM YOU CAN CLICK THE "BUY" BUTTON OF THE NAG SCREEN

3. IF YOU CAN'T BUY THIS PROGRAM VIA GOOGLE PLAY, YOU CAN FIND MORE PAYMENT OPTIONS AT MY SITE (http://pbchess.vlasovsoft.net/en/register.html).

Program site: http://pbchess.vlasovsoft.net/en

We have a lot of chess training materials ( tactics, endings, classic games ) for "chess - tactics and strategy" at our site: http://pbchess.vlasovsoft.net/files/catalog/2014.11/contents.php?lng=en

Please contact me if any questions! http://pbchess.vlasovsoft.net/en/contacts.html

(*) This is demo version of pbchess program.

Limitations:

1. Displays registration messages

2. Can open only demo training databases. The registered version can open all the training bases.

3. All the opening books are limited to the 3 first moves.

You should register to get rid of these limitations."

WHAT'S NEW (23-Feb-2018)
- "Night" UI theme

GET latest version of Chess Tactics & Strategy from Google Play

Android UCI engine update: McBrain 9.0.ACH

McBrain is a tweaked Stockfish, maintained by Micheal Byrne. You can read more about it HERE. As the name suggests, this version is based on Stockfish 9.0.

GET McBrain 9.0.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Chess Engines Collection 1.2 by APE Studios

Another engine collection by APE Studios brings yummy updates. The builds are OEX compatible, so they will be automatically recognized by all compatible GUIs, like CfA and Droidfish.

WHAT'S NEW (10-Feb-2018):
- Senpai updated to version 2.0.
- Stockfish updated to version 9.
- New engine: asmFish (an assembler port of Stockfish, available for ARM64 and x86-64).
- New engine: Rodent III.

The app is available for download at GOOGLE PLAY.

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2018.02.10

2nd Cfish ported to Android by Alexei after SF9 official. For archivers, because others already followed.

GET Cfish 9.0.2018.02.10.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Android XB engine update: Scorpio 2.7.9.20180206.APE

Here they are: New Scorpios bundled with Acid APE Chess Beta 16.8. I didn't test these but i guess they are compatible with CfA and other GUIs.

GET Scorpio 2.7.9.20180206.APE for arm7, arm8, x86_32 and x86_64

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

Android UCI engine update: Arasan 20.4.1.APE

These are the builds taken from Beta 16.8 of Acid APE Chess GUI.

GET Arasan 20.4.1APE for arm7, arm8, x86 32 and 64 bits

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

Acid APE Chess Beta 16.8

APE is a challenging chess GUI's for Android, a serious competitor to Chess for Android by Aart Bik and Chess Tournament by Javiolo.

WHAT'S NEW (10-Feb-2018):

- If your Lichess username is "Anonymous", it is now replaced client-side by the player name you have defined in the app settings, for extra clarity.

- First-class support for engine personalities has been added.

- Arasan has been updated to 20.4.1

- Scorpio has been updated to 2.7.9-20180206

- The flip button of the DGT page now flips the idea that Acid Ape Chess has of the physical board orientation.

- Miscellaneous fixes and optimizations have been applied.

Download latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

Chess Free AI 2.61

WHAT'S NEW (07-Feb-2018):

2.61: Adds options on exiting a multiplayer match

Download latest version from GOOGLE PLAY.

Droidfish 1.72 ft Stockfish 9

Droidfish with the new Stockfish 9!

WHAT'S NEW (6-Feb-2017):

Version 1.72
- Update to stockfish 9.
- Show selective search depth in the status area when the engine is thinking.

GET latest Droidfish from Google Play
GET Droidfish 1.72 apk in case you need to keep a copy in your archive
GET The engine binaries in case you want to install them manually under other GUIs

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

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2018.02.06

After Stockfish, that's the turn for Cfish. This should be the first development version ported to Android following the 9.0 official. Thanks to Alexei.

GET Cfish 9.0.2018.02.06.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 2018.02.06.ACH

This should be the first development version ported to Android following the 9.0 official. Thanks to Alexei.

