New Android UCI engine: Toga Returns 1.1 JA

Valery Kotelnikov has recently sent me a package including some engines missing in my collection. It's a nice gift that i highly appreciated.

Beyond some very old versions of known engines, i've found in the package some remarkable engines which deserve specific attention. Toga Returns is one of them, although it's quite old and abandoned. As the name suggests, Toga Returns is a Toga II reworked by Ben Tennison.

For sure, speaking about those countless Fruit forks is not easy as the family tree is complex enough to fully stress my memory, every time i need to recall what was what and from where each one comes.

Knowing that Rapidroid is already "Fruitfull" with Senpai, Fruit Reloaded, Grapefruit, The Mad Prune, Cyclone and Toga, it may be that Toga Returns will not be included there. We know Senpai and FR are rewrites but others are suspected to be similar.

I didn't even test Toga Returns yet and i don't know what compatibility it may provide. For the moment, i'll make the arm5 build available for download: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Gull 3 rev4 & rev 5 JA

In response to consecutive feedback from testers, Jim's valuable efforts for porting Gull 3 to Android generated five different builds. I didn't yet deeply investigated all these builds one by one, so i can't comment yet about it.

Nevertheless, it's time to summarize all that's done so far (all builds for arm7 only):

Gull 3 rev1: HERE

Gull 3 rev2: I skipped it. See rev3.

Gull 3 rev3: HERE

Gull 3 rev4: HERE

Gull 3 rev5: HERE

Rev1 didn't work well in most devices, therefore it will remain a part of the archives. Just skip it.

Regarding others, each of them led to different symptoms on different devices and processors but one of them may suit your condition. Please note that rev 4 and rev5 are special attempts not yet officially released by Jim.

In short, further releases are likely to come in pursuit of a universal build.

No matter what, Gull will be ranked in Rapidroid as long as it plays automated games without early terminations. My word!

Chess for Android 5.1.2

Chess for Android, the only GUI which allows engine to engine games under Android is now updated to version 5.1.2. That latest version fixes some engine importing issues (we don't know which ones???).

After playing 30000+ automated games with this excellent app using approximately 200+ UCI and XB engines since years, my favorite enjoyment is now reading the user reviews about it in Google Play and laughing.

Shall i be surprised to see how some people is able to vote one star although they are too far from reality and the final score for the app is the average of all votes? Not at all. Life is full of contrasts, people are people and there are way too many intellectual variations all around.

Then in this case, my vote is 10 stars. Five via Google Play because more is not allowed and i give five more stars as bonus gift on behalf of Rapidroid.

Download CfA 5.1.2 at GOOGLE PLAY

Download CfA 5.1.1 with remote engine feature: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Gull 3 rev3 JA

The third build of Gull 3 for Android comes with Syzygy support and nodes per second display in Chess for Android (was reported as 0 constantly).

This is the same engine, compiled for arm7 again, with more functionality. Without tablebases, it's the same strength. To see what strength, we'll have to wait for next release of Rapidroid ranking.

You may however go quicker than me and start enjoying Gull 3 rev 3: HERE

Stockfish 7 coming on strong to shake Rapidroid soon!

I just can't keep myself from sharing a snapshot of what is currently happening at the top of Rapidroid because the race between the two toppers appears not to be decided by a photo finish as it used to be since along time. There's a remarkable gap this time... 

Stockfish 7 should play even stronger than 121215 which climbed back to the top in the last Rapidroid version. It fulfills the expectation and brings some 50 more ELOs over the previous ranked one. Besides, additional help comes from Komodo 9.3 which plays unexpectedly weaker than 9.2. Consequently, the fish did not face any difficulty in dominating the field. The status is decisive after 7 rounds out of 17.

As soon as 17 rounds will be replayed, i'll be releasing the exact equivalent of the last ranking with the updated engines marked with blue in the image and add all the manual games stored in another pgn database.

It will probably shrink a little bit more as usual because of more samples taken into account. The error margins will get narrower but do not expect any radical change in the ranking.

Stockfish 7 doesn't give a chance to Komodo under Android. Sorry Mark and Larry...

Finally, it must be noted that ExChess 7.88, Crafty 25.0, RedQueen 1.1.98 and arm7 version of Phalanx perform all very well. I think they will all overtake their predecessors.

Android UCI engine update: Sting 6 JA

Sting is a legal fork of Stockfish. It's derived from Stockfish 2.1.1 and developed as separate project by Marek Kwiatkowski since a long time.

I remeber the version 5 ported to Android by JA was not well appreciated by Android users, as it was supposed to be used for analysis only. In parallel, i had kept v4.8.4 as part of Rapidroid ranking and never forced myself to introduce v5.

Now that v6 is available for Android, i'm ready to start over and forward more headache to Komodo and Stockfish. Critter must not be left alone in the hard duty :-)

Download Sting 6 for arm5: HERE

Download Sting 6 for arm7: HERE

Android UCI engine update: Gull 3 JA

A stronger version of the mighty Gull finally comes to Android thanks to Jim Ablett. After a first porting attempt which failed, the second seems running well according to first testers. I didn't have yet the same opportunity but i hope there will be no issues about running it in automated tournaments, so that we can at last enjoy welcoming another ~3000 ELO portable engine into the ranking.

If you were to ask me why am i so excited about Gull 3, i'd tell you how sad and frustrating it was to see that even the abandoned old Critter can still remain number 3 in Rapidroid. That was the sign of a very slow progress in Android compared to overall progress speed of computer chess.

How many times we've been searching for Android ports of "others" like Houdini, Hiarcs, Deep Fritz, Nirvana, Naum, Junior, Spike? Inded, we never had enough competition vs Stocfkfish and Komodo as it was the case with several Windows engines.

Now it looks like a stronger Gull will bring some more fresh air. Enjoy it!

Download Gull 3 for Android arm7: HERE