Engine Updates

GullChess 1.0 (UCI)
C++ source; Win32/64
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gullchess/

Myrddin 0.84 (WB)
Win32/64
"improvement of approximately 50 points compared to the previous release"
- added Gaviota tablebases (thanks so much to Miguel Ballicora, also the author of the Gaviota chess engine, for making this available!)
- added initialization file for setting hash size, creating log file, turning on kibitz, and tablebase info
- fixed a bug in which a hash probe would not return a hash move if the saved depth was less than the requested depth (thanks to Edmund Moshammer, author of Glass!), so in these cases the hash move would not be used for move ordering
- implemented fail-hard
- tweaked parameters for reductions (yet again)
- adjusted queen value from 900 to 950 and minor piece value from 310 to 320
- adjusted bishop pair bonus from 20 to 30
- removed second aspiration window
- lazy eval is now more conservative
- will now analyze the entire depth if the first move searched fails low, or if first move fails high in a non-mate situation
- increased maximum search time to half of the remaining clock (required due to above item)
- added support for winboard “computer” command – kibitz PV, book moves and “Mate in N”
- increased max half-moves in a game to 1024
- fixed a bug in which the first move searched at the root was saved in the hash table as an exact value even if it did not improve alpha
- fixed a bug in which Myrddin would run out of time by thinking indefinitely if it was told it had a negative amount of time on its clock (can happen on ICS due to lag)
- modified the check to see if null move is allowable, previously was if any piece was on board, now only if side to move has at least one piece
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:engines:myrddin:index

Protector 1.3.5 (UCI)
1 revision(s) to the C++ source code today (current = rev. 359), no new build
- position change(s)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/protector/

Dann Corbit Win32/64 builds
Simplex 0.9.3 DC (UCI)
C++ source with Spanish comments; Win32/64
http://cap.connx.com/chess-engines/new-approach/simplex.7z

Chess News
Nothing new today

Down/Problem Chess Websites

Aristarch homepage down today
BBChess homepage down for 4 days
Frenzee homepage down for 31 days (permissions problem)
Igor Gorelikov Tools homepage down for 15 days (misconfigured)
Simplex homepage down for 13 days

Wiki Changes
Nothing new today

Bonus Notifications (recent releases of free stuff)

Warnings:
- do not install unwanted toolbars, etc.
- alpha releases have new features; crashes and bugs are to be expected
- beta releases have new features; they may contain bugs or crash
- release candidate software may contain minor bugs; crashes are rare

Calibre 0.7.19
cross-platform open source ebook manager for all popular ebook readers with format conversion,
news feeds, and integrated e-book viewer
http://calibre-ebook.com/

Cobian Backup 10.1.1.804
free multithreaded Win32/64 backup; supports ftp upload/download, compression, encryption, backup of locked files
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Vala/Genie 0.10.0
the Vala language resembles C# and the Genie language resembles Python
the common language compiler outputs OO C code using the GObject library
not yet at version 1.0, but some large apps are written in Vala/Genie
- port GIR parser and writer to GIR version 1.2
- update GLib bindings to 2.26 branch
- bug fixes
http://live.gnome.org/Vala (Vala + download)
http://live.gnome.org/Genie (Genie)

Meaning of Colors

Red = New or Warning
Green = Updated
Gray = Info Only

Engine List: http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_engine_list
Chess News: http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_news_list