GET Stockfish 9.0.2018.02.06.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Android UCI engine update: Zevra 20180131.ACH

Zevra is a weak engine written by Oleg Smirnov, around 1700 in Rapidroid scale. The Android build still causes issues on my devices, like the previous 1.4 version: A remarkable % of the games played with black by Zevra needs to be replayed after a division. I keep hoping Alexei can find the trick behind this problem with Chess for Android.

However, you can always try Zevra with Droidfish or for human vs machine games in CfA.

GET Zevra 2018.01.31.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Chess Online 11.4 by Miroslav Kisly

WHAT'S NEW (2-Feb-2018)
v11.4.0:

* ELO improvements
* Online games history

Download latest Chess Online from GOOGLE PLAY.

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 9.ACH

The story of compiler optimization issues observed with SF9 were applying to Cfish 9 too. That's why multiple builds came in a queue. You just pick the one that suits you well. Or, i guess you will all be more interested in the development builds which followed Cfish 9 during February. So, you may keep this Cfish 9 as a reference only in your archive.

GET Cfish 9.ACH for arm7 and arm8 (Based on official SF9 code)
GET Cfish 9.ACH no PGO for arm7
GET Cfish 9.ACH PGO fix for arm7
GET Cfish 9.ACH fixed for arm7 (build of Feb-7th)

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

Android UCI engine update: Brainfish 2018.02.01.ACH

The engine:
GET Brainfish 2018.02.01.ACH for arm7 and arm8

Cerebellum book at Zipproth.de:

GET Cerebellum Light 2017.02.01

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: Stockfish 9

The long awaited ninth fish was finally released after TCEC-9, thanks to latest fruitful patches adding the utilization of the contempt factor. This number defines how positive (or negative) the engine will interpret its evaluation. More contempt means more optimism and less contempt means more desperation for an engine. By definition, contempt factor can convert draws to wins against a weaker engines but it can also cause losses instead of draws, while forcing for a win.

By the end of Janary, the official SF9 has been released on Stockfish website. It has included Alexei Chernakoff's Android builds that i share below. The choice of the Stockfish team made us extremely happy and proud of what he achieved.

GET Stockfish 9.ACH (OFFICIAL) for arm7 (Jan-31th, CRC32: 23404375) and arm8

After first tests, arm7 build has been found to perform worse than expected due to incompatibility between latest patches and heavy PGO+LTO optimizations used by the compiler. Arm8 builds were healthy but arm7 delivered less than +60 ELO vs SF8.

Therefore, following alternatives came quickly in a few days during first week of February.

GET Stockfish 9.ACH for arm7 (2nd build on Feb-2nd, probably without PGO/LTO, CRC32 = D38AD094)
GET Stockfish 9.ACH for arm7 (3rd build on Feb-2nd, fixed PGO, CRC32 = 251627CA)
GET Stockfish 9.ACH for arm7 (4th build on Feb-7th, noPGO?, CRC32 = 25D1EE16)
GET Stockfish 9.ACH for arm7 (5th build on Feb-7th, fixed PGO, no LTO, CRC32 = 65FEB516)

I'd already chosen the 3rd build for Rapidroid before the 4th and 5th came out and didn't change it afterwards because it had played a lot and its performance was satisfying (+60 to 90 ELO depending on the progression of the rounds). So, it's up to you to decide which one suits you best.

One thing is sure: More nps didn't mean higher ELO this time.

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

A few (!) updates remain to be shared

Indeed, Chesstroid is full of comments reporting tons of updates which makes it a source of fresh information. This contribution of the visitors brings a dynamic ambiance which hides my slowness in sharing things in time. So, thanks to everyone for covering me!

Anyways, i'll be back again soon to complete the saga, in line with chronological order of the releases.

Android UCI engine update: armFish 2018.01.28

ArmFish is a project based on the assembly code to achieve the highest speed with Stockfish engine. The Android port below was done by Alexei1976. Thanks for the contribution.

GET armFish 2018.01.28 for arm8
GET mateFish 2018.01.28 for arm8

mateFish is a specific version of armFish with some specific code aiming to find mating lines quicker rather than playing the strongest level of chess.

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

Android UCI engine update: Stockfish dev't 2018.01.23.ACH

This is the last development version of Stockfish made available by Alexei before v9 has been released.

