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| winboard:faq:part_d 2008/10/28 17:31 | winboard:faq:part_d 2009/10/31 18:41 current | ||
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| >**About the Patch that disables the OPK check** | >**About the Patch that disables the OPK check** | ||
| - | >There is a [[http://www.cacsi.com/chess/OPK_Patch_All_Versions.zip | patch (direct link 62K) ]] posted that dis-enables the OPK check for for Chessmasters to date (8000,9000,10000) so you can avoid the steps below if you apply the patch. Two things to take note. | + | >There is a [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070414063719/http://www.cacsi.com/chess/OPK_Patch_All_Versions.zip | patch (direct link 62K) ]] posted that dis-enables the OPK check for all Chessmasters to date (8000,9000,10000) so you can avoid the steps below if you apply the patch. Two things to take note. |
| > 1. The patch should not be applied on Theking.exe which you use in Chessmaster since this causes problems in the Chessmaster GUI, so the best method would be to apply the patch on a copy of Theking.exe that you wish to use outside Chessmaster GUI. | > 1. The patch should not be applied on Theking.exe which you use in Chessmaster since this causes problems in the Chessmaster GUI, so the best method would be to apply the patch on a copy of Theking.exe that you wish to use outside Chessmaster GUI. | ||
| > 2. The maker of the patch main purpose in removing the OPK check is so that it can be used together with [[#chessmasteruci | Odd Malin's wbtouci adaptor in Fritz]] FIXME (bad link), and as such it may not work properly elsewhere. For example, users have reported problems when the patched The King is used in Winboard in analysis mode. As such the method outlined below to manually find the OPK number is preferred |There are a few methods to obtain the OPK number,including using [[#inbetween | inbetween]] FIXME (bad link) but this is not usually necessary since in most interfaces you can send the OPK number directly. Here's one way that does not use inbetween. | > 2. The maker of the patch main purpose in removing the OPK check is so that it can be used together with [[#chessmasteruci | Odd Malin's wbtouci adaptor in Fritz]] FIXME (bad link), and as such it may not work properly elsewhere. For example, users have reported problems when the patched The King is used in Winboard in analysis mode. As such the method outlined below to manually find the OPK number is preferred |There are a few methods to obtain the OPK number,including using [[#inbetween | inbetween]] FIXME (bad link) but this is not usually necessary since in most interfaces you can send the OPK number directly. Here's one way that does not use inbetween. | ||
| + | |||
| ==== ==== | ==== ==== | ||
| == a) Obtaining the OPK number == | == a) Obtaining the OPK number == | ||
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| ==== [D.3.7] Why is Chessmaster [The King ] when exported outside Chessmaster not using a opening book? How do I provide an opening book with Bookthinker? ==== | ==== [D.3.7] Why is Chessmaster [The King ] when exported outside Chessmaster not using a opening book? How do I provide an opening book with Bookthinker? ==== | ||
| - | If you export Chessmaster [The King] to Winboard , you will notice that Chessmaster doesn't have a opening book. This is because Chessmaster [The King] actually relies on the interface/GUI to provide the opening book. While some interfaces like Fritz or Arena 1.0 provide opening books to engines, Winboard currently doesn't.However there is a book engine called [[http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/ | BookThinker ]], whose job is to simulate a opening book by playing the first few moves based on a database of opening moves before passing control over to the bookless engine once it has run out of moves. In theory it should work with The King, but for technical reasons it doesn't work well when coupled with the need to send command line parimeters in the winboard.ini file. The King of course needs to send the OPK number as a command line parameter.There are several [[winboard3.html#bookthinkercm | work arounds]] FIXME (bad link), but here's my favourite one with involves using inbetween to help. Of course, if you used the patch that disabled the opk check, all you need to do is to use The King as any other engine with bookthinker, as described [[Winboard3.html#bookthinker | here ]] FIXME (bad link). | + | If you export Chessmaster [The King] to Winboard , you will notice that Chessmaster doesn't have a opening book. This is because Chessmaster [The King] actually relies on the interface/GUI to provide the opening book. While some interfaces like Fritz or Arena 1.0 provide opening books to engines, Winboard currently doesn't.However there is a book engine called [[http://cid-2991af457de54bf0.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/BookThinker.zip | BookThinker ]], whose job is to simulate a opening book by playing the first few moves based on a database of opening moves before passing control over to the bookless engine once it has run out of moves. In theory it should work with The King, but for technical reasons it doesn't work well when coupled with the need to send command line parimeters in the winboard.ini file. The King of course needs to send the OPK number as a command line parameter.There are several [[winboard3.html#bookthinkercm | work arounds]] FIXME (bad link), but here's my favourite one with involves using inbetween to help. Of course, if you used the patch that disabled the opk check, all you need to do is to use The King as any other engine with bookthinker, as described [[Winboard3.html#bookthinker | here ]] FIXME (bad link). |
