Engine Updates
Nothing new today

Chess News

Bitboards' Little Helper
by Julien Marcel, written in C++ & used for debugging a chess engine
http://talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=406686&t=39053 (info)
http://julien.marcel.free.fr/public/BLH_Win.rar (direct download)

ChessGUI 0.220 (WB/UCI)
chess GUI / tournament manager by Matthias Gemuh; there is a separate download for a portable version
http://www.chessgui.com/
http://w2410tmq9.homepage.t-online.de/

Strategic Test Suite
epd testsuites by Swaminathan and Dann Corbit
- added test #14: Queens and Rooks to the 7th
https://sites.google.com/site/strategictestsuite/ (homepage)
https://sites.google.com/site/strategictestsuite/queens-and-rooks-to-the-7th-rank/ (new test)

Thief GUI 1.25
free, open source GUI client for playing chess on the internet on FICS servers; also supports variants
http://thief.sourceforge.net/

Down/Problem Chess Websites

BabyChess homepage down for 32 days (404: page not found)
Frenzee homepage down for 265 days (purposely down until new engine release)
Grizzly homepage down for 25 days (promised to move homepage)
Loop homepage down for 13 days (serious clone accusation may have ended Loop)
MFChess homepage down for 19 days (no response in 60 seconds)
Typhoon homepage down for 12 days (engine download is available elsewhere)
ChessMind homepage back up; it had been down for 7 days

Wiki Changes

Endgame Tablebases and Bitbases List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- noted that Kiwi bitbases download no longer possible & removed link
- added another link for Nalimov tablebases
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:egtbs_list

GUI Protocol List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- moved ChessVU to 'Discontinued / Faulty / Incomplete Chess GUIs' section
- improved Lucas Chess link
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:gui_protocol_support_list

Native Engine List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- noted septober.de links to older programs
- added Chess3D
- added DR-Games Schach
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:native_engine_list

PGN Reader/Viewer/Writer List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- improved the comments & links, no material change
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:pgn_reader_viewer_writer_list

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

MariaDB 5.2.6
open source fork of MySQL; completely compatible w/MySQL; w/extra db engines & extra features
"MariaDB is a binary drop-in replacement for MySQL"
MariaDB restores several significant features that Oracle has dropped from MySQL
http://kb.askmonty.org/ (homepage)
http://kb.askmonty.org/v/mariadb-versus-mysql-features (extra features)
http://kb.askmonty.org/v/mariadb-526-release-notes (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

NOTE: If you want me to track a website for you, please email me and I will add it.
ron _at_ computer-chess _dot_ org