GET Stockfish 8.0.2018.01.23.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

Android UCI engine update: Cfish 2018.01.23.ACH

This one is the last Cfish based on Stockfish 8 source. For achivers...

GET Cfish 2018.01.23.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 2018.01.22.ACH

Although i'm way too late to post this one, there's no newer SugaR around.

GET SugaR XPro.20180122.ACH for arm7 and arm8

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

SSDF rating list of 20-Jan-2018 featuring Stokfish 8

Happy to see that SSDF featured SF8 instead of SF6, at last. The bad news, on the other hand, is that SF9 appeared shortly after SSDF update came in. Well, bad luck...

Another bad news is that Houdini is still completely missing, probably due to the fact that P.Houdart didn't want to lend a free copy of his program. This is not written anywhere, just my guess.

The Top-30 of SSDF list

Comments to the Swedish Rating List 1/2018, January 20

"On our latest ratinglist we have a new leader! It's the Stockfish 8-program by Tord Romstad, Marco Costalba and Joona Kiiski. As the program is released without an own book, we have used the free opening book from Fauzi Dabat, called "Aggressive 3.2 by Fauzi.abk". Even though it's early on, this strong combination has achieved an impressive rating of 3436 after the first 202 played games! This is 37 points above Komodo 11.01 on second place, but we will of course need to play more games to be able to shrink the error bars.

Another early bird is the Komodo 11.01-program by Larry Kaufman and Mark Lefler, which we introduced on our Ryzen-hardware last time around. We now have enough games to present an early rating for it on our Q6600-level. With a rating of 3340 after the first 202 games, it still trails its older 9.1 program by 13 points. This relationship will probably be readjusted for the next list as more games are played.

Since last time we have also included our formerly tested Wasp 2.01 by John Stanback on both the Q6600 and the Ryzen 1800X hardware. On our Q6600 it has reached a rating of 3068 after the first 320 games, and on the Ryzen hardware it has achieved a rating of 3155 after 446 games. As we also have tested it on our 32-bit, singlecore A1200-level, we can now compare it on three different levels. Judging from our testing, it seems like the difference is approximately 100 rating points per hardware level for this program.

Compared to our former ratinglist, Millenium ChessGenius and Deep Hiarcs 14 1800X gained 10 respectively 9 points. Wasp 2.01 A1200 lost 21 points, Deep Shredder 13 1800X lost 11 and Komodo 11.01 1800X lost 8 points.

The next ratinglist will be released as soon as we have enough games to be able to present one or more of the manually tested chess computers which we test at the moment. They missed this list by a small margin, but hopefully we will be able to present them in our next ratinglist which we hope to release in March/April.

Lars Sandin"

You can download the latest SSDF list HERE or a copy of it HERE (*).

(*) P.S.: The file is labeled as Jan,18th. That's because the official release took 2 days.

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

Android UCI/XB engine update: Wyldchess 1.51

Wyldchess is a UCI and Chess Engine Communication Protocol compliant open source chess engine by Manik Charan, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, written in C/C++, first released in October 2016. Origin of ideas and implementations are documented inside the source code, e.g. tapered eval SIMD score or SEE from Stockfish. Since version 1.5, released in June 2017, WyldChess supports Syzygy Bases.

The update to 1.51 is not new and i must have skipped it somehow. There's only one build available,  compiled by the author. Unfortunately, it crashed on my devices the same way as v1.5.

If you can run Wyldchess on your device without issues, share the recipe here.

GET Wyldchess 1.51.MC for arm7

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

Life is a Game of Chess

December and January were full of bad surprises in my life. It just reminded once again that life is a chess game too, more or less complex, where you have to protect your valuable pieces from the other color and to achieve this, you may have to sacrifice some of the other pieces to survive.

No matter what number of squares are present on the board, it's a game that begins and ends for a purpose.

Despite all difficulties, i hope i can continue to allocate enough time to keep this "still unique" blog alive and kicking, in near future because it proved to be worth the effort.

This January of 2018, Chesstroid has reached 500.000 hits after 3 years without any artificial support or sponsoring. Today i'm proud of what it has become. To be honest, it's gone way beyond what i'd imagined in the beginning.

Thanks for all those who supported. You're all amazing...