| - | * Download and install [[http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.htm | Thinkboard (engine and interface any version) ]], then transfer the files bookthinker.exe (the book engine) and thinker.dat (the actual book file) into for example c:\engines\theking. At the same time,copy the file theking.exe from your chessmaster directory to the same directory c:\engines\theking. You could do this all in the default chessmaster directory of course, but it would get too confusing with all those files. | + | * Download and install [[http://cid-2991af457de54bf0.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/thinkerboard12a.zip | Thinkerboard (engine and interface any version) ]], then transfer the files bookthinker.exe (the book engine) and thinker.dat (the actual book file) into for example c:\engines\theking. At the same time,copy the file theking.exe from your chessmaster directory to the same directory c:\engines\theking. You could do this all in the default chessmaster directory of course, but it would get too confusing with all those files. |
| * Download [[http://home.online.no/%7Emalin/sjakk/ | Inbetween ]], unzip the files and copy inbetween.exe and inbetween.ini to the same directory c:\engines\theking. | * Download [[http://home.online.no/%7Emalin/sjakk/ | Inbetween ]], unzip the files and copy inbetween.exe and inbetween.ini to the same directory c:\engines\theking. | ||
| * Get the [[#opk | OPK number ]] FIXME (bad link) as usual. | * Get the [[#opk | OPK number ]] FIXME (bad link) as usual. | ||
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| ==== [D.4.1] General overview ===== | ==== [D.4.1] General overview ===== | ||
| - | Crafty is probably the most famous Winboard engine [after GNUChess perhaps] and is generally considered the strongest free Winboard program around and is often used as a benchmark for authors who wish to go commercial. While currently [01-11-2002], there are some freeware which are slightly stronger* , there is without doubt that Crafty has the most features available of any Winboard engine both free and commercial . Crafty can among other things process EPD, annotate games into a html output file .The [[ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/v19/readme.txt | documentation [this is for Crafty 181]]] that accompanies Crafty is also exceptional and gives a full review of all the features. Download [[ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/v18 | Crafty]] . You might also want to join the Crafty mailing list administered by the author Dr Robert Hyatt. To subscribe, send a email to [[mailto:majordomo@cis.uab.edu | majordomo@cis.uab.edu]] with "subscribe crafty-list" in the bodyA backup site with source codes of very old crafty versions (8.x is the oldest) can be found at [[http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/download/Crafty.html | Frank Quisinsky's website]].Note. In the past, positions that were favorable for Crafty were shown as a plus score and vice versa. Crafty after version 18, now displays a plus score, when the position is favorable for White and vice versa and this is regardless of the side Crafty is playing! Also Crafty versions after V18 support only SAN [Standard Algebraic Notation e.g. d4 ] instead of co-ordinate notation [e.g. 1 d2-d4].If you are new to this and want help setting up Crafty, I suggest looking at my general setup for Winboard engines. There are also specific guides for Crafty like [[http://www.mark-yatras.org/chess/ | Mark's Setup]] and [[http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5280/crafty.html | John/Sasha's one.]] .* There are many others freeware acknowledged generally to be the equal if not better of Crafty. Eg. Ruffian, Aristarch, Yace, Goliath, etc. However, Crafty is still the only one where the source is available. | + | Crafty is probably the most famous Winboard engine [after GNUChess perhaps] and is generally considered the strongest free Winboard program around and is often used as a benchmark for authors who wish to go commercial. While currently [01-11-2002], there are some freeware which are slightly stronger* , there is without doubt that Crafty has the most features available of any Winboard engine both free and commercial . Crafty can among other things process EPD, annotate games into a html output file .The [[ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/v19/readme.txt | documentation [this is for Crafty 181]]] that accompanies Crafty is also exceptional and gives a full review of all the features. Download [[ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/v18 | Crafty]] . You might also want to join the Crafty mailing list administered by the author Dr Robert Hyatt. To subscribe, send a email to [[mailto:majordomo@cis.uab.edu | majordomo@cis.uab.edu]] with "subscribe crafty-list" in the bodyA backup site with source codes of very old crafty versions (8.x is the oldest) can be found at [[http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/download/Crafty.html | Frank Quisinsky's website]].Note. In the past, positions that were favorable for Crafty were shown as a plus score and vice versa. Crafty after version 18, now displays a plus score, when the position is favorable for White and vice versa and this is regardless of the side Crafty is playing! Also Crafty versions after V18 support only SAN [Standard Algebraic Notation e.g. d4 ] instead of co-ordinate notation [e.g. 1 d2-d4].If you are new to this and want help setting up Crafty, I suggest looking at my general setup for Winboard engines. There are also specific guides for Crafty like [[http://www.mark-yatras.org/chess/ | Mark's Setup]]. * There are many others freeware acknowledged generally to be the equal if not better of Crafty. Eg. Ruffian, Aristarch, Yace, Goliath, etc. However, Crafty is still the only one where the source is available. |
| ==== [D.4.2] Do I need a crafty.rc file? Where can I get one? ==== | ==== [D.4.2] Do I need a crafty.rc file? Where can I get one? ==== | ||
