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Mark's Blog

Blog updated daily! There is are several engine tournaments underway and most of my blog posts are dedicated to it. The games are listed starting with a number which correlates to the round that it is in. The full details of this tournament can be found under the post heading 'The search for the best chess engine'.


    • Bullet Tournamet

      I recently installed several new engines that did not take part in the super-rapid play tournament. These were Ufim 8.02, Ruffian 1.05, Aristarch 4.50 and Petir 339d (Winboard). The hope was that they'd give my usual suspects a run for their mone... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | May 13, 2009
      • | 220 views
      • | 0 comments
    • Super-rapid play tournament

      Time controls = 1 sec/move. I made this tournament out of my 10 best engines. A simple round-robin tournament with one game against each opponent. White/black randomly assigned and who cam out on top? ...Rybka...   10/05/2009 21:11:58 :   ... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | May 10, 2009
      • | 240 views
      • | 2 comments
    • Ivom vs. markarkrkk

      I light of recent comments made to my blog from Ivom, Ivom and I are now playing two correspondence games between our best engines. I will play my Rybka 2.2n2 (32bit) against his Glaurung 2.2 (Linux OS), and give Toga II a chance to show its colo... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Apr 7, 2009
      • | 279 views
      • | 1 comment
    • 8. Toga 2 vs. Rybka 2.2

      The giant finally made his entry into my tournament. Toga 2 had proven itself time and time again that it was better than all of these 'lesser' engines, but had its work cut out against its +200 elo opponent. The first game was a... Queens Pawn Ve... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Jan 4, 2009
      • | 560 views
      • | 1 comment
    • 7. Toga 2 vs. Gambit Fruit 1.0

      Both of these engines came from the same team and derived from original 'Fruit' engines. The games were very close and it had to be taken, yet again, to a blitz finale. Toga 2 came through in style and is still unbeaten in all of its games. Its a... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Jan 2, 2009
      • | 836 views
      • | 0 comments
    • 6. Toga 2 vs. Spike 1.2

      Another tie-breaker appeared in this match up. Spike 1.0's older brother proved more than a match for the undefeated Toga 2 and both games were drawn after complex positions. A blitz tie-break was needed to separate the pair and it followed the sa... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Dec 27, 2008
      • | 476 views
      • | 4 comments
    • 5. Toga 2 vs. Crafty 21.5

      Match 5 of the best chess engine search is now over. It was between the unbeaten Toga 2 and the world famous Crafty. The first game gave Toga 2 the white pieces and saw, yet again, another Queens Pawn Veresov. The game was dead even after 54 move... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Dec 26, 2008
      • | 1473 views
      • | 5 comments
    • 4. Rybka 1.0 vs. Toga 2

      The match is now over and it was clear that Rybka 1.0 BETA 32-bit was let down by its inability to play under 'fast' time conditions. Where Toga 2 was searching over 1 million nodes/sec, Rybka 1.0 was only going through 90k in the 1st game, and 15... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Dec 25, 2008
      • | 373 views
      • | 1 comment
    • 3. Spike 1.0 vs. Toga 2

      The closest round so far. There were some thrilling games where Spike 1.0 hung on against the deep Toga 2 engine. The first was a solid Four Knights Svenonius Variation where the symmetrical position meant that neither side could capitalise. The... | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Dec 24, 2008
      • | 417 views
      • | 0 comments
    • 2. Spike 1.0 vs. Zappa 1.1

      This round of the competition saw the winner of round 1 against the well-known Zappa. The round was much closer and a solid Queen's pawn Veresov in game 2 gave Zappa the point and took the match to a 5 minute blitz finale. | Read More

      • markarkrkk
      • | Dec 24, 2008
      • | 260 views
      • | 0 comments