Update Information: June 4, 2010 (Updates)
Engine Updates
ChessMind 0.82 (UCI)
Win32
"strength should be around 2100 CCRL now (at least I hope so )"
- better at tactics, this at the cost of lower search depth
- improvements in evaluation, does not sacrifice pawns without any reason as often as 0.80
- some more UCI options (explained in the readme file)
- improvements in time management
- smaller aspiration windows (also adjustable)
http://www.mediafire.com/?qjzmlnjry3u (direct link)
KnockOut 0.7 (WB)
new engine by Sven Schüle
Win32; can use PolyGlot opening books; uses Gaviota endgame tablebases
http://www.schuelebln.de/chess/knockout/knockout-0.7-build012.zip (direct link)
Protector 1.3.5 (UCI)
1 revision(s) to the C++ source code today (current = rev. 297), no new build
- eval change(s)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/protector/ (project site)
Redqueen 0.4 (UCI)
1 commit(s) to the C++ source code (commits= 234), no new build
- 234: minor changes
http://sourceforge.net/projects/redqueenchess
NOTE: problems with JA build of latest Protector sources has been reported
NOTE: Rybka 2.3.2a (free version) newly available at:
http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Demo+version
Chess News
Gaviota Tablebases Probing Code 0.3.0.1
Miguel Ballicora's open source probing code for engine programmers (in C language)
- multiple paths can be added in one line separated by ';'
- tb_init() does not output info to stdout when verbosity=1
- tb_availability() has been implemented
- paths passed to path_add() are not needed to be unmodified until tbpaths_done()
- several compiler warnings have been silenced
- readme.txt file has been modified
- cast a pointer to deal with "const" poisoning
http://sites.google.com/site/gaviotachessengine/Home/releases/gaviotatablebasesprobingcodev03update (info)
http://github.com/michiguel/Gaviota-Tablebases (source code)
Down/Problem Chess Websites
Alex homepage down for 42 days ("Temporarily Unavailable")
Amundsen homepage down for 47 days
Brama homepage down for 76 days
Cylone homepage down for 3 days
Demon homepage down for 3 days
Dika homepage down for 77 days
Fire homepage down for 3 days
Flux homepage down for 15 days
InmiChess homepage down for 4 days
Mizar homepage down for 9 days (no download page)
Mscp homepage down for 6 days
Nesik homepage down for 51 days
Numpty homepage closed until further notice (38 days)
RobboLito homepage down for 3 days
Sissa homepage down for 43 days
Toga II 2.0SE homepage down for 3 days
Wilhelm homepage down for 26 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
7-Zip 9.14 beta
open source file archiver with very good compression. Recommended.
this is a *beta* release
http://www.7-zip.org
Calibre 0.7.0
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/
Fresh HTML 3.49
free html editor
http://www.freshwebmaster.com/index.html
OpenOffice 3.2.1
open source word processing, database, spreadsheet, chart, math formula editor, etc
http://download.openoffice.org/ (download)
http://development.openoffice.org/releases/3.2.1.html (release notes